The first riding lesson – what can you and your child expect?

The first riding lesson at the stable of your dreams has been booked, your child is proudly putting on their first children’s riding gear and can hardly wait to get started.

As a rule, you have already found out how the first riding lesson will be organised in the preliminary talk with the riding instructor team. The organisation of the first riding lesson depends on the riding school and the age of the child. If there are still uncertainties regarding the first riding lessons, this chapter is the right one for you.

Learning to ride begins even before the riding lesson

If you want to learn to ride, there’s no getting round grooming and tacking up. The horse is not a piece of sports equipment, but a partner that needs to be looked after. By handling the horse from the ground, children learn how to lead and tie up the horse. In addition to correct grooming and tacking up, they also learn about the horse’s anatomy, character and equipment.

To ensure that the first contact with the horse leaves a positive impression and that any fears of contact are reduced, some riding schools also offer theory lessons in which children receive initial information in a playful and age-appropriate way on how to behave with the horse, what to look out for and how grooming and tacking up works. As children learn best through practical experience, the knowledge imparted is often quickly put into practice and the young riding beginners can groom their riding school pony for the first time under constant supervision and guidance.

How does the first riding lesson for your child work?

As a rule, the first riding lesson takes place in a group on led ponies. The child must first develop a feeling for sitting on the horse and can get used to keeping their balance – initially at walking pace. Riding instructors usually use playful elements and various materials to make the lessons varied and interesting. In the first few riding lessons, the child still holds on to a monkey grip on the saddle to gain security and confidence.

What happens next with learning to ride?

Only in the next lessons will the independent seat be developed in a playful way, e.g. by the child stretching their arms to the side or upwards and ‚picking apples from the tree‘ or sitting backwards on the horse. To correct the seat, riding instructors like to work with inner images, e.g. by asking the children to imagine that they have a beautiful necklace around their neck that they really want to show everyone. These abstract aids are particularly suitable for pre-school and primary school children to correct their posture and seat.

Once the child is more confident in the saddle, the pace on the lead reins can be increased and trotted. The child usually switches to the lunge lesson as soon as it can sit balanced in the gaits and has mastered the first weight and leg aids. As the cognitive abilities and physical prerequisites are usually only present at primary school age, it may well take a while before the child picks up the reins for the first time and rides independently on the lunge.

Once the basics are in place and the combination of weight, leg and rein aids can be given fairly independently by the child, it is time for group riding lesson. Here, the participants in the riding lesson ride one behind the other and work on the school figures and changes of pace in the group, which are specified by the riding instructor using commands. The great challenge is that each individual must contribute to the harmonious image of the group by focussing on the instructor’s commands and trying to implement them selectively by giving the appropriate aids on the horse. Maintaining the required minimum distance of one horse length between the horses also requires sensitivity in terms of speed, so that the rider must remain in constant contact with the horse.