Teaching a novice rider with no arena

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flirtygerty

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Grandson has stopped having lessons at his local RS as he is bored with walking round in circles, any suggestions as to what exercises we can do with him, he is developing a 'kick on' attitude, hence me asking how his lessons were going, I am self taught and a sympathetic rider, hate to see horses being yanked in the mouth etc, kid's young cob doesn't need yanked around, so I'm trying to nip this in the bud, grandson is a speed freak, despite being told to only walk with a short trot (unfit, young pony) I caught him going from a standstill, to a short trot then into canter, when he should have been cooling the pony down on the way home, I need to know grandson can ride safely and not risk his pony, who is a blank canvas, so OH needs to teach him asap.
Sorry for the novel
 
"Self taught" have you had many lessons yourself?

I "learnt" to ride out hacking, and whilst it means you can get on and stay on, it doesn't help to refine your aids!
 
So long as the pony is sensible, a field is suitable for teaching in. What a pity the RS has bored him, as it is easier to keep children interested when there is more than one of them.
You could get grandson playing games which require accuracy, rather than speed, so putting a cup onto a fencepost, bending, collecting an object from one place and putting it in another. Any Trec or handy pony-type obstacles can be used to encourage the young rider to concentrate on a result rather than the process, which at this age and stage is far more enjoyable.
If you can find a friend for him to compete against, for points for accuracy, rather than against the clock, that would add interest. Remembering of course that the points will have to be distributed carefully to keep both riders motivated.

Hacking is a really good way of learning balance over different terrain. Perhaps until grandson does as he is told when riding he needs to be on a lead-rein.
 
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You can teach sympathetic application of the aids on the lunge but is the real problem that the child was disobedient? You explained to him how to ride the pony, what paces and speed, but he ignored this which is sad. For the welfare of the pony I would insist he has supervised rides only.

There are lots of fun excercises to ride, many can be performed in walk as well as faster paces. He can have his rides supervised in a field, or on hacks if accompanied on foot, by bicycle or another rider. It is common for children to want to do nothing more than canter and jump.

Do children have the mental capability to understand welfare implications for their pony or have empathy for the pony? Many seem to act as if a pony is similar to a bicycle and lack real understanding that ponies are alive, not riding machines. I rode at riding schools on and off until I was a teenager. The lessons and hacks started and ended in walk but it was never explained why. I knew nothing about warming up and cooling off, not even that those things existed, until I started reading horse care books and taking Pony Club exams.
 
We hack out with children all the time. My own have learned whilst hacking, and we often take out their novice friends. If someone upsets a pony, they get taken off. Other than that, it's anything goes, with a healthy amount of riding with no hands/ no stirrups / sitting with legs in front of flaps / laying full length along the pony / playing aeroplanes / fencing with cow parsley etc.

Now of course, my ponies are used to all this, but if you have suitable mounts, there's nothing boring about learning out hacking.
 
I would say, if you can persuade him, to find a new riding school which doesn't insist on doing follow the leader! A good riding school will not bore a child, and should teach them from the very basics like tacking up, grooming, leading, basic care etc. Sounds like the place he was at was just a get on and kick on type place whilst following the person and pony in front. There are places out there which are fantastic for kids to learn and socialise- sometimes you just have to search them out.

I would supervise his rides, and would be adamant to teach him basic care of the pony- dependant on his age would depend on how I approached this. If he was old enough to understand why he was told certain things, then I think he would get a stern talking to. We soon learnt that if we didn't want to care for the ponies, we wouldn't ride, and would soon be dragged off them if we were caught messing about against instruction!

Lunging and hacking are a great ways to learn. Also learning the basics such as start, stop, turning, working on balance by standing up/sitting light, work without stirrups are a good start. Things like forward and backward bends, around the world, scissors etc are all a way of getting him to move, find his own balance and challenge himself without going full speed!!

We also worked on a practice and reward approach (basic common sense tbh!) in our riding lessons. As an example, until we could get our basic 'up downs' at trot by pretending to hold two cups of water, we weren't allowed the reins and were led. Once we mastered them without plonking back down or potentially socking the pony in the gob, we were allowed them. I think this kind of approach for your grandson may be beneficial.
 
