Horseback Riding Lessons for the Adult Beginner Rider

Little Suzie took horseback riding lessons in my barn for six years before her interests turned to boys and parties. So much for horses for that family ... or so I thought. But soon after Suzie graduated to her new phase of teenhood, Suzie's mother decided she would take her turn in the saddle as my riding student. It's an interesting undertaking, providing riding instruction for an adult beginner. Mature riding students are a whole different ball game than child riders.

Adults fear. They fear the size and strength of a horse's body in comparison to their own. They fear their lack of understanding of equine psychology and behavior. They fear the interspecies communication barrier. They fear incompetence. They fear falling. They fear pain. They just fear.

To overcome this fear, it's important to give adults the opportunity to get to know their lesson horse as an individual from the ground. This is most easily accomplished by having the adult spend time grooming and tacking up their mount before each of their riding lessons. The adult is able to establish a trusting relationship with the horse in this way, recognizing and appreciating the passive nature of the animal. Trust nurtured on the ground will extend to some degree to trust in the saddle, which will greatly facilitate the process of riding instruction.

Adults are prone to tension, both mentally and physically. They tend to bring all of their daily stresses into the horseback riding arena with them, and those stresses interfere with their ability to relax and move fluidly in the saddle. Even those adult riders who are able to leave mental stressors at the barn door still have to deal with the likely decline of physical flexibility influenced by their age.

Breathing exercises in the saddle can help release both mental and physical tension. Asking adult students to answer "list" questions such as listing horse breeds or grooming tools can help purge the mind of unrelated mental distractions. Mounted relaxation and stretching exercises can also be incorporated into riding lessons to help loosen tight muscles and improve flexibility in the adult body.

Adults over think and overachieve. "Accomplishment" and "success" are built into the adult psyche, but they are often counterproductive during riding instruction. Adults who think through every move and try to force their bodies to behave in certain ways in the saddle cannot respond with the physical intuition and flexibility necessary to move in comfort and concert with the horse's body. The harder they concentrate on a physical technique, the more their bodies tense and become physically ineffective, or, worse yet, pass that tension on to their horse.

Here, too, it can be very helpful to have adult students engage in benign conversation to interrupt their focus on forcing technique. Silly as it may sound, riding lessons might even benefit from a little singing. These mental distraction strategies are particularly important for beginning adult students who tend to have a particularly difficult time separating mental and physical responses. Relax the mind; relax the body. Once the novice adult riding student has developed the ability to relax in the saddle, progress during riding lessons will proceed steadily. There will be plenty of opportunity to focus on technique and physical development as riding instruction advances.

Adult beginning riding students bring both attributes and obstacles to the riding instruction arena. These present challenges that an experienced horseback riding instructor will find difficult to resist.