These lessons are designed to give students a broad understanding of equine handling, grooming, and riding. Riding fundamentals will include proper mounting/dismounting, proper placement and use of hands and feet, how to best use your body to communicate with your horse regarding direction and speed. Students in beginning lessons will be assisted in haltering their horse, grooming, tacking up, and of course riding.  

If it’s within your means, you would be best served by booking a private lesson for your first experience so your instructor can work with you to ensure you understand the basics. However, we know that doesn’t work for everyone and we’ll do our best to work with you in every situation.  Just know, if you choose to start in group lessons it’s going to take you a bit longer to catch on to all of the concepts, but you WILL get there! 

Students entering this level will be able to get their horse without help, groom and tack up unassisted, know the basics of steering, and how to walk, trot, and canter on a horse.  These students will have a solid understanding of controlling their horse while mounted, and will be ready to work on fine tuning their abilities.  In this level, we will work on using your seat for at least 80% of your communication with your horse, and how to control your horse at a canter.  You will also be allowed to ride more challenging horses and might even spend some time riding outside of the arena depending on the weather and which horses are available.

Level two students must be approved by an instructor.

These students must be able to catch and tack up their own horse and warm them up prior to their lesson and cool them off after their lesson all without the assistance of an instructor. These lessons are only 30 minutes because the entire lesson is spent on instruction in the arena. Level three students will communicate what they want to work on as they will have a firm understanding of their interests and which directions they would like to next explore.

Groundwork lessons are designed to help you begin to read horses and communicate with them. We highly recommend these lessons to every student as a solid riding career depends on a solid understanding of the way horses think. In these lessons you will learn how to get in sync with a horse, you will learn how to reassure them, you’ll explore the basics of training (solid training of horses always begins on the ground) and you learn different aspects and types of longing. These lessons might also include walking your horse through in-hand obstacles, walking them outside in the field, and preparing for in-hand or showmanship competitions. Talk to your instructor and explore what most interests you!

These aren’t lessons so much as experiences. If you just want to brush a horse or braid their hair or just spend time loving on a horse then this is the one for you! An instructor or working student will go over the basics of grooming and be there just in case you need them, but this is called grooming time and not a grooming lesson because the idea is to allow you to enjoy the calming and grounding aspects of equine interaction on your own. You’re welcome to play soft music or bring a chair and just sit and read to your horse, this is your time so make the most of it!

We are going to try this one out and see how it goes, students must have instructor approval to participate. If you’d like to add horses to your Saturday night plans, then this one is for you! This is a 90-minute block of time where you can work independently with a horse on your specific interests. An instructor will be present to monitor and assist if things go awry but the idea is to begin some independent work with horses.

Do you have a little one aged 4-6 with an interest in riding? These 30-minute lessons give your little one a small taste of our lessons. Peewee lessons are individual lessons and the instructor’s goal is to meet your child where they are at. Some kids might take some time to be ready to get in the saddle, some will be more interested in games, and some will be ready to learn the basics of walking, trotting, and steering their animal. The important thing to remember is this is child-led, not parent or teacher led. We want to empower your little one to stand up for themselves and feel confident in asking for what they need, horses are wonderful teachers so just sit back and allow the magic to happen.