HorseCentered Levels Curriculum
Use our new HorseCentered Levels curriculum checklist to teach unmounted lessons that deepen understanding of the horse while developing practical, hands-on training skills.
enrollment: Free
Longe Lessons Your Students Will Love
Like any other lesson, longe sessions should be thoughtful, varied, and FUN. Think beyond endless circles of sitting trot – with a little creativity, your students will look forward to longe line days, and may even ask you for more!
HorseSense Ground Games – Ground Training Checklist
Introduce equine ground training to your horsemanship students with this simple, effective checklist of horse training skills. Can be used to supplement hands-on lessons in unmounted lesson programs, camps, or clinics. Includes basic skills (desensitizing, yielding, leading, etc.) and a progress tracking chart.
22 Ways to Level Up Your Riding Lesson Program in 2022
After all, everything we do comes from a love of a horses… it will keep us learning, growing, and striving to do our best for our horses and students – and attracting clients who are equally invested in leveling up their horsemanship!
5 Secret Goals for Teaching Purple Level Horsemanship
Our goals for teaching Purple Level are all about helping these intermediate horsemanship students reach for their own equestrian dreams.
Level Up Goal Sheets
Use this worksheet to help your students set goals – and recognize accomplishments – for both mounted riding lessons and unmounted lessons. This free download file has two printable pages: one for goals, and one for plans to reach those goals – because goals are only obtainable when students create action plans for achieving them! Great for new students, students who are starting a new Learning Level, or as an annual exercise for all of your students.
Build a Library for Teaching Hands-On Unmounted Lessons
Building a resource library of teaching tools for unmounted lessons establishes that you take unmounted education seriously, which helps your students to do the same.
Unmounted Lessons Your Students Will Love
…These lessons can all be taught indoors or outdoors, without school horse participation, making them compatible with rainy days and unmounted camp sessions.
Help Your Horsemanship Students Ride Through The Seasonal Time-Crunch
The short days of winter can be challenging for everyone — but we have the ability to help our riding students make the most of their limited time.
Teach Better Horseback Riding Lessons with Mounted Games
Although formal mounted games competitions can be enjoyable and valuable, you don’t need much structure to make games work for your lesson students.
Never Say Never: How To Teach “Right” and “Wrong” in Horseback Riding Lessons
By teaching students to look beyond the “right way” and the “wrong way,” we can help them learn to determine the best way for every horse and situation they encounter, making them safer, happier equestrians!
Happy Trails: Hack Your Horseback Riding Lessons!
Equestrian hacking has benefits for both the horse and the rider – because there are all kinds of sneaky lessons happening whenever our students ride outside the arena.
5 Creative Homework Ideas for Riding Lessons
Help motivated learners make the most of their riding lesson time by giving them creative horsey homework.
Math Phobia: Teaching the “M word” in Horseback Riding Lessons
We’ve seen math phobia in horsemanship students of all ages…. so look for opportunities to incorporate math practice into your regular riding lessons.
Horse of a Different Color – Red HorseSense – Western
Help your beginner students track their progress in unmounted HorseSense lessons – and motivate them to do more – with this colorful tracking tool for the Western version of our Learning Levels equine curriculum. Students can color in a new section of the horse drawing as they check off each objective for the Level, and see at a glance what they need to learn next.
Progress Booklet – HorseSense – Western
Handy little tool for keeping track of each student’s progress through the new Western version of our unmounted HorseSense equine curriculum. This printable booklet contains all of the unmounted objectives for Red-Teal Levels, formatted as checklists.
HorseSense Curriculum – Western
Teach unmounted knowlege and horse care lessons with the HorseSense Learning Levels progressive equine curriculum. Appropriate for non-riders and for riders in Western tack.
Progress Booklet – Rainbow – Western
Booklet just for keeping track of your Rainbow Level students’ progress. This printable booklet contains Rainbow Level objectives from the version of our Learning Levels equine curriculum for Western horsemanship, formatted as a checklists and written in simple language for your youngest students.
Sample Teaching Guide – Purple HorseSense – Big Numbers
HorseSense teaching guide for unmounted lessons or prospective horse owner clinics on responsible equine financial planning. Many students are unaware of the big numbers involved in horseback riding activities and horse ownership, and may not be familiar with creating budgets. Guiding them through the budgeting process will give them realistic expectations and help them make sound horse care decisions.
Sample Teaching Guide – Orange HorseSense – Hit Your Stride
Use this teaching guide for unmounted lessons that help horsemanship students overcome their math phobia and make educated decisions when setting a grid of poles or jumps, demonstrating a knowledge of stride lengths and jumping mechanics at all three gaits.
Sample Teaching Guide – Teal HorseSense – Course Design Clinic
Use this teaching guide for unmounted lessons to teach the principles of basic jump course design. We require Teal HorseSense students to design hunter, equitation, and show jumping courses – but you can use any discipline tto help students learn safe, intelligent jumping exercises for their own horse in the future.
Course Design Specifications
Use this handy cheatsheet of course design specifications to teach jump course design to your Teal Level Horsemanship and HorseSense students. This one-page set of bulleted lists includes distances, types of fences and typical fence heights for Hunter Over Fences, Equitation Over Fences, and Show Jumping courses.
Our Favorite Tool for Teaching Memorable Unmounted Lessons
A decorative wooden stick pony is never going to replace a real horse… but a versatile hobbyhorse creates all kinds of fun in unmounted lessons!
Unhelpful Riding Habits: Students Do the Weirdest Things!
Every riding habit we practice should have a solid reason behind it, based on safety awareness and rational thinking.
