In my certification process we learned about doing a rider assessment, and teaching a new skill in a lesson, but we never learned about what happens in between – the exciting FIRST lesson! This is such a joy – a joy for you to share your love of horses with a new student for the … Continue reading
Independent Seat
What is an independent seat? I’ve come up with this definition (feel free to add your own): An independent seat: rider is connected with and in balance with the horse’s movement, absorbs motion without bouncing, does not rely on the reins for balance, and is able to independently control each leg and hand. It takes … Continue reading
Teaching Tips for Competence and Praises
Some concepts to ruminate on today… “To help our children feel motivated and competent with us, we must first give them work they can achieve rather than unsolvable work. In the field of education, this is often referred to as the 80/20 rule. First give them 80% work they can achieve before giving them the … Continue reading
Annie’s Therapeutic Riding Mounted Activities
Recently a coworker lent me her master’s project from a few years ago, a binder full of Therapeutic Riding Exercises and Activities and Equine Facilitated Learning Activities, to use as a resource for this blog! Here is her great list of Riding Mounted Activities. Enjoy! Note: most of these games require horses to be desensitized to items … Continue reading
Fun Video Friday: War Horse the broadway
Sometimes on Friday I post some video I find funny or interesting, and that probably has nothing to do with Therapeutic Riding except that it makes you smile, and smiling is therapeutic 🙂 This one has to do with War Horse – the broadway, not the movie. At some point I became fascinated with the … Continue reading
The Honey Bear Obstacle Course
A friend told me about this activity she saw someone do with their students, and I thought it was cute enough to share! However, I forgot exactly how it went so I may have added some of my own embellishments. Enjoy! The Honey Bear Obstacle Course Introduce the bear. He is hungry. Your mission is … Continue reading
Teaching the Canter tips from Julie Goodnight
Julie Goodnight posted these pearls of wisdom on Facebook today: “Watch any horse canter and you’ll see his nose drop down on the third beat of every stride; this is especially true on the first stride, when he is launching his whole body off the ground. It is critical that the rider reaches forward and … Continue reading
Transferable Skills
Although a therapeutic riding instructor’s main goal is to teach riding skills, many of these can be related to life skills. A camp I once worked at called these “teachable moments”. The following is an exerpt from one of GallopNYC’s resources that I thought was a good list of transferable skills to be on the lookout for … Continue reading
GallopNYC’s resource for Rainy Day Activities & Groundwork Lesson Plans
GallopNYC’s ASD Transition Job Skills Study offers a great document for rainy day activities and groundwork lesson plans as listed below: WEEK 1: SAFETY- BARN/ARENA PROTOCOL WEEK 2: RECOGNIZING HORSE MOODS WEEK 3: GROOMING THE HORSE WEEK 4: TACKING THE HORSE – SADDLE WEEK 5: TACKING THE HORSE – BRIDLE WEEK 6: STABLE CARE WEEK … Continue reading
GallopNYC ASD Transition Job Skills Study
A reader from GallopNYC recently send me this phenomenal resource for an ASD Transition Job Skills program they did at their barn! Once of the documents explains: “GallopNYC is developing an innovative educational program for young adults on the autism spectrum. The goal of this program is to apply the benefits of therapeutic horseback riding to the … Continue reading