riding exercises for children

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pickwickayr

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I am looking for some inspiration for new exercises for one of my clients who I teach on a freelance weekly basis. She has private lessons.

The youngest is 9 and a great wee rider, she is on an 11hh pony and can canter and jump off the lead. looking for some exercises to challenge her but still keep it fun. we do lots of mounted games etc, but looking for new ideas. all the books i have for teaching children and focussed around group lessons.

also can anyone recommend a good book to help with exercises and lesson plans for private lessons for children?

thank you for any help
 
I was going to say mounted games, but you already are!

I would give her little challenges - start learning dressage tests or a show, and doing little courses, with the aim of doing some competitions next year.. Mix this in with the fun stuff you are already doing.
 
I find children enjoy a few handy pony type of exercises, bending poles, a maze of poles on the ground, picking something up and placing it somewhere else, you can make the challenges as hard as possible or put a time limit on the course.

Pole work is good for encouraging accurate riding, especially if the poles have stripes of colours so they have to ride over a certain area of the pole not just in the general direction, it really helps them get a round circle or accurate serpentines while still keeping a degree of fun.

Get her to learn and ride a dressage test, possibly one a month so it is progressive.
 
Games, Simon says is a fab one, that works whatever the level they ride at & whatever you want to work at. And they usually find it funny when on the things Simon hasn't said, you give ridiculous commands, eg give your pony a piggyback.
If she likes music/dancing that's good too. In the same way younger kids enjoy & benefit from head, shoulders, knees & toes & other nursery rhymes. Get the music for some action songs, the locomotion, macarina, high school musical etc. It's good for an independent seat even in walk, & more advanced kids can do it in other paces, good for learning to guide pony with legs & seat alone, plus co-ordination. And very fun.
You can make pretty much any mounted game a schooling exercise. Eg instead of whipping round bending poles, they can serpentine. Cones at 4 points of a 20m circle with a tennis ball to be picked up & put down instead of just a line.
Foot prints are good too, its more fun for a child to try & leave a set of perfect prints behind in whatever movement, than just do the movement alone.
Tig, even chasing you. Doesn't have to be just a flat out gallop after you. Positioning yourself so rider has to learn to do the most basic lateral work to tig you.
With jumps, whether its a few poles or a good course, I position them so they can be done several ways. Then literally announce the next jump/pole as they land. That way they have to think of their own way of getting there & there own line of approach once in the vicinity. And if they get it wrong at some point, its better for them to tell you why & how they could have done it differently before having another go.
My daughters nearly always been taught alone, exceptions are I teach her even when hacking with friends or once a fortnight or so with a friend joining in. Imo its far better, you just have to make sure its fun.
 
When i was learning i was always given the challenge of standing in stirrups for 3 strides then sitting for 3 around the school that kept me concentrating for ages. I was apparently good for horse getting used to jumping and rider being off back all i know is i found it really hard.
 
Handy Pony / le trec stuff is great for kids. Try things like fastest walk, slowest canter and that snake thing where they have to weave through a maze created by poles on the ground. Rein back into a small space then walk forward. Pick up a lead rope and drop it somewhere else - or post it. (Problem with that one is that you have to keep getting up to re-set it.)

Have you tried "Round the world"? That exercise where you swing your legs around until you have twisted all the way around on the pony's back? Start it standing still but you can progress this all the way up to doing it whilst trotting. (With someone leading or lunging obviously!) My daughter used to love that one. It is quite impressive to be able to swing around like that whilst pony trots on happily - and looks good in family pony shows.

Thread the needle isn't reccommended these days I know - but if you hold the pony's head the worst that will happen is that she'll fall off. Another one my daughter used to love -but not to be done in front of a PC instructor I suspect.
 
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