lesson for young'n

[LynnG]

You may recall a discussion on young children and riding lessons about a month ago. So here's an update on what has happened....

The young boy age 5 looks physically to be about age 6-7. (He was a 11 pound bouncing baby when born ... his mother groans when saying that as it was a natural birth).

The family came out for a visit several weeks ago to see the farm and horses, meet me and me them and I could evaluate the young man around the horses. Well he was so excited then about the horses...not the large friendly dogs, but everything HORSE ..YES! The student lesson sheets and liability release forms were signed. Basic ground horsemanship was covered then on that visit.

He was to purchase a riding helmet and boots before starting lessons. He got the hat locally and the shop owner was very good in matching him with the right size...a Small. (same as adult small). His grandparents who live in Texas insisted on buying him his riding boots. So when they went to visit a few weeks ago, he got his black rounded toe riding boots (look like ropers. His riding helmet is a Troxel with the turn dial fitting system, and the local tack shop had a good price at $35 for it.

We set up an appointemnt for yesterday sunday, late afternoon. Yep, this young cowboy was ready to go. He watched me tack up (I borrowed a friends 12" youth western saddle) and adjust the stirrups. He explored everything in the tack box. He watched with amazement at cleaning out the horse's hooves and getting an explantion why you do that.

The mare to be ridien was my 15 hand mare Insignia, my novices mount. My regular leadline has a 3 week colt, so she was ruled out for now. It helped still having the mounting block to get him claser to the saddle and puting him there. Also when dismounting, he could do it properly by himself and then just slide down to the top step.

We worked on just forward movement with WALK and stopping with WHOA. He got to work the reins and try turning. We did a few backs. The highlight was the "bridge" in the middle of the ring aka the sounding board. He loved to go over that and hear the noise at a walk.

Everthing was at the walk with a leadline attached. The reins were attached to the halter and even at that, she was very responsive to his commands. What I found out about 5 year old boys... is this one at least loved to immitate all the sounds he heard or was hearing. He did quite a few whinnys during the 30 minute lesson, "clip-clop, clip-clop" noises going down the "bridge". And Emperador was running around his paddock area..which caught his aattention as he kept talking about "emperador" ... he knew his name too...so the E man made an impression on him on the first visit. Also he said there was a "Spirit" in teh pasture as they first drove in. So after the lesson, we went to see "Spirit" and the others and the babies. He got to see that "Spirit" aka Maja who is about to pop a baby out any time. Arianna had her baby in between visits, so he got that new boy Magico.

If we have some creative folks who know kids attention spans...I want to come up with some fun game type things to do with him during the next lessons to help keep his attention.. he loved looking at all the other horses while riding and talking about them..who they were, etc. We did do some easy very basic Q&A on tack and parts of horse, like saddle, reins, bridle, mane.

If you got some creative ideas for leadline lessons for young'ns? I'll put some serious thought into it too.

[Blameitonbrio]

Also he said there was a "Spirit" in teh pasture as they first drove in. So after the lesson, we went to see "Spirit" and the others and the babies. He got to see that "Spirit" aka Maja who is about to pop a baby out any time.

You can tell him that "Spirit's" baby from last year looks like her. And Bailey wanted to call him Spirit, but we settled on Brio!"

As for ideas, one of the things I really like about Grayson and Bailey's intructor is that she taught them to go get their horse from the pasture and groom and tack up from the start. After then lesson, they did all the cooling down, sponging, and turn out back into the pasture. Bailey was able to tack up Nisha at age 5 (ok, we tighened up the cinch after her -- she wasn't that good!), and I was ever so impressed watching her go out to the pasture to catch Nisha and bring her in for a lesson. If I hadn't know what a sweetheart Nisha was, I would have died! And of course, Nisha would lift her feet easily; although her instructor usually just had her do one and she did the other three -- Bailey can be a slowpoke! We needed our kids to learn those things, because we were preparing for having horses at home. The show barn that Grayson first went to brought a tacked up horse to her ready for a lesson. Anyway, you might start him on that; it sounds like he would enjoy it and it would give him a variety of things to do during the lesson.

