I have a beginner interested in riding. So today I taught him how to groom horse and parts of bridle. Had him get on horse and taught basic position. Rode around at a walk. Can someone provide advice on what order to teach skills? I will encourage him to take regular lessons but he will also be able to ride one of my horses. I thought he did pretty well today. Wanting to develop independent seat/hands.
Teach to take a bridle off without hurting the horses mouth.
You do not say what age. If a kid heaps of games like barrels, flags, keyhole etc. They can be done at walk and teach steering and riding with one hand.
With over 50 yo hubby I put him on Pep with reins on a halter. He learned to halt by dropping his weight. To go forward lifting his stomach and to turn by turning his head. I had him go to a riding school to learn trot and canter as it is not fair to my real horses to have someone banging on their backs.
I don’t know if it was because he had watched me for years but he did a rising trot from the first stride.
Later on Sim I lunged him on Sim as he was not up to riding Sim yet and Sim was too green. Also the secret motivation to get the 2 to bond because I had ridden Sim and he was not enough horse for me. That worked!
Offer text books to read and hold quizzes.
With beginners you don’t tell them to many things at once. They cant take it all in. So to start with just sit up straight and heels down. As they get one start another one. Adding in hands, diagonals, etc.
Longe the rider to develop balance without worrying about control. Until the rider has decent balance, aka an independent seat, they wont be able to do much.
Some people get balance quickly, especially children and multi sport men. Some find it much more challenging especially if they are nervous or not fit
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Many beginners have great balance and a natural seat because they have absolutely no preconceptions.
On a lunge, depending on the immediate natural ability shown, I have them counting the beat to the gait out aloud. They can quickly learn to feel the movement because they aren’t concerned about their position, about being run away with, what the ring birds are saying, how cool they look, etc etc. I have had people who have never sat on a horse before doing a canter because that forward 3 beat is a lot easier to sit and feel that the diagonal 2 beat trot. Get them to speed up and slow down writhing the gait by speeding up or slowing down their counting out aloud. Try having them stop by breathing in, holding for a moment and slowly breathing out. Surprising how well that works. Having said that, the horse will be reading your body language so it isn’t as wild and woolly as it sounds. I find ilthis session gives them a) a sense of achievement, b) an understanding of how subtle actions by a rider strongly influence the horse c) knowledge that reins are not handles to keep them on the back of the animal. They will probably never have such ease on a horse again until they have gone through years of training and hours in the saddle but hopefully some of that feel will stay with them.
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Thanks so much. Student is fit adult male early 50’s. Loves horses. Asked lots of questions about horses and riding. I have taught skiing for years and know some things about teaching such as don’t focus on more than one or maybe two things at a time. I only wish I knew all the tricks for teaching riding that I do for teaching skiing!!! I feel it is very important to provide accurate feedback that isn’t overwhelming in a way such that the student “gets it.” I also like to use socratic dialog- so when his hand position got wonky yesterday I asked “so what do you think is going on with your hands right now?” Questions like that help folks to notice and self correct- if they don’t know what is wrong then you let them know. I am going to have him hold reins off the horse while I hold the other ends, playing the role of horse, and have him practice lengthening and shortening reins. I showed him how to take off the bridle yesterday and he did great. Teach him to saddle horse today. Will probably do some stuff on longe line today- maybe with bareback pad - he has naturally good balance. Thanks everyone and please keep any the ideas coming.
My hubby loves watching horse shows. He has always watched westerns. He now watches a Bonanza episode before going to bed.
He googles horse movies and watches them.
Recently I showed him National Velvet and International Velvet. He loves The Man From Snowy River movies.
He also googles things about horses and I hear things like canter transitions and stuff like that. He will Google Charlotte Djarden and watch Grand prix dressage tests.
He is the one that cooks. While cooking he will read through books. One of his favourites is a veterinary book. The one getting quizzed now is me! He is trying to find something I do not know. So far so good as I went to so many lectures learning to become an instructor.
Pony club manuals are quite good and he has read Franz Mairingers Horses are Meant to be Horses. That was actually written by his students after his death.
I put a bridle on a cardboard box. We called him Boxy. I would be Boxy and pull and pull and put head up high and then suddenly give. His elbows are not allowed to come back. He has to hold and not pull and when Boxy gives the reins should slacken.
We swapped and he said I was pulling. No I am holding that does not mean my hands go forward when you pull but when he gave the reins immediately dropped as my hands did not go back. That is a skill that needs to be learned, as put a rein in a man’s hand and the first thing they do is pull.
He was on the lunge for quite a while with Sim being green. The reins attached to the cavesson, not the bit.
Sim did not understand the outside rein even though being ridden before he came here, and was supposedly sent to a pro trainer, and we were riding in a 50 acre paddock. Sim really didn’t see why we would want a 20m circle. I said something one day about he would progress a lot quicker if he was being ridden in a dressage arena.
He built us a dressage arena with letters, sand, a rail and everything.
He now has Sim and my instructor gave us the horse he learnt to canter on and hubby rides him as well.
From the start if I said something like he needs his hooves picked out every day. He would do that every day and that was before he was riding. I mean even better than me who knows it should be every day but I don’t really care if I miss a day as they are not shod. I saw him doing it every day.
I lucked out with hubby who has only ever been interested in dressage. He is not one iota interested in jumping.
I had him do all the exercises on the lunge except around the world. We went for trail rides. In the beginning a lot of encourement and making it easy. Now I am more of an instructor with him. 3 positives to 1 constructive comment! I have to remember that.
Mr. SuzieQNutter sounds AMAZING!!!
[quote="![](ukluk,post:7,topic:468096"]
Mr. SuzieQNutter sounds AMAZING!!!
