When you enroll for a horse-riding lesson you will learn a lot about different stuff but the most important thing that you are going to learn is safety. Some of the things that you will learn are as follows.
- Approaching: Before approaching a horse always talk to the horse to alert the horse of your presence as this will prevent the horse from inducing its surprising reaction to your presence. Always approach a horse from the sides and avoid approaching from behind or directly in front of the horse as these are its blind spots. Touch the horse first on the shoulder or the neck, with a strong yet gentle stroking motion. When entering a filed or paddock containing several horses, be extremely vigilant as they can jostle or step on you unintentionally, or even worse kick you.
- Leading: Remember to always use a lead rope tied to the halter of the horse, rather than gripping the halter itself, which, if the horse were to startle, offers no choices. Don’t curl your hand around the end of the lead rope, where the loops will tighten. You can fold the rope back and forth and catch the center of the folds.
Now that we finally have some of the fundamentals out of the way, we’ll go ahead and understand what to expect to learn during typical beginner horse riding lessons:
- Mounting: You have to know how to get on a horse in order to ride it. The right and secure way to mount and dismount a horse will be demonstrated and taught by your teacher.
- Stability and Control: Once you have managed to mount the horse, the next skill to learn is to be able to keep you stable and in control and not bouncing as the horse trots. And for this to happen you need to find your seat on the horse that center of balance. For this it’s crucial you learn how to “post”. Posting is the gesture that helps you to lift off the horse’s back and move in synchronization with the horse as it trots.
- Stopping and Directing: After learning to maintain your balance, next up is learning how to stop and steer your horse. Both of these: stopping and steering is essential for right and secure horse riding.
- Aids: Once you have found your seat on the horseback, managed to stop and steer the horse, what’s left to learn is asking the horse to walk, to trot, to canter, and finally to halt.
In addition to learning a skill, horse-riding can do wonders for a horse rider, when it comes to personal health: both physically and mentally.
- Strength Improvement: You’re wrong if you think the horse does all the work during a horseback ride. Horse-riding lessons for beginners require a lot of muscles to work that you didn’t even know you had. Riding a horse is an exceptional exercise, helping to firm and tone large muscle groups.
- Confidence Booster: Being able to control over an 800-pound animal is an accomplishment that is enough to make everyone believe that they are on the top of their game. That’s not all that horse-riding has to offer though. Learning and memorizing a complex set of instructions and watching them generate results brings a tremendous sense of achievement too.
