From: Linda
I ran across your archives and think that they are great. I am hoping that you can address my question(s) as I have been unable to find any other answers elsewhere. Both my daughters have been taking riding lessons the past 6 months. They are now (just barely) 7 and 9. What are the limitations based on their age and strength and maturity/ judgment ? What are appropriate riding goals for children ? - I would imagine that goals have to vary according to both age and experience. (You addressed this somewhat in another archive but the point of reference was 16 years old to adult.) My hunch is that my youngest will not end up any further ahead ultimately if her riding lessons had been delayed for at least a year and that may even be true for my daughter who just turned nine.
How can you tell (outside of having the goal to ride competently for pleasure) whether the ability is there that makes investing time and money worthwhile above and beyond weekly riding lessons ? Riding is a bit different from other sports at the front end at least because there is no apparent Rep., travel or elite teams to try out for as there is for sports such as hockey or soccer. What are the key skills or qualities that make for an above average rider? As a parent with finite financial resources, it makes sense to know whether the investment is at a 'house league level' for fun primarily along with basic skills development or whether it is worth spending money for moving above this general level or nurturing some genuine talent.
Personally, I would love to go back and take riding lessons and get a horse for me - however, with 4 kids in sports and other activities, that has to go on the back burner for now. Up to now, we have been willing to pay to have the kids participate and develop in sports at apparently appropriate levels but riding is a total different ball game.
Thanks and any kids' beginning riding books that you can suggest would be also great. We seem to need visual diagrams to help us (me) understand what is needed or meant.
Linda
Hi Linda!
First, 7 and 9 are good ages to begin -- I like to start riders at 8, because that's the point at which most children have the physical maturity, size, strength, balance, and attention span to allow them to start learning to ride. You're quite right about a year this way or that -- a strong, sturdy, mature-for-her-age seven year old might be ready to begin riding lessons, but in a few years, it really shouldn't matter whether she initially started at seven or eight or nine years old.
What WILL make the difference -- ALL the difference -- is the caliber of your daughter's instructor. These first few years are so important; children (and, truly, beginner riders of any age) tend to admire, emulate, even worship their instructors, and those instructors are laying the foundations upon which all the rest of the riders' training will be built. Beginners need really good instructors -- competent, qualified teachers with good communication skills and a focus on safety. Beginners of any age are completely at the mercy of their instructors, and it's better to start riding at age ten or twelve with a truly good instructor than to begin at seven or eight or nine with an incompetent or unethical instructor. The advantage is always with the riders who have QUALITY instruction, not with those who start at the youngest age.
Properly taught, riding can do a lot for children -- much more than provide them with a set of physical skills, although those are important too. Riding can help children develop their skills, their understanding, their patience, their ability to listen and their ability to focus. There are other benefits: children who ride with a good instructor will develop their poise and deportment along with their balance and coordination.
Yes, children CAN learn to ride in weekly lessons. For many years, and in many countries, weekly instruction was considered to be the norm. Obviously it's lovely to be able to take more frequent lessons, but it's not essential -- a good lesson will give a child a week's worth of things to think about. ;-) And even weekly lessons are a financial investment, maybe even a sacrifice, for the child's parents, so for heaven's sake don't feel guilty for offering "just" weekly lessons. There are thousands of children who would adore to have those weekly lessons, and thousands of parents who would love to be able to provide them.
Once-a-week lessons will NOT prepare your child for a high-power show circuit, though - - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Children learn the most useful lessons from good teachers who can show them how to understand and enjoy horses, riding, and horse care; these are the lessons that help them develop life skills, and those will last far longer than the strips of colored nylon that riders bring home from shows.
A high-power show circuit is EXPENSIVE. The horses cost a lot, the travel and clothing and entry fees cost a lot. It's possible to go to a lot of lesser shows on a budget -- some "lesson mill" barns take all of their little riders to every tiny local show, all summer long, just to collect as many ribbons as possible. But unless showing is a natural outgrowth of RIDING and HORSE CARE skills, it's not necessarily good for the children.
