Instructing children...

Shiny McShine

Shiny McShine

Bluey McBlue
Jan 14, 2002
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Australia

I had the great fortune of finally getting in touch with the local Pony Club after several weeks of the run around. I have been attempting to talk to them about helping out and so forth on rally days just so as I can meet some horse owners, get some contact with horses again and perhaps gain some more experience.

I talked to the chief instructor today who was very helpful and offered to me to teach the kids who are still learning on the lead at the next rally day. I used to teach alot of children at my old school but I have to admit my lessons were a bit monotonous. I tend to have less trouble with the older students but seeing as how I have been kindly invited to teach the youngsters I feel as though I should try and give them something interesting to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions for my lesson? They are apparently all on the lead rein and the instructor said they are just learning rising trot, points of the horse and so forth. As far as I can tell they are all less than 6-8 year olds. She actually admitted that they had trouble finding things to do with them, I guess it will be easier when I actually know what ages and levels they are but I would rather have some idea of what I can do with them before I get there.

Any ideas?
 
I'm sure those with teaching experience on here will be able to help and have some good ideas....but I don't:D No, seriously, I was just casting my mind back and trying to remember what we did in those lessons. All that springs to mind are those round the world type exercises, laying backwards etc to gain confidence on the pony and in the saddle. I don't know whether that might be something to try as well as actual riding/theoretical stuff? I'm probably no use at all! But from what I know of children, they might find the exercises quite fun as well?
 
I'm sure you know all this:
all the exercises etc as Perdita suggested - round the world, scissors etc
quizzes - getting a pony into the middle and having the kids calling out the names of where you are touching - if the ponies are all quiet you can do this as a competition
very basic gymkhana type work - bending, egg and spoon races (or potato which is less messy:D ) etc
basic stable management questions (never underestimate how much a child of that age can know:D)

Can't think at the moment, I was in pony club at that age and I know we didn't do much more than that and I loved it! Kids often thrive on simple things...
 
I always tried to vary my lessons. I was working with no lead rein, but it might help :) The elements of every lesson were essentially:
* balancing exercises
* figure eights
* going through cones
* posting

Aside from requiring that they do the balancing exercises before posting, I would let them choose what order to do this in. It made them very happy, and they felt like they were getting variety. I also would pick a topic to explain to the students while they were practicing, like "Horses eat grass in the wild, and they eat it all the time. They eat even when they're snoozing. They only really sleep about 2 hours every night, can you believe it? They can eat and snooze, which is why so many people think horses sleep standing up. But they do lie down when they really sleep; it's very cute" etc etc.

I'll talk about anything I think they can grasp, as long as I explain it--like "horse's hooves are really just very strong fingernails and they have to be trimmed regularly," or "lessons shoud be fun for the horse too, so let's make sure we reward him for being good and give him a carrot when we get in," or "The reins are attached to a metal thing in the pony's mouth. It's called a bit. When we use the reins we want to be very gentle; think what having a metal thing in your mouth would feel like" andso on.

A lot of times my lesson topics were related to the lesson at hand. For example, every so often I would let them ride bareback. "Why do we ride? Because it's fun. Why do we ride bareback? Because it's fun! It also helps us really really feel what the horse is doing. Feel the back moving?" etc etc

I explain posting trot every time--kids that age don't really retain it, but it helps them to perform better. (What is trot like? Is it smooth? Nooo, it's bouncy. What happens if we sit still? We bounce! So what do we want to do? We want to bounce without hurting our backsides or the pony's back. That's posting.) When they do start to remember from lesson to lesson, it makes them happy. I usually give them an opportunity to tell me something I've already explained, and then explain it if they don't remember.

I also review the lesson at the end: "What did we do today?" A lot of times, what I'll get is "we took off the saddle and we gave her treats." I have to probe to get any further back, and to remind them of what we did toward the beginning of the lesson. I do think it helps them remember, to remind them at the end of what we did.

So, even though what they're doing is repetitive, they feel like it's different because they get to choose which to do first, and also while they're practicing they still get to talk (learn!) about horses.
 
