Who of us cannot use a refresher in our teaching? That's why I refurbished this post from 2009 to remind you of some of these tried & true ideas. Be sure to add your own suggestions in the comments.
Before the Lesson Even Begins
Plan Ahead
Have a goal. Do you want students to become more proficient at turning? Work on their halts? Gain more control of the horse’s body? Perhaps it's time for your budding jumper to learn about bending lines.
Develop a lesson plan that is geared toward your goal.
Spell it out.
Writing your lesson plan down will help you to organize. And it gives you a great record of what you’ve taught your student.
Allocate time for each activity so that you can be sure to cover all of the material and provide plenty of actual “try it” time. Incorporate a related warm up and a positive finish for your student.
Think 1 teaspoon explanation, 1 teaspoon demonstration, and a whole bucket of practice.
Set up before your class.
Make sure everything you need is on hand at the arena. This will prevent last minute searches for jump cups, pins or other tools. Will students do trot poles or jump grids? Measure distances and set poles so only minor alterations are necessary during the lesson.Playing games? Get your game pieces ready before your students arrive.
Students deserve your undivided attention during lessons. Instructing a student to warm up while you set a grid wastes the valuable time. If warm up is part of the lesson, be involved in the process, using exercises and activities that prepare the student and horse for the entire lesson.
Pre-lesson preparation insures that your lesson has a beginning, middle and end, or in physical terms, a warm up, intense work period and a cool down. Riding is a much a work out a going to the gym. Lesson should incorporate all of the muscle conditioning and precautions included in an athlete’s work out.
And pre lesson preparation will help you to save precious time by keeping you on track and on schedule.
Teaching Tips for During the Lesson
Talk Less, encourage more
The less time your student stands still for instructions, the better. Students come to ride. Keep your stationary explanations short and simple, not more than 10% of your lesson. Remember the younger the student is, the less tolerance they have for discussion. Get them busy ASAP.
Teach your student on the move. Keep them walking. Use leaders if necessary. Teach your rider “through the process” and help produce the momentary success that your student needs in order to experience, not just hear, the lesson.
Know several ways to explain the same thing.
Consider multiple types of learners and have as many ways of explaining or showing how to do something. Notice when your explanation produces the wrong results or no result at all and change your approach. Be aware of the “Bambi in the headlights” gaze.
Different people have different learning styles. Consider the age of your rider. Develop several approaches for the same topic.
Ask Questions
Ask your students simple questions to get the talking with you. Ask younger riders colors, parts of the horse and equipment. Have them close their eyes and tell you what they are wearing today. Try to bring them actively into the lesson.
Challenge older students with questions about what foot they feel moving, where they feel stretch in their body, what part of their seat they feel the most. Or ask questions about the horse they are riding.
There are certainly times in teaching when you want your students to remain quiet but you never want them to sink into their own minds and tune a lesson out. Challenge them into the moment.
Make positive comments
Make positive comments for small improvements. Encouragement empowers students. There is no need to over embellish achievements or to over inflate egos, but an appropriate "well-done" from you can be just the boost your student needs.
Fun and Games
I don't care how old or serious a student is, everyone likes to have fun. Get students into action through games and exercises that build on your lesson plan. Use simple games or challenges for all levels of horse and rider, even if students are advanced. For instance, the beginner can practice navigation by riding her pony to the fence to remove a colored cloth. You can use this same exercise for advanced riders by requiring that the last few steps toward the fence be done in half pass and then require the horse stand quietly while the cloth is untied. Call it a game for the 9 year old and an exercise for the 29 year old.
Break difficult subjects into smaller steps.
Start with the simplest skills possible for the level of your rider and increase the difficulty as your student becomes proficient. Small steps provide more opportunities for your student to succeed. Reinforce success with a positive comment.
