Teaching Children

[Christmas_Kate]

For those of you who have had ponies from a young age, who taught you to ride? did you join the pony club? or did your parents teach you? Did you have 'lessons', or just learn by hacking out etc etc?

I am thinking on getting an instructor and hiring a menage in the summer, say once a week, but wondered if itd be worth it for a child who is just learning the basics atm? He really does not listen to me, just gives me cheek and messes about. He loves riding so i thought if I got someone else to teach him he might actually listen??

 

[paintsplat05]

i had lessons at a riding school but i was about 10 when i started riding.

 

[ThomasTank]

my 8 year old goes to a riding school to have lessons as i would have the same problems as you !

 

[Christmas_Kate]

what? mouthfuls of cheek and temper tantrums??

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[TGM]

I learnt at a riding school first and then at Pony Club.

I had similar problems to you with my daughter - she was fine when she was very young but soon got a bit cheeky with mum telling her to do things. She went to a riding school for a while, and now has lessons with a local instructor plus goes to Pony Club as well.

 

[ThomasTank]

she would answer me back and whine 'i cant do it' or 'no mummy, thats not the way' !!!!
best to let someone else get on with it once a fortnight

 

[emma69]

I taught lots of children whose parents could quite easily have taught them (very nerve wracking having a BHSI standing as a parent I can tell you!) but the child wouldn't listen to them. I think it does them good, and is less stressful for the parent, I also think instructors perhaps push the children more than parents would, which is good for them too.

 

[passie]

My parents got a friend to teach me and my sisters and brother for much that reason. And I taught a few local kids when I was about 18 for the same reason again. It may not be worth paying a fully qualified instructor until he's a little older and more experienced so is there anyone else you can ask?

 

[YorksG]

I learnt at a riding school age 7, I think if you could arrange that it may be best as there will be other kids, some older and more experienced and they do tend to listen to other adults better than to parents.

 

[Tia]

Oh crikey...as a parent teaching their child to ride, you are on a losing streak from the minute they get on the pony. I gave up ever teaching my own children to ride years ago, and I didn't even bother to attempt to teach Megan. She's learnt it all by herself; but she is one of those natural riders.

Can you not just have an instructor come to your field? Section off a small area and have her teach the basics in there? Seems awfully excessive to pay for an arena too, particularly as little kids can really only deal with very short riding lessons of 15-30 mins at a time.

 

[Ravenwood]

Very interested to read this post! My daughter has only really started riding properly for the last two years although she has always had ponies (now aged 11). I also found that I couldn't really teach because all I got was "I am"!! But I am really proud of myself for never pushing and only done things when she was ready. She can now hack out and hunt but she has just started having some lessons with a young girl who makes it all fun and for the first time she has learn't about riding a proper circle, trotting poles and we have started a few small jumps. I really recommend getting someone in (even just a friend, not necessarily a qualified instructor) to polish up those finer points.

PS when I was a kid we just got on and rode, learning the hard way - things have changed so much now!!

 

[4whitesocks]

I just got on (as did everyone else in my family) but then progressed at about 6 to pony club...a good mate of mine who has all her BHS stages gave up on her little one as once they have the basics you just can't teach your own! (mind you this is the same child who as a 6 year old watched quietly from the corner of the arena as I came off over a horses head when he stopped at a fence - landed on the ground on my face & elbows....once she was sure I wasn't really hurt a small voice piped up from the corner "you should have been wearing long sleeves!"

(she was right unfortunately....gravel embedded in elbows is just not nice!)

 

[Fiona_C]

I learnt to ride at a riding school from age of 6.

Have tried teaching S but no, she knows better and won't listen

so am now going to enlist the help of YO who is an instructor to give her 1/2 hr lessons once she's had a few rides back on the cheeky ponio.

She takes notice of YO and won't back answer her!!!!

 

[sloulou]

I learnt at a riding school from 5, then pony club from 12 when I got my first pony.

I now teach at our local pony club.

Would recommend a combination of occasional private lessons and pony club - lots of the kids I teach have very horsey parents (some very highly qualified). But they learn better (my opinion) away from them and trying for someone else.

Also - I think parents horsey or non horsey have high aspirations/ expectations sometimes and children fight against that - they more likely to do jumps with me, because I don't mind if they do or don't - is just so long as they have fun (am talking about really quite young children now).

My parents were and still are non horsey - which can be a good thing

 

[charlie76]

We teach lots of children from 4 years upwards- they seem to really enjoy it, we do get the odd one or two that are less than enthusiastic but on the whole its good fun!

 

[Bananaman]

I teach quite a few youngsters whose mothers would be perfectly capable of teaching them, but it just causes friction when they do!

I would reccommend as others have done, mixing private lessons with Pony Club.

It would depend on the quality of your local riding school as to whether I would send a child with their own pony there. Often it is more recreational riding with groups of too mixed an ability for much progress to be made.
Of course, not all riding schools are like that but I would choose carefully.

 

[Enfys]

Lessons and Pony Club worked well with my daughter, although I taught her the basics she would never actually take what I was saying seriously unless I was teaching her in a group at PC. I would never try to teach her anything now, I get the sulks if I say something as innocent as "would it be easier perhaps if............" or "maybe try it that way........" (Bog off mother! is what the expression says.)

I had riding lessons from the time I was about 5 and went to a fantastic school where riding was actually on the curriculum

I learned a lot from Pony Club and enjoyed it immensely, but for basic stickability and horse sense, that came from spending all my spare time being a kid on a pony with a gang of others and learning by our mistakes, ie falling off a lot and eventually figuring out why we did.

 

[Christmas_Kate]

He went to the local RS for a few lessons and hated it as he was the only boy! And they wouldnt let him off the LR even in the school.
If P would only buy me a lorry (he can drive one it turns out) or I had a school.....
or maybe i should leave it till next winter....

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