Components of a Riding Lesson
PATH Intl (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) provides a great outline for therapeutic riding lessons which we utilize at Justin’s Place. Here are the traditional elements of a therapeutic riding lesson:
Warm Up. This is time to physically warm up the rider’s body as well as the horses. Just like you wouldn’t want to go run a marathon without first stretching, we shouldn’t ask our horses to carry a load in sand without giving them the opportunity to warm up their muscles at a walk. Many times the rider’s warm up includes stretching or exercising the muscles that we will use that day. If we are working on steering we may do some arm stretches. If we are working on 2-point (jumping position) we may warm up our legs by standing in our stirrups and stretching down into our heels.
Lesson. This is where we teach a riding skill. Halt, direct rein steering, neck rein steering, arena figures, balance at the trot, posting, two-point, and more! Skills are taught in broken down steps. For example, a halt is taught by 1. Exhaling 2. Sitting back on your pockets 3. Saying whoa 4. Squeezing your reins. A turn is taught by 1. Looking where you want to go 2. Turning your chest in that direction 3. Squeezing your reins towards your hip in the direction of the turn. Often skill progression is built into this. We may start with halting with no obstacles and then increase the challenge by halting on a specific mark. We may begin with one turn to change direction and advance to weaving through cones.
Cool Down. This serves as a counter to our warm up. This is a time to ‘take it easy’. Our horses can stretch their necks and our riders can relax their bodies. Often times in our lessons this is a great time to incorporate games. Riders can ride with no stirrups or reins. Sometimes we will backwards ride. Sometimes we will have the ride spin around in the saddle at a halt (around the world).
Each section of the lesson serves a purpose, can be adapted to any rider ability and provides opportunity to build developmental and rider skills.
See our instructor (Presley), sidewalker (Marriah), and horse (TJ) lead their participant in a warm up of arm stretches. This riders lesson included a game collecting and delivering toys to work on his halting.