You know those phrases that riding instructors use over and over again? “Eyes up! Lower your hands! Carry your hands! Sit up! Get your leg underneath you!” If you teach, you’ve said some of them. If you ride, you’ve heard them shouted at you.
Riding instructors face an ongoing challenge of trying to use words that help students recognize a physical sensation.
But students’ bodies and brains don’t always see eye to eye, and verbal communication alone can fall short — especially for kinesthetic students who learn by doing.
For these students, a well-chosen prop is worth a thousand words!
There are lots of kinesthetic teaching tools you can use to help students get instrinsic proprioceptive feedback: awareness of the position and movement of their bodies that helps train muscle memory.
Our favorite prop for riding lessons can be used to improve arm and hand position, teach arena geometry, and test a student’s lower leg or release over fences.
Best of all, you can purchase it at any party store, department store or dollar store for $1or less
The humble crepe paper party streamer is easy to tuck into a waterproof bag and store with your arena equipment or inside a mounting block.
Then it’s ready to give students a fun, challenging exercise with a clear objective and instant feedback — they won’t need you to tell them when they get it right.
We recommend introducing party streamer to all your lesson horses before attempting any of the following exercises; every once in a while, we encounter a horse that is leery of the sight or sound of fluttering paper.
You can add some festive streamer decorations to your horse’s stall, run-in shed, or feeding area to help him overcome any fear.
Once your horses are all in the party spirit, try using the streamer in these six ways:
1
Tied to the D-rings of the saddle. This fragile version of a grab strap should be long enough to allow riders to hold their reins and apply aids normally. When held along with reins, it encourages a low, steady hand position with soft elbows. We like to use this trick to teach hand position in the posting trot, preferably on the longe line.
In an ideal world, we want our students to “earn” the reins through developing a secure, independent seat. On this journey, however, your students may go through a stage of hanging on the reins to balance. This exercise helps them to quickly retrain muscle memory and gain empathy for the horse’s mouth. After all, better to break a paper ribbon than the horse’s tongue!
2
Looped around the horse’s chest and neck. This variation on the exercise above teaches “forward thinking hands” and is helpful for students who habitually ride with their reins too long. Riders hold the open ends of the “neck rope” in each hand, so they have free movement from side to side but cannot pull their hands up and back.
This can be a better method when working off the longe line, as it allows for an opening rein to support steering. We have had great results using this exercise to reform a chair seat, with students showing improved balance in a single session.
The lesson plans for Red Horsemanship Level explain how we use this “Ribbon Test” as a dress rehearsal before letting our students trot (or jog) independently.
3
As a jumping neckstrap. Neckstraps can be extremely helpful when teaching students to jump with a following hand and a secure crest release — but leather neckstraps need to be fitted very carefully and secured to keep them from becoming a danger if the horse puts his head down.
This crepe paper version is a low-risk neckstrap alternative that really raises the stakes for students, pointing out EVERY moment their hands fly up while going over a fence.
Try this out over a grid of poles or small fences, designed to keep horses straight so minimal steering is required.
4
To improve arena geometry. Pre-measure 10m, 15m and/or 20m lengths of streamer. Cut, fold, and store in a dry place until students are ready to put their circling skills to the test.
Ask students to hold one end of the streamer and ride in a circle around you, while you hold the other end and stand in the center. You can draw a circle or place a hula hoop around your feet to reinforce the idea that the center of the circle is a fixed point.
The challenge is to ride a circle without the ribbon breaking or touching the ground.
We buy purple streamer and use this game with Purple Level students to test their accuracy, but it can be equally useful for beginners just learning to ride a round circle, and enjoyed by riders at all Levels.
One caveat: wind and rain can derail the game in a hurry, so we do recommend trying it out on a calm day or indoors if possible.
5
To test lower leg or upper body position. You know that old trick involving stirrup irons tied to the girth? Some equestrians hail it as the salvation of their lower leg; others call the practice ineffective and inhumane.
We find that like most exercises, the truth is somewhere in the middle: tying stirrups can be a useful way to help students build muscle memory, if used carefully and with consideration for safety as well as conformation of both the horse and rider.
Rather than tying the rider’s stirrup directly to the girth, we like to create a girth loop using some soft material (shoelaces work well and can also be purchased from the dollar store) and use the party streamer to tie the stirrup iron to the loop. This challenges students to maintain a steady leg position at the walk, trot, and/or canter.
This challenge can be used on the flat to create a more educated leg, over fences to test stability, or as an elimination game in the spirit of Ride a Buck… who can be the last one left with a streamer?
By the way, legs aren’t the only body part that can be tied up. Stiff elbows can be gently corrected with a length of streamer tied around the rider’s upper arm, just above the elbow joint – loose enough to permit following contact, but snug enough to stay in place unless broken.
6
To promote teamwork and correct use of aids. It’s a classic, but the pairs game involving a breakaway ribbon never gets old. This variation on a rope race involves a length of streamer stretched between two riders.
We like to send students through a course of “invisible jumps” to start (empty standards or pairs of cones) and work up to more complex patterns and obstacle courses.
Great for drill teams and Mother-Daughter clinics!
Whatever variation you choose, go into each exercise with a sense of adventure and lots of spare party streamer
It may take your students a few tries to conquer the exercise and keep their ribbon intact, but once they get it, they’ll have a new correct feeling to imitate AND proof of their accomplishment.