Am actually hot off a lead rein lesson, with sprianed ankle feeling bit better now :D
KIds love having stuff to do, I had a very enrvous one all lesson, and the way I got her to pop the littl efence was by keeping talking toh er, holding her elg aswe jumped and telling her that she'd be able to ebat her mum if she did it!
YOu need to do the funs tuff with the kids as well. Get the leaders to prctice their "up and downs" with them while they're walking along, and just have one kid tortting at a time so you can conecntrate on them and the tohers can practice. WE often have an around the world session at the end, with round the world races. Also good for a lugh is grandma's footsteps (you know the kids game) where the horse creep up on you fromn behind in the walk. THis will tech the kids why stoppins important and they may pay more anttention to you. Be warned though, it get's into more of a rivarly between trhe leaders than the kids!
OUr lead rein groups have one canter a lesson with people hodlding them. Allt he kids want to go on their won, and we say they can't canter without somebody holding their l;eg until they can dor siign trot, problem solved! :D
JO x
 

Thanks for the suggestions. It's been a long time since I have been to Pony Club myself, and I only went for a very short time so it's hard to remember what was done.

From what you have all said so far I am feeling as if it's more about getting their minds working that keeps them interested, which seems to make perfect sense. I think when I used to teach the kids the used to loose concentration and interest not because I wasn't giving them enough excercise but probably more because I wasn't stimulating their minds very much.

Galadriel I think your ideas are great, that's the kind of thing I'm after I now realise! If anyone has any more ideas along that line then I would love to hear them.

I must say I'm getting really excited about this. The next rally isn't until the 9th of March but I really love teaching and have missed it since I moved. it will be great to get back into it, aswell as finally getting to be around horses again.
 
Hopefully a few more suggestions....I love teaching kids must be mad!....
Musical cones...jump off and run to cones when music stops or you shout..good for teaching dismounting on both sides

Races where kids run up school and mount and trot back..leaders musn't let pony move until child is sitting correctly with stirrups, reins etc. Again can do both sides and with or without leg up

Walk races with no stirrups and trying to do something funny with arms...bird,aeroplane,helocopter,butterfly shark(last one courtesy of one of my 5year olds!) Brillant for balance and the game side stops them worrying and stiffening up

Simon says type games...touch toe, point to pommel etc

All little children love quizzes most of my baby classes (5-6) can manage parts of saddle and bridle, simple points, colours and markings..what ponies eat sort of questions

Grandmothers footsteps..I think someone has said that

Getting it wrong game..one child at a time does something obvoiusly wrong..like holding reins upside down..and the others take turns to guess so they can pretend they are teachers!

Oh and by the way all the basics ..posting with arms held out like airplanes or in sitting trot (Slowly).. steering in and out of cones..steering roung an obstacle course in walk with stepping stones, cones etc

Anyway before you get totally bored that should give you a few ides to start
Have fun and let us know how it went!
 

Thanks for all these suggestions, I am feeling as though it should go pretty well. Can't wait to get out there and be with the horses again. Home life is so dull in comparison!

I will certainly let you know how I go. I'm going to a horse show of some kind at the Pony Club grounds this weekend as well where I may get to meet the chief instructor before I actually see her on rally day, which will be good.

Anyway thanks guys, happy riding!
 
Back to when I first started riding on lessons I remember some of the exercises that made me feel a whole lot more confident like exercises in the saddle including;
Around The World
Reaching Forward To Touch The Horses Ear
Lying Back Along The Horses Back
Reaching Down To Touch Toe
Mounting/Dissmounting On The Off (right) Side

Also we done lots of exercises like weaving in and out of cones on the lead rein then by ourselves (in walk) then later on we done it in trot. It was really good when I just began riding because my riding school was really good at giving you confidence riding a horse :p
 
Oh and kids rhymes...I don't know if these are just British!:

'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!' touching the appropriate part of themselves as they song goes on (while riding - led obviously!) and gradually you miss out each part in turn but they have to remember it and touch the right bit...

'Simon says......' eg. Simon says.....touch your toes!, Simon says.....touch the mane!, Simon says.....touch the ears! etc obviously these need good ponies!

