HORSEPLAY: Learning Lessons

“I FELT LIKE I was flying,” is what my niece Ashely Griffiths, then 8, my brother’s middle child, told me the first time she jumped a horse over a small fence during riding lessons I paid for her to have in 1996.

Prior to that jump, she first learned a lot of basic horsemanship. I recall her saying she felt like, “I was dancing with my horse” after learning how to “post,” which, in a nutshell, is the rider alternating between sitting and slightly standing in the stirrups — a constant up and down motion timed with the two-beat rhythm of the horse’s trot.

At the time, I was boarding my horse at the Santiago Canyon stables, located near where I lived in Mission Viejo, Calif. My riding time was mostly limited to trail rides after work through the hills in my western saddle.

When coming with me to the stables, Ashley saw kids riding in English saddles and jumping their horses over fences. She wanted to do that, too, so I was eager to help her get started.

Prior to her lesson, I made sure Ashley was going to be riding her instructor’s safest and best trained lesson horse for beginning riders. Not by coincidence, the horse was an older “been there, done that” mare who, in her older age, was content her current riders were now younger and didn’t push her to go faster nor to jump higher.

Obviously, I believe gifting riding lessons is a wonderful way to introduce someone to horses, teaching him or her to ride, as well as seeing how interested in horses they really are — before taking the plunge into buying a horse or pony. Horses can live 30 years or longer, so ownership should never be taken lightly. While not human, they too have feelings and, if treated right, will end up trusting and bonding with the humans who ride and care for them.

So, what should you look for when choosing someone to teach your child to ride? Basic things to ask and look for are:

Does the facility and instructor have a good reputation? If not horse savvy, do you know someone who is? Ask if they know a good place, and can even accompany you when checking out a facility?

To start with, will your child be riding a safe, calm and well-trained schooling horse who is nice and good for beginners?

Does the instructor insist students wear riding helmets to protect the head in case the student falls off? And have extra available if your child doesn’t have one?

Early on, I suggest signing up for weekly lessons for three or more consecutive months to see if your child stays interested, and enjoys the responsibly that comes with it.

Lessons should include learning how to lead the horse out of its stall or pasture, tie the horse, clean its hooves, to groom and brush and saddle the horse and, after the lesson, staying to do the reverse prior to putting the horse away. And then, perhaps, helping to pick the manure and debris up from the placed he’d been tied. A child that’s truly passionate about horses will look forward to doing all that and more.

For a rider with a few years of lessons under their belt, leasing or half-leasing a horse on a month-to-month basis is a good introduction to ownership, but without the lifelong commitment. A lease allows for more saddle time and offers a taste of the work involved in horse ownership.

Plus, if the horse turns out not to be a good fit for them, the parents can return it to the owner without feeling stuck with a horse that’s not a good fit with the child.

Last Saturday afternoon, I decided to make an impromptu stop at two training facilities I think are excellent for beginning riders, Freedom Farm and Fox-Bell Training Farm. Both are located off Old Olympic Highway in Agnew, have indoor and outdoor riding arenas, along with schooling horses available for different riding levels and abilities. They each offer Western and English riding lessons, and jumping.

While I’m aware there are many other private riding facilities with capable instructors and horses, these are two facilities well-known to me, and, with indoor arenas, so lessons can take place regardless of weather.

Freedom Farm has the facilities — and very large indoor arena — many horse owners such as myself can only dream of having.

Owners Jerry Schmidt and Mary Gallagher have worked hard over the years to make her dream come true, and they continually improve upon it.

While Jerry works the farm aspect, Mary is the horse trainer and instructor who runs the horse program. I arrived as she was finishing up a Hoof Beats group lesson, her program for teens. Her second to last student had just sailed smoothly over a jump and then Mary turned her focus on schooling her last student, Hadley Wolslegel, over a set of cavetti. Helping her to maintain her form while timing her horse to maintain a smooth and balanced pace when trotting over the evenly spaced ground poles.

Then I went to Fox-Bell Farm & Training. There, owner Shelby Vaughn is known for taking some of her more horse-obsessed and experienced teen students under her wings as assistants. Over the years, a few have advanced to becoming lesson instructors for some beginning and intermediate riders.

When I arrived, beginning youth instructor Kaia Lestage, 17, was finishing up giving a riding lesson in the round pen to Emma Fowler, 9, who was riding on Fabio the pony. Her mom said she brings her every Saturday for lessons, because her daughter loves horses and her lessons.

One of Shelby’s more advanced riders and assistant, Sophie Feike, was giving an intermediate lesson to a rider in the outdoor arena. Shelby herself, is, of course, a very good and capable trainer and instructor, too. I just like pointing out how she, like Mary, helps their youths to progress.

For more information, follow Fox-Bell Farm & Training on Facebook or contact Shelby at 206-399-7683. They’re located at 136 Finn Hall Road in Agnew.

Freedom Farm is off Old Olympic Highway at 493 Spring Road. For more information contact owner Mary Gallagher at 360-457-4897 or through the Freedom Farm Facebook page.

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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.