What Do You Teach?

A riding instructor's life would be much simpler if he only taught kids to ride and only taught kids that had an unquenchable desire to ride. But the reality is otherwise. Teaching those riders is the most enjoyable thing that an instructor can do. Teaching those riders is the easiest thing that an instructor can do.

Teaching those riders is also the least important thing that an instructor can do.

It is the child who is afraid, the child who is reluctant, the child who openly displays anxiety at the horse lot and secretly confronts it in every other aspect of his life that needs to ride even more than the one who loves every moment of being around horses. That child is difficult to teach. There is little pleasure in teaching that child. It would be simpler to encourage such kids to get another interest.

At times I allow my mind to wander to consider having kids "try out" for our program the way they have to try out for sports team. If I only kept riders that made the team the quality of my life would sky rocket. Some of my most dedicated riders have encouraged me to take that approach and only focus on those that live to ride.

An instructor should never do that. I know what happens to kids with anxiety disorders that are not dealt with early on. I know that drug addiction, alcoholism, and depression are possibilities for young people whose disorders go unrecognized and untreated.

Those are the rarest of cases. However, even kids with no disorders that do not learn to overcome fear learn to be trapped by it. The unfortunate truth is one will fail with many of these kids, but that is no excuse for refusing to keep on trying.

The reality is that a solid program does not teach riding.

It teaches living.