Ideas for daughter when riding (10 year old doing first lease)

[Lunabear1988]

I was hoping to get some ideas of fun ideas to have my daughter do during her rides on her own now that she’s doing a partial lease (2 rides on her own and 1 semi private lesson a week.)

She’s a mix of very serious and achievement driven but also really needs to mix it up with fun stuff. She’s not one that wants to do the same stuff everytime, yet she always is wanting to improve.

I’m happy to help her in any way I can, but the biggest thing is keeping it very fun. Especially if your mom is helping ha ha.

For at least some of the rides I will be on my own young horse so cannot micromanage. But she does want input and ideas.

Does anybody have any books or YouTube channels they can recommend? I have some ideas of things to do but a lot of them are position-based and perhaps not engaging enough mentally. I’m thinking like patterns and stuff like that. Or even silly little games that can safely be done.

Thank you!

[OnAMission]

At that age I used a lot of Sally Swift Centered Riding imagery… we were riding a lot of trails so we did pass the stick and tag on horses, little more reindeer games but they sure built a good seat! Egg/spoon, more ideas for arena work than I’m good for…

[Lunabear1988]

Ai just pulled her book out for myself actually! I’ll try a little with her too. Although she’s more a tell her what to do and let her do it type learner.

I was thinking of looking up just some basic horsemanship patterns and dressage tests. We also plan on riding in the field together as well

[Sdel]

Have her do the western arena games (potato race, arena, Ring-a-Pole, Keyhole, etc). You can time her for fun, but they are a great way to test your control and aids. Switch off and let her time you.

[seriously1]

Obstacles -your daughter may be old enough to help look for ideas and create courses using poles, tarps, bridges, funny things to carry, pylons, drags (like a sled). It is also a great way to develop a relationship.

[conniemary]

Working equitation obstacles are good for serious riders - the aim is to do the obstacles correctly in balance. You can set up several obstacles with just cones and poles.

[Tha_Ridge]

Does she have the attention span for something like the Ride IQ app? All of the rides have appropriate Pony Club levels mentioned so it would be easy to see what corresponds to her skill level.

[Luseride]

I have gotten dive rings and put them on riders toes. The challenge is to see how long they can keep them on. Really works on lengthening the leg which a lot of your riders struggle with.

Watched the coach at UGA once and she had her team riding with small rocks in their hands to work on keeping the hand not holding the reins quiet and still. Hand was slightly cupped. I change that up a bit and use a ping pong ball or something similar. Then every few laps they drop it in a bucket.

Have her make up her own patterns and complete them. She can even challenge you and your young horse to a competition.

A lot of the Pony Club games are fun and challenging. I find my riders start focusing on the challenge and begin riding more naturally instead of over thinking every step.

[Lunabear1988]

These are wonderful ideas!! Thank you guys. A lot will be nice to do with my young horse as well, so that’s a bonus.

For more information - she’s walk, trot and cantering confidently. No jumping yet because no suitable horse. She’s on the cusp of new progress in her riding towards intermediate. I think riding more will let her explore a lot more.

The lease horse is an older, steady Eddy school horse. He’s been exposed to a lot. He is going to be heading to retirement in the next year or two (part of the lease was to give him more one on one time and less lessons with various kids.) He is pretty sound but is in his 20’s. We just want to let him have an enjoyable few months or more with my daughter

[Lunabear1988]

I was thinking of getting Wendy Murdoch’s 5 minute position fixes book. At least I think that’s what it’s called. She does love working on her position but I figured that might have some out of the box ideas that might make it fun too.

[Grey623]

If you’re riding together, follow the leader or Simon Says can be fun, or leapfrog to practice passing. Also try riding as a pair next to each other for a few minutes, good for young rider and horse to learn about spatial awareness, keeping pace, etc. Ride to music (jumping position until the song is over!), make up your own musical freestyle or pas de deux.

Grey

[Jarpur]

When I was a young rider, one of the things my instructor would have us do was pair up, then execute such exercises as walk slowly or briskly while staying together as a pair, same with trotting, circle or figure-8 together – things similar to what I eventually did when riding in a quadrille. You could do this type of thing with your daughter - it was a lot of fun when I was a kid.

