From Melinda in Hoboken:
Hello Laura:
I found your web site yesterday and I have to say finally! There are so few resources out there for riding instructors and this really fills a void. Anyway, I was wondering about how you deal with hyperactive students. Have you ever had one in your riding academy before? I’ve got a couple kids who are wired for sound and I just don’t know how to handle them without upsetting a few parents.
This insightful question from the Ask Laura section of this web site brings up an issue that isn’t routinely discussed. Melinda has touched on an issue that you don’t hear talked about very often.
Why? Because it’s sensitive and because none of us wants to offend a parent or, God forbid, a child.
Teachers from every industry deal with hyperactive students, and there is no single easy fix. I’ve had several students diagnosed with ADD and ADHD (and many hyperactive students with no such diagnosis) and those students are almost always the most challenging.
When a child is naturally hyperactive or lacking a decent attention span, it is up to riding instructors to maintain their focus. There are a few ways to accomplish this, and I recommend a combination of these methods.
Discipline
Even if a student has been diagnosed with ADHD or a similar disorder, discipline is an effective method of dealing with hyperactive students. Despite their natural predispositions, riding is a dangerous sport and requires a certain level of reverence. If a student is not willing to recognize this, discipline is not only permissible, but necessary.
I don’t mean you should be pulling kids off their horses left and right. Don’t spank or yell or throw tantrums yourself because you’ve reached wit’s end. Instead, implement an effective and conservative discipline policy that applies to everyone.
For example, when students are not paying attention, they have to come into the middle of the arena and stand for ten minutes. This method of discipline means a shortening of riding time, which is usually an effective deterrent.
If the behavior continues, hyperactive students who don’t focus in class must dismount and end the lesson early. Not only is this disappointing for the rider, but it also encourages parents to get involved because they don’t want to pay for lessons where their children aren’t taught.
Focusing Exercises
The next method for dealing with hyperactive students is implementing focusing exercises that encourage kids to pay attention. Often, students with ADHD and other disorders simply need something to occupy their minds. It might be a difficult pattern, such as serpentines, or perhaps a lunge line lesson with lots of two-point work.
Don’t assume that hyperactive students are always misbehaving. Some kids simply can’t control themselves and they need your help to work through it.
It helps to be proactive with hyperactive students. If you know a child is predisposed to getting off-task or distracting other students, start each lesson with a bang and keep him occupied until the end. Don’t give him an opportunity to misbehave.
Positivity Training
One student I fondly recall from my early days of teaching was diagnosed with ADHD and his mother was up-front with me about it from the beginning. “He’s been kicked out of four barns now, so tell me if you can’t handle it,” she said when we first met. “I won’t be offended.”
This child (we’ll call him Jamie) was as distracted and frustrating as his mother claimed, but in different ways from your average hyperactive student. Jamie’s main problem was frustration. If he didn’t understand something right away (such as holding his reins properly), he’d get furious with himself.
On more than one occasion, he threw his reins down in a rage and shouted, “I can’t!” over and over again.
To get through this, I took him aside and explained to him that he needed to use his anger energy in a more constructive manner. I said, “Next time you want to say that you can’t do something, I want you to tell me, “I can!” in your loudest voice.”
He really liked that idea, and after I gave him a firm lecture about how it’s a very bad idea for a rider to drop his reins, I sent him back out on the rail. Sixteen times, I heard his tiny voice yell, “I can!” from across the arena. It made my heart soar.
Consistency Wins the Day
Whatever approach you take with hyperactive students, make sure it’s consistent. Kids need to know the consequences of their actions, to depend on your response to whatever they might throw at you.
The absolute worst thing you can do is change how you handle hyperactive students from week to week.
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About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Editor in Chief of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. Follow her EquiTips on Twitter or check out her writing Web site.
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I once had an ADHD student whose parents did not tell me about the girl’s condition. She had trouble focusing, but I was able to direct her and teach a decent lesson each week. Then when school let out, they took her off her medication and this student went from difficult to IMPOSSIBLE and I had no idea why! We were about 10 minutes into the lesson; I was asking her to walk a circle. She couldn’t complete it even when I talked her through every step. I walked it so she could follow me and that worked, but afterwards she still could not walk a circle on her own. This resulted in raising my voice, and eventually I yelled, “GET OFF MY HORSE!” I was so angry I couldn’t talk to her at all. I got a calm phone call from her mother later explaining that they had stopped her medication, and that she didn’t think to tell me about it. I was SO appologetic; I would have NEVER lost my patience had I known. Now I am straightforward about asking parents and students about any medications or learning disabilities. Don’t be afraid to ask these questions – we instructors are teachers and we need to know these things to give the student the best of our own abilities!
Thanks for sharing that story, Lisa. I think it will really help instructors to put this issue into perspective. Because we work with horses (and kids) every day, it’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae and to forget that we’re putting small children on enormous horses. The more you know about your students, the better off you’ll be…and that’s a great idea for an article! Thanks again.