Grayson will have to chime in with some of the games she has played at horse camps over the years. I know some involved water balloons (WOn't Insignia love that?) or holding dollar bills under their knees. I thik if they don't drop the dollar bill, they get to keep it. This may be a trotting game -- I am not sure.

It sounds like he is fun to work with and very interested!

[GeorgeGuns]

Wow he sounds like quite a fascinating young fella!

DO stuff, like go to that barrel and touch the flag, go to that fencepost and pick up such and such, stuff like that. Quizzing - keep it to about 3-5 questions, or intersperse them throughout the lesson.

Now since this sounds like a really smart little fella, I'd have him counting hoofbeats - right rear,2-3-4, then go to the left rear, the fronts etc. It will use his wonderful powers of observation and obvious chattiness to help him focus - and pardon me saying this, may well save him from a horrible diagnosis of ADHD (he sounds a bit typical). Thank God his folks were smart enough to get him on a horse!!!!

When I was a kid taking lessons, one of my favorite things were the in-saddle exercises for the riders. Touch poll withright hand then touch tail, touch pokk with left hand then touch tail, then touch your own right foot with your left hand (or right, you get the idea) I couldn't always actually reach the poll, but sure tried like heck. It is probably the one thing that gave me a good balanced seat early on, and surely saved my skin on a few hard shies!

Once he has the reins on his own, just breaking up the ring helps - do a circle at each end, vary the sizes, go around poles or barrels... Hmmm sounds like training a colt, yeah, think like that!

[Blameitonbrio]

When I was a kid taking lessons, one of my favorite things were the in-saddle exercises for the riders. Touch poll withright hand then touch tail, touch pokk with left hand then touch tail, then touch your own right foot with your left hand (or right, you get the idea) I couldn't always actually reach the poll, but sure tried like heck. It is probably the one thing that gave me a good balanced seat early on, and surely saved my skin on a few hard shies!


That's another thing my girls' instructor has them do at every lesson: warmups. They do arm circles while the horse walks around the ring; they do head (horse's) toe (theirs) tail (horse's) tail touches on each side. They swing their legs from the hip. It helps them to loosen up and helps their balance. The horses get used to it too; it is the signal that a lesson is about to begin. Oh yeah -- they also ride around the ring in two-point position. When I took lessons, that one nearly killed me. But once I got use to it, it wasn't so bad!

[LynnG]

Right now lesson one and will continue every other week, is one hand on the horn and one hand on the reins so he can learn balance, but also have a grip to something solid. He is a 58 pound kid that kept tending to get lopsided in the saddle, so I kept adjusting him towards the center sitting. Since Insignia is a 1100 pound mare, there will always be an adult between him or immediately next to him when on the ground. Its getting warm and despite several rounds of flyspray on legs and horse's body, flys still want to bite the horse, and horses still stomp their feet and kick a leg at a fly.

Even with the 12" seat western saddle with suede (helps to hold the small person in place)...and the stirrups up all the way, needed another hole punched and then they were bulky at the bottom from the leather layered and wrapped 4x there. I put the adjustable stirrups on afterwards that you can secure to the saddle horn and got a better stirrup length on him so he could stand up out of the saddle a little bit, also have a little more bend to his knees and where he can keep his feet in better as these straps bend better then the leather does.

This is a city/suburb boy learning about horses, so safety is my FIRST concern, then letting him learn to balance himself better and guide the horse at a walk with cues all while on a leadline. He has not been around horses before, so does not know what they can do. Insignia is my gentlest and my most patient horse, but she also is my tallest/biggest. She followed my lead mostly, but she did stop when he said WHOA. His Mom grew up around horses and animals, his dad didn't. They do have pets at home.

