Riding Lesson Expectations
How old are YOU?
We have three age groups for lessons at Woodland.
Pony Pals Lessons
Children's Lessons
Adult Lessons
All our lessons are taught with safety foremost in our minds. We have very talented and well trained instructors PLUS well trained and talented horses and ponies. We pair our horse and riders carefully. Our next priority is to have fun. If it's not fun...why bother! The final part is to learn something in each lesson. No matter how small every little piece of this puzzle called horseback riding is important. Keep at it and things will come together...I promise!
Let's start with the Pony Pals Lessons.
These lessons are for our youngest riders age 5 - 7. The big difference in Pony Pals lessons is a riders parent helps in the class so the rider can work on certain skills while not having to worry about steering their pony right away. Mom or Dad do the guiding of the pony by using a lead rope attached to the bridle. Your instructor will show parents how.
The rider can now concentrate on learning to walk and halt, post the trot or learn their half-seat position. These kids have a shorter attention span so we break the class up by changing the activities throughout the class. For example you may work on a steering exercise after your warm up, then toward the end of the lesson you may play some games on horseback or learn to play "Around the World". Such fun!!
Children's Lesson are next.
Children's lessons are for kids age 8 and up. Now you are controlling your own horse without help. In the very beginning your will learn how to correctly mount, sit up on a horse and hold the reins. Then we learn to ask them to move! Then we figure out how to ask them to stop. Very important skill!! As you go along you will learn to halt, walk, trot, canter and even take your first VERY SMALL jump. Typically you will have a good taste of these skills in your first 13 lessons. Then we refine your skills and refine them some more. Once you are comfortable with these skills then we teach our students lateral movements and to jump higher too, if that is interesting to them.
Adult Lessons are a ton of fun!!
Adult lessons are for our 18 and up age group. They can be in either the English or Western classes. Again, if starting as a beginner, you will learn all the skills to confidently halt, walk, trot/jog and canter/lope. Jumping is optional as some adults just aren't interested in pursuing that skill. No problem as this is supposed to be FUN and a stress reliever! Our English lessons lean toward Dressage but you don't have to be worried about that fancy word. It is a good, strong, balanced position. Our Western lessons lean toward Western dressage and again it is a very solid, balanced position. In the Western lesson you will also learn to play some traditional games like Barrel racing and Pole Bending...when you are ready!