Read more about horse-riding lessons this term at Fyling Hall School.

Horse-riding at Fyling Hall is more than just learning to ride a horse- it is learning how to care for horses and develop the skills you need to ride them safely. It is all-round stable management. It is about gaining confidence around horses – which of course helps with confidence in life. It is about getting outdoors which supports mental health and well-being. And we treat horse-riding as a sport which means pupils can opt to ride in one of their weekly games (PE / sport) lessons. Pupils ride across the moors, beach and country-side as well as learning arena skills.

Junior school students this half term have been learning general horse-care and about understanding horses during their half-hour weekly lessons. They begin with horse / pony behaviour and look at how their own behaviour affects the individual horse they’re handling. They learn about how the horse communicates with its environment and the people within it. This is a must for keeping them safe around horses.

Junior pupils learn about grooming, tacking up horses and the basics of riding. By this point in the term they have all learnt their rising trot. Each week pupils will have a fact to learn and and a question of the week to answer. They write their answers and leave them in the box. A junior school and senior school winner is drawn and wins a a prize. It’s very competitive and encourages everyone to keep learning and stay involved!

Our rainy day lessons over the last two weeks have been discovering that ponies all have their own passports and in fact do travel and indeed some even fly. Pupils learn that they all have individual markings which fit identification purposes. They have been detectives and have looked for, marked and drawn these identification marks on their own sheets, comparing them to the actual passport. They pupils loved gaining this knowledge and experience.

Last week’s lessons were about cleaning the saddles and bridles, leaning more about the saddles as they went. We also learnt about bandaging horses legs, why and how.

So our Junior School pupils have been learning a lot since the start of term and wet weather never stops us. There will be more to come after the half term holiday and we know everyone will be looking forward to seeing the horses and ponies again soon!

Watch this space for an update on the senior school’s horse-riding lessons coming soon!

If you would like to ride at Fyling Hall please contact the office for a horse-riding form.