My ride partner has a 9-year old daughter who has never ridden before expect
for us to pony her on little walk/trot rides. We have been working with her
on handling a couple of our horses, but I'm kind of at a loss as to how to
logically go about starting a junior. What is a realistic goal? What should
we expect from her with regard to interest and determination? She says she
wants to endurance ride, but at times she doesn't really show a lot of
incentive or initiative. Do you think she really wants to do this, or she
just wants to be involved with mom and her friend? What should we look for?
And if there is a geniune desire to pursue the sport, what is a realistic
time frame and training program for her? I just don't know where to begin.
joyce
joyce@homer.ca.boeing.com
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Joyce,
As the mother of a 9 year old, I will give my opinions,and hopefully
another friend with children with also respond....
My daughter started trail riding on her own at age 6. At first I
ponied her, then she insisted to be on her own. She also had
many lessons in the arena as far as being able to stop and turn,
and trot. This was on a Welsh pony.
That next spring, we started short trail rides. Maybe an hour
at first. Throw on a stop with lunch. Many times, we hooked up with
friends that also had kids learning to ride. That does make it
a lot more fun. That first spring she learned to canter on a
slight uphill, in a dirt road. It gave her a bit of confidence. By
the next fall, age 7, she was quite comfortable trotting and can-
tering on the trail.
Lost all confidence during the winter, started all over from scratch
that spring. But got back into it quickly, did come camping trips,
and several poker rides. Fun stuff, and lots of rides with friends.
By fall of age 8 she was talking about doing an endurance ride. I
found one the following spring I thought she could do. Flat
terrain, easy. We started doing longer rides, at "endurance pace."
She would get excited, then doubtful. At some point, perhaps
several months before the ride, I made her make a committment. If
she didn't think she could do it, fine. By that point, we had
done a 20 mile ride. But if she comitted, we were going to try to
do the thing! She did decide todo so, and we completed the ride
about 29th out of over 100. She was really proud. But I had to
do a lot of pep talks on that ride!
Does the little girl have a horse she can handle? She will have
to do close to the distance before you would even consider it.
Finding another kid to ride with will help a lot. Try to make
it fun, and i hate to use the word "bribes", but sometimes you
may need to stoop to that level!
You will figure out pretty soon if she is having a blast, or
is not quite up to it!
Karen
To: ridecamp@endurance.net