Even at the lowest local level, where the shows are unrated and relatively inexpensive, the barn that takes the most kids to the most shows is not necessarily the best barn -- or even a good barn. The other sports you've mentioned are geared toward competition -- you can't play hockey or soccer or rugby or baseball alone or with one or two friends, and you can't know how well you're doing in competition until you compete! But riding is different - - it's more like music lessons, or dance lessons. There's more involved than physical skills, and competition may be a focus -- or may never come into it. If your children were taking piano lessons, you'd want them to be enjoying themselves, enjoying the lessons, enjoying the music and learning to improve their ability to communicate through sound. If they saw all of their lessons as nothing more than preparation to "beat other kids" at a competition, and their enjoyment (or yours!) came only from winning, it would be very sad indeed.
The question is whether your children are learning physical skills PLUS horse care PLUS horsemanship PLUS sportsmanship. If their riding lessons are helping them to become caring, clear-headed, responsible riders and better human beings, then those lessons are worthwhile whether your children compete, don't compete, enjoy competitions, or are bored by competitions. ;-)
An above average rider is usually marked by interest and involvement. Especially in the first few years of skills acquisition, it's difficult to say who will be good in five years' time. The "natural" riders often lose interest after a year or two; sometimes the riders who have the most difficult time learning are those who will be the best in the long term, because by the time they have truly learned a particular skill, they OWN it. There are physical "types" that will tend to do better in certain forms of competition (all other things being equal), but again, competition is only ONE area of riding.
One thing I can tell you is that it's very easy to turn kids off horses and riding by pushing them too hard and making them feel that you're investing money in them and they "owe you" ribbons in return. I'm sure you've seen this sort of thing with Little League and soccer teams -- sometimes the kids' involvement is just a way for their parents to play out THEIR vicarious wishes, and sometimes this conflicts drastically with what the kids actually want, as opposed to what they think their parents WANT them to want.
You've asked some terrific questions, Linda -- you must be a very, very good mother. ;-) My suggestion is that you sit down and think about what YOU want your children to get out of their riding experience. When you think of "success", what comes to your mind? Ribbons and trophies? Or something more durable -- the personal development that will help your daughters become better people and lay the foundations for becoming excellent parents someday? When you've formulated YOUR thoughts, sit down with your daughters and talk to them. Children can often be very, very wrong about what they THINK their parents want for them, and from them. Sometimes they imagine that their parents want them to win at shows, whereas in fact their parents want to provide them with an enjoyable sport/hobby/activity to pursue for a lifetime of pleasure -- quite a different matter! Once you and your daughters are "on the same page", if you want to set some goals (a good idea), sit down with your daughters and their instructor, and talk about their ambitions, her plans, and realistic long-term and short-term goals.
I can't give you a schedule -- it's a matter of skills acquisition and an increased level of understanding, and these depend on so many things: the quality of the instruction, the stage of development of the children, their level of interest, their competing activities (school, music, dance, swimming, etc.). The important thing to remember is that what matters really IS a the skills acquisition, not some sort of timetable, and that many physical skills have to be learned and re-learned and re-re-learned as young bodies change and develop and mature over time.
One of the best resources for you is the United States Pony Clubs, Inc. Even if your daughters aren't members, you and they can benefit by following the Pony Club program of skills acquisition. Any bookstore can sell you a copy of the "USPC Manual of Horsemanship" -- start with Volume I (D Manual). It's paperback, not too expensive, and will answer a lot of questions that you haven't even asked yet. The author is Susan Harris. ;-)
If you want to be sure that you're providing the best possible instructor for your children, a good place to begin is with the American Riding Instructor Certification Program. You can contact the ARICP and find out about certified instructors in your area.
American Riding Instructors Association (ARIA)
28801 Trenton Court
Bonita Springs, FL 34134-3337
Tel: 239 948-3232
Fax: 239 948-5053
On the Web: http://www.riding-instructor.com/
E-Mail: aria@riding-instructor.com
For information on riding skills, another excellent book is "Happy Horsemanship", by Dorothy Pinch. "Dressage for Young Riders" by Pegotty Henriques is also very useful. When your daughters are a little older, Cherry Hill's "Becoming an Effective Rider" will be an excellent book for them to read.
For horse-handling, Jessie Haas has a lovely book called "Safe Horse, Safe Rider".
For a starting-out overview, my own "Horseback Almanac" is an inexpensive guide for beginning English riders age 8-12. I'll have another book out in a few months -- "Parents' Guide to Horseback Riding" and you may find that useful as well. You should be able to find all of these at a good discount through amazon.com.
I hope this helps -- good luck to you and your daughters!
Jessica
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