After finding a riding center that will fit specific needs, the next step is to sign up for lessons, at which time it's important to meet the instructors. Schedule a riding lesson that will help in the achievement of specific goals with help from an equestrian riding instructor in this video on horse riding lessons.
Hello. My name is Chelsey Sawtell, primary riding instructor at Black Friar Farm in Kingston Springs, Tennessee and today we will be discussing how to sign up for your first riding lesson. Once you've found a riding facility in your area that you think will fit your needs, the next thing to do is to sign up for your lesson. You'll first want to contact the facility and ask to meet the instructors. See if you can audit a lesson. You don't want to schedule a lesson in a facility with, that you feel as though does not meet your needs. Of course you would not contact a barrel racing barn and ask for hundred-jumper lessons or vice versa. When you come to the farm, look and see how the horses are kept. Are they healthy? Happy? Clean? Meet the instructors. See if there's one of the instructors that you seem to have a rapport with that you feel as though you would be able to adequately take instruction from. This does not necessarily mean it's the person you find the friendliest, but the person that you respect the most and believe that their methods of teaching match your views on learning appropriately. Ask to meet the horses. Does the facility offer various breeds for you to use? Do they have horses of different levels and abilities to accommodate the different riders and rider techniques? Ask if you will be assigned the same mount permanently or if you will be able to rotate mounts as your needs change. Not everyone gets along with every horse and there's nothing wrong with saying your personality just does not go well with the horse that you're assigned to and ask for another. Some of the things that you will want to address when signing up for your first lesson are the availability of your times that you have to ride. What is the farms policy on cancellations? Are you required to give twenty-four hour notice? Is there an emergency clause? Are you able to ride three-hundred sixty-five days a year? Do they have all weather footing? Do they occasionally take week breaks or take months off to give the school and lesson horses a break? These are all things that you will want to know if you, especially if you have goals that would require you to practice on a weekly, bi-weekly, or tri-weekly basis. Once you have found an instructor and a horse that you find are suitable, you can begin by scheduling your lesson. I prefer that a student schedule three lessons in a row. It is very difficult to tell, in one lesson alone, how well you are going to communicate with your current teacher and mount. Always give them a day or two of lessons to decide if you really enjoy them or if you would like to ask for another instructor. And the final thing to ask are if you book multiple lessons for the month and pay in advance, do they give you a discount? Some barns will give you a five percent or ten percent discount for both lessons purchased, but beware, most barns will require that those lessons are used within the thirty day time period. So if you were rained out and unavailable to ride, you could end up paying for lessons that you don't take.
Specialty: Young Stock and Horsemanship
