Flawed thinking and lessons, question about kids lessons in general added

[KBC]

I was kind of horrified to read this on another forum, someone aske this question

I have recently started teaching Western riding lessons since I want to share my love of horses with others who can’t afford expensive riding lessons. I am having a little bit of a hard time coming up with plans for what to do in my lessons that will make it fun but also teach them a lot. I have been riding horses for about 12 years now but I haven’t personally been in a lesson for quite some time. I have 3 students right now who are brand new to riding and I am trying to figure out what would be good to do in some of the lessons. They aren’t group lessons they are individual lessons. If anyone has some suggestions as to what I can do during the lessons to make them fun I would greatly appreciate the help!

The first response she got was >

From the point of view of a beginner rider:

1. Your motive is flawed. You goal should be to coach not to get money for a truck.
2. You might be a great rider. However, from your own admission, you do not know how to instruct.
3. You not have the qualifications or experience to coach riding.

My advice:

1. Get a job to earn money.
2. Tell your students that you have no plan for them and return any money you took from them.
3. Do not coach riding.

Which I thought was overly harsh, but am on the fence about ‘qualified’ instruction from the get go. I do see the benefit, but at the same time, I know. Lot of competent people who start beginners.

Then came this gem, which is still niggling me 24 hours later…

The first thing to teach is safety. The goal of making the lessons fun is flawed. Just teach them basic riding skills. For beginners there is nothing wrong with repetition to master the basics.

I agree that safety is paramount, but the goal of making lessons fun is flawed? are the two mutually exclusive?

ETA:

My 9 year old GDD is having lessons at a BHS accredited stables in the UK. Very safe, very well run, and great instruction, BUT breaks my heart that the fun factor is somehow missing.

From the fact it’s so well run that her pony is delivered to the arena she will be riding in tacked up, and ready to go, the runner takes the previous lesson horse back. She simply gets on and rides, has instruction, gets off, hands pony over. I wish she was getting the whole experience, groom, tack up, and have some fun rides. I feel she’s missing out…

AND

Can’t help but think this sort of place is why we have kids who don’t grab a broom and go sweep!

[Scribbler]

This is why I don’t go to the other forum. It’s all teenagers asking about halter colors. Unqualified coaches are an issue for sure. Anyhow it’s not worth engaging with this stuff at this level.

[brody]

Going down a rabbit hole here as I’m irritated by your quoted response too. Lol.

I’m in education. I’ve taught pet dog classes, dog and horse sport, up down lessons, grade 4-13, college courses, university courses, special interest adult courses. I’ve taught longer than I expected to be alive. 40 years now. Amazing.
I hated school but love learning. Which means I keep up with current research in education.

While lessons don’t always have to be “fun” learning is faster, deeper and likely to last longer when the instructor and learner have a meaningful relationship. Fun can certainly contribute to that and is a worthwhile goal imho.

[Foxglove]

Two thoughts here: Agree teaching safety is the #1 most important aspect of any education --it was the first lesson we did in SCUBA (actually had to take a water safety class before SCUBA classes), same with Mule Riding in the Grand Canyon (first 15 min was on mule safety, followed by a 5 hour ride to the bottom of Grand Canyon) --etc. etc.

Disagree that lessons should not be fun. I taught English, social studies, and psychology in HS for 40 years —my daily mantra was: “Are we having fun? If we are not having fun, then no one is learning!” --if students are fearful or uninterested, what’s the point of teaching them anything? One must be interested and engaged to learn anything. Every activity in my classes was referred to as a “game” --there were constant lame jokes (I had a million of them!) and dumb prizes through out the lessons --blue ribbon stickers, a stuffed pig that sat on the desk of the last right answer until someone else had a good one —anyone passing my door heard laughter (usually mine) and students who were having fun. And yes, I often heard, “Miss, I only come to school for your class -it’s so much fun!”

I am sure if OP looked on line, she could find a bunch of “games on horseback for beginners.”

As to the negative comments --that’s the WWW —I have been totally trashed on COTH board when a (I thought) reasonable question turned into a shark attack that took on a life of its own resulting on a few members being censored and ultimately the entire bloodbath being removed —other than to make one (feeble) attempt to clarify --I just stopped reading it --people are entitled to their (wrong) opinions --if I post on the www --I take the chance of hearing them.

So much good help has come from COTH that I continue to post even taking the risk someone will flame me.

[McGurk]

Long time instructor here:

1.) This kid shouldn’t be teaching. She has absolutely no foundation to do so. I also suspect she’s not insured. Someone needs to explain liability to her.

2.) Of course lessons should be fun! As Foxglove said earlier, fun is what makes the lessons memorable. There is an order of priority though - 1.) SAFETY 2.) Horsemanship and 3.) Fun. I suspect from the original post though, this kid isn’t getting any of these three. She’s being paid to be a babysitter.

3.) The very best lessons are the ones where the kids don’t even realize they’re learning; where you make horsemanship and riding skills a game so that while they’re giggling they’re also improving.

[NoSuchPerson]

I think the people making the two replies to that post are jerks. They’re the ones who have flawed thinking. People suck and thanks to social media there are a multitude of opportunities for jerks to share their rude and obnoxious thoughts with the world.

