At what age to start riding lessons please!

[MrsCampbellBlack]

For some reason my 3 year old DD is pony obsessed. We are not a horsey family but live rurally so she does see lots of horses but she is obsessed. And then on Saturday some kind villager let her have a little ride on her DD's pony - so the obsession has upped some more.

Sooooo at what age do you recommend starting riding lessons? I'd sort of thought it would be more like 4 or 5 but am utterly clueless despite an ecyclopaedic knowledge of Jilly Cooper

And what's the best way to find a good place to learn - personal recommendation? And whats the price of a lesson roughly?

Sorry so many questions - thank you so much in advance for any answers.

Riding schools don't usually take children until they are five and unless you have someone who has a pony that you can sit your dd on now and again and have a little ride with your holding her, there really isn't a lot you can do just yet.

My dd had a wooden rocking horse and I would sit her on it, place her feet correctly and ensure her position was correct, she would love it and want 'pretend' riding lessons! She didn't start riding though, having lessons with a friend until she was nearly 6, as she just wouldn't have taken the information in before then, she then went to the local riding school once a week with a group, which was great for getting a feel for riding, whilst being on something totally safe.

Thank you so much for your advice.

dd was pony obsessed from about the age of 3 but I was very mean and told her she could have lessons when she was 8 if she still wanted them! The stables nearest us doesn't take children until they're 8. There's another stables which takes children from 6 but I didn't tell dd that!

The reason I left it so late is that my niece was also obsessed at 3 but by the time she got to 8 and got to the top of the waiting list for riding lessons at her local centre she'd lost interest so I wanted to make sure that if I was going to be shelling out that much money on lessons that it was something dd really wanted to do.

In the end she had to wait until her 9th birthday for regular lessons as there was such a long waiting list, but waiting has been no bad thing. She was absolutely ready when she started, has been finding out all she can about ponies and concentrates completely in lessons with the result that she's zipped through the school's stages and is now riding with children much older than her who'd been having lessons since they were tiny.

It's different if you have horses/ponies at home but if you're not a 'horsey' family I'd wait and see what she's obsessed with when she's a little bit older - if it's still ponies, then great, if not, you'll have saved yourself a lot of money :)

Yes very true Basildon - interesting about the long waiting lists too - will investigate nearer the time.

Thank you.

My DD started at 4 - the local stables did leading rein lessons. She's still fairly obsessed at nearly 8 - and a trip to the Olympic XC has fuelled her ambitions to ride in the three day eventing in the Olympics one day.....it's a very expensive way of keeping her away from boys for longer I suppose , but she absolutely loves it, and the stables is BHS registered and as she's a Pony Club member she does all of the stable management as part of her lessons. There wasn't a waiting list at the stables, but I did have to wait a bit for the day/time combination we preferred.

my dd has just started at 7 and i wouldn't have wasted the money earlier, and we are a horsey family!