Evaluating Riding Instructors and Facilities

Finding a riding instructor suitable to your needs, experience, discipline and expectations isn't always easy. In my 30 years of riding and taking lessons, I've ridden with more than 15 different instructors, and that doesn't include clinicians. And, unfortunately, sometimes you might find a great riding instructor at a less-than-desirable facility. To make your evaluations, follow these easy steps:

> Discipline. First know what discipline you want to ride and select an instructor who is expert in that area. For example, if you want to ride dressage, you wouldn’t go to a hunter/jumper facility and expect its instructors to all know how to teach dressage.
> Certification. You can check with riding instructor associations to see which instructors are certified in your area. Certification is a great method of determining the qualifications of instructors; however, the certification process is very expensive (potentially costing more than $500). Many very experienced and qualified riding instructors choose not to obtain certification because of the expense. Some states, like Massachusetts, have an affordable certification process. But most states do not. (for example, the Certified Horsemanship Association and the American Riding Instructors Association have certification programs).
> Word of mouth. Tons of online equine bulletin boards have members from all over the country who are ready to make recommendations about their favorite riding instructors.
> Watch lessons. The best way to ascertain an instructor’s teaching methods, expertise and suitability for what you want to learn is by observing several lessons with riders and horses of different levels of ability and experience.
> Determine cost effectiveness. One instructor may charge $30 an hour and the other $100 per hour, but you need to determine how much information is being gained by the rider in the different lessons. In some cases, you’ll find the more expensive instructor may be an awful lot of hype over a name and you could have received the very same training, or better, from the $30 per hour instructor. In other cases, you might find the $30 per hour instructor is not nearly as knowledgeable and that you have gained as much information in one lesson from the $100 an hour instructor as you may get in four lessons from the $30 per hour instructor. Watch several lessons from each and watch them teach different levels of riders. You can also speak to their students to see how they feel they have progressed.
> Go to horse shows. Watch instructors with their students as they compete. You may find you are interested in lessoning with the instructor with the most riders who are being pinned first. Or you may find yourself interested in the instructor who, though having new riders who may not be pinning high in the ribbons, spends much quality time schooling the riders and coaching, providing emotional support. Keep in mind that some instructors prefer working with students who may have anxiety or fear when riding or showing, and though those students may not perform well under pressure, their instructors may be very capable teachers.
> Look at the lesson horses and evaluate the facility. Often this can make or break the decision to take lessons somewhere. Some lesson horses just don’t receive the care they should. Do they look fit and happy? Or are they trudging around the ring with sour faces and gimpy, sore legs. Are the lesson horses skin and bones or do they look as shiny and well fed as the privately owned horses? Certainly, many lesson horses are older semi-retired horses that may be serviceably sound with some arthritic or navicular stiffness, but plenty of successful riding academies manage to feed older horses well enough to keep their weight on and coats shiny. They also schedule lessons to ensure the horse’s receive time off. At the riding academy where I taught, several horses in their late 20s and 30s were still being shown and looked as healthy as the privately owned horses. In fact, the academy received on offer on a lesson horse at a horse show—he was 39 at the time, and no one believed his age. At this academy, Monday was dark day and no lessons went. In addition, every horse had an extra day off in the week. Plus, horses were never over jumped. Every other week was jump week (every other week was flat week.) And horses rarely ever went more than 1.5 hours of lessons a day, unless going in beginner walk-trot classes where they spent much of their time walking. When evaluating facilities, keep this in mind and see if you can get an idea of the type of schedules the lesson horses face.

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