I ran across a Facebook discussion about how to tell and how to teach when a rider is on the correct diagonal at the trot, so I thought I'd share my suggestions by refurbishing a post I wrote in 2014. ...
What are they? School commands have their basis in the military where the need to move many minds in one direction at the same time requires a standard set of simple instructions. School commands are instructions and movements for direction ...
Download the PDF You can download a pdf of this lesson complete with diagrams. Just click the download button. Simple Trot Pole Jumping Lesson:BEFox:RidingInstructor.netDownload Using trot poles for beginning jumping can work well for students or for a green horse. ...
How much grip should a rider have with their legs? Should they grip at all? The short answer is—it depends. Stirrup length, seat, and activity all factor into if, when, and how much a rider grips with their legs. At ...
My intention with this month’s post was to move on with a discussion about seat mainly defining the terms and definitions we use. As usual, I looked through a few online articles to get the pulse of the sort of ...
Performance & SafetyFor the RiderAll sports and many arts teach "position" or form because good form results in better performance. How you hold the golf club and position your feet affects how you hit the golf ball. The way you hold ...
An Excerpt From Riding and Schooling by Harry Chamberlin “The correct principles of equitation and horse training are in themselves simple and well defined, and easily within the comprehension of any intelligent mind. Unfortunately, these principles are so difficult to ...
No riding instructor wants their student to fall from the horse, but it's naive to think you can teach riding and not see this happen. Even the most gentle horse is capable of shying or stumbling or cutting a corner. ...
Thank you, Kathy Boettcher of Meadowsweet Ranch in Spring Grove, Illinois for sharing this great Holiday Obstacle Course idea with The Riding Instructor's readers. From Kathy "Something that I do the last two weeks of December is put up an ...
A reader asked about website design basics for riding instructors, insurance, and release forms. I thought I’d share my answer with a blog post and ask other instructors for their input. Websites In today’s word of internet communication, every riding ...
Covid Difficulties So much has happened to effect riding programs in 2020 that many riding instructors have re-evaluated where they are headed with their students. Trainers and instructors who depend on horse shows and other competitions for part of their ...
Grassroots is the basic, most elementary part of what we do. Think about your lawn for a minute. If grubs eat the roots of your grass your lawn dies. Roots feed the plant and make growth possible. If the roots ...
By now you have read the many good articles on inclusion published by The Chronicle of the Horse, Plaid Horse, and across the internet about the Black experience in the horse industry. Some articles are vitriolic and others are passionate ...
This is a tough time for riding instructors, especially those for whom teaching is their major source of income. Trying to figure out what to do and what to believe can be difficult. The American Horse Council has a good ...
We horse lovers are a gregarious sort and social distancing sure crimps our style. Take heart. With all the options for education and interaction, students and instructors need not worry about staying connected. Today I’ll share some of my favorite ...
In my book, anytime we teach horsemanship it’s a good way. In this post I talk about 4 different ways to include horsemanship in your teaching program. All are effective and have their pros and cons. Some programs focus on riding ...
The annual ritual, No Stirrup November, is almost upon us. Say you YAY! Or Nay? As an instructor I love this opportunity to be creative and to help students achieve basic goals. I’ve included downloads at the end of this ...
Scheduling and collecting payment for lessons can be a headache for riding instructors. When you’re busy handling horses and more than one student at a time, it can be easy to forget who prepaid for a class and who pays ...
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What is the best way to manage riders and riding lessons in the summer heat? Having taught riding in both the dry hot Southwest and the very humid Midwest, I hope some of the tips I’ve gathered will help you ...
Summer is the best time to get intense horsemanship instruction into kid’s, and since I love getting new riders started I was excited when a reader asked for tips for a one week, 1-2 hour a day class for beginners. I’ve ...
Respect her time One of the complaints I hear most frequently is that students don’t respect the instructor’s time. Let your instructor know you value that she/he has set a specific time period aside for your lesson. Do this by ...
