Horseback Riding for Beginners - Learn to ride horses: Basic Horse training for beginners and children

By Edwin Van Der Vaag

This book is special. It is equally for parents, children and riding instructors. Parents get tips on what makes a good riding school, when they can send their child horseback riding and what positive effects this hobby has. In addition, they can learn everything worth knowing about horses together with their child.

Children learn how to handle a horse, how to groom it and of course how to ride it! This way, they are well prepared when they finally have their first riding lesson. In a child-friendly way they learn not only what makes a good rider, but also everything about the correct seat, care, handling, track figures and much more. Knowing some things beforehand is great. And the riding instructor will be happy!

The content of the book is namely:
- The history and nature of the horse
- Learning to ride
- Costs and equipment
- The riding school
- Lessons for child and horse
- The first riding lessons
- First exercises and games
- and much more!

For riding instructors, this book is a small guide to what parents and children expect of you, how to optimally set up riding lessons for children of all ages, what should be on the curriculum and what handling of the pony should be taught.

As a special extra, you will receive numerous impulses and ideas for creative children's riding lessons that are fun and motivating. On over 100 pages and some illustrations you get a good first start.

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Apr 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9783986469634

Book preview

Introduction for children

Do you love horses more than anything? Do you have horse posters hanging all over your children's room and do you watch every program and every movie on TV where horses appear? Do you have to pet every horse you meet? And do you secretly dream of spending every free minute in the stable, and you're dying to learn how to ride? Then this is the book for you! This book is meant for little horse fans for whom there is nothing more beautiful than these wonderful animals and who finally want to get a whiff of stable air and learn to ride properly. With this guidebook you will learn everything a real rider needs to know. You will not only learn how horses came into being and how they behave, but also everything about the different breeds and coat colors.

In addition, of course, you will also learn how to properly lead horses and ponies, clean and saddle them. And then comes the best part: your first real riding lessons! Read in this book how to sit best in all gaits and how to steer the horse without any problems. With lots of great games, you'll easily become a confident rider and have a lot of fun at the same time. But that's not all, because in this book you'll also read how to continue. Look forward to information about cross-country rides, the first riding badges and maybe even your very first tournament.

By the way, you may read this book as you like. Maybe you first want to learn more about horses, then read it best in order. Maybe your first riding lesson is right around the corner and you want to learn more about it, of course. Then you can start with the sections and catch up with the others later. Some chapters may not be that important to you - that's okay. However, they are very interesting for your parents to be able to support you well in learning to ride.

And now have fun reading and browsing!

Introduction for parents

Your child talks about nothing else but horses? His whole room is wallpapered with all kinds of pictures of horses? And his or her greatest wish is to finally learn to ride? Then your child is infected with horse fever.

Especially for parents who have had nothing to do with horses themselves, many questions arise in this situation - and this guide answers them all. Easy to understand, comprehensive and easy to understand even for laymen, so that you quickly become an expert on horses.

You'll also get the information you need to decide whether riding training is generally a good idea for your offspring or at what age it makes sense. Furthermore, you will learn everything about how useful the contact with horses and riding is in relation to the child's development - both physically, psychologically and in terms of social competence.

Once the decision has been made to train a rider, other questions quickly arise: What equipment does my child need? Where can I find a suitable riding school? And how does riding actually work exactly? In this book, you will not only find answers to these burning questions, but you will also receive a lot of additional information about horses. This will make it easy for you to decide which horse breeds are particularly suitable for riding beginners like your child. Thanks to many tips, you can best assess what else is important when it comes to learning to ride and how children in particular can be optimally supported.

The book is designed so that you do not need to have any previous experience with horses. You learn together with your horse-loving child how horses tick and how to deal with them, and can thus optimally support him in learning to ride.

Some chapters are designed to appeal primarily to parents, such as the sections on choosing a good riding school that offers child-friendly lessons and suitable ponies. This also applies to the chapters about the benefits of equestrian sports for the child's development. The other sections are designed so that your child can browse through them alone or together with you. Because learning to ride together is much more fun.

Introduction for riding instructors

When it comes to learning to ride and handle horses, you obviously have a key role. Not only do you have a lot of responsibility for the welfare of the animals, but you're also the person who teaches the kids both the skills needed for riding and all the other things you need to know about horses. After all, riding is a sport that is practiced on the back of living creatures. In this respect, despite all the fun that naturally plays a central role in the riding training of children, the welfare of the horses must always be taken care of as well.

Riding lessons suitable for children are a real challenge - especially in times when kids spend more and more time in front of the TV, the computer or the Playstation. As a rule, they know horses and ponies mainly from movies and pictures. In addition, due to a lack of exercise, they have to be taught sensory and motor skills first, which are of crucial importance for riding. This often also applies to social skills.

The wonderful thing about horses is that they often react incredibly sensitively, especially towards children, and are therefore great teachers. They make shy children brave, teach cheeky ones the necessary sensitivity and also impart such important qualities as self-discipline, social competence and responsibility. In addition, they also help to improve motor skills - with the use of appropriate, child-friendly exercises and tasks.

