Preparation As with any rider, you want to prepare your lesson and interactions to set them up for success. This includes: Knowing the Precautions & Contraindications Researching the Rider Planning the Lesson Environment Having the Right Perspective Precautions & Contraindications First thing it to know the precautions and contraindications for Autism from the PATH Intl … Continue reading
Riders with Autism Part 1 – Understanding Autism
This upcoming series has been a long time in the making and I am so excited to finally share it with you! The TR barn I work for has us make goals every year, and 2 years ago one of my goals was to learn more about teaching riders with Autism. I finally compiled all … Continue reading
Fun Video Friday: Ahead of and Behind the Motion
This nice little video is from a blog post by CK Training/Callie called “Are you “Ahead of” or “Behind” the Motion when you ride horses?”. It offers a good visual example of what this looks like, and what causes it. I think it will be helpful for newer instructors. Enjoy! **************** Note: This is not professional … Continue reading
Ball, Egg and Spoon for Steering Using Your Legs
Here is a fun activity some volunteers came up with for a rider working on using her legs to steer! Ball, Egg and Spoon for Steering Using Your Legs Skill: Using your legs and seat to steer. Props: Ball (medium or large) Egg (hard boiled) or Small Ball Spoon Cones set up for a figure … Continue reading
Using your body to steer, and stabilizing the hands
Here is a lesson I taught today for a rider who tends to use her hands to balance and steer a lot. I came in with the goal of teaching her to ride more with her body than her hands (not the most specific, I know) with some ideas, and worked on the fly with … Continue reading
Hit the Dirt Trophy
It has been said, “The hardest part of riding is the ground.” When her riders fall off, Carrie Capes of HorsePower TR gives her riders a Hit the Dirt Trophy. She takes a Dixie cup, fills it with dirt from the arena, writes “Hit the Dirt Trophy” on the side, and sends it home with them … Continue reading
5 Basic Patterns
Here are 5 basic patterns one of our instructors printed up and laminated for us. The orange dots are for markers such as cones or upright poles. You can set up several in the arena at once using different markers. Enjoy! **************** Note: This is not professional advice, this is a blog. I am not liable … Continue reading
Colored Arena Letters
Here is something neat one of our instructors made – colored arena letters. She printed them on colored paper then laminated them. This way we can tell riders to “Go toward K” if they know their letters, or “Go toward the blue K” if they are better with colors than letters, or “Go toward the blue … Continue reading
Lesson Plan & Evaluation Templates
I am really excited to share with you the lesson plan writing and evaluation templates I’ve been using with our Instructors in Training (ITs) the past month. They needed something a little more detailed than The Basic Lesson Plan to write on, so I created this sheet based on one our barn already uses, and created an evaluation … Continue reading
Posting on the Correct Diagonal
Recently some of my riders have gotten good enough at posting that I’ve started teaching them posting on the correct diagonal. I learned by rising with the outside shoulder, however some of my riders have had a hard time with this method. So I did some research and here are the whats whys and hows … Continue reading