9 May
2022
Riding Lessons
A local lady has been holding weekly riding lessons for the 4H kids. It’s a group lesson to help with basic horsemanship. The kids enjoyed the one we’ve made it to immensely. They do much better listening to someone else than they do for me. I also don’t think of the great fun games to play! We are so lucky that she is willing to give her time to help the children.
The best part of it came later, well after the lesson.
I got the horses out and both children happily climbed on. We were going to go out for a ride, but the kids wanted to play games, like they did at the lesson, first! Alright. We could sure do that. I got out a barrel, a cone, and some rings. They proceeded to play.
Riding his little mare up to the barrel my son narrated what he was doing. “Stop by the barrel, pet my horse so she knows that she did a good job, put the ring on the cone”.
How wonderful is that? Not only do the kids get help learning to ride but they are all getting a small dose of reward based training mixed in there. Not a big hard to swallow one but a perfect little serving, mixed in so smoothly that it doesn’t come across as anything but a matter of course.
That is how the world is changed.
