I am teaching my boyfriend who is 18 to ride horses. We are leasing a quarter-horse gelding who is extremely sound (used in therapeutic lessons) yet a little fast at the trot. He has only ridden about 5 times and i have had him walking around. He gets the basics of steering and can stop and go on his own. I am working on getting him to keep his heels down as that is a very important part to riding but not being that great of a rider myself i am stumped as to what to teach him next. I know how to walk/trot with no problem and can canter but am still learning the basics of leads and such. I want to teach him to trot eventually but i don't want to rush things. Any ideas of lesson ideas and how long it should take me before i get him trotting, what i need to work on with him to better his balance and make him a better rider, and any games to help with this would be great!!: ) thanks for the help!
There's loads of stuff you can do. If you know how to lunge and the horse is relatively safe then put your boyfriend on and teach him some stretching exercises (you may have done these when you were learning ? But things like stretching to reach the horse's mane and tail. Rotating the ankles/arms/legs. Bringing the legs up like a jockey and then relaxing them back and down will all help his riding position and stability). Teaching everything on the lunge to start with is the best way, it provides you with much better balance from the start and to be fair it's quite funny watching them try to do insane stretches. It would also help when teaching him to trot because you have control of the horse. If you really can't lunge then maybe you can lead him around while your making him stretch?
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Do some steering exercises - put some cones or jump wings out and make him navigate between them.
Put poles out and start getting him used to working to the middle of them. You could also start teaching other exercises like 20m circles/serpentines or anything else you can think of so he can start practising them in walk and he'll find them much easier when he starts doing them in higher paces.
It's a bit difficult thinking of things for only one beginner rider, normally I'd teach a number of kids and things in a lesson which is so much easier ... trot to the back of the ride and try not to fall off lol! They don't require so much attention thank goodness. To be honest, he's probably ready to trot already, try leading him around and doing a few strides of trot so he gets used to rising and sitting to the beat, it will also give him time to let his leg muscles get stronger if you do a little bit at a time.
Edited: Can't say I agree with the first poster, it's not like your trying to train him to Prix St. George level dressage! No harm in both of you just enjoying it, not everyone wants to compete at the olympics * rolls eyes *
Kinda like the blind leading the blind, go some where and learn to ride before trying to teach some one else what you do not know other wise you are going to teach him a lot of bad stuff that he will eventually have to relearn and he will then see that you are not very good at riding your self, It is pretty hard to teach some one else something you know nothing about.
I would get him to have lessons. You cannot train him to ride properly because you do not have the experience to tell him what he's doing wrong and what he's doing right.
Start him on trotting after he can keep his heels down.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com If you're teaching him English, teach him sitting trot first, and then posting trot. Don't try to teach him to canter until you're better at it yourself.
The first thing you need to make sure he knows is how his hands on the reins work. I don't mean how to turn the horse, I mean that beginner riders have the tendency to have heavy hands and pull on the horse's mouth a lot. Make him keep his hands light or it can ruin the horse's mouth. I'm teaching my fiance how to ride but I've been riding for 11 years. The first thing I taught him was keep his hands light. Then it was keep his heels down, then how leg pressure works. Now I make him do almost everything with his legs and no hands. He trots but that's it and it was awhile before I let him trot. You have to make sure he gets down a solid foundation of balance and control before you can add anything else . I've been teaching my fiance for almost 6 months now and I still haven't let him lope yet. I might have him start loping by the end of the year but he has to have a totally solid foundation first before you can add speed.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com So have him work on hands and balance and keeping his heels down. Don't let him trot just yet and definitely don't let him lope.
Being as you are learning as well, i would just teach him what you have been learning. i would say you would be safe to trot by now (the academy i rode at always trotted on the first lesson, we were usually on a lead line though or someone would just stay with the horse (you know run with them so the dont take off) a lunge line might work best for you, i dont know how your stables are set up. anyways, i would teach him his 1-2's in posting (tell him they are important because he needs to know them to trot ), bend to the left bend to the right, make him practice letting his feet out of the stirrups and putting them back in with out looking, stand for 3 to 5 seconds in the stirrups, (its ok to hold onto the mane to do this. DO NOT use the hoses mouth to hold yourself up!) serpentines, at the walk. let him trot and get used to posting, it doesnt matter which diagonal he is on at first, but once he has posting itself down pat then teach him about which diagonal he is supposed to be on and then have him trot figure 8's switching back and forth to the appropriate diagonals. i wouldnt recommend letting him canter as you are still a novice rider and arent yet experienced enough to teach someone how to canter .
