Teaching RDA

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SouthWestWhippet

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Anyone here got any experience of teaching in an RDA centre? Anyone done the RDA instructor exams? Or even volunteer?

Be really interested to hear your views/experiences especially in relation to teaching able bodied.

Many thanks in advance
 
I have volunteered on and off for 10 years and my mum is an instructor. I have found a great and outgoing personality and the ability to encourage and inspire the riders is sometimes more important than technical riding knowledge, especially with the riders with learning diffficulties.

I have more technical knowledge but am not as good as Mum at the larger than life personality that is sometimes needed for some of the riders (and occasionally helpers!). We usually work as a team and make sure i lead the more able riders that need position improvements etc. I would definiteley advise going and volunteering with a group and see how you get on with the riders, they will really appreciate the help.

Good luck, it is hard work but very rewarding, if you need any more advice let me know. I'm sure Mum would be happy to answer any questions as well.
 
thank you. Would you be able to give me a 'flavour' of a typical lesson? I currently teach able bodied - most of my lessons are Walk, Trot and Canter, focusing mainly on work in the trot. I'm aware that a lot of RDA teaching is focused on walk-work. I'm just wondering what sort of things/devices instructors use to keep lessons interesting whilst moving at the slower pace necessary in RDA work?

I know some RDA lessons involve trot and canter but I'm given to understand that a lot do not. Thank you again for taking the time to offer your experience
 
It depends on the level of your RDA clients. The children I take from a special needs school are not ready for trot for quite a while. They love playing simple games which not only helps them learn the very basics of control of a pony but also enhances their learning of numbers, colours,object names etc.
Any work on their balance and stability is a great help.
Games like grandmothers footsteps helps with teaching them to ask the pony to walk on and whoa for instance. Simple games at walk where they have to drop something into a bucket or place on a pole or whatever helps with steering and balance.
These are just some ideas and these children have profound and multiple learning difficulties but the benefits of RDA work is tremendous. They make so much progress, not only with their riding but in confidence, balance as well and this tranfers in to their classroom work. It is brilliant.
 
I used to help at two different groups one adult and one children. The adults were Downs SYndrome, and varied in ability of course, the main thing was to keep the lessons fun, so we would do touching ears, tail, hands in the air etc. Sometimes we would walk the ponies over poles, most work was walk, there is only so much trotting volunteers can be asked to do!

We used to teach in an indoor school, and the pupils found it boring, they much prefered it when we went in the outdoor schooling area, or just went for a walk through the fields.

A lot will depend on the level of disability, a lot of our pupils had walking problems/used a wheelchair, so to go for a ride up and down hill through fields was a massive thrill!

I learnt a lot of humility from being involved with RDA. I reckon it was 20 years ago that I asked one man, probably in his early 20's, what he would like for Christmas - he simply said, 'I want to be like you'. Still gets to me.
 
One thing you have to have is the patience of a saint. I often find that you need it more for the other volunteers than the riders!!
 
I helped out with RDA groups for 7 years. The main thing regarding teaching is that you do need the RDA qualifications, I don't think you can just go ahead and teach. We used to have one or two people on the assistant instructor path, which meant they logged the hours they had taken part in lessons (under a qualified instructor) with a view to applying for the exams. We all did a health and safety special lesson once a year, with no riders, just all the helpers working through various scenarios of potential problems and what we sould do. Also, when we had a new rider we had a briefing about their special needs (e.g. lady with epilepsy is likely to have a fit if she gets too hot or tired, or lady with stroke is likely to become unbalanced on the left side) and decided who would do what (e.g. who would be responsible for leading the horse, who would walk next to the rider, how much the side helper would help, etc.)

I helped out with a very active group for adults and we did all sorts of things. Some of our riders were up for a canter some of the time, but it was less about walk/trot/canter and more about getting the riders to perform specific tasks, e.g. find the letter B and steer your horse to it, or go through the cones keeping on as straight a line as possible or stop and start your horse giving a pat each time the horse gets it right. Variations on mounted games are good as are variations on dressage movements. Often helpers and riders would be given a task to work on on their own and would do a little 'show' at the end of the lesson.

Once a year we'd go off to Clywd for the weekend and we would do ride and lead hacks which we did not normally have the opportunity to do. We also did RDA competitions which included dressage tests, fancy dress and mounted games.

Best thing would be for you to volunteer at your local RDA and see how it's all done, it's really good fun!
 
I volunteered for 8 years and its something i plan on getting back into when i can drive. I was 8/9 when i started.
I loved working with the children, because they were so honest. My instructor is the East Midlands regional one and I had the opportunity to go to the special olympics etc.
That was truely an awe inspiring experience.
As said before it is mainly walk work, with possibly the short sides in trot and often with 3/4 leaders.
Some of the children can be difficult though, they obviously don't know what they are doing but it hurts when they pull your hair or throw buckets at you!
And don't be offended if they don't want "you" to lead them, some of the children liked the same horses and same leaders each and everytime.
 
I used to volunteer at an RDA group which worked mainly with people learning difficulties and mental health problems. The group then split from a larger group and I joined the committee, this was about 15 years ago, I resigned from the committee this year as I no longer have time. Most of our riders managed walk and trot. To keep it interesting we did bending, filtering in, games like putting bean bags in buckets (which helps with dexterity and balance, and learning names for colours) We catered for both adults ans children. An incredible experience.
 
I volunteer as a helper, our group caters for adults who who are able to improve. Only one rider has a leader in our group. Its great craic.
 
This has been a really interesting thread, teaching RDA is something that I was just discussing with my OH as something I might be interested in doing at some point.
I teach able bodied at the moment and we do have some riders with mild disability who come to us,but i have always wondered what RDA instructors do to fill the lessons particularly the lessons with riders who have very limited capabilities etc and this has made interesting reading!
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Definitely do it Lynspop it is sooo rewarding! I was an instructor for five years and loved it. I only left due to work committments
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We were quite lucky in that we had a long lane that we could hack along wihtout fear fo traffic etc and the children loved that. Other than that we did mainly walk as they were children with severe physical and mental disabilities. It included exercises to loosen them up, circles, bending, weaving through cones, stable management, little bits of trotting ( our average helpers age was about 58 so we didn't do much), with one group I introduced turn on the forehand in a basic manner. You can do lots with them with a little imagination.

It was the most rewarding thing I have ever done and to see children who were terrified or very timid when they came, giggling their heads of and chattering away after a few weeks was amazing. There was one little girl who was in a wheel chair and had to be strapped upright in it, who had to lifted on her pony and would be sprawled across it's neck unable to hold herself up. By the end she was holding her head up for long periods of time to 'look through her ponies ears' and was also able to hold herself up more at school to eat her lunch. Just fabulous!

I really miss it.
 
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