Have you ever wondered why parents support kids so strongly in sports like volleyball, yet are willing to cancel their weekly riding lesson? Volleyball at Lower Grades Volleyball, like other team sports such as soccer, is introduced on the community ...
A reader had an interesting situation to discuss this week involving a client with two horses in training and a plan for their daughter to show. Normally this would be ideal, except the parents enroll the daughter in after school ...
A reader who has been a riding instructor for 10 years asked for my opinion on how to handle a difficult student. She agreed to wait for an answer while I put a post together to share. The student is ...
Dealing with people in any field can require compromise. When we set our standards as instructors or barn owners we should have a mental list of things on which we are absolutely steadfast, and others with which we are willing ...
We all have “go to” sources where we read about horses. It could be a book, website or periodical and each type of riding has it’s own selection. Research I love research, and when I write lesson plans or blog ...
Good riding is as much the result of conditioning the rider’s thought processes and reflexes, as it is conditioning the body and learning skills. What a rider does or does not put into their mind will have direct bearing on ...
A solid and correct base of support is one of the best gifts we can give to students because it’s the foundation of good riding and balance. Definition A quick Internet search for “base of support” produced the following from ...
Writing about two-point was supposed to be easy. After all, two-point is the mainstay position for the hunter-jumper world. Definition I planned to start out with the definition of two-point used by the leading authorities. That seemed simple enough. Start ...
There have been a lot of conversations lately about the direction the horse business has gone, and what needs to be done to keep things from getting out of hand. But the horse industry is like popcorn kernels. Once they ...
As a professional, I’ve always taught Pony Club Clinics and even helped form a club in the 70s, but I didn’t become fully immersed in Pony Club until 2000 when my daughters became members. 2018 One of my adult daughters ...
The following simple exercise can be used for all levels of independent riders in a variety of settings and seats ranging from a pole on the ground to a jump. This Simple Exercise has Multiple Benefits How often do we ...
Even though I enjoy several breeds of horses Thoroughbreds have always been my favorite, so I was happy to see The Chronicle of the Horse devote an issue to Thoroughbreds earlier this month. Most of the many Thoroughbreds I’ve ridden or ...
An over-mounted beginning rider can have so many problems that I wonder why any instructor would allow it with their students. A Schooling Show Recently I visited a schooling show where I didn’t know any of the players. The show had a ...
It can be unnerving for an instructor to lose confidence during a lesson, but it happens more often than you might think. I’m not talking about losing confidence in the grand scale of an entire teaching career. I’m talking about ...
Do I recommend certification to student instructors? Would I tell prospective riders to look for only instructors who have certification? It all depends, because those are two questions that don’t have black and white answers. Because The United States doesn’t ...
Participating in your first dressage test is a big event and everyone wants to do their best. You are a fortunate rider if you do your first test on a school master but not everyone has that opportunity. Just ...
If you teach beginners you know the importance of developing a safe riding program. Safety is the number one requirement for beginners, but how can you tell if a program is safe for both students and horses? There are no ...
You don’t wake up one morning and suddenly have burnout. Burnout creeps up over time and is a common problem for riding instructors. What is Burnout? Dictionary.com defines burnout as “fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or ...
Why Rate the Gait? Before your students learn lengthenings, rebalancing, corner adustments or even takes a ride in the pasture they need to learn to rate the gait. It doesn’t matter whether you teach dressage, hunt seat, saddle seat, or ...
I commend The Chronicle of the Horse for the articles in the April 9 & 16, 2018 issue which speak out against sexual abuse in the horse industry. They’ve been doing a terrific job of enlightening us with a number ...
I love the fact that riding horses is a healthy physical outdoor activity, but the life skills learned through supervised horsemanship carry farther than becoming fit. By supervised horsemanship I mean a riding lesson program that encompasses horse care as ...
Ask any horseman and they will tell you the character building benefits to a child who becomes a horseman over flow the feed bucket. The character building benefits your child will gain partially depends on how you approach their horsemanship education. ...
Any instructor who has taught for a while has dealt with fear in a student. A horse is many times larger than a person and riders ask them to do risky things. And we all know of times the horse ...
