Home > Sports & Recreation > horse riding lessons, learn horseback riding

Learn how to ride a horse: easy horse riding lessons to help you master mounting, walking and trotting.

Learning how to ride a horse is very easy and fun once you master the skill of horse back riding. Mounting, dismounting and the different speeds in which you will ride the horse such as walking and trotting are all part of horse riding lessons.

1. Mounting

Mounting a horse is done on the horse's left side. Facing the horse, the reins are held in the left hand and the left hand placed on the pommel of the saddle.

You will need to hold the reins tightly enough to prevent the hose from wandering off.

Then turning to face the rear of the horse, take the stirrup in your right hand and turn it clockwise to allow you to gently place your left foot in it so that the ball of your foot rests on the bottom of the stirrup. An important thing to note is that whilst mounting you should be careful not to kick the horse with your left foot as this will encourage the horse to walk forward.

With the reins held in the left hand, your left foot in the stirrup, the right hand should be placed over the back of the saddle. Then with a small spring, jump up straightening the left leg as you swing the right leg over the back of the horse, remembering to move your right hand forward as you do so, and then gently sit into the saddle. (This is similar to sitting on a bicycle.)

Once astride the horse, turn the right stirrup clockwise to allow you to place your foot in it, sit up and take hold of the right rein in your right hand.

2. The Walk

Now that you’re finally on the horse’s back we can start the riding lesson by teaching you how to get the horse to start walking.

Firstly, squeeze the horse gently with your lower legs. The horse should start walking and once it does that your legs should be relaxed.

If the horse is not responsive, try giving it a small gengle kick with both heels to get it to start walking.

If a horse starts to falter during a walk just give it another small squeeze with your lower legs to persuade it to continue.

While the horse is walking you should move your hands in tandem to the horse’s head movement.

This will allow you to maintain the tightness of the rein without restricting too much of the horse’s natural movement.

3. The Trot

Trotting is a part of horse riding. After you have mastered how to walk the horse you should progress onto the next lesson which is horse trotting.

Similar to getting a horse to walk, squeeze gently with your lower legs to start the horse trotting. Except this time you need to apply more pressure than if you want the horse to walk.

Remember the occasional gentle kick with your heels to encourage the horse to move forward.

To ride while the horse is trotting is called a rising trot.

It is done in the same rhythm in which the horse moves its legs. As one pair of the horse’s legs land on the ground you sit.

Then you rise again as the other pair or legs land on the ground.

This is a little harder to learn and master and you will probably try too hard and end up rising too high out of the saddle. But with practice and horse riding lessons this form of horse riding can be mastered.

Apart from mounting, walking and trotting there is a lot more you can learn about horse riding. So it is recommended that you sign up for horseback riding lessons at a ranch to not only practice what you have learnt here, but to even better learn how to ride a horse.

Recommeded horse riding lessons resources:

Horse riding the fun & easy way!