So very simple fun excercises is what I'm looking for to start with mostly verbal while on the horse. He was so into imitating all the sounds he heard....nickers, whinnying, etc. there's alot of those noises around here. Some Q&A but not too much, he's 5, but also discussions during the lesson.... may need to look at children's books and see what they teach re: farm animals for that age range. He's a gung-ho kid about learning..he just loved the whole thing...and i know mom and dad are still probably hearing about it or at least a little boy's horse noises.

He did get a kick out of my Disney shirt I wore. I got two of them with disney characters that kids would recognize...to wear for the kids lessons. So I'm also thinking something along with the Spirit movie...themes, etc. guess I need to see that movie.....

His mom took alot of pics and said she'd send me some. I'll post a few then ...this was one happy boy!

His mom said, she was talking to someone she knew near charlotte and was surprised to learn 'her friend' had a Paso Fino. The mom told me she told her husband when they got married, she did intend to have a horse down the road and about 20 acres. So it looks like this is the start going in that direction, and I bet it will be a Paso Fino she gets. ;-)

[Mellifluous]

Way to go Lynn! I bet that little boy tells everyone he meets all about your horses. It is fun to see how little ones can get so excited and enjoy the smallest things that we take for granted!

[darcy]

I agree safety probably should be the biggest concern at this point. That is what I spend most of my time with Casey on, since he's been around horses all his life he is not always as respectful of their large size as he probably should be. When I dropped him off with his dad this evening, dad was shoeing a friends horse and so he was getting a lesson in calmness and shoeing at the same time.

I think concentrating on getting his seat good is probably the next most important thing to teach him, he can't use his hands or legs very well if he's sliding off the side.... I would take the reins away from him and have him ride, and encourage him not to hold on to the horn but to learn how find balance with the horse. I've seen too many people get tense and grab for the horn, and that just makes everything worse. Really teaching him how to feel comfortable and in control of his seat will lead to increased confidence with everything else.

[TrueStepPaso]

Lynn...you should pat yourself on the back for having such patience and kindness to help teach children. I always stop for kids when I'm riding because I can't help but think of when I was young, and all those emotions that came over me when I saw a horse. I felt like the luckiest kid in the universe when I got to touch a horse for three seconds....I've had the fever since I came screaming into this world. and I can't wait to have my own place, and be lucky enough to now be the person on the other side...

[pasogalinbama]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/pasogalinbama/fff53616.jpg
This was my youngest rider. she had just turned 5 and tough as nails, not afraid fo anything, she had not been riding but a couple weeks and was in the round pen with my daughter, she told her lets horse race and kicked the horse into a canter, you could tell her to slow the horse down and she would tell the horse whoa, and kick her on the side you could not see. the kids are so much fun to teach. have fun and enjoy them. and yes i had one that never stoped talking. lol

[TrueStepPaso]

priceless...

[Barbwire]

Love the picture!

Lynn, do you think that the boy would be better off learning to ride in an English saddle? It is easier to really shorten the stirrups and he wouldn't be tempted to use the horn for balance instead of finding his balence point on his own.

I used to give both Western and English lessons and it seemed the English kids had much better form and balance than the Western kids. They also seemed to be able to feel what the horse was doing underneath them a lot better. IMO.

[LynnG]

Barb, until I can assess his natural riding ability, I'd rather keep him in the western saddle for security purposes. He did keep drifting to one side. Also he will be taking a lesson once every two weeks to start with, so the learning curve may be slow with that much time between lessons. For now I want it to be safe and fun for him, and then we can advance to different tack as he develops. I had access to this saddle to start with for the first two lessons. Also, the mare he is riding is very tall. Until some of my others are safe enough for him, she is the safest as per attitude. The one he will be riding later on has a month old baby boy Magico who is extremely independent and who she frets over when he gets too far away.

My brother's wife taught pre-school and now has a home daycare center. Plus a degre in Psychology. I'm going to run it by her for some fun lesson ideas and more insight on a young child's thought process.

hmm... I need to see why the mom hadn't emailed me any pics yet! That way you can have a better idea of the boy's size, etc...plus that smile!

Thanks everyone for your ideas...and the little girl riding pic...now that is a precious smile on her face!