A Reader Requested: I would like you to present an article about the trainer instructors that keep riders “hostage” by: limiting opportunities to show at their convenience, refusing to allow independent riding, scoffing at going to clinics. The limiting factor for many ...
THE PROBLEM: Lesson cancellations can become a big problem for instructors if they are not handled well. Lesson cancellations leave holes in your income and also in the student’s progress. Plus canceling students adds stress and worry to your life, ...
Before they are concerned about whether a student is the next olympic superstar, a potential champion in the show ring or even a future horse owner, there are 5 basic things that riding instructors expect. These expectations are fairly universal. ...
How important is riding without stirrups? Whenever I ask a class of new riders “What keeps you on the horse” one person will answer “the stirrups”. Rider’s receive security from their stirrups and become dependent upon them, so it’s important ...
When I think about a horse who drops his inside shoulder a certain tone of voice sort of screeches through my mind. It’s the voice of a frustrated rider who believes they’ve done everything to correct the problem—without any luck. ...
There are a number of reason why instructors teach riding but a majority of the time, if we think about it long enough, we can boil things down to one main reason we started. And it can be different from ...
What is it? Teaching outside the box begins with thinking outside the box. Merriam-Webster defines outside the box: to explore ideas that are creative and unusual and that are not limited or controlled by rules or tradition. Cambridge Dictionary defines ...
Games are an important teaching tool because they engage students and keep them interested. However there is a right time and a wrong time to use them in lessons. When Not To Teach Games: Games are not normally used to ...
For many kids summer horsemanship camp is a dream come true. It gives horse lovers the opportunity to hang out with horses and other horse kids full time. What can be better than that? Organization and imagination can help make ...
There is a blurry line from one level of riding to the next that can cause problems in the instructor / student relationship particularly if the student is a child. The blurry line is a magnet for dissension. But before ...
Spatial awareness is a persons ability to be aware of their body in a space and how it relates to other things in that space. When your new student comes to his first time experience, riding lesson, he doesn’t come ...
What Are Toe Touches? Toe Touches are an on-the-horse exercise during which the rider stays seated and reaches down with his hand to touch his toes, one foot and one hand at a time. There are two types of Toe Touches: ...
Have you ever considered the reason behind why you teach trot diagonals? Do you teach it because it was taught to you? Do you teach it as a learning exercise? Maybe you teach it so your equitation students will be ...
In the November 7, 2016 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse, Sara Lieser wrote a commentary about the blood in the mouth of RF Scandalous, ridden by Marilyn Little in the Dutta Corp, Fair Hill International. Lieser’s commentary was ...
Fixing With Feed -An important lesson Nancy, one of The Riding Instructor’s readers, offered to share this great Fixing With Feed info graphic with readers. Choosing the correct feed for your horse takes knowledge of the feeds that are available ...
Plotter? Panster? When referring to their writing method, fiction writers say they are plotters and pansters. A plotter uses structure to lay out the story and then fills in the details accordingly. Plotters know when the hero will make a life and death choice, or ...
Say foundation and most people readily think of a house. Check out what the website This Old House says about foundations. “A proper foundation does more than just hold a house above ground. It also keeps out moisture, insulates against the ...
A good two point is dependent on these four things: A Strong Base of Support (BOS) My definition of base of support agrees with the Manual of Horsemanship and Horsemastership, vol. 1. “The base of support is formed by those parts of ...
I’m happy to introduce Dana Merritt to The Riding Instructor readers. Dana teaches beginning riders of all ages ( 5 years old through adult) at Young Riders,LLC in Post Falls Idaho. RI: Why do you teach riding? Dana: I have ...
Olympian and coach, Jim Wofford, gives an excellent description of the rider hand position in his book, Training The Three Day Event Horse and Rider , James C. Wofford, 1995 Doubleday, Pg 44-45 “The position of your arms should form ...
An over-mounted beginning rider can have so many problems that I wonder why any instructor would allow it with their students. Recently I visited a schooling show where I didn’t know any of the players. The show had a laid back, peaceful ...
