So you\u2019re thinking of taking some riding lessons either for yourself or your children. The family down the road has a teenage daughter who says she will teach you for free. It all sounds great until you take your first lesson and her horse takes off with you and now you\u2019re scared to death to even think of trying again.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been giving lessons for over 16 years now to people of all ages and disciplines and I
\nlove when I get a call for a new student. There is nothing more fun then that first
\nlesson, but any riding lesson is only as good as the horse you ride. Today I want to brag about the unspoken hero, the ultimate teacher, the tattle tale ,the never quitter, the over looked portion of every lesson \u2013 the forgotten lesson horse.<\/p>\n
We have many lesson horses at our facility and each one serves its own special purpose.
\nWe have a grandma horse for the little kiddos who knows her job is to take special care
\nof these little humans. She goes wherever you point her nose and is extremely safe.<\/p>\n
We have several horses for the older beginner\/intermediate riders that know the
\ndifference in the human skill level. These are the horses that take care of the beginner
\nstudents but challenge the intermediate riders. Our horses aren\u2019t push button; you should
\nnever come here thinking they are just going to automatically do what you want them to
\ndo because these horses are the true teachers. Yet, place a handicapped child on
\ntheir back and they melt like snow. These horses are worth a million dollars to me
\nbecause they are hard to come by in the buying market. These are the horses who once
\nretired, have earned the right to live out their lives here.<\/p>\n
Lastly, there are the horses for the advance riders who have so much to teach because they are extremely talented and long for that rider who knows how to ask for a certain move. They excel with the soft handed mount, the person who knows how to use more seat and leg then reins. They don\u2019t like to be pulled on or man handled, but they love a lively lesson where they get to use their talents and help the rider learn to be less visible in their aids.<\/p>\n
If you are going to invest the time and money into taking lessons you would be crazy to
\ngo where they can\u2019t start you at the beginning and take you clear up to advanced concepts
\nwhen the time comes. I have students who I\u2019ve taught for years; beginning as little girls
\nwho knew nothing and are now riding advanced horses and going into the show ring
\nwhere they do very well. That can only happen when you have plenty of horses to ride
\nand instructors who know how to teach on all levels. If you only ever ride one horse then
\nyou will only ever learn to ride that horse, which is fine if you are happy with your chosen mount and only them.<\/p>\n
I liken that neighborhood girl who says she can give you a riding lesson to those places
\nwhere you can go get a quick hair cut. All they can do is cut your hair and they get you
\nin and out in record time. But if you need a perm or want a special color they don\u2019t have
\nthe skills or products to do it. You\u2019re left with finding a salon where they can do it all
\nand excel in what they do. That\u2019s our philosophy with riding lessons. We\u2019re teachers,
\nwe\u2019re confidence builders, and we know how to instruct. We\u2019re creative; we certainly don\u2019t teach each student the exact same way just like you wouldn\u2019t give everyone the exact same haircut.<\/p>\n
Anyone can hang out their shingle advertising riding lessons but when it comes to the
\nsafety of you or your child, ask yourself how much that safety is worth. Frankly, I don\u2019t
\nwant the gal fresh out of beauty school coloring my hair and for many good reasons. She
\nmight be the nicest person on the earth but she doesn\u2019t have the experience yet to deal
\nwith my thin, fragile hair. I\u2019m going to choose that hairdresser who\u2019s dealt with many
\nhair types and different coloring products so she doesn\u2019t turn my hair purple or green or
\nworse yet, make it break off at the roots. I want that experienced stylist who can
\nwork with what I have and make me look great when the process is completed.<\/p>\n
Just one more thing, just because someone may know how to ride well does not mean
\nthey know how to teach. That\u2019s like saying just because someone has great hair that they
\nwould know how to cut and style yours. When it comes to your safety I implore you to
\nbe very careful about what horse you throw your leg over, even if that horse belongs to
\nyour best friend. There is just something to be said about a trusted lesson horse that the
\naverage horse doesn\u2019t possess. You can get a quick hair cut for cheap but you always get what you pay for. Same goes for taking riding lessons. Happy Trails!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Happy Trails!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So you\u2019re thinking of taking some riding lessons either for yourself or your children. The family down the road has a teenage daughter who says she will teach you for free. It all sounds great until you take your first lesson and her horse takes off with you and now you\u2019re scared to death to even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tammys-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenspokestable.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}