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Post by horseguy on Nov 4, 2016 22:16:30 GMT
I was at a barn open house recently. There were many parents with kids 3 or 4 years old looking at the barn for lessons. In the years before I retired I notice a steady lowering of the age of kids that parents were inquiring for lessons. When I began riding the absolute minimum age to start riding was pretty much 6 years old. Before that you did pony rides. Then I had kids of my own and saw my oldest daughter, started at 6, probably could have started earlier. Then my son showed me that 8 years old was right for him. Lastly, my youngest daughter, who grew up watching her siblings ride insisted at 4 years old and she was ready. By 7, my youngest would show up inside the barn with a horse near dead form her riding him and I would yell at her to get another horse before a horse got that winded.
But I was really teaching riding, not some kind of pretend fun stuff with a horse. Today on facebook you see a lot of this kind of picture.
Cute but is makes me scared. I hope there is an adult close by. I think the horse will step forward into the reins and then I see an ambulance with a toddler in it.
Last September a 4 year old was killed in NH at a horse show "Mackennah Caulder, 4, was thrown from a horse Friday afternoon during a show at the fair. She later died." www.wmur.com/article/4-year-old-dies-after-horse-riding-accident-at-lancaster-fair/5214742
So many questions. What does "thrown" mean? People always use the word "thrown" when a rider simply fell off. Great little rider that my youngest was, she never competed until she was 8. I believe kids under 8 just don't have the judgment and the reaction process that older kids do. I think a lot of this pushing young kids is about the parents trying to make super kids out of their offspring for bragging rights. My favorite writer, Kurt Vonnegut once remarked about young kids being in swimming competitions that he didn't understand why parents made motor boats out of their kids.
The bottom line for me is, I don't think I was ever able to really give a kid under 5 a lesson that was worth the money the parents paid. The kids just didn't learn enough to justify it. Once in a while I'd break that rule for a younger sibling of a student to help keep peace in the family and I tell the parents that I felt they were not getting value for their lesson money. They all said the same thing, "It's worth it for the entertainment value". That would make me cringe. I was an entertainer for a 4 year old, great.
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Post by jimmy on Nov 5, 2016 16:03:55 GMT
Scares me too!
When Katy was a toddler, we lived where we trained, and both had to ride and give lessons. We made a little yard next to the arena, and Katy played in there. We found a thirty year old pony that wasn't much bigger than a miniature horse. Very gentle. Used to drive kids around in a cart. Katy spent most days loose in there with "Honey", who was around 38 when she died!
We led her around sometimes with Katy on her back. When Katy started riding, she had only a slightly taller pony. There was never a time when Katy "started" riding. It sort of just evolved as she grew and lived with horses. A few times she rode in the saddle with her mom, but for the most part, we kept her away from big horses. Even under this kind of professional observation, we had a close call when a yearling got loose in the aisle way and Katy tried to hug it around the hock before we could get to her. She got kicked square in the chest and did a somersault. That was really scary. Knocked the wind out of her. But she wasn't hurt thankfully.
Even at eight years old, teaching kids how to ride is more like a baby sitting job than anything else. I think ten is a better age.
But for younger kids, just being around a barn and helping do chores and brushing gentle horses is a good way to start.
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Post by jimmy on Nov 5, 2016 16:07:57 GMT
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Post by jimmy on Nov 5, 2016 16:17:51 GMT
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Post by horseguy on Nov 6, 2016 13:23:31 GMT
Nice pictures. My kids grew up much the same way. When I say they started lesson at 6 or 8 I meant they actually were in a lesson group. I found with the first one that it is best not to try to teach them alone. In a lesson group the parent child relationship gets diminished somewhat and that makes it easier, I think. They had an advantage over their classmates, so I put them on more difficult mounts to even the playing field. They all rode well but none continue to ride or have horses. They all say owning horses is too much work. They would know. The good news is they all learned a solid work ethic that hey apply elsewhere than a horse barn.
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Post by horseguy on Nov 6, 2016 15:31:34 GMT
I think the main thing kids need to learn at the beginning is safety. In looking for a boarding barn I saw this picture.  The photo is labeled "pre ride safety check" Call me old fashion, but I was taught NEVER mount a horse in an indoor space, like a barn aisle, where if a horse reared or popped up you'd hit your head on something. Yet here we see a "safety check" in a dangerous context. www.yelp.com/biz/glide-ride-stables-columbia |
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Post by jimmy on Nov 6, 2016 15:54:02 GMT
Modern Pony Club is lacking in real professionals available to teach properly in most cases. They are volunteers. Ironically, we took Katy out of Pony Club, because many of the practices conflicted with what we knew and were teaching her. We tried for a while to play the uninformed soccer parents, but that didn't last long.
I agree on the safety training. But what is harder to teach is how to read a situation developing, that at one moment does not appear to be unsafe, but could very easily turn bad quickly. So you can follow all the rules and procedures, and if you don't have the common sense, (which is really uncommon), you can still be in a potentially dangerous situation. Like all the kids piled in the ally way of the barn.
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Post by horseguy on Nov 6, 2016 22:30:29 GMT
" Yes, that is why rules are important, as you say. New riders, old or young, cannot see how a situation might unfold in a dangerous way. Regarding the picture, I can think of countless ways that could be ugly very quickly. One obvious way is a kid gets a little nervous and he clutches the reins, horse backs up, horses bumps another horse in confined area, bumped horse takes offense, all hell breaks lose. I always told the students that the reason the rules were so important is that when it unfolds, it unfolds quickly and it's over before most people understand what's happening. |
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Post by horseguy on Nov 6, 2016 22:48:35 GMT
I recalled the rule, "never tie a horse to a gate" this week when I saw the "instructor" at the barn tie her horse to a metal gate.  Here is a two for one, never tie a horse with the reins and the gate rule.  |
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Post by jimmy on Nov 6, 2016 23:33:42 GMT
That's what I mean by the quality of instructors.
Reins to the gate! That's a good one. If only she had tied him to the bottom rail!
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Post by horseguy on Nov 7, 2016 0:19:47 GMT
That's what I mean by the quality of instructors. Reins to the gate! That's a good one. If only she had tied him to the bottom rail! Well, the rule I learned was tie a horse high and short, and the guy who is barn manager tied the auction horse to his truck bumper. It broke the lead, ran into the road. Rules are useful, if you know them. |
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