subject: Faster Horseback Riding Instruction Tips [print this page] If you want to make the most of your horse riding instruction and learn to ride horses really well in the shortest amount of time possible, here are a few secrets just for you:
Multiplying Your Practice Time
Learning to ride horseback, like anything else, is a skill that comes with practice. But horse riding instruction can be expensive and often your riding time is limited to one or twice a week, usually on weekends. So how can you practice enough to get really good when you are limited to an hour or two a week? After all, it is said that to become good at any skill you need to have put in about 500 hours of practice ...and about 3000 hours to become a master! Well, by that rule, with a weekly horse riding instruction session of 1 hour, it would take you about 9 and a half years to get better! I don't know about you but that seems an awfully long time. Fortunately there are some ways you can multiply the effects of your horse riding instruction that won't cost you a fortune. And you'll become a better horse rider in the process.
The Riding School in Your Mind
You can use mental rehearsal to practice horseback riding in your mind! The reason little girls get so good at riding so fast is partly due to the fact that they obsess about horses and horse riding and spend so much of their free time thinking about horse riding, talking about horses, reading equestrian books and daydreaming about being on horseback. This is the perfect recipe for getting good at something. Added to good instruction of course! So when you have your riding lessons, make sure you pay full attention. Be right in the moment and be aware of how your body feels as you ride the horse. Really observe everything about being on horseback as you ride around the mnage or riding school area. Listen to the sounds of the horses hooves, its breathing, the clink of the harness or the clicks and taps of its shoes as its feet occasionally clip one another. Notice any smells in the air and store all this sensory information in your memory banks.
As soon as you get home, make some notes about the major things you learnt in your lesson that day, and any things that you will have to work on for next week. Also note down any observations you had during your lesson -- even if they seem unrelated to riding -- like the fact your instructor had a coffee stain in the shape of Kansas on her T-shirt. This will all help to lock in your lesson. Then at odd times when you can, just sit quietly and replay your horse riding lesson in your mind's eye. Go through it again and again. Feel yourself back in the saddle, holding the reins, your feet in the stirrups. And relive that lesson -- only in your imagination you can do it better. When you are practicing in your mind's eye, you can be a perfect rider, totally confident and skillful.
The ideal time to practice mental rehearsal is last thing at night as you go to sleep, and first thing in the morning when you wake up. But the more you do it, the better it is. You should see rapid improvements in your horse riding ability as you go to your weekly instruction classes.