I have absolutely no problem with some kid making pocket money giving “lessons” to other kids who want to ride - even if the lessons are basically pony rides. If I was a horse-crazy kid whose parents couldn’t/wouldn’t pay $$ for “real” riding lessons, I would be thrilled to be able to ride a horse for a price my parents were willing to pay.

Should the person who posted about giving the lessons receive a gentle reminder about the importance of safety and potential concerns about liability? Sure. But those two responses were just rude and nasty.

[BrownDerby]

Kids tend to feel safe when they are having fun. Adults often begin to have fun when they feel safe.

Safety first. Start with grooming and tacking up and teaching how to safely be around horses.

That other forum sounds like a tough crowd.

[beowulf]

What forum is this? Tough crowd!! Reminds me a bit of the responses I used to see on Reddit. For a while there were a few really interesting boards but I couldn’t stomach wading through the snarky/negative replies to find the good/kind ones.

[luvmyhackney]

Tough crowd!

I’d love to teach beginners again, I did it in college and once they were going w/t/c and could tack up, groom, moderate ground work skills, send them to an actual qualified instructor. I won’t do it because I don’t want to get looked down upon by others in the industry. But I loved it and especially the littles.

[KBC]

@BrownDerby

Kids tend to feel safe when they are having fun. Adults often begin to have fun when they feel safe.

I have been running that through my head, you are not wrong!

[Arelle]

I’ll be the voice of dissent here.

I don’t think it’s too harsh at all. Your example of your GDD in the UK is flawed, as the UK has a very well-known process for certifying riding instructors. The US does not. Anyone can decide one day that they’re a trainer, whether they know a single thing or not.

I’ve watched multiple trainers ruin kids and adults. They’re so uneducated and so focused on “fun” that inevitably people get hurt. For example, in H/J land - beginner riders are jumping 2’ courses for social media views and “fun” but don’t know how to keep their weight in their heels, or what a diagonal is. Western riders start going at full speed around barrels but don’t know how to half halt a horse.

While many “lesson” horses tend to be saints and we get lucky, it takes one bad ride or one bad horse to ruin these people forever. I know many people who have the money and the general want to be great advocates for the equine industry, but they got ruined by one shitty trainer and took their toys and went home. Now they aren’t involved at all and worse, they’re naysayers to others who might want to start being involved.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

What strikes me as a red flag is that she embarked upon teaching without a plan, and doesn’t even understand how lessons work.

I know some people who had a great foundation on a backyard pony from a non-professional adult just giving lessons for fun and pocket money, but the adult was a lifelong horsewoman who had taught her own children to ride, knew the pony was saintly, and was just getting the kid ready for “real” lessons later on.

The problems in this situation I see is that sometimes people who are natural, casual riders don’t know how to evaluate other people’s riding or the suitability of their own horses for lessons. Some great old horses still aren’t “beginner beginner” suitable. Also, if the students want to take lessons at a “real barn” at some point, they may have to unlearn lots of bad habits she unconsciously taught them. (In English riding, I’m thinking of the “heels down” bracing and “duck butt” two-point I learned.)

I will also say, however, I have been charged full price at a “real barn” by a credentialed instructor that mainly involved her looking at her phone and chasing the horses around with a lunge whip to make them trot. So despite all of these “despites,” these lessons might not be terrible in the end.

[Scribbler]

I expect if OP was riding for 12 years they are about 15 now . If it’s safe, I think very casual pony ride type lessons for small kids are a great introduction. You can hand walk, then walk beside them, do stretches, introduce a trot. If the kid likes horses just waking around an arena will make them.happy. if they are scared they will get whiny. Probably keep it short, no need to go an hour

Things is I figure most adults who’ve had some experience with children would be able to figure it out, but often as a teen all this is totally new to you.

[fivestrideline]

I feel bad for the poster, getting raked over the coals rather than offered good realistic advice.

I’m guessing they’re young and not quite able to think critically about the whole situation. I would also hazard that they may not have had much formal instruction in their riding life either. I distinctly remember giving friends “lessons” on each other’s horses on hack days, and while we were mostly goofing off we also followed the trainer’s structure and parroted his usual advice. We were extremely serious competitors (even at 12, 13, 14) and had some context for basics and goals and progression, but we also had fun playing around.

If I were on that other board, I’d give them advice to think about liability, and pick up Teaching Beginners to Ride, among a few other books and blogs. I don’t think there’s a problem with little backyard places that offer some glorified pony rides, but I also think those are best left to ex-pros, qualified ammies, and certain pony moms who rode in their younger days.

[Rosewatt]

I went past that post too and the quoted response confused me, especially the “truck” comment. I have no clue where that came from.

Safety is obviously paramount, but what irks me is why do people think in black and white? You can have both safety and fun (Simon says on horseback anyone? The bucket challenge). When I was shadowing for certification, I remember doing lots of obstacles for new riders and we would try to make things as fun and engaging as possible, depending on the age group. However, I don’t disagree that every beginner lessons HAVE to have that ‘fun factor’. Depending on the student, they will find certain topics dry, but those topics are important anyway. Dressage was always a big passion of mine, but I remember one lesson with some teenagers and they were absolutely bored out of their minds with anything remotely dressage. However, they DID have interest in jumping and so I had implemented trotting poles and explanations on why/how certain dressage elements were used for jumping. Made for a more engaging class.