WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO. EXCELLENCE, THEN, IS NOT AN ACT BUT A HABIT. – ARISTOTLE
Teaching children to ride can be rewarding and fun for the instructor as well as the children involved. I especially like it when a child I have started goes on with horses throughout their adult life.
Educating kids to ride helps the child to develop basic life skills based on self-confidence, responsibility, joy, physical fitness, body awareness and fun. The huge differences in teaching abilities makes choosing the correct instructor for the child very important. Children are vulnerable and can easily be frightened or become disinterested by lack of good teaching. Fear, discomfort, boredom, or too much pressure can make even the most eager child view riding with reluctance or even alarm or fear. Enthusiasm and safety are key and must be maintained at all times. At the end of the lesson the child should be left asking for more.
I have found that teaching the age bracket of four to nine year olds is perhaps the most taxing. It is hard work. It requires patience, understanding, enthusiasm and firmness from the teacher. Once the child is in control of his pony and understands basic school movements, knows right from left, and has a basic working knowledge of why she is being asked to perform various movements the child becomes much less difficult to teach. As the child learns to walk, trot and canter their pony safely and effortlessly the world of riding blossoms.
On the whole, older age groups are easier to teach and to manage. Young children have a limited attention span and the teacher has to be quick to recognize when concentration is fading. The teacher needs to be able to change the lesson into something different before the child becomes bored, tired or distracted. Holding the attention of anyone for extend periods of time can be hard, but small children can be especially difficult. There is no substitute for experience in any part of life, so to be a good teacher requires it in large doses.
Safety concerns are also an issue. Is the pony safe? Is the tack in good repair? What are the helmet and boot requirements? Is the lesson in an enclosed area or out in a field? Are the ponies well behaved and obedient? A good instructor can anticipate potentially hazardous situations and avoid them while still allowing the enthusiasm and interest of the children in the ride to continue to learn in a safe and pleasant way. This takes practice. However, practice doesn’t always necessarily make perfect. Practice makes permanent. If you practice the wrong thing you will not improve and may cases spend a lifetime trying to re-learn the correct way of doing things.
What determines the cost of lesson can be subjective. Education is expensive and time consuming. A riding education can be much more costly in a larger city than in a mid-sized city or smaller town or village. Economics of the area you are play a large part in your costs. For example horse boarding in Portland, Oregon area range from $500.00 – 750.00 per month depending on the services being provided. While in Eugene, Oregon about 100 miles south of Portland, board costs range between $250.00 – $575.00 per month for similar services and facilities. I routinely pay $75.00 – $150.00 per lesson in the Eugene area, and I have paid $80.00 – $200.00 per lesson in Portland. Even more in the Seattle, Washington or in Simi Valley, California. The out of area lessons also carry forgotten expenses such as travel, meals and lodging, which make them even more expensive. They also require more time and planning to attend.
Education is expensive. Firstly, there is the cost of the initial trainings. While it is true in America that anyone can hang out their shingle and proclaim they are available for instruction, it is the people who are truly passionate and dedicated to the pursuit of correct riding, training and teaching that seem to seek advanced educational opportunities. In order to learn to teach well, I chose to work with a former British Horse Society Chief Examiner and to take hundreds of hours of classes and lessons to learn on how to become a more effective instructor. This was in addition to the annual ongoing continuing education that I participate in to learn to ride and train correctly. Many of the CE credits I am involved in require regular peer reviews and feedback on my skill set. This takes many hours of time, dedication and energy in addition to the monetary cost to maintain.
Time is a huge factor. In America, more than other countries, I have noticed that parents often expect to pay less for a child’s riding lesson. The time involved for the instructor to put together a lesson plan, actually teach the lesson, and then have the child wanting more is usually a bit longer and more involved for the age group of four to nine years. As the child matures and is better able to execute and understand what is being asked of them the easier it becomes.
I see shopping for the cheapest possible lesson for your child as false economy. You may be saving a few dollars on the front side of early riding experiences, but at what true expense? There are many scenarios; if your child is motivated to go on in riding you may end up paying much more to learn to undo bad habits learned early on, or they may become scared and give up riding altogether if they had a fall or drama surrounding riding in the early days.
Insurance is another large expense that the trainer/teacher pays as well as the facility owner. There are many types of policies available, at a minimum the teacher should have a General Liability policy that covers giving lessons. Usually the trainer and the facility owner are required to have individual policies. This is factored into the cost of your lesson or training as well as your facility use fees.
Another unseen expense is the cost of the facility you are working out of. The largest cost is usually the mortgage payment. Although the cost of the upkeep and maintenance of that facility is ongoing and can be expensive. This is why most facilities charge a haul in fee if you are bringing your horse in for the lesson. If you board at the facility then your basic usage fees are usually included with the monthly boarding payment.
If you are using a horse and tack that is provided for the lesson, there can be an additional usage fee charged to you. Depending on the facility and the arrangements agreed upon this can be a paid as a monthly or longer lease, as a lesson/use charge or a fiscally responsible trade. All of this is usually dependent upon what is involved, provided and agreed upon by the parties involved. If you show up and are handed a pony who is already groomed, tacked up and warmed up and ready for your child’s lesson and who is taken away to be cared for by the owner or trainer after the lesson, expect to pay more than if you yourself go to the field and bring the pony in and take care of all the pony’s needs yourself.
Horses are expensive, as we all know. Some of those expenses can be spread out over the course of the year, many cannot. Another job of the instructor is to make sure the lesson horses are well cared for and getting the proper nutrition for the workload, veterinary care, farrier services, these are just a few of the considerations. Correctly fitting tack is another area to look at. Horse bodies are dynamic and constantly changing in relation to season, fitness or lack of, conditioning, training and many other factors. Saddle fit can fluctuate throughout the year requiring the efforts of a skilled trainer to manage, thus enabling the horse to function as his highest levels without pain or discomfort.
Other considerations of cost are lesson size. Is this a group lesson? Semi-private lesson? Private lesson? On the whole, group lessons of 3-5 people cost the least as the price is divided amongst the participants, followed by semi-private and finally a private lesson.
In a group lesson there are many good things that can happen. You can have a more social time, but get less one on one attention. You can have mini competitions or games that lead to further learning. You can cheer one another on. There can also be drawbacks. You can only progress as fast as the slowest participant. If one rider is having trouble others may begin to also experience problems.
In a semi-private lesson, the lesson is often focused on one rider then the other in a back and forth shared learning opportunity. This can give you the option to try what you have just learned a few more times on your own if having a flat lesson or dressage lesson, while the instructor is working with the other individual. In jumping, this means you get to find a corner safely out of the way and enjoy a bit of a rest, while watching your lesson mate jump. It can also mean you can watch the other person learn the exercise, perhaps giving you additional insight as to what is being taught and why.
Private lessons, although usually the most expensive of the three options, allows you the instructor’s undivided attention, and usually full use of the arena or working area. This can help you and your horse to make progress more quickly as there are fewer distractions and a more focused learning atmosphere.
On the whole, as a parent you need to look at what best fits your child’s learning style and ability and do your best to find her an appropriate instructor for these very important formative years.