We were even shown some of the specific beginner horses, for some reason I thought the beginner ones would be smaller? lol Man are they tall! (I'm super excited to start riding, but I do have some fear in the back of my mind going about falling off!)
Yep, they're tall. Nope, "beginner" doesn't mean smaller.
Beginner horses is about temperament (very calm) and responsiveness (very little). They don't startle easily, they don't buck, they don't rear, they don't behave in ways that are likely to make you fall off. They won't listen to every. single. one. of the unintended messages you will be sending them as you learn to ride (and you'll be sending an unintended message about once every ten seconds, to start). "Beginner" horses are, in a word, "poky". They can be made to go fast, but you really have to work, hard, at getting them to do that. This means they won't run away with you.
They also usually have a lot of bad habits, like stopping unless you keep the foot on the gas pedal, eating grass while they're in tack, slowing down or stopping every time you pass the gate into the arena, etc. BUT while that kind of thing can ultimately cause you to say "Grrr" it is NOT the kind of thing that is going to cause you to get hurt.
That said, even the most "bombproof" beginner horse will still take off like a rocket if a bee stings it on the butt, or if someone fires a shotgun right next to its ear. And they *are* horses, and horses as far as I can tell, do three things when they're awake: eat, boss each other around, and fight. Fighting seems to be a recreational activity. They eat a little, they take a nap, they wake up, they check to see if there's food, then they have a fight. So if you get someone who isn't really familiar with the horses picking out rides for the group lessons, it's possible to wind up with two horses in the ring that are all persnickety with each other. This shouldn't happen, but it could. Got to be prepared for anything.
So the short answer is, just like skiing, you are *gonna* fall. It's not "if" it's "when". When it happens, just like with skiing, try to land on your butt or hip. If you know you're going to come off, get rid of the stirrups if you can. A lot of times lesson barns will use break-away stirrups for beginners, so that you won't get your foot caught in them when you fall off. Try NOT to land on your head. I speak from Personal Experience on this one...the helmet will prevent a lot of bad stuff, but you can still knock yourself silly.
My horse is really big. He's a 16.2hh warmblood. You'll pick this up, but if you haven't already, his back is 5'6" from the ground. I was trying (and failing) to learn to trot without stirrups last fall, and I bounced right off his back, through the tape fence around the ring, and right on to my butt. And I took a minute to make sure nothing bad had happened, then I got up, dusted off, and got right back on him. I needed to make a side-trip to the drugstore for a tube of arnica gel, and I spent the next 24 hours plastering that stuff all over my back, arm, shoulder, and butt, but I wasn't anything more than a little stiff the next morning, and was able to ride that day.
Also, like skiing, once it happens, you realize that while it's something you would prefer didn't happen, it's not really that bad. A beginner horse isn't going to go berserk on you and trample you or anything - it's going to wander off and try to eat grass, or maybe just look a little embarrassed. Or maybe it will go to the gate in case someone wants to let it back into the barn.
So we are going to start with some lessons and go from there. I let her know my goals and what I hope to accomplish at this point. The rate seemed quite reasonable in comparison to other places I've looked up as well, they charge $45/hr. and I'll probably do 1 day per week to start. I'll be going on saturday afternoons because I work too far away for it to be feasable for me to do a weekday right now. So I start the Saturday after next and I'm soooo excited!!
I bought a couple of things like riding tights and paddock boots, and I'll be getting a helmet once the tack shop I went to gets my size in, hopefully before my lesson, but if not they have ones you can borrow at the stable. (I just prefer my own head being the only one in a helmet I'm usuing for some reason..) I got riding tights because the pants were a nightmare to me!! I always have issues when buying pants, the thighs and butt never fit into the size my waist takes!! The riding tights cleared up that issue because they fit nice and snug everywhere without the huge waist gap I was getting in the pants! I guess I'll deal with finding regular pants down the road, but the tights are so comfy so I think that'll be a nice start.
One day per week is all you are going to want, to start off with.
After my first lesson, I walked like Popeye the Sailor on a 6-martini bender for the next three days. In retrospect, I should have laid in the arnica gel then. Just remember, all riders have great butts and super thighs.
At some point, those muscles will harden off a little, and (if you've gotten bitten by the Horse Bug) you may want to take more than one lesson per week. You've got a super price, there, if that happens! Sometimes trainers will give you a discount if you buy a bunch of lessons in advance.
Riding tights are awesome - by the time it gets cool again, you'll want proper breeches, because you'll freeze your tuchus off in the tights. The sizing on riding gear is all over the place, so I recommend hitting a few tack stores and trying on as many different brands as you can to see which ones work for you. For me, for example, Kerrits don't work at all, ANY of them, breeches, tights, or tops. I have several Irideon tops that work nicely, so I ordered a pair of their tights from Tack of the Day to check it out. All of my breeches are Tuffriders in some low-rise variant, and my tights (so far) are Devon-Aire. I know I can order anything from those lines, and it will fit me properly. You might want to look into the low-rise breeches, if you haven't yet - it was a good solution to the back-waist gap for me. And they're not *so* low-rise that you get plumber's crack.
I don't know how far you are from Boston, but the Dover Saddlery in Wellesley has a pretty good selection of attire you can try on in the store. SmartPak, just down the street in Natick, has a smaller but still decent selection. Sign up for the catalogs from both of them - that way, once you know what brand fits you properly, you'll be able to take advantage of the sales. Also, it's like Horse Porn. Catalogs full of gorgeous, adorable, CLEAN horses. Standing there, politely eating apples, going over jumps, dancing in the dressage ring. The fact that you can buy stuff out of these is really beside the point.
I assume, in this neck of the woods, that you're going to be riding some English discipline. In which case, you're also going to need a pair of half-chaps. The stirrup leathers will chew your riding tights to bits in pretty short order. You wear half-chaps with the paddock boots - they keep the arena shmutz out of your boot, and protect your pants. They have a strap that goes under the boot heel, and they usually zip up the back or the outside. The place you bought your tights and paddock boots will sell them too.