My husband and I, when training a young horse, practice leapfrogging. Teaches the horse to tolerate being left behind (if asked to remain at halt) or to let a faster horse pass without speeding up (if asked to remain walking while the passing horse trots by). One horse halts, for instance, other passes by and halts up ahead, then first horse begins moving and passes the now halted horse. Or, one horse walks quietly while other trots by, then trotting horse slows to a walk while the walking horse trots and passes the other. We find this to be a very helpful exercise in horsey self-control.

We also will ride as a pair, as described in my first paragraph; takes the possible boredom out of riding in the arena, and enables practice that doesn’t feel like drilling to either the horse or the rider. It’s still just as fun as when I was a young rider, lol.

[2DogsFarm]

If your older lessee can tolerate some time on the longe (20min or so) there’s no better exercise for developing an independent seat.
I spent an entire Summer’s worth of weekly lessons on the longe & I was in my mid-30s
Lessons included some basic vaulting, which can also be great for a rider.
We did Scissors kicks, Around the World & even Cossack Hang

[furlong47]

If she’s not jumping yet but will be on the next horse, and this horse is capable of trotting/cantering ground poles, you can set ground pole courses and work on some of the foundation of what she’ll need for jumping - things like straightness, pace, balance, using her corners, remembering her courses, etc. (Actually you could even do it without poles, just two standards to pass between for each “jump”.)

[Trot_On]

If your steady Eddie has limits on pole work, you can set up a course using pairs of cones for the rider to trot/canter through. You can incorporate the elements of a jump course, or you can mix it up and build in transitions and halts in your course.

Buy soccer training cones or Dollar Store tall drink cups in a variety of colors. Get matching pairs and remember the course/pattern by lines and pairs of colors. Cones and cups are easy to put together, change, replace and store. You can also slip a cup over a cone to help mark your course. You design a few courses and then let her design her own.

[MapleBreeze]

Think, how can i build her balance today?
Any throwing and catching, reaching for cones on fence posts and throwing in the bucket, water guns - im sure she would Love to chase you and steer with that. Around the world in motion to finish each every day.

Steering - tangible things like weaving cones and less structured things like picking stuff up and dropping in a bucket. Some patterns are HARD for kids that age if they are just pulling with the inside rein and the horse knows more - so dont get mad if u need to assist.

Transitions - kids need a constant reminder to shorten the reins to halt instead of pulling. I pick a stop go point each lesson or a trot point each lesson. Red light green light is for like 5 year olds but if you competed against her - kids love to beat mom. Chasing mom takes tag to a new level.

Position: put a ehip ontop if her hands and make her not drp it when she posts. Depends on what she needs - a bean bag under her needs or a dollar tree dollar bill under her lower leg. Jumping poaition and back games.

Then i pick one exercise from each category for every lesson. Or i chamge it up and let them draw their games from a hat. Dont forget to have her go trick or treating and collect all her own candy at halloween.

[MapleBreeze]

Aldo kids love to lead. Buy a huge fitness ball and let her play soccer against you. Great for passively teach handling on the ground.

Also, i was never a fan of standing on the horse until one of my gymnastics kids did it one day and her confidence soared!!! So that depends on the kiddo but push that balance amd comfort within reason.

[luvmyhackney]

Bareback, add some cash under the legs and if she doesn’t drop it, she gets to keep it.

My kids like to w/t/c backwards, shoot foam arrows at targets, Simon says , cowboys and Indians with nerf guns, leap frog, copy cat where you do what rider/horse in front are doing, practice going through obstacles they set up, steer with no hands, they pony each other, ride through sprinklers, jousting with pool noodles.

I kinda let my kids be free roamers and don’t try to critique them unless they are doing something completely dangerous and about to die. They don’t want to show and I just want them to enjoy our horses.

[MapleBreeze]

They get hella good seats that way. I cant thibk of the name of the movie - the one with wayne gretsky- about how play in sports at a young age sets them up better for long term success bc they can creative think instead of rigid drills. Let them think and play and trail rides for balance and steering.

[Spudsmyguy]

We used to have the kids dismount in a variety of ways. e.g. while vaulting off, click their heels behind them; land facing the rear of the horse; dismount on the off side; swing the leg over the pommel and launch. It made for a lot of laughing and a fun way to end a lesson.