“Doping in performance horses is defined as the “illegal application of any substance, except normal diet, that might modify the natural and present capacities of the horse at the time of the race.” The prohibition of doping is mainly based ...
Riding Instructor, Karla Deacon is the busy owner of Spruce Meadow Farm, Inc. in Clarence, New York, USA. Spruce Meadow Farm teaches English horseback riding to beginners through advanced riders. Karla Deacon also oversees Phoenix Rising Equine Rescue and Rehabilitation, Inc. – ...
3 things are required to teach beginner trot poles knowledge of how to use trot poles (see – Trot Poles – TheSet Up for Riding Lessons) a horse trained for trot poles (see – Trot Poles- Teaching the Lesson Horse) a ...
Fear in beginners usually stems from a sense of not being in control, whether it’s the horse or the student’s own body that causes the problem. It’s easier for adult beginners to understand the concept of being a leader and ...
Deciding to embark on the instructor certification process starts with understanding the purposes behind certification. In the U.K. – The process of becoming a BHS instructor is immersion. In the U.K a person attends a riding school that teaches according to the ...
Today I want to introduce you to Shannon Christ, a hunter and balanced seat riding instructor from Maryland in the U.S.A. Shannon is one of those lucky people that gets to have her horse at home. She teaches basics in ...
Looking from the perspective of the horse, what we ask them to do is abnormal. Consider a horse who has just been turned loose in an enclosure – a paddock or an arena. What does he do? He may run and ...
Today’s riding instructors have more options for receiving riding lesson payments than ever before. It used to be that students either paid by cash or check. While cash and check are still welcomed, there are other options available. PayPal PayPal offers ...
Before you start teaching trot poles to your students you’ll need to be sure the horse they ride is confident over trot poles. Just because your lesson horse is well trained in other areas don’t expect him to automatically accept trot poles. ...
Ong Wan Ming is a riding instructor who lives in Malaysia and teaches mainly in Kuala Limpur/ Selangor. Wan Ming teaches a full spectrum of horsemanship, including dressage, jumping, eventing, driving and horse management to beginners through competitive riders. She ...
Trot poles (or ground rails) are one of the most versatile tools for a riding instructor. They can be used for all types of horses and riding, and by changing their configuration they can be used at all three gaits. ...
A simple game can give your students the opportunity to practice skills while having fun in their riding lesson. The Bandana Game can be played with all ages and skill levels. I’ve included the basics in this post but there ...
It’s winter. It’s cold. What better way to warm up your lessons than by including bareback riding? Pull saddles off and give your students a leg up on those nice furry backs. Bareback naysayers will tell you: It feels weird: ...
James Wofford’s Book, “Training the Three-Day Event Horse and Rider” was first printed 20 years ago and it remains on my recommended reading list for students. It is one of my favorite books on good riding technique. Few horsemen in the ...
A habit is defined as an automatic response to something. Developing the right habits in our students is one of the goals of good riding instructors. Even though repetition can be boring, riding instructors should embrace repetition because correct repetition ...
I ask new students a lot of questions and since I love foundation teaching, I usually start my inquisition with the leg. Almost 100% of the time, a new student will answer with, “a straight line from the heel to the hip. ...
If you jump horses then you have a connection to Federico Caprilli. If you learned the American method of jumping, you probably have a connection to Col. Harry Chamberlin. Prior to Italian Cavalry officer, Federico Caprilli introducing his forward system ...
The Chronicle of the Horse July 27, 2015 article titled Boarding barns: The Good, The Bad and The Dramatic and Practical Horseman’s August 2014 This month’s question: What Makes a boarding barn a good place to keep your horse? are ...
There are two basic types of riding students; the ones who have riding experience and the ones who do not. When I make the commitment to teach a student in either category, I have a system of questions based on ...
It is just as important to balance your lesson horse as it is to teach balance to riders. And even though balance for individual horses can be directly related to their conformation, some points are universally true. Point #1 The ...
