How to Teach Confident Riding With the Use of Your Lesson Horses

Teaching Someone to Ride the Same Horse

Selecting which lesson horse your student will ride at each lesson plays a major part in helping them to succeed and reach their goals.

In my program, I try to have the student ride the same horse each time for the first three or four lessons. When everything about riding is brand new, it can be intimidating to the students; new place, new people, and being up close and personal with a live horse for the first time.

My goal in my earliest lessons with new beginner students, whether they be a child or adults, is to teach the nature of the horse and how to be safe and confident with them on the ground.

Of course, they will start learning to groom and tack and proper position, but safety and confidence in the very first lessons will set a new rider up for success.

The names of the brushes and how to tack up are all details that they will perfect with practice. If they don't get the comfort level necessary with the horses to be confident enough to focus and follow instructions, then you are starting their riding careers under the saddle with a shaky foundation.

Part of learning to ride is learning that you can't always predict everything that horses do, and eventually, all riders learn to accept that, and it probably rarely crosses their minds. New riders, on the other hand, don't have that confidence yet. I have found one way for them to gain it rather quickly is to let them ride the same horse for the first few lessons.

They will gain confidence around that particular horse, and that will help them progress more quickly. Having the apprehension of a different horse every week can make the students nervous, and starting nervously is never a good way to start with horses.