A candid review of Fuji Horse Riding Club: I train horses in the U.S. (mid-level dressage and jumping), and I've owned horses all my life. I've also taught riding lessons for 18 years and achieved BHS certification in England. I spent about a year riding at (and competing for) Fuji Horse Riding Club in Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan. I was able to ride for free, since I volunteered to teach occasional riding lessons in English. After about a year, I couldn't take the deteriorating conditions anymore. As much as I wanted to ride in Japan, my love of horses wouldn't allow me to put up with the conditions there. The horses at Fuji Horse Riding Club are undernourished and mistreated. If you go there, you'll be sure to see horses pinning their ears and lunging at people walking past their stalls. The owners at Fuji constantly put draw-reins on their horses, even though they claim to teach "dressage." They allow beginners to wear spurs and use draw-reins, and they don't teach proper contact or proper position. Many of the horses (including "Dunk" and "Mimi") are light and sensitive, but they're subjected to draw-reins, beginners with spurs, and over-work. Fuji Horse Riding Club's horses barely receive any turn-out, spending most of their time in their stalls with bad feed. I sympathize with any of you hoping to ride in Japan. However, I would strongly caution you against Fuji Horse Riding Club, Nasu Training Farm, and various other clubs in Japan. At Fuji Horse Riding Club, and even in rural areas like Hokkaido, I've found: broken and rusty fences (often made out of pipes), unsafe tacking/tying areas with sharp edges, an enormous lack of basic knowledge about horses and safety, poor training methods, very poor riding and instruction, an acute lack of turn-out, poorly fitting tack resulting in saddle-sores, and very poor-quality feed. You can easily find a place to ride in Japan, but my recommendation is: DON'T. If you care about horses and their wellbeing at all, you won't be able to put up with most horse clubs in Japan. Now, although I often go to Japan, I NEVER ride there.
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