Be Flexible
Stress is a major factor in everyone's life, including your lesson horse. Lessons will not always go the way you planned. A child is effected by how his school day went, just like adults are effected by the work day or family. Horses have good and bad days. So, what will you do if Johnny’s pony won’t go anywhere near the cloth tied to the fence? Have a plan that steps this activity down to smaller challenges, so Johnny and his pony can work as a team and succeed.
Review the goal for your lesson and seize difficulties as new opportunities to help your student progress.
Develop multiple ways to reach the same goal. Fill your instructor's toolbox with solutions, plans , and ideas.
A Good Ending
We always plan to end on a good note but sometimes in the fray of an unsuccessful lesson we lose focus. If your lessons was especially stressful, perhaps having a few minutes of cheerful conversation will help your student stay positive. Sometimes addressing the elephant in the room is required. Other times, brushing off a bad ride and taking the emphasis of the days errors will help.
Usually even a poor lesson will end well if you review something that you know the horse and rider can do easily and well. Beware of introducing new material toward the end of a lesson. If the new material is not well received by your student or his horse, you’ll more than likely end on a less than successful note. Your goal is for the student to have a sense of “gain” or achievement.
We all want our students to suceed. It's one of the main reasons we are in the business of teaching. A good instructor prepares ahead and lays a foundation to guide their student to success. Successful lessons will bring your students back for more.
I hope these teaching tips will help you give great lessons.
May each student and lesson teach you something new.
Barbara Fox
TheRidingInstructor.net
I look forward to your emails every month! I’ve had my lesson program going on 15 years and with your help I think I’ve made it fun and exciting even when I’m not feeling very fun! Thanks for all you do!
Hi DeDe, Thank you so much for your encouraging comment. It makes me happy to know you are reading The Riding Instructor and that the articles are helpful. Sometimes it’s hard to keep lessons upbeat. Lessons are (should be) big moments in a student’s week and I applaud you for putting a big effort into making them successful.Barbara
Good reminders. Every student, no matter their age, ends their lesson here answering – What was good today? I believe there is something good in every lesson, no matter how the lesson went.
Hi Kathy I agree. Every lesson should have something good, especially if that is the intention of the instructor. I know your heart is in giving the best lessons possible. Unfortunately there are instructors who don’t share a positive outlook. And while we may have multiple lessons to teach each week, our student only remembers one. I’m so thankful there are good instructors like yourself. Barbara
Heya.
I do agree fully. I used to teach children about dressage skills each week at a riding school in order to help my community. The weekly lesson involved loud music sometimes. Yet far more often in addition to improve attention I used colours instead. For example the letter A was painted blue and so on. I found that this teaching technique really did work wonders with the kids. I typically would call out a letter.
Then I gave a simple order for the whole class to follow. We spent half a hour working on basic dressage terms and rules. They all wore hard hats. That was my number one rule. No pupil could ride without it on. Occasionally as well we went on fun trail rides or hacks together. But much more often we had fun learning the basics. I focused on teaching them about other horse activities and sports too.
Thara, It sounds like you include a lot of variety in your lessons to keep riders focused and engaged. I love the idea of using color with your class. It seems you use good planning and that you are also safety conscious. All ingredients for a good riding program. Kudos to you and keep up the good work! Thank you for your helpful comments. Barbara Ellin Fox
Its an amazing post! Thanks for sharing
I’m glad you read and liked it. Happy to share!
Okay, no joke the cover photo is of me! On Pinterest when I was 12, I’m riding the palomino named blueberry. What the Heck!? Not every day you see that on your feed!!
H Keela, I’m happy to remove this photo if you want me to. It came from the internet. Just for curiosity are you on the first palomino or the second? Happy kids on happy horses. Let me know if you want it removed from this site. I can’t do anything about someone else’s site, though. Barbara
I’m teaching my 6 year old to ride and this was very helpful information! Thanks for posting!
Julia – thanks for letting me know that my article was helpful. Best wishes for fun times on a horse for your daughter! Barbara