05/21/2026
Here is an example of why it’s nearly impossible to find qualified riding instructors and even more impossible to find them with lesson horses. They don’t want to deal with things like this. And, they don’t have to. If you see a slanderous, negative review of us, here’s the real story.
This is an unusual post for us, we won’t go into details of what the child did that caused a scolding, and we are going to word things very carefully to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings, but we feel this is a discussion that cannot be ignored and one of this weeks lessons just reinforced our thoughts that this discussion needs to be had.
It’s important for people to acknowledge the magnitude of effort, expense and liability that there is in a training program. And because of those things, the importance of following directions and focusing. Paying attention to instruction is particularly important for children and novices and being “only x years old” is not an accepted excuse for allowing for unsafe situations. There is NO situation where we will choose a child’s feelings over their safety or the horses safety.
Horses are dangerous. We aren’t trying to scare anyone away from horses, but we must be realistic. One kick, one bite, one fall, letting a horse get away from you in open space… the list of hazards goes on and on. This isn’t a soft sport for soft people. We must always be aware of where we are and what our horses are doing, and if we are new to this sport, we must follow instructions closely. 
As trainers and instructors safety is a top priority. We know all of the basic safety protocols and we must reinforce them. It’s a liability not to.
When we take new clients, we do a meet and greet and explain this very clearly before we decide whether to accept someone into our program. And even after the meet and greet, depending on how the first lesson goes, we may decide not to proceed with a student.

As a participant or guardian of a participant, regardless of the age, their responsibility in the safety protocol is to listen to their instructor and follow directions. The guardian, when noticing the child not paying attention, should also remind the child of the importance of paying attention, not allow them to continue with the unsafe behavior and be offended by the instructor insisting the child listen. Failure to do so can result in injuries. Serious injuries. If a student repeatedly doesn’t follow directions or even talks back (I KNOW how to ride already, for instance) and an instructor firmly corrects them out of safety and urgency to get the student out of the dangerous situation, there is more than a slight chance that horses aren’t for them. Further, the instructors insurance provider would most certainly have something to say about unsafe practices.
We know a lot of people think lessons are “pony rides” for kids, and don’t think about liability at all until their kid is crying and bleeding, and they’re looking for someone to blame besides themselves, but that’s just not reality. Lessons are an instruction in safety and horse welfare first and foremost, regardless of the age of the participant.
It is inappropriate to message an instructor scolding them for keeping the child safe because the parent heard, second hand, that the child got yelled at. Imagine how much more offended a parent would have been if we just let the child get hurt.
Yes, this happened.
After the lesson that resulted in this outcome, we intended to message the adult who was in charge of bringing the child to lessons to tell them we didn’t feel the child was ready for lessons and that we didn’t feel it was safe for them to continue until they were older and able to pay attention and follow instructions. Instead, before we got done for the day and had time to reach out, the parent who was not at the lesson messaged us and scolded us for “yelling at their kid” and proceeded to tell us how lucky we were that they weren’t there, instead of thanking us for keeping their child safe and saying they realize the child isn’t ready for lessons. It’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it?
This is the most polite response we could come up with:
“I guess we just aren’t a good fit then. I explained when she started lesson that she would be expected to pay attention and learn how to do things. That’s why we did the meet and greet. Asking her to pay attention is a very important part of safety around horses and firmly reminding them after repeatedly telling a child something to keep them from having an accident isn’t being unfair. It’s being responsible. Safety and paying attention are paramount in dealing with horses. If I have to keep asking a child to pay attention, they aren’t ready for this. I’m sorry you feel that asking her to do so is yelling at her. For liability reasons we do have expectations of attentiveness, regardless of age. Perhaps when she is older she will have more of an aptitude for this and you’ll find a suitable program for her.”
Some children are ready at 4-5 years old, we have many young riders at that age that are VERY capable, because they listen and pay attention, others aren’t as capable and won’t be until later, or maybe not all. But blaming the coach is not ok and shows a great deal about the character of the adult. A parents behavior can make or break a child’s future in any sport and coaches share experiences with one another.
This adorable, sweet child just wasn’t ready. And that’s ok. As parents, they need to respect people that know the hazards of a sport you aren’t familiar with when they “yell” (repeating it in a firm voice isn’t really yelling) at their child so they don’t get hurt. Imagine how much worse they’d feel if their child ended up at the ER. We are certain they’d really have an issue then.
Baseball coaches, basketball coaches, football coaches, dance instructors, gymnastic coaches, they all yell at their students, and their sport isn’t nearly as dangerous as equestrian sports. If a riding coach has to raise their voice at a student, it’s because they’re not listening and they’re being unsafe. If they can’t allow a coach to be firm with their child, then, and we don’t say this lightly because we want to encourage everyone to ride, this hobby might not be for them.
We encourage everyone to think of the privilege they are being given when they are accepted into an equestrian program where someone else is providing everything from the horse to its tack and daily care for them, and the students only responsibility is to listen and follow instruction. A child’s safety is very important, but, the horse and the equipment are also thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of investment that are also at stake if an accident occurs because a student isn’t paying attention. An instructor not only has a responsibility to keep the student safe, but also to protect their investment from a student who isn’t following instructions.
When we say we welcome riders of all skill levels and ages, do we really need to include a disclaimer that a person must not be a rogue liability?
Pictured is how not to let a child handle a horse.