This book is intended for you as a treasure trove of game ideas and motivating exercises on and around the horse, so that learning is fun and at the same time child-friendly. In addition, you will also learn what expectations parents and children come to you with, so that you can better adapt to them. You can also expect basic comments on the learning behavior of children, which you can immediately integrate into your daily work at the stable.

I hope that you can take away many new impulses and I wish you a lot of fun with your young riding students!

PART I: The horse

In order to be able to deal safely with the horse, it is of crucial importance to first get to know this living creature better. Thus prepared, the first meeting is much more relaxed and enjoyable, because you can directly assess the reactions of the animal much better. For while most people know that laid back ears can signal unwillingness in a horse, few are aware that there are gradations here. Slightly laid back ears can also indicate insecurity on the part of the horse, but then there is no question of aggression.

Furthermore, horses show certain typical reactions that are sometimes not easy for us humans to assess. We all may have heard that horses are often very shy and can startle and flee unawares. Maybe as a child you dream of keeping a pony in the unused garden shed. Then it has the whole garden to itself as well ... However, we can only really understand the typical behaviors of the horse if we know and understand its origin and its way of life. Often, for example, horses are called flight or herd animals - what this means exactly will be taught in this chapter.

In addition, you will learn which horse breeds and coat colors there are, what the body parts are called and much more. With this basic knowledge, you'll soon be a real horse expert.

Chapter 1: History and nature of the horse

1. 1 Origin of our riding horse

The horse as we know it today has gradually evolved over millions of years. The ancestors of today's horses looked quite different and it would not have been possible to ride them yet. The first known ancestor of today's horse lived about 50 million years ago and is called Eohippus - or prehistoric horse.

The prehistoric horse was hardly bigger than a fox. It lived in the forest, ate leaves there and had several toes on its feet. Over time, it had to adapt to its changing environment. The prehistoric horse gradually grew larger as it ate other foods, changed its dentition, and its toes also receded. A hard hoof was an advantage in its new habitat, the steppe. The hoof is, simplified spoken, the former middle finger, which was now surrounded by a horn capsule. The remaining phalanges of the finger had atrophied in the course of the development, however, one can still see them partially today. The so-called chestnut (a horny bulge on the inside of the horse's leg) is a remnant of the toes, as is the pastern (a small bone on the outside of the horse's leg that lies under the skin). The hoof had the advantage that it allowed the horse to walk well and quickly on the steppe soil where it now lived. The bit was now there to pluck dry grasses, and visibly adapted to this new task. And size not only impressed many a predator, but in combination with a long neck, the horse was able to spot sneaking predators from a distance. This new situation as a rather harmless prey animal was also the reason for numerous further specializations of the horse. The loner Eohippus now became a herd animal, because in the steppe there was no more protection by trees and a group can protect each other better. When a horse is distracted, perhaps because it is sleeping or eating, others pay attention to the surroundings and warn the herd members by their behavior in time when things get dicey. Then, as a harmless herbivore, it will first take flight before thinking about whether it was really necessary. This has been its only protection against predators, with teeth and hooves usually only the mares defended their foals in the worst case. In this respect, living alone is not a nice situation for a horse; equine companionship is quite crucial for its well-being. Anyone who has had the chance to see horse buddies playing with each other and devotedly scratching each other's fur with their teeth will immediately know why. In addition, the horse hears exceptionally well with its ears, even sounds that we humans can no longer perceive. And also his sense of sight is amazingly powerful, because a horse perceives the smallest movements that remain hidden to us. These fine senses are often enough the trigger for supposedly inexplicable reactions. If it shies away and runs off abruptly, it may be that the horse has seen or heard something sinister.

Gradually, the first dwelling horses evolved into the first wild horse breeds. The Przewalski horse is the best known wild horse breed still living today. It lives in Mongolia, has a standing mane, stripes on the legs like a zebra, grayish-brown coat and a black line that runs along the spine over the back (eel line). These wild horses are said to have given rise to our modern domestic horses, the horses on which we now ride, by being captured and tamed (this is called domestication). Possibly one has held them at the beginning above all therefore as food source.

At first, horses were also not mounts, but primarily farm animals. They carried or pulled heavy loads. They still did, until finally in the 20th century tractors and cars came along. In addition, horses were initially used to go to war with. However, at that time they were first harnessed in front of a chariot. The first surviving book by a horse trainer, the Hittite Kikkuli, dates from around 1500 BC. In it, he describes how to care for and train a chariot horse. Even then, people were very concerned about the proper care of these animals. Man also rode the horse for the first time to go to war - several hundred years before Christ. This meant that people could then travel faster, were much more maneuverable in battle, and could take advantage of the horse's strength - even if, at first, they rode without stirrups. Some of the lessons developed at that time to keep one's enemies at a distance are still sometimes ridden today. In demonstrations at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, such difficult exercises as courbettes, caprioles and levades can still be seen today.

The demand on our domestic horse has changed again and again over the centuries. Sometimes it was a war companion, then it was supposed to look beautiful and carry kings, or it was supposed to do hard work in the fields. Nowadays, we mainly want a faithful companion in everyday life and sports. To meet these requirements in the best possible