Filed under Lesson plans

Incorporating Life Goals Into Riding Lessons

This post is about intentionally using riding skills to target your riders’ life goals. This concept was introduced to me by the evaluator Sandy Webster at the Advanced Workshop I attended at Heartland Therapeutic Riding. It is perhaps the most impactful concept I learned from the week, as it has changed my perspective on instructing for therapeutic riding … Continue reading

Intake Assessment II

Recently we started doing a new Intake Assessment process, and I really like it, so as usual wanted to share. These are the assessment activities my current barn now use for new riders and again throughout the year to determine progression in areas of functional ability, based on a nationally published assessment test that one of our … Continue reading

Components of a Great Lesson

The following is a great list of what makes a great lesson! We use something similar at my barn for evaluating new instructors. For new instructors: use this list to evaluate yourself after you teach a lesson! If you do this enough, you’ll start remembering the components during your lessons and improve your teaching! For … Continue reading

Mini Lesson Plans

Some instructors write detailed lesson plans. Some instructors have it all in their heads. I started out with the former, and have refined it to a shortened version I keep in my pocket all day. It’s super helpful when you have lots of students, and then you can mark notes on the paper to remember … Continue reading

Creating SMART Goals

Goals and Objectives should be SMART. This means they are… Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely For more info about what this means, see the whole article at: http://topachievement.com/smart.html Thanks to my boss for giving me this link! **************** Note: This is not professional advice, this is a blog. I am not liable for what you … Continue reading

How to Mount and Dismount

I have seen many different variations of mounting and dismounting both disabled and able-bodied riders. I recently went through all my notes on this topic and compiled the following detailed descriptions about the ways I learned to mount and read about. I wanted to share because this was one of the hardest things for me … Continue reading

The Intake Assessment

I recently had a reader ask me about Intake Assessments. I thought this would be a good opportunity to open it up for discussion! The following is information I’ve compiled from my PATH Intl. Instructor Certification Workshop, an article in STRIDES Spring 2011 “The Assessment Process”, and the Preparatory TRI Course at HorseCoursesOnline.com Please leave comments and … Continue reading

Lesson Plan Template

I just found this in my notes from a conference. I like the fresh perspective it offers to The Basic Lesson Plan. Lesson Plan Template Transition Calm Down Relax & Stretch Review & Remember New Skill Practice, Figure it out Have Fun (Activity) Hugs & Bonding Do you have any lesson plan templates to share? … Continue reading

Riding Lesson Planning – template by Amanda

Amanda at Running Shoes and Cowgirl Boots recently wrote a simple great post about how she plans her riding lessons – and I’m not just saying that because she refers to this blog, but because I think it’s a great resource, complete with a PDF template for you to use. Check it out! Riding Lesson Planning (http://balancingonhoney.com/2013/07/30/riding-lesson-planning/) … Continue reading

The First Lesson

In my certification process we learned about doing a rider assessment, and teaching a new skill in a lesson, but we never learned about what happens in between – the exciting FIRST lesson! This is such a joy – a joy for you to share your love of horses with a new student for the … Continue reading