WESTERN HORSE RIDING

Let's Make Riding Safer For You and Your Kids

  • Home
  • Riding Safety
  • Gifts
  • For the Horse
  • For the Rider
  • Famous Riders
You are here: Home / Riding Safety / Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids-What to Expect For a Child

Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids-What to Expect For a Child

Western Range Rider

This post contains affiliate links to direct you to some of the products that our research has found to be most helpful to your horse riding activities. Your purchases will help us to diminish the costs that we incur in the process of building this site. This helps us be able to keep our site in operation.


Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids

Consider Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids As a Fun Activity

Today’s kids spend far too much of their time indoors in front of computers and TVs. This tends to cause many modern parents to be at their wits’ end when it comes to finding ways to entice them to play outside.

So readers who can relate to this problem might have to get a bit inventive. Have you ever considered horseback riding lessons for your kids as an alternative to this problem.

Maybe your kids would enjoy getting outdoors and learning how to ride horseback.

Instead of just encouraging them to engage in more unstructured outdoor play, try signing them up for horseback riding lessons for kids.

You can find out now how to get started below

⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬

Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids

How Young is Too Young?

There’s really no consistent, industry-wide answer to this question. Some instructors begin offering horse riding lessons for kids as young as seven years of age, or even younger.

In this article you will learn.....

  • Consider Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids As a Fun Activity
  • How Young is Too Young?
  • Required Equipment
  • Benefits of Riding Lessons
  • Getting Started
  • Mounting and Dismounting
  • How to Tell if a Child is Ready to Ride
Others believe that it’s best to wait until their students are more physically mature.

Kids of just about any age can at least enjoy a pony ride and many younger children are plenty mature enough to grasp basic skills. Ultimately, it’s up to parents to make the call on when to get their children started with riding lessons.

Another consideration as a parent would be to ask the trainer, what their opinion is of your child and their response to a horse.

The person with the most experience, in this case, is the horse trainer. They should allow your son or your daughter a quick ride with the trainer walking the horse.

This will help the trainer to give you the best advice as you should not only consider the age but how that child responds to actually riding a real horse.

Required Equipment

I need to talk about one thing right now. Let’s get to it. Horseback riding does require somewhat of an investment.

Western Style Riding Guide
Young Rider Wearing Safety Helmet

Parents will need to pay for lessons and, more often than not, they’ll have to supply their children with proper clothes, boots, and an approved safety riding helmet.

Although it’s perfectly acceptable to get started learning about horseback riding for kids in used clothing, helmets should always be purchased new.

Make sure to bring the child to the store to be fitted for a helmet so that it will fit properly.

In fact I wrote an informational post that may help you out with this. You can go here to read, Buy Only a Riding Helmet Certified By ASTM

Benefits of Riding Lessons

There are many benefits of horse riding for kids, even before they’ve really gotten the hang of it. It gets them out of the house and encourages them to be more physically active.

It cultivates character and teaches them important life skills. Once kids have learned the ropes, it can also offer a great confidence boost.

Some of the lesser-known benefits of riding lessons may come as a surprise to parents. For instance, one study performed by the Tokyo University of Agriculture showed that students who took horseback riding lessons perform better in school thanks to increased cognitive ability.

Plus, it offers good, wholesome fun and that, in itself, is a good reason to enroll kids in riding lessons.

Getting Started

Even parents who are avid riders sometimes find themselves at a loss when it comes to actually teaching their children how to ride.

horseback riding for kids
Beginning Horse Riding Lessons

That’s why the majority of them enroll their kids in official riding lessons.

If you are a parent who knows your way around a horse, you can definitely help your child get to know what is necessary for them to be successful with a horse.

They can offer their children the following horse riding tips for beginners before they head off to their first lessons.

Mounting and Dismounting

The process of mounting a horse requires some pretty specific foot and hand motions and children who are still too short to reach a saddle’s stirrups will be physically unable to mount by themselves.

Make sure to help the child retain his or her balance when he or she tries mounting for the first time and offer reminders of which foot and hand to use where.

Learning proper dismounting habits is just as important as knowing how to mount a horse appropriately. Kids who are tall enough to mount a horse for themselves should be tall enough to learn how to dismount, as well.

Offer plenty of support, but don’t just lift them down.

How to Tell if a Child is Ready to Ride

Parents who have helped their children learn how to mount and dismount or those who have observed while a trained instructor did so should have an idea of whether their kids are really ready to get started riding.

Is Your Child Balanced It Will Make a Large Difference

Pay attention to how well-balanced the child is and whether he or she has had the attention span to learn the basics before allowing them to proceed with lessons.

Horseback riding can be perfectly safe for mature children, even at a young age, but they have to be able to really get the basics down before they start horseback riding lessons for kids in earnest.

Read More About Horseback Riding Lessons-View Related Posts Below

The Beginner’s Guide to How to Ride a Horse Western Style
The beginners guide to how to ride a horse western style is a detailed report on basics that you need to know. I cover many different areas that a new horse rider should be informed of.
6 Basic Steps of Western Horse Riding Lessons
Western horse riding lessons are needed if you are going to ride a horse safely. You need to really enjoy the ride as well. Horses can be a great recreational activity.
Summary
Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids-What to Expect For a Child
Article Name
Horseback Riding Lessons For Kids-What to Expect For a Child
Description
Consider horseback riding lessons for kids as an alternative fun activity for your kids. You can get started today. Read about it in this informative post for the parents of today's seemingly always bored kids. Horseback riding lessons could be a godsend for you.
Author
Range Rider
Publisher Name
Western Horse Riding
Publisher Logo
Western Horse Riding

Filed Under: Riding Safety

Western Horse Riding Lessons
  • Spooky Horse Training Tips5 Top Spooky Horse Training Tips–Calming Your Horse
  • Difference Between English and Western RidingUnderstanding the Difference Between English and Western Riding
  • Horseback Riding Lessons For KidsHorseback Riding Lessons For Kids-What to Expect For a Child
  • Western Horse Riding Lessons6 Basic Steps of Western Horse Riding Lessons
  • How to ride a horse westernThe Beginner’s Guide to How to Ride a Horse Western Style

Western Horse Riding Accessibilty Statement

Western Horse Riding's Accessibility Statement

Our Partners

Guitar Junky

Storm Watch- Android Recently added

Cuppabean Reviews

© 2019 WesternHorseRiding.org. All Rights Reserved.

Affilate Links Disclosure | Amazon Disclosure | Contact | FTC Compliance | Privacy Policy | Site Disclaimer |Site Map | Social Media Disclosure | Terms & Conditions | GDPR Compliant |