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
Tagged with teaching tips …
Teaching Tips for your Back Pocket
I think the hardest thing about learning to instruct riding (or anything) is that in the beginning you don’t yet have a pocket full of tips and tricks to pull out for every circumstance and skill. The more you teach, watch others teach, read, and take lessons yourself, the more you’ll add to that back … Continue reading
Teaching Tip: Use Beanie Babies
(Drawn by yours truly on Photoshop, haha). I have found that young riders love beanie babies. Actually, a lot of my older riders do too. Beanie babies are something familiar and calming, and can be great motivators. Here are some ideas. Beanie Baby Activities Woah at the Animals – place beanie babies around the arena … Continue reading
A word of encouragement
A word of encouragement to new instructors: Some riders you will click with teaching them immediately. Some riders will take a longer time to adjust to you, and you to them. You will not teach exactly the same as anyone else, And that is okay. You will teach the way only you can teach. As … Continue reading
Leading
It can be pretty tricky to incorporate Horsemanship and Groundwork Skills into a short half hour lesson. One easy quick way to do this is to have your student lead their horse for a lap around the arena before mounting, if they are able bodied enough. You can do one lap, several, or one in each … Continue reading
Group Arena Management
There are some ways to use the arena that make teaching larger groups more manageable. Here are some I’ve seen and wanted to share. Keep riders together so you can see all of them at all times, and they all can hear you. If they get too far or close to each other, instruct them … Continue reading
Communication Tools & Strategies
Want to know the basics of communicating with your riders? In particular, those with verbal and non verbal learning disabilities, sensory and ASD issues? Well there is a GREAT powerpoint presentation called “Communication Tools & Strategies” by Susan Lutz that was presented at the Region 5 2012 conference. You can find the info in 2 … Continue reading
Tips & Quips: for Basic Riding Skills
Last year I took some lessons at Cross Winds Farms, a hunter/jumper barn, and learned some great tips & quips from some of their teachers that I want to share. Keep them in your back pocket for when you need them! One teacher would quiz me on the first few basics while walking around the … Continue reading
Warm Ups
This guide to warm ups is a combination of lots of resources I have. More detailed descriptions for various exercises can be found in the resources listed at the end. What A warm up is an activity that prepares the student for their riding lesson by warming up both their upper and lower body and … Continue reading
Watching A Therapeutic Riding Lesson
You can learn a lot watching someone else teach a lesson, especially if you know what to look for! The following is a list of questions to ask yourself after watching another instructor’s lesson, taken from PATH’s instructor book and my own thoughts. Starting out, I recommend answering these while the instructor is teaching the … Continue reading