For the first time ever, the Barn invited both parents and volunteers to meet with instructors the week before riding lessons officially began. Traditionally, we would speak with parents over the phone to discuss their goals for their child in the upcoming term. However, this time around we decided to invite parents and volunteers to meet in person. This way, everyone involved would have a firmer grasp on goals and expectations for the student. It should help with lesson planning and ensuring everything goes smoothly for the first week, which naturally has been a bit of a feeling out period in the past.
While the instructors met with the parents and volunteers, the students had ground lessons with other staff members. I was mostly a part of the ground lesson crew. Still, I want to share some insight not only from the ground lessons, but also from the instructor meetings I did attend.
The ground lessons were pretty diverse. For one group of boys, we went on a nature walk before ending up down by the bunnies and goats and spending time with them. For a pair of girls, we had a huge dance party and played a color matching game with saddle pads during breaks while we recuperated our dancing energy (side note: I now know every lyric to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”). Another ground lesson included herd observation to help a new student get to know our horses better. One final lesson consisted of a scavenger hunt for different animals and the tracks they make, followed by drawing said tracks with shaving cream. Unsurprisingly, the drawing turned into an all-out shaving cream war.
The meetings went well, too. Parents, volunteers, and instructors all met together and covered a range of topics. Both parents and instructors discussed their respective goals for the student. This helped both parties, as well as the volunteers, develop a clearer idea of how the lessons will be molded this upcoming Spring. In addition, we covered emergency and safety drills in case of fire, tornado, or any other serious event. If time permitted, we ran through a mock lesson of the mounting process – who would be the horse-handler, where each side-walker would be, and any other particulars for that individual student.
Overall, I think these meetings helped everyone involved feel much more comfortable going into this term. Parents were able to voice any new or important information about their children ahead of time, help shape lesson plans with their goals, and finally got to sit down and truly get to know the volunteers working with their kids. Instructors and volunteers now hold a firmer grasp on what to expect for each lesson, and students had fun ground lessons to kick things off.
Hopefully, this will enable lessons to run even smoother from the get-go. Today is officially the first day of the Spring Term, and our first lessons are already underway. Personally, I’ve never felt more prepared going into a term. Here’s to an amazing Spring, we can’t wait to see you all out here!
-Connor