Age to start horseback riding?

[peanutbutterkid]

Not just as an occasional thing, but regular lessons?

DD (5) doesn't do any regular activities, This is only one I think she might like... assuming I could find local stables/riding school?

I usually think of it as a teenage girl thing...I'm foreign-born and also afraid that people who go regularly will be quite snobby about anybody not "their sort".

it gets better the older/stronger they get IME

dd1 started at almost 6, she is now 7 and getting more competent ie can trot and steer at the same time and go over little trotting poles.

but it took her a year to get to this point in which time she fell off three times.

Our stables is very very horsy but compltely unsnobby. It costs £7 for a 25 minute lesson - three of them in teh lesson, after school on a tues. IMO they learn nothing in the big weekend lessons with 6 or more kdis in a class.

I did shell out for a pack of 6 private lessons for dd1 which brought her on amazingly well.

I started on my 4th birthday and even remember the name of teh pony - Samson. He ran away with me on my second lesson and I clung on for dear life. My mum still talks about it - I remember being very excited and proud that I had stayed on

DD got the hang of trotting straight away which amazed me as I seem to remember that it took me weeks of sore legs and a bumped bum to get it right. My mum was a fantastic rider (so she tells me ) so maybe it's skipped a generation. DD has no fear and the smile is never off her face the whole lesson. I was terrified the entire time..... gave up quite soon not helped by the fact that I discovered I was seriously allergic to horses.