Branding your horse business is the process of turning what you do into an easily recognized, cohesive identity. In an instant, an image or a few measures of a song brings recognition and identification of the brand. The sight of a ...
Teaching good balance while riding horses is essential for students developing an independent seat and finesse in communication with the horse. At an elementary level, developing good balance has a direct relationship to staying on the horse. Rider balance is effected ...
I’m pleased to have a guest blogger on The Riding Instructor. Bob Wood has used his background in the Military Seat training horses and riders for polo, fox hunting and eventing, while he competed in these and other sports like ...
Teaching beginner riders seems like it should be easy, right? After all, what do you teach? A few safety rules, how to lead a horse, how to mount/dismount, stopping, starting, how to steer – there’s nothing to it, right? I ...
I just finished reading Denny Emerson’s book, How Good Riders Get Good, published in 2011. It was an easy read, moving right along, with enjoyable stories and sage advice. Denny Emerson is not afraid ...
If the title of this post made you feel out rage, anger or any other emotion, believe me…it was meant to get your attention. In the past couple of years there have been statements made and articles written by certain ...
For some time I’ve struggled with the problem of how to introduce certain books to readers of The Riding Instructor. My friend, Roger Hannington, solved this problem for me by compiling the following abstract of one of my favorite books, Horsemanship by ...
When is a rider ready to canter? A reader commented that students she was teaching at summer camp were pushy about wanting to canter and were unable to assess their own riding ability. Camp is different Camp lessons are different than private stable riding ...
Riders, Instructors, and trainers know how important it is to be flexible – but each condition (trainer, instructor, rider) requires a slightly different use of “Flexible”. And where there is no flexibility but there is pressure – something is sure to ...
If you have followed The Riding Instructor for any length of time, by now you know that I’m a huge advocate for beginners, their instructors and the foundation that is laid in riding lessons. The beginner rider is where we ...
I make no bones about being an advocate for instructors of beginning riders. It’s because I firmly believe that you can lay so good a foundation for your students, that they will not forget it, no matter what style or ...
The instructor/trainer – student/client relationship is a conundrum that causes major difficulties for everyone involved. A lot of the issues exist because of a lack of clear definition of “who you are” on both parts. For simplicity’s sake I’ll use ...
Practical Horseman Magazine is an endless source of entertainment for me; some of it is good and some of it sends my blood pressure racing up. The article “Rider Tune Up” in the December 2013 issue gave me one of ...
The action of taking small rocks form one spot to the next causes students to exercise multiple skills. I call this “The Rocks Game”. Set Up is Simple Place 5 or 6 rocks (you can choose the number of rocks ...
One of the things I remember most vividly about my Dad was his desire to earn a pilot’s license so he could fly the Cessna 150 and 172 fixed wing planes. When I was in high school I used to ...
Assertiveness comes naturally to some individuals while others must learn this helpful quality. What do you do with the student who just doesn’t seem to try very hard or gives up after one or two tries at getting a pony ...
What do you do when a student or your child says “I want a horse”? Buying the first horse can feel like jumping into a crater lake when you only know how to dog paddle. Buying one too soon can be ...
Group riding lessons used to be the most common form of riding instruction, but factors today have developed a private and semi private riding culture. I believe group riding lessons have tremendous value causing beginner and intermediate riders, in particular, ...
Ask- Don’t Assume Before you hand over money to a riding instructor for your child’s first riding lesson find out what their policy is regarding your presence during lessons. Never assume that a riding instructor thinks like you think. Some ...
I’m always on the look out for ways riders can improve, even when they’re not on a horse, in order to have continuity from lesson to lesson. Becoming aware of your posture can have a direct effect on how you ...
Everyone, including instructors, is busy these days and too many of today’s riding instructors “wing it” when they teach. Each time a student arrives at your barn for a lesson, they are investing. They invest time, money, and effort in ...
Most of the old time horsemen have asked the same question during the past few years. Where have the horsemen (and women) gone? I think it’s fair to say that horsemen beget horsemen, usually. But spend a little time around ...
