Handy tips and tricks

Ave Sodalis

So the story is I'm teaching a woman to ride. I have no problem with this and I have taught people successfully in the past. Usually however, I have all the time in the world. With this woman... I have until September to get her walking, trotting, cantering and jumping as well as teach her the basics of everything to do with horses. She's doing a course in September that she already applied for that requires her to be able to do this. I'm teaching her 3 days a week and she is helping out with the mucking out (etc) with another woman but she's not learning much there about riding. Now, I'm fairly sure I can get her doing all this by the end of the summer but it won't be very good and god knows how many habits she'll have that I won't have time to get out of her. She's a middle aged woman who had never had her hand on a horse before she started a month ago so she knew nothing and she isn't overly flexible nor confident.

I was hoping that people here would share handy little tips and tricks that they've learned over the years that really helped them. I have told her about pretending to hold a bird when holding the reins... not too tight that you'd strangle the bird but not too loose that it would fly off.
I know it's a bit of a nightmare situation but any simple but useful things people have learned of various instructors would be good to know

later12

Another imagination aid I find useful is to tell riders to imagine their horse were just to disappear from underneath them; they want to be sitting in a way that they would land cleanly and squarely on both feet if this were to happen, just like a gymnast. This can help with the rider's seat and balance.

For riders who ride hard with their hands, it can be helpful to ask them to visualise that the reins are made from elastic, and will snap if they pull too hard. This can also encourage riders to control the area behind the horse's shoulder more effectively.

Another easy visualised tip is to ask the rider to imagine his or her body growing upwards toward the roof, and that he has go-go-gadget legs that grow downwards toward the ground, but to maintain suppleness when doing so, and not to hollow the back.

Good luck with this process. I certainly don't want to be ageist here, but I do find that older riders often take a little longer to develop a nice riding style than youngsters, but on the plus side, they do usually have far more patience and perseverence, so I hope this works in both of your favour.