The real problem is that the focus of young riding is about ridding, not about horsemanship. Parents are not honestly told about the time commitment that is doing the right thing by the horse. They pay for an hr lesson and thats all they plan to be at the barn.
I had the privilege of ridding at a BNT barn, more often than not I was hit in the face with how little this kids knew about ridding other than jumping. More than once I watched kids bring out one of their Grand Prix horses in the one of their other GP horses tack. Think sensitive snaffle horse in a pretty serious bit, they have no idea. These are kids who have placed in the money at big GP’s.
The system is broken and it has to be fixed, horse management needs to become part of every lesson program. Some lesson are mounted some are not, kids need to know all the types of bits and be able to tell you what their main lesson horse is ridden in. They need to know how to clean tack, and all the rest of it.
eddited to add
I was never in pony club because I did not have a horse until I was 12 and by then I would have been in with the 7 year olds my 12 year old self wasn’t up for that. You need to have a horse or lease to do pony club, then you also need to be able to get to the rallies. If you don’t come from a horsie family that is awful hard for them to get onboard to buy the horse, learn to trailer and be willing to and all that fun.