This thread brings back memories of my pony club days when I was really little....:D Great fun:D
 
If it's possible to organise, get those saddles off and let them ride bareback on the lead rein. Do things like Simon says bareback. My g/children have learnt SO much about balance and a natural seat from this. Luke has even done our 20 minute road hack bareback on the lead rein doing walk/trot transitions (thankfully Benny is 120% in traffic!).

Get them to practice getting the pony to halt with their bums.

There is a very usefuyl little book called 'Teaching the child rider' by Pamela Roberts (JA Allen and co)
 
There is also another very good book published last year called Teaching Children to Ride by Jane Wallace (Kenilworth Press).
In my experience the secret is in planning and sticking to a timetable. Don't make things long and boring - do someting like revision fo 10 mins then a lesson for 15 mins that you have planned followed by a game that reinforces what you have just taught eg. the message game will reinforce walk on and halt aids.
Then 10 mins of pony care and maybe another game or walking over poles. Young children can only concentrate for about 15 mins and it can be very difficult if you have to try and keep them occupied for 2 hours.
Props are invaluable - markers to go around or inbetween are especially important.
Sometimes at the end we would go for a led walking trek around the pony club grounds to see what the other rides were doing. We might pick up litter on the way or keep an eye out for weeds.
Also they loved treasure hunts - I would hide lollipops in a set are and then they would find them.
If it was really hot we might get off and do colouring in of ponies or dot to dots - I would photocopy enough for each rider.
Does the Pony Club have an instructors manual with ideas in it. The New Zealand Pony Clubs have an excellent instructors manual plus there are very good activity booklets available for D & C cert riders.
Good luck:)
 

I have been thinking that I should look for some books on the subject, so thank you for the suggestions. I would really like to be a good instructor for people of all ages so it's a good idea to read up I guess. As for the Pony Club instruction manual, I had not thought of that but that would probably help me out as far as what they expect to be taught there seeing as I have not had much experience with them.
 
Round the world is a big thrill for lilttle kids. I know someone who does half of round the world so they're facing the tail and then they ride like that! Not a good practice for pony club though!!!!
 
Luke learnt scissors the other night. His grin spread from ear to ear as he told me about it afterwards ('specially as his older sister's no good at it!)
 

Well the big day is looming! Actually I am getting my confidence about the whole situation. I always feel as though people judge my ability by my age so I am naturally apprehensive of entering situations where people don't really know my background. Anyhow I know I can handle the beginners, well at least now after all your suggestions :).

The only problem I have now is a lack of paddock apparell. I have a pair of ill fitting jeans and some doc martins which hopefully will do okay after having three weeks straight of torrential rain (at least I can safely say the drought is over around my region!). Oh well, if worse comes to worse I can ruin my shoes and get mum to send the whole kit, boots and all up in the mail for next time (presuming there will be a next time :rolleyes: ).
 
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Hey, hey, Pony Club today!
Actually I had a variably enjoyable day. No worries of rain, it was swelteringly hot and humid. I didn't end up taking the tiny tots but got to assist a lesson with the older riders. I learnt one important thing today and that was a variety of ways not to teach. Such as feeding the students nothing but negative remarks, totally ignoring the serious problems of some people and other things which I won't get into.

Two things that bothered me the most were when the instructor was working with one rider who was having trouble and she commented to me "Well, this girl will never get it". I find that a very disturbing remark for an instructor to be making and if anything it's a judgement on her own teaching skill. Isn't it the instructors job to make sure she does. The other situation was when one child told the instructor that her horse was playing up and the instructor replied "Oh that's okay". It might have been for her but not for the rider.

Are all Pony Clubs like this? Is it just like this in Australia or just the clubs I go to? :(

Anyway that's my rant over. I actually gained alot of ideas from the day and I intend to go back (with a hat as I got sunburnt on yesterdays sunburn). It is a shame I did not get to make use of all the suggestion that you all gave me but perhaps I'll get the opportunity next time. Thanks for all the help! :)

Happy riding.
 
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