how quickly should my childs riding lessons progress

[emilycat]

Hi
i was just looking for some advice. my daughter has been having horse riding lessons every week for about 15 months and i was just wondering how lessons should be progresing. shes been confidently cantering for at least 6 months. she rides a different horse pretty much every week and is at a lovely school. but the lessons havent really gone on from there. the lesson is pretty much the same every week. they walk and trot around the school, change rein, change places in the ride and trot through poles( though some weeks the poles arent used and its just walk @trot). the lesson usually ends with a few rounds of cantering. and its been like this for months. about 8 months ago the teacher was rising half a pole up and they were trotting over that. but that hasnt happened for a long time now. i just feel like theres not really any progression going on at the moment. is this normal.? my daughter has taken to lessons really well and so far has picked everything up very quickly. I guess im just wondering is this average for what she should be doing at 15 months of lessons?

 

[Theocat]

How old is your daughter? Is she well balanced? Is she able to independently steer and stop in walk trot and canter? I'd expect that by now and, once established, I'd expect jumping to be introduced. It is worth having a chat with the school - it could be that the (for example) 11am lesson is Beginner / Novice, and she needs to change time to "move up", and they've failed to tell you that. Or it could be that the instructor isn't very good, or that your daughter isn't very balanced, or that another child in the lesson is holding the group back.

I would have a word with the instructor/ owner, and be prepared to switch lessons or schools. Private lessons are a good way to progress, but not much fun for younger children.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

The instructor doesn’t sound that imaginative I’m sure there are loads of exercises that could be done to make it fun and more challenging. It can be a problem if the pupils are at different stages though.

Have you asked if she can move up a group? Has she done any hacking? That really changes things and brings new challenges.

First stage would be to talk to the instructor though. Teaching should be a two way street.

 

[Shay]

Echo both of those. In normal circumstances I would expect to see jumping - or at least pole work - introduced once the child is stable with an independent seat at canter. There could be a range of reasons why this isn't happening for you, some of which you can control and some of which you can't. But you won't know until you ask. Kids are often rushed into canter and jump by RS's before they are really ready because that is what the parents want to see and I would applaud any school taking the decision to retain a child at a lower level if that was what the child needed. But on the other hand if the matter is something else, such as lack of suitable animals, school space, or the pace of the group otherwise, then you need to know that and take appropriate action.

 

[Pinkvboots]

The lessons sound pretty basic she should be learning how to do circles and the instructor should be using the letter markers to intoduce basic transitions circles and changing of the rein in preparation for doing a dressage test almost, I have seen kids of 5 and 6 do intro dressage so it can be taught, I would find somewhere else to go for lessons.

 

[Red-1]

I think fr a riding school group lesson this s pretty standard. Each pony will have several rides to do so the school will be saving them.

Once your daughter is balanced and an steer round then she needs to start to engage the horse so the horse/pony works. They could not do this for several hours a day.

I bet you would get a different lesson if you started to have a private lesson on a weekday evening instead of a weekend group lesson.

 

[Orangehorse]

Agree with everyone else.

There is a little riding school locally that ONLY does indoor lessons, but they spend the first half hour on basic walk, trot, canter. The second half hour is either jumping or games and the pupils have attainment certificates and will be moved up a level when ready.

 

[Ambers Echo]

That sounds like my old riding school when I was a kid - every lesson was EXACTLY the same for years. I can still remember it!! Whole ride walk, lead file trot to the rear of the ride till everyone had trotted. Change the rein. Repeat. Whole ride trot
for a while with a few changes of rein. Walk. Lead file canter to rear of ride. Repeat till everyone has cantered. Change rein. Repeat. Turn in and halt. Go over a small cavaletti one at a time till lesson ended. I never questioned it but eventually I went on holiday and had a lesson somewhere else and suddenly was doing all sorts - cantering circles, cantering past the ride, riding in open order, trotting poles and jumping. We never went back to that original school after that! Some schools do seriously lack imagination!!

 

[tim_]

My girls are 5 1/2 and have been riding for about 6 months now. They've just moved to the intermediate lesson. I've found that different instructors have got different things out of them, however, Saturday one my girls decided she was going to spend the first part of the lesson holding onto the saddle when trotting.. a metaphoric slap on the wrist was dealt out, no idea why she did this.

Mine being young aren't that strong so don't control as well as someone who's older. They have some knowledge but sometimes forgot to apply it. I'd like them to advance more, but as I'm not the instructor, that's for someone who is experienced in teaching to decide on.

If she's is ready then it could be the school. I'd suggest discussing it with them to see what they are planning. If you don't get a response that explains the progress/intentions you could try another lesson to see how she gets on?