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wench said:
"Self taught" have you had many lessons yourself?

I "learnt" to ride out hacking, and whilst it means you can get on and stay on, it doesn't help to refine your aids!
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Completely agree with this. I learnt to ride out hacking too. I've got the stickiest bum imaginable, but am getting some quite negative responses from my youngster because of my clumsy aids.
If you have a field available I would suggest using that instead as that is where I am now taking lessons on my older horse to refine my aids a touch and it isn't really much different to a sand school, other than the fact your grandsons jods might get a bit muddy if he comes off!
 
My sisters and I were unaware that arenas even existed when we learnt to ride! We would either ride in a field or hack out and I do exactly the same now. The small enclosed space of an arena may make a nervous rider to feel safe but you can't beat hacking for teaching you to have a good seat.
 
wench said:
"Self taught" have you had many lessons yourself?

I "learnt" to ride out hacking, and whilst it means you can get on and stay on, it doesn't help to refine your aids!
Click to expand...

Oh yes, that's me too!

Maybe join the local Pony Club? Children are taught about respecting and caring for the pony as well as having fun with other children riding.
 
I would think finding another riding school would be the best route. Especially if pony is young/green. Having or not having an arena wouldn't be my first worry
 
sarahw123 said:
I would think finding another riding school would be the best route. Especially if pony is young/green. Having or not having an arena wouldn't be my first worry
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This is what I was thinking too. It would be a far better environment for your grandson to learn with, and with other children around him too.
If he is still to ride his own, it would be on the lunge or the lead rein until he was obedient. Having your own horse is a privilege (certainly as a child who isn't paying for it themselves) and he should be conscientious of the fact his pony is unfit and needs to take things a bit steadier.
 
Unless I have missed it you do not say how old your grandson is? As a (retired!) PC instructor boys are notoriously easily bored by going in circles so they have to be taught in more adventurous ways. Check out your local Pony Club - we used to have a ride of boys - mixed ages - but we never put them in with the girls. At camp the boys were taken swimming, running and encouraged to do tetrathlon as well as the riding. If you do not keep him interested he will give up and yet ... despite however many girls there are at PC when you reach the top level of the sport it is dominated by men!
 
Sorry but had to reply to this, the clue is in the word "Grandson". Riding is supposed to be fun and to fair whilst some of us of more senior years enjoy lessons and refining our skills I can still remember when we were kids and although we had a few lessons we actually were pretty horrible to our ponies and ragged them around something awful. I'm now mortified at some of our antics and even more surprised that we lived to tell the tale.... but we did survive as did our ponies.

So having had a son who wanted to ride I did the "correct" thing and tipped up to the local riding school and he bimbled around in circles and got bored ridged. So instead we bought him a pony... like you do... anyway said pony was of mature years and a total school master but also shall we say somewhat opinionated. So I would say to son "if you do x, y or z pony will dump you" of course son would go off and behind my back do x, y and z simultaneously and pony of course slapped him off... cue one crying child and one very smug pony. I was fortunate in that this particular pony was fabulous at teaching children and subsequently son became a very, very considerate rider. He was though a demon child who took great delight in bombing up behind me with no warning whilst I'm sat on some half baked, just backed, twit. To be fair it was good for the twits as they soon got accustomed to such behaviour although I frequently cursed child (a lot).

In answer to your problem please let your grandson enjoy his pony, have fun and do what boys enjoy doing best which is usually going fast and scaring the wotsits out of parents and/or Grandparents. If you feel that this pony is going to be damaged by such behaviour which to be honest is unlikely (many of the ponies we had as children were young and actually were a lot less bothered by our gungho attitude than you might expect and because they weren't molly coddled just got on with things without batting an eyelid) then find him a schoolmaster that will show him the ropes.

