Teaching ex-riding school kids to ride rather than sit there...

[horsemad32]

Um - help? Have been asked to help someone else with their sharer while I'm not riding so much myself and have the time. Sounded fun, so popped along to watch. Now not sure where to start - the very beginning? Sharer can stay on fine at walk/trot/canter and has some idea of how to ask for each. Reins exist in loops - permanently. When asked to shorten them, they shorten the reins then move their hands forward so there's still that loop. So they have no real control of speed, or direction tbh. Then there's the thing where the hands are permanently resting on the mane...

Sharer seems shocked that the horse has opinions/thoughts of its own. So it was alternately eating grass every time she walked it, then rushing off when she gave too strong a leg aid and there was nothing to contain it in ('cause no reins lol!).

ANY help on where to start would be great. I've taught beginners before, from nothing to Prelim dressage/2ft9 jumps, but that was easier because they were learning absolutely everything from me, so listened well and had no bad habits to unlearn. Sharer is a lovely girl and the horse is very sweet and patient, but obviously she does need to learn to ride!!!

 

[brighteyes]

Back to basics again - and good luck. She sounds worth the effort. x

 

[Bikerchickone]

I've had this with a sharer of mine in the past. In the end I found it easiest to just concentrate on one thing at a time.I started with the biggest issue and just kept on until we got that straight and then worked our way onwards. In our case the poor girl was hunched over the horse's neck like a limpet. Didn't help at all that my boy took that as an instant signal to canter every time!

If she's a nice person and wants to learn it won't take as long as you think. One step at a time. Good luck
x

 

[Littlelegs]

There's no reason to assume she won't listen. So start with position stuff like no stirrups, lunging her etc & teaching her to stay still, then teach her how to control the horse, just like with a beginner but with the added advantage she's done some riding before. If she's young especially you usually get quite rapid improvement from people who've had a bad rs (which I assume it must be from what you've posted).

 

[Tnavas]

Depending on the riding schools ideas you get riders with all manner of different problems.

She may have been used to sluggish ponies that need strong leg aids and any contact on the reins brings the pony to halt. So she is riding how she knows, not being difficult, she may feel when her reins are shorter she is being pulled forward by the pony.

Give her a neck strap that allows her to hold her hands in the correct place, have her shorten the reins and at the same time keep the neck strap in place.

As others have said work on one thing at a time, and rather than tell her to shorten her reins - Ask her if her reins are the right length - have her think about what she is doing.

Use the expression 'Check and correct your position' before each command for what you are after.

Eg - you want her to trot on from walk. "Prepare to trot on. Check and correct your position, Shorten your reins as your pony will shorten his neck a little in trot, tap with both legs, and trot on' Seems a mouthful but if the instructions are given on HOW to go from walk to trot the rider will soon learn to do these things automatically.

AS an ex riding school owner I have seen many instructors over the years fail to actually teach - they just give commands to go from one pace to another or from one direction to another.

Riding is as much about using particular instructions to control the horse its also about self discipline. If you check and correct your position before doing anything position and rein length immproves rapidly.

 

[zaminda]

Its a shame some riding schools don't teach anything, others are excellent.
One riding school I used to know had multi coloured reins you could then say hold the blue etc. This worked very well for them. (they were one of the better ones)
If the horse is good to lunge, I use lunge lessons to teach basic position and stability.

 

[maresmaid]

The above advice sounds good to me. The only thing i can add is please make sure you find something, no matter how small, to tell her she did well each time, so you can finish your sessions saying "xxx is so much better this week now we need to focus on zzz". And perhaps give her something simple and basic to focus on between your sessions - precise 10 walk steps / halt for example to make her realise to get the control she needs the contact.

 

[Marydoll]

If the horse is safe to lunge with a rider,do some work on her position on the lunge, assess her seat and overall position as this makes a big difference to how her horse uses himself. See if you can find her learning style as itll make it easier all around if you do.
Although her voice does my nut in ( sorry Jane ) Jane Savoie has a very good vid clip on youtube showing a rider how to get an effective contact and keep it on an artificial horse, great for a visual learner. Ive found it to be really effective for teaching elastic contact to someone who struggles to get the jist of it, they can watch it several times at home to reinforce it.

 

[FMM]

The rider will never have felt what riding a decent horse feels like - that is one of the most difficult things to do. Try riding the horse first and setting it up for her, and then putting her on board and getting even half a dozen strides of trot with the horse working correctly. When she gets to feel it, she will understand more what she is asking for.

Lunging will help deepend the seat etc, but won't necessarily help her feel what a horse should feel like when it is working correctly.

Get a wooden spoon or a comb and balance that on her hands. Show her the line from the elbow to the hand to the bit and make her understand that having a crooked line is confusing for the horse. Try a bit of logic rather than "just do it this way because it is correct".

Video her so that she can see where she is going wrong. Even on a phone will be enough to show her what she is doing wrong.

 

[Miss L Toe]

If you don't use coloured reins you can put coloured tape round the reins instead.
It is difficult to re-train, but it is an individual lesson, so you can ask her to help set up the school before the lesson, and explain what she will be doing eg when walking over poles, when bending in and out cones, these use the basic aids.
When tacking up you can explain and demonstrate the use of the reins, bending the head from right to left, and to centralise. Next time, you can use the reins to ask horse to take contact and lower the head in addition to right and left.
It is all about repetition and progression and with some children, they can be appear clumsy because little fingers don't fit the reins.