Help! My child wants to learn to ride

So, our child has found a love of horses and here you are!

To start you off, I want to begin with separating your child's riding journey into two sections.  

One is the practical riding training that your child will receive in lessons, clinics and Pony Club musters. The other part is the emotional, or as I call it, the mindset training your child will undergo, which will mostly come from the horse your child is riding. 

Let me explain what I mean with that...

In the practical riding training we will focus on explaining to you everything you need to know about aids (the stuff that makes the horse respond), this is like the accelerator, brakes, gear shifts and steering wheel in your car. When you know how they work in one car you can be quite comfortable in getting into someone else's car, knowing that they still work the same.                                                     

I know horses aren't cars but to keep it simple in the beginning, let's stick to that analogy. As you become more experienced we can get into more details and be a bit more riding specific.

The other part, the mindset training is where your child will learn important life skills literally from the horses mouth.                                                                         

Horses are so sensitive to the energy around them, including the rider's/handler's emotional energy.

We all know what it is like to be on an emotional roller coaster, they don't come with hand brakes and exit doors but with a bucket full of learnings. We have all been there, we have all experienced this crazy ride and so will our kids. It's called life!!

What we want to do as parents is to prepare our kids for all the things that life has in store for them. The good, the bad and the ugly. So my advice to you is, how about we let them learn some gentle lessons while they are young, in the supporting environment called loving family, by doing something they love - riding ponies!

I will help you through this, step by step with tips and lots of encouragement and the horse will do the rest. Your child as a result will become stronger, happier, more resilient and with more awareness of who they are. Something we all want for our kids.

So, are you ready for this journey?