If you think he's bad now don't show him a jump or ever, ever, allow him to watch eventing/hunting.
 
as a beginner, I started off doing half hour ride outs before starting lessons just to get a feel for the horse. The route I went on was a steady downhill and uphill ride on the way back so it helped me develop some balance.
My last RS as a teenager had lessons where the instructor would sometimes have riders doing different things in different orders so it wasn't all follow the leader or just wait til you get to the front then trot or canter to back of the ride etc, you would often be 2nd or third in line behind someone and be asked to over take and go and do an exercise somewhere else so it meant the horses weren't anticipating anything and would actually listen to their riders.
 
When I was younger I used to love doing things like no stirrups, no hands, lunging etc
Although I was very keen to learn to do it right and I was also careful about my pony!
It sounds a little bit to me as if he's not that bothered about riding? Or pony is perhaps not the right one for him at this stage, because he doesnt understand that the pony is young and needs to learn things?
 
Thanks for all your replies, there are some things I haven't tried, just to clarify, I don't have the experience to teach anyone, except for reminders about heels and hands, but my OH is a great instuctor, grandson has just turned 15 and knows it all, up until this year, he has only visited when shifts allowed, he used to ride my trotter x on a lead rein, or my old WB who won't be hurried, then I was gifted my old TB back, so he was ridden by the grandson again on lead rein, I got sick of not having my horse to ride, I bought a young cob (3 yr old) for the kids to ride, an old head on young shoulders and since visits were limited, it gave the cob time to grow up a bit, I kept him ticking over, 2013, cob was shown in hand by the kids and ridden lightly, they still had 3 to ride, we did games in a small paddock, trotting poles, polos off fence posts etc, I made them weave between trees without reins, (on lead rope) which they enjoyed, but we don't live there now and visits were limited by work, we have 900 acres to ride in, but it's round fields or on quiet roads, but apart from a few hills there's nothing to challenge him, there's no way will I let him ride by himself till I can trust him, I've explained pony's not fit and needs to warm up, to be fair, the cob wants to go but I don't want grandson hanging on his mouth, while I appreciate he wants to get out there and has bags of confidence he hasn't got the experience of watching the pony's body language, he also doesn't realise that I check how sweaty pony is and know when he's been ridden hard, I should just put him on my trotter x, let him get a fright, my lad doesn't take prisoners if anyone rides roughly, then perhaps he will listen, or since riding is just fun not competitions, I should just let him find his own style, I think I'm just fed up of know it all kids
 
HipoH said:
Sorry but had to reply to this, the clue is in the word "Grandson". Riding is supposed to be fun and to fair whilst some of us of more senior years enjoy lessons and refining our skills I can still remember when we were kids and although we had a few lessons we actually were pretty horrible to our ponies and ragged them around something awful. I'm now mortified at some of our antics and even more surprised that we lived to tell the tale.... but we did survive as did our ponies.

So having had a son who wanted to ride I did the "correct" thing and tipped up to the local riding school and he bimbled around in circles and got bored ridged. So instead we bought him a pony... like you do... anyway said pony was of mature years and a total school master but also shall we say somewhat opinionated. So I would say to son "if you do x, y or z pony will dump you" of course son would go off and behind my back do x, y and z simultaneously and pony of course slapped him off... cue one crying child and one very smug pony. I was fortunate in that this particular pony was fabulous at teaching children and subsequently son became a very, very considerate rider. He was though a demon child who took great delight in bombing up behind me with no warning whilst I'm sat on some half baked, just backed, twit. To be fair it was good for the twits as they soon got accustomed to such behaviour although I frequently cursed child (a lot).

In answer to your problem please let your grandson enjoy his pony, have fun and do what boys enjoy doing best which is usually going fast and scaring the wotsits out of parents and/or Grandparents. If you feel that this pony is going to be damaged by such behaviour which to be honest is unlikely (many of the ponies we had as children were young and actually were a lot less bothered by our gungho attitude than you might expect and because they weren't molly coddled just got on with things without batting an eyelid) then find him a schoolmaster that will show him the ropes.

If you think he's bad now don't show him a jump or ever, ever, allow him to watch eventing/hunting.
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Too late, the farm we live on, frequently has the hunt here and we did catering at an EC in Durham, ODE's, xc schooling days and OH HORROR SJ
 
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