Imagine you are starting a new job with very complex skills, a demanding boss, and all new surroundings. Sounds pretty daunting. Now imagine you can only work on those new skills for an hour a week. Now add to the mix that you are a child with limited life skills. Seems downright impossible, doesn’t it? Yet that is exactly what parents expect when children are learning to ride horses.
Learning to ride is a complex and difficult process. It takes many, many years to master. How can a parent help their child master those skills without becoming discouraged along the way? Here are some helpful tips-
1. Schedule lessons more often. Riding once per week is the bare minimum needed in order to advance. Students who ride less than once per week will become just like the movie Groundhog Day, an oft repeated set of instructions while working on the same skills over and over again. The lessons will become recreational riding, not actual lessons. Riding requires creating muscle memory that can only be learned from repetition. Make it possible for your student to ride more often. If cost is a factor, move into less expensive group lessons. Allow the student to take practice rides if the stable offers them. Some facilities offer discounts when lessons are taken more than once per week. Inquire about those programs. Whatever you can do to get the rider on a horse more often will help.
2. Listen to and watch your child’s lesson. Resist the temptations of email, social media and phone calls. Technology is at our fingertips 24/7, but our children grow up and move away before you know it. You paid for the lesson, be a part of it! Learn some new terms. Ask the instructor questions (After the lesson please! When the student is un-tacking is a good time.). Be involved in your child’s instruction.
3. Video the lesson. Use your smart phone to replay the lesson to your child. Visual learners will greatly benefit from seeing themselves ride. They can better identify their weaknesses and strengths. Often students simply don’t believe they really are doing the things the instructor is telling them about. Seeing video evidence will support the instructors point of view, help the student understand the principles being taught, and identify where the student is falling short.
4. Ask for homework. Ask the instructor for a list of terms to look up and learn. (Use your smart phone to take notes.) Drill students on the parts of the horse, bridle or saddle. Learn the names and uses of grooming tools. Go over a riding principle learned during today’s lesson. Get some stretching or coordination exercises to do at home. Even posting can be practiced in a chair or on an exercise ball. Encourage your child to do some barn homework every day. If the barn offers books, buy them and read them with your child. Otherwise, good information is available on the internet. CRK Stable offers online worksheets for the CHA Manuals. Buy the books, go to http://crktrainingstable.com/study-guides/, enter the password and get busy learning!
5. Review the lesson with your child. When you are back in the car, don’t just tick the lesson off your “to-do” list and focus on the next task at hand. Discuss what the student learned that day. Did the lesson go well? If so, comment on that, “Your posting was much better today!” (Don’t know what posting is? See #2) If the lesson didn’t go well, what did the student struggle with? How can you help them get past that difficulty? Always end the conversation on a good note. Remind them about the things that went well.
6. Review online videos and radio shows. If the barn has videos on their website, review them with your child. The Certified Horsemanship Association produces wonderful, informative videos that are available free on YouTube. Go to- http://www.youtube.com/user/chainstructor for videos or Horse Radio Network for replays of radio shows- http://www.horseradionetwork.com/
Remember, a parents job is to raise their children. Not to simply make learning opportunities available to them. Be as involved in every aspect of their lives as you can. As a parent of grown children, I can honestly say I never regretted sitting on cold, hard bleachers for hours on end, watching the hundreds of practices and competitions my children participated in. Now that those days are long past, I actually miss them…
Cheryl Rohnke Kronsberg is a Certified Horsemanship Association Master Instructor and Clinic Instructor. She is also an AQHA Professional Horseman. Cheryl has been teaching riding and horsemanship for over 35 years. Currently she and her husband own and operate CRK Training Stable in Yorba Linda, CA. We welcome your comments and questions. Please feel free to share this article with your friends, but rights to publish this article and photos, in whole or on part, in any medium including but not limited to, newsletters, websites, blogs, magazines, etc. are reserved. For more interesting articles from Cheryl go to www.crktrainingstable.com