![Tara Benyei, Instructor](https://whimsybrookfarm.com/images/trainer-t-benyei.png)
Training and Instruction
Riding Lessons
Unlike most other facilities, we do not provide group lessons for novice riders. Instead we tailor our teaching approach to the learning style of the rider. Our riding lessons are only taught by expert adults, who are trained in our method of teaching, called Aware Riding. They are not taught by kids. We teach folks how to ride correctly the FIRST time, rather than enable them to acquire a lot of bad habits that they then must unlearn if they want to ride well.
Our horse tack is well-maintained and fits the animal properly. Our lesson horses are used, at most, twice a day, not all day like most lesson barns. No one has ever pulled on our horse’s mouths while kicking them to go, which is why our horses are sensitive to the subtle aids, and not dead in the mouth and dead in the sides. As a result, you can ride serpentines on our horses, and do walk-trot-canter-trot-walk transitions without touching the reins.
We also teach horse training and real horse science and are associated with an Animal Hospital.
Because of the quality of our lessons and horses, the care we provide our horses, as well as the fact that our lessons are private or semi-private, our lessons are more expensive than most places. But you get what you pay for.
Single Lessons | |
Private 1-hour mounted hunt seat/dressage/western lesson plus Schoolmaster horse | $199.00 |
Private ½-hour mounted hunt seat/dressage/western lesson plus Schoolmaster horse | $129.00 |
Semi-private 1-hour mounted hunt seat/dressage/western lesson plus Schoolmaster horse | $165.00 |
Private 1-hour unmounted horse science/horse training lesson | $122.00 |
Private ½-hour unmounted horse science/horse training lesson | $61.00 |
We have reduced prices for lesson packages, folks who board and ride with us, and folks whom we have deemed “horse savvy” and can fetch their horse, groom it, tack it up, untack it, put their horse away, and clean their tack, since we are not paying a staff member to provide these services.
RIDERS MUST HAVE APPROPRIATE RIDING ATTIRE, including a certified riding helmet, and riding boots with a heel. Hunt seat and dressage riders need to have riding britches/tights in addition. We do not lend helmets and riders may not use bike helmets.