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Oh he is. When he wasn’t riding he took over the care of my Vinnie Girl. He said I didnt deserve her as I loved Pepper more. (All horses are treated equally.)
Originally he said he didn’t want anything to do with the horses but he had already been cleaning the yard of manure when I rode and that continued past the honeymoon phase which is when I really started to take notice.
When we moved in together after getting married and he said he didn’t want anything to do with the horses. I said I had to teach him to take the bridle off. If he came home to a saddled horse and no Sue, he would want to help and I didn’t want him hurting their teeth.
That kind of took away any fear because I have lovable trained horses. He hadn’t actually met them or reacted with them before. He had just seen me ride.
He would feed, groom, rug, pick hooves and oil as I was working longer hours and in winter I did not see them in daylight.
Our first Valentines Day after being married, he asked if we wanted to do Valentines or get day rugs for the horses!
He was very upset with me that I sent him off to Father’s Day celebrations, the day Vinnie came down with colic. I had the vet out to her several times but we lost her that night. He came in crying.
Later he would not let me use her saddle or her stirrups and when we moved to our farm our brand for our cattle is VNE.
I cried for 3 days. After that I cried whenever I got in the car to drive. I guess that was when I was alone. It was the shock of how quickly we lost her as well as the loss. I had no idea you could lose a horse so fast. I bought her at 13 yo. I had her a year and then brought her home where she was with Pepper for 11 years.
We moved Pepper here. We were in the middle of buying it when we lost her. I told hubby that Pepper was over 20. He probably wouldn’t be with us much longer and when he went I would be out of horses and that would be it.
Fathers Day for us is September.
Every day and I mean every day he read out adverts.
No.
I am not getting another horse. That advert is wrong breed, wrong colour, wrong training, wrong sex, wrong age, wrong price. You name it I didnt want it.
It took me to April when I finally figured out that if I did not say yes, he would come home with a horse and I would be the one stuck at home training it, so I might as well get one I liked.
He came in chuffed that he had found the right advert in the little local paper while visiting his dad.
Black/brown 16.2, 3 yo TB gelding $800.00.
I just said if he has raced I don’t want him.
He had raced 5 weeks before. Hubby was visibly disappointed and said no and the guy said tell her to come and see him and she will buy him. So I called back and that was the start of owning the most wonderful and intelligent horse of my life and I had said I would never get a horse off the track.
That led to the biggest fight of our life. A coworker told him he did not want to get on Pep. He is too slow. He needs to buy a young horse and get on it down the paddock and gallop it up the hill and then he would have learned to ride.
NO WAY IN H###. Not on my watch. Which is the day I put him on Pep with the reins on the halter. Pepper was not slow, we were called Speedy Gonzales at Pony Club and he was ridden well into his 30s.
Here is my favourite photo Hubby at ponyclub with the other kids off the lead but not cantering yet.
[IMG]https://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b30/SuzieQ_/Peppy/Peppyinlineup.jpg)
He now has Sim and Dodge, has built a tack shed with saddle and bridle racks, has built 2 shelters with an automatic water trough and is in the middle of building shelters with yards.
All from teaching him how to take a bridle off.
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Great Story. My new beginner went on first trail ride today. All at a walk. Had a great time.
Yes that is all you want for him to have a good time and to teach him empathy for the horse so as the horse is happy as well.
And yesterday progressed to lunge line with bareback pad (he says he prefers bareback pad to saddle). No reins. Had him move arms around mimic airplane twist left and right etc. He could count the beat of the gait at a walk and could feel which shoulder was moving forward and which hind leg was moving forward at a walk. I was quite impressed. He asked to trot so he did. I had him hold the strap on the front of the bareback pad to minimize bounce and he did great didn’t seem to bounce. Did a little canter too. He was all excited about it!!! It’s fun to teach someone who is so interested in learning!
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Sometimes I get on my horse and deliberately do something wrong (like bad leg position or posture or arms/hans wonky) and then ask him what I need to correct. He seems to have a good eye for it.
Love it! I wish I could get SO to ride English. For as much as he likes horses and as athletic as he is he won’t do it.
There was a video recently of a well known GP rider with ski goggles on, with tape on them so they only had a slit to look out so said rider could feel… I showed that to my SO and he was like well duhhhhhh, we do that in basketball (I have never done any sports in my life besides horse showing) I was almost offended :lol:
You may find your saddle is not atomically correct for a Male rider.
I’m not sure that it’s that. I wonder why they don’t do with riding saddles what they do with bicycle seats.
https://www.performancebike.com/sell…900411/p320804
https://www.performancebike.com/terr…071l03/p732757
Of course cyclists have to lean forward on the seat to reach the handle bars. Riders are straight up to slightly forward and sit on their sit bones.
and then there’s this
https://bisaddle.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2PP1BRCiARIsAEqv-pQYoPe5wdCzbb_UbqRAG-EYIJQUIeVOnp6eOHgrnh4xrmppImpQD9EaAv-iEALw_wcB
not to mention this…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comm…uishing_their/
Apparently men do best when the saddle has a wide “twist.” The saddle he was using was my thorowgood high wither dressage saddle (the only one I have that fits the horse he was riding).
https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/thorowgood-t8-high-wither-dressage-saddle--12089
And here is a link to a COTH discussion of english saddles for men
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forum/discussion-forums/off-course/90185-what-saddle-do-your-male-so-or-male-students-ride-in
![[IMG]https://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b30/SuzieQ_/Peppy/Peppyinlineup.jpg)](https://s16.photobucket.com/user/SuzieQ_/media/Peppy/Peppyinlineup.jpg.html){kind=link}