My #1 Best Heels Down Exercise For Kids Who Ride, To Do at Home: The Step Stretch This is the oldest and best exercise to work your heels down off of the horse. It stretches your tendons and muscles, and ...
1. Sitting Correctly: If you have trouble keeping your heels down when you ride, check to see if you’re sitting correctly. By sitting correctly I mean in a balanced position, in the optimum spot over your own feet. You can ...
All instructors, whether they teach beginners or advanced riders, should utilize horseback riding lesson plans. Riding lesson plans for beginners are especially important for making sure they learn all of the basics. Riding instructor lesson plans and how you plan ...
Jim Wofford is one of my favorite instructor/coaches for eventing. His background contains much of the traditional Fort Riley instruction plus he is a silver medal Olympian in Three Day Event, but what I really like about Jim Wofford is ...
If you’re like me, you’ve had to quickly put a temporary fix on a blanket, bridle, or stable tool, so I thought I’d tell you about my fast (and cheap) quick fixes. #1. Duct Tape is probably number one on ...
It’s a question that most riding instructors have had to answer. There’s a simple, one size fits all answer, but it brings to mind a plethora of questions. And answering a question with a question is purely annoying to the ...
Longing is often over looked in riding instruction programs. Until recently longing riders was not normally taught to American instructors. With USDF instructor prep classes, the teaching of longing the rider has been given more attention. It’s not my intention ...
She’d taken the polo pony out for a trail ride when the mare bolted toward home. As the mare made a sharp right down the lane at a gallop, Merri lost her seat and parted company from the horse; head ...
Not too long ago horse sites on the internet were having heated discussions about a pony named Humble that had died at the Devon horse show after receiving an injection on the show grounds. NY Times reporter WALT BOGDANICH wrote ...
“Integrity is what we do, what we say and what we say we do.”– Don Galer Integrity is one of the most important qualities a riding instructor can have. But it’s the quality that will be most often challenged and ...
This is part 2 of the Basics and Building Blocks™ Games lesson plan. Once your students have have successfully accomplished pattern 4 (see part 1), you can begin to introduce team play. Assessing your students’ personalities will help you ...
Nothing raises confidence levels and increases a a novice rider’s skills quicker than the challenge of playing a few games on horse back. I’m not talking about the full blown competitive gymkhana games here. I’m talking about ones that ...
Problems With Heels Knowing what the problem is in your heel goes a long way with how to correct your heel position. Two especially common problems are curling the ankle (which can result in pain in the outside of your ...
In part 1 we discussed why to get your heels down. In part 2 we’ll talk about how to get the heels down. And then in part 3 I’ll give you some exercises to help keep your heels down. Where ...
“Keep your heels DOWN!” What rider hasn’t heard this a multitude of times? And what riding instructor hasn’t said this to the point of near despair? That one sentence has been spoken into the air for so many generations that ...
Recently I audited the clinic of one of my favorite instructors, Jim Wofford. Jim teaches with humor and clarity, both of which are really helpful to students. Jim’s system has been developed from his early lessons from Fort Riley instructors, ...
Vince Lombardi, the famous coach of the Green Bay Packers, once said, “Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re ...
I’m neither for nor against riding instructor certification because after all these many years of limited certification in the U.S., I’m convinced that certification has little to do with becoming a first class riding instructor. But there are certain benefits ...
There’s a lot of education involved in becoming a good riding instructor. You increase you instruction skill level by take riding lessons, practicing teaching. Maybe you’ll work on certification. Perhaps you go to a school that will teach you to ...
Jumper loves attention. He tries so hard to be good and wants you to love him so badly that when you go in to his pen he just about puts his own halter on. He hasn’t had much attention lately ...
Try these teaching tips to give great riding lessons. Pre Lesson Teaching Tips Plan Ahead Have a goal for each lesson. Do you want your student to gain more control of his horse’s body? Do you want your budding jumper ...
Riding is different than most other sports because if a person is taught the correct basics they can ride for a lifetime. I’ve known people who continue to ride in their 70s, and 80s and even a few who have ...
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Barbara Ellin Fox and her mustang Reno.