 

[emilycat]

shes 10. shes has good control of all the horses they ride at the school. they do seem to be putting new people in the group every few months thoughso the whole group gets held back in that sense. In her current group my daughter has been at the school the longest. I'll speak to the school about progression. i just wasnt sure whether thats all lessons consisted of and whether i needed to ask for specific lessons for things like jumping.

 

[tda]

My niece was having lessons at a local RS, as well as hacking out with me, she had a couple of private lessons with a friend of mine on a lively but well behaved jumping pony they have and the instructors at the RS commented on how much she was improving !
Definitely worth looking elsewhere otherwise she'll still be trotting round in a year's time

 

[Equi]

Usually when they are deemed ready they get moved up into another lesson group, and at this stage if your daughter is competent i would have expected her to be moved up.

 

[peaceandquiet1]

I think this can be a problem, i taught friend's kids for a bit who were riding in the "advanced" lesson at their school. They were so unstable I was scared to let them off the lunge and they were far from ready to jump. But the parents thought they were advanced riders....there was just no system to create progression and there was always a kid who held the rest back etc etc.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Over here in France, the FFE (Fédération Française d'Equitation) has levels with tests, called Galop 1, Galop 2 and so on up to level 7. Each has a set of skills that need to be demonstrated in the arena, and a written test which is a mix of multiple choice questions, open questions (such as "list five professions involving to horses) and labelling a drawing (such as "the parts of the hoof").

A class is usually defined by its level of Galop, at our centre the level is the one that the riders are working towards, not the level already attained. This is at the discretion of the instructor, though; for example, for the past two years I've been in a mixed level class Galop 3/4, even though the only test I have taken was for Galop 1 three years ago.

We cycle through three patterns of lesson: one week is "mise en selle" (don't know the English for this, possibly "posture" or "seat" drills), the next week is dressage, the third is "jumping", although this doesn't always mean going over obstacles: it can mean just a bar laid on the ground or cones around the arena, and doing exercises like going from canter down to trot and changing direction (rein? hand?) and back up to canter before coming up to where the next obstacle would be, or it can be standing in the stirrups at the approach to a series of three bars on the ground.

The system of judging a rider's level like this, and having a program of progression normalised by a recognised body seems good, to me. I wonder if that exists in the UK?

 

[Shay]

It does - actually several versions do. Pony Club centers have Bronze, Silver and Gold which are probably the lowest standards. Pony Club Branches have tests from E up to A. A Center Gold level is equivalent to Pony Club D+. British Horse Society do the "Stages". Stage 1 is about equivalent to Pony Club C test. The various affiliated bodies do a version similar to the Pony Club series; BS for example has the NAF 5 star qualifications. It is difficult to find an equivalency for the Galop tests but Galop 7 seems to be about BHS stage 2 / Pony Club B. But my equestrian french is rusty so I'm open to someone more fluent than I correcting it.

OP - can you find a Pony Club Center for your daughter? The standards are clearly published and you can see exactly what you need to achieve to progress. Alternatively if she is over 12 you could find a BHS approved center and work toward Ride Safe and the Progressive tests (if they still do them in the new structure) which equate to stage 1.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Hi
i was just looking for some advice. my daughter has been having horse riding lessons every week for about 15 months and i was just wondering how lessons should be progresing. shes been confidently cantering for at least 6 months. she rides a different horse pretty much every week and is at a lovely school. but the lessons havent really gone on from there. the lesson is pretty much the same every week. they walk and trot around the school, change rein, change places in the ride and trot through poles( though some weeks the poles arent used and its just walk @trot). the lesson usually ends with a few rounds of cantering. and its been like this for months. about 8 months ago the teacher was rising half a pole up and they were trotting over that. but that hasnt happened for a long time now. i just feel like theres not really any progression going on at the moment. is this normal.? my daughter has taken to lessons really well and so far has picked everything up very quickly. I guess im just wondering is this average for what she should be doing at 15 months of lessons?

Depends on the rider, as it is all very well she can do it but is she doing this faultlessly or is the trainer perfecting her more before moving onto more advanced things. Is she working without stirrups over them to improve her balance. Are there are riders in the lesson to or is it a private lesson as you don't say, as if there are others in the lesson too , you cannot move one without the others getting behind. Maybe have private lessons where she can move on her pace individually. Maybe speak to the yard owner and explain your concerns.

 

[GirlFriday]

Another thing to consider is what else is there? Halt/walk/trot/canter/jump is actually pretty much all most equestrians in this country do!

If child is getting bored then perhaps look for additional facilities and disciplines to try (safe hacking/mounted games/western/drill rides/side saddle/stable management/just have a look and see what is available locally). If parent is getting bored that is a different matter

ETA: that isn't to say that variety of activities in lessons isn't good - but really there isn't terribly much 'else' to riding (there is a quote someone on here has in their sig about it being the art of keeping horse between self and ground -and if you aren't a horse-geek yourself it can be a lot more boring to watch than it is to do!)