Many riding instructors spend hours debating the advantages of group riding lessons and private riding lessons, wondering which is better for their students. What they rarely take into consideration is this simple fact:
Either option can be a mistake if you don’t know what you’re doing.
If you’ve been teaching group riding lessons and the same problems continue to recur, you might take a step back from the issue before scrapping group lessons entirely. The answer, rather than switching to private riding lessons, might be to change your technique.
Following are some of the most common reasons, in my experience, why group riding lessons fail.
1- Too Many Students
Group riding lessons are not meant to be a free-for-all. If you’ve got too many students in your lessons, none of them will receive adequate attention and you’ll wind up with chaos rather than productive, efficient coaching.
I never teach more than six students in group riding lessons, and that’s only if each of the riders is sufficiently experienced to handle such a large class. With beginners, I never put more than three riders in a class just to be on the safe side.
There can also be too many students in group riding lessons that are focused on single-rider events. Jumping, barrel racing, pole bending and reining are just a few examples. Since students have to take turns jumping a course or running a pattern, the time they actually spend in instruction decreases.
2- Not Enough Experience
I mentioned above that group riding lessons should be limited according to the experience of each of the riders. This is also true of the instructor. A green riding instructor with little experience in the arena will find it much more difficult to handle large groups.
Be honest with yourself and set up group riding lessons according to your own abilities. If you know you can’t get away with teaching more than two riders at a time, stick with that until you gain more experience.
Horse business owners who employ riding instructors should watch out for this as well. A good employer will scrupulously evaluate his or her employees and ensure that no safety risks are taken.
3- Students Don’t Know
Have you actually taken the time to teach your students how to ride in a group? To you, it might seem like common sense, but it’s confusing to the uninitiated. Staying away from other horses, passing to the inside, circling to avoid a colision—these skills must be taught.
If this is the problem with all of your group riding lessons, consider holding a clinic or workshop to teach every student at the same time. Run through all of the potential problems riders can encounter in groups, then demonstrate how they should avoid those problems.
4- No Lesson Plan
How can you expect to run a timely and efficient group riding lesson without a lesson plan? Riding lesson plans allow you to map out in advance the goals you want to accomplish and the exercises to perform. I’ll go over this in more detail in a future blog post.
The point, however, is that group riding lessons should be structured. You wouldn’t recommend an English teacher lecture her high school class without such a plan, so why would you?
5- Poor Group Dynamic
It is not a good idea to simply throw a bunch of students into group riding lessons and hope they work well together. That’s like selecting 10 random people from the U.S. Census Bureau’s report and demanding they be friends.
Instead, build group riding lessons around personalities, learning styles and goals. Don’t put students who just “like to ride” with serious competitors or gregarious students with shy ones.
Similarly, group riding lessons work best when all the students have approximately the same experience. Otherwise, you’ll either have to slow down experienced riders or rush the beginners. Create group riding lessons where everyone can learn together without frustration or fear.
Group Riding Lessons That Work
Are you interested in teaching effective, productive group riding lessons? Keep reading Riding Instructor University. Better yet, subscribe to the blog so you never miss an update. You might also consider hiring me for clinics or consulting.
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About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Chief Equestrian Officer of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. She believes that any horse business can succeed provided its owner practices smart strategy.
