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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

How to practice teaching a riding lesson in the comfort of your dining room

Here's "Me" with my three "students." Notice that the pony resembles my current favourite pony at the Little Valley!  I love Playmobil.  It's the kind of thing you don't grow out of.

...introduction and explanation...



...riders on the rail, for a warm-up...




...and now our first rider tries the pattern.


He'll have to have some verbal guidance along the way, some encouragement, and a few corrections.  Nobody rides perfectly the first time.


But he's doing well.  Other than riding with an invisible bridle, which I don't think is really encouraged but I'll let him get away with it this time.  Next week I want to see a bridle on his horse.  Geez some people....



I should be paying closer attention to the last part of his pattern though.


Pony time.


That is one huge barrel, eh?

And she's done.  
The guy with the black horse requested that I not show pictures of his turn.  He just wasn't getting it.  That's okay.  He will, soon, with practice.  After we do the pattern once, I want to go through it at least once more so the riders can improve.  It gives them confidence.  

I know this from personal experience.  

Finally, they walk the arena a few more times while we discuss what we learned, and answer some questions.

Then we put the horses, and riders, fences and pylons, into a box and eat dinner.  

14 comments:

mugwump said...

I like the logic of your lessons. I also like your practice arena. I used to teach reining patterns with Breyers.

Olly said...

Great lesson. I'll keep it in mind if I break out the Western Playmobile stuff. Most likely the closest I'll ever get to a horse, lol.

annyong said...

ok so their names are: (me, of course!), slim (he's a cowboy from texas, but we're not quite sure why he needs riding lessons...) and pete (he's a little bit "different".... that's why he named his horse "blackie").

annyong said...

oh yeah and the pony's name is skyla!!

Anonymous said...

I want a playmobile set too!!!

Anonymous said...

I want a playmobile set too!!!

Sharon said...

Great lesson - looks like you're all ready for the real thing. I think I also want a playmobile set now! lol

Paul Tee said...

Great visualization exercise, Heidi. Put a candle in the middle and you got yourself a cakewalk on Saturday.

Cakewalk

Best of the best
West of the rest
Straighten the bridle
Stay in the saddle
around we go
Hang on, hang on.

Heels in, toes out
Posture does count
Pattern to close
Nose after nose
Relax, make easy
You're tight as a drum

Cakewalk it is
Hers after his
Lesson for this
fist over fist
You have done it
And now it's done.

Right?

Paul Tee said...
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Paul Tee said...
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Paul Tee said...
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dilling said...

hahahaha...is that yours? i have the playmobile ark...lovers it

Paul Tee said...

Uhmm. The deletes are mine. For some reason, the site published my comment in triplicate.

Good Luck, Heidi.

Heidi the Hick said...

Playmobil is awesome, eh? We had many years when that's all my kids wanted for birthdays and Christmas presents. They'd get one gift and that was it, and they loved it!

I can't take credit for this idea though. Mugwump has mentioned Breyer horses before, and Susan and I raided the baby's toy box last week so we could set up a lesson on the kitchen counter at her house. (We were going to use a Tyrannosaurus for Bo!)

I"m quite sure we'll be doing a little pretend lesson like this at home again. It's actually really helpful to visualize how the pattern will look and if it will be practical to set things up that way.

Plus it's darn funny and kinda cracks me up!