For Instructors and Lesson Program Directors
Welcome to the Instructors and Lesson Program Directors department at Equestrian Professional.
Here, you'll find expert-driven webinars, articles and resources that delve into key aspects of instruction, including different learning styles, effective teaching techniques, and communication strategies to help you connect with students of all levels.
We also provide guidance on structuring your business efficiently, covering essential topics like creating lesson packages, automating scheduling and payments, and maximizing both time and profitability.
Beyond individual instruction, we offer support on managing and mentoring assistant instructors, developing clear guidelines to maintain consistency and quality in your program.
Additionally, we explore innovative approaches to lesson planning, student progression, and fostering a positive learning environment that keeps riders engaged and motivated.
Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to elevate your instruction, streamline operations, and create a rewarding experience for both your horse business and your students.
With inflation weighing heavily on both business owners and clients, getting your pricing strategy right is more important than ever. Pricing is tricky because it affects so many aspects of your business. Your prices influence your position amongst competitors, your profitability, and your client relationships. Horse professionals face unique challenges when it comes to pricing due to the close, often personal nature of client relationships. This is why understanding and refining your pricing strategy is critical. Your strategy must align with your brand position, financial goals, client relationships, and career path....More Tuition programs and lesson packages with automated billing can be a game-changer for equestrian professionals running riding schools and training barns. They streamline administrative tasks, ensure steady cash flow, and reduce the awkwardness of chasing payments. However, as with any automated system, they come with potential pitfalls that can create frustration for both business owners and clients. Here’s how to mitigate the most common issues and ensure that your automated billing system enhances, rather than hinders, your equestrian business....More Professional riding instructors have tiring, tedious, and incredibly time-consuming jobs. Though they differ widely in their riding disciplines, teaching styles, and preferred equine breeds, many of them share one common feature - they know very little about how the law impacts what they do. Unfortunately, some of them learn the hard way when faced with a lawsuit....More Q: We feel like we need to increase our lesson fees to be profitable, but I don't think our customers can withstand a price increase. Do you have any suggestions?...More You know what you would do but how do you get your instructors to follow suit? Here is an example to give you a few ideas for creating Instructor Guidelines for your assistants and riding school instructors. Feel free to copy the parts that work for you and edit the parts that don't. You can download this document from our Download Library as a PDF or as a zipped word file for easier editing. Guidelines are also handy for instructors who are filling in for you out so you can take a vacation!...More Riding instructors, raise your hand if you've experienced this scenario: You have a student tacking up for a lesson and their parent approaches you. They express frustration that their child doesn't try hard enough, isn't dedicated enough, doesn't win enough at shows. You know that the student likes to ride, but couldn't care less if she has ribbons on her stall door. Or maybe you even know that she wouldn't ride at all if given the choice. How do you handle parents whose goals for their child are out of sync with the goals the child has?...More A few months ago we posted the question "what are the most important traits a riding instructor should have?" on both our Facebook page and as a discussion on LinkedIn. The answers and comments we received were very interesting and we thought you might like to see some of them. One of the most intriguing things was the difference between the answers the professionals gave versus the answers from the clients themselves....More A few weeks ago, I happened to call my sister while she was on her way home from taking her girls for their riding lesson. Of course, I asked her how it went and she exclaimed "every time I leave the barn and I'm driving the girls home, I always think about how glad I am that we made the decision to train with...More "Good job" is probably the phrase that comes to mind when most people think of positive teaching. Positive teachers often offer a lot of praise and encouragement, and their students usually feel good when they finish a lesson. However, it encompasses much more than simply having students feel good about themselves. Positive teaching, as defined below, matters because it taps into the human brain and its strengths efficiently and effectively. Go to any horse-related internet bulletin board, blog or forum and you will easily...More At his first horse show, he won so many classes that he was circuit champion for the entire series. It was an amazing achievement for any student, particularly for a rider who started riding after age 40. As his coach, I thought we were off to a great start and mentally patted myself on the back for doing such a good job. But the next year, my straight A student would prove to be the most difficult teaching challenge I ever had....More Have you ever reflected on your communication skills and wished you could do better? In riding there are two things that are essential in communicating effectively: sharing your thoughts clearly and saying things that serve you as a rider. When you communicate well you are easily understood and your messages support your efforts to be an excellent horseperson...More
data-page_number="2406"Essential Tips for Making Riding Lesson Packages and Tuition Programs Work For Your Horse Business
data-page_number="2402"How to Mitigate 12 Common Pitfalls of Automated Billing and Scheduling for Riding Lesson Tuition Programs
data-page_number="959"Questions for an Equine Law Practitioner:
What Riding Instructors Should Know About Contracts
data-page_number="1564"How To Increase Lesson Prices without Losing Customers
data-page_number="262"Creating Riding Instructor Guidelines
data-page_number="1135"Parents That Push - Riding Instructor Teaching Challenges: Handling Intense Parents
data-page_number="683"What Are the Most Important Traits a Riding Instructor Should Have?
data-page_number="1196"Famous Last Words
data-page_number="1826"Positive Teaching: What It Is and Why It Matters
data-page_number="1187"Lessons Learned Outside the Arena
data-page_number="582"Perfecting the Lines of Communication: Part I
Barbra Schulte is an award winning professional who was inducted into both the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and the recipient of the prestigious National Female Equestrian of the Year award. She is a popular author and certified LGE Performance Coach. Her work in equestrian sports performance has brought remarkable results for many riders and trainers. During this free webinar, Barbra will share strategies for boosting confidence, training your emotions to be a powerful force behind your success and how to mine the unlimited power of mental focusing techniques....More In equestrian sports we talk a lot about what is taught. For example, execution of skills like a correct counter canter or proper position like a riders form over fences. The level of skills that a trainer can teach are often the measuring stick of success and respect. But what about the art of teaching? What kind of training is needed to teach a teacher how to teach? ( Say that three times fast.)...More During this webinar author and sports performance coach, Andrea Waldo addresses "Teaching the Anxious Student" she covers key aspects such as understanding the fight or flight response, why students "can't hear" when they are nervous and how to help the anxious rider and/or riders who are recovering from an accident or traumatic event....More During this webinar you will learn hands on from one of the most experienced and sought after equestrian sports performance coaches how to incorporate mental skills practices into your teaching. Tonya Johnston MA is mental skills coach with a master's degree in sport psychology. She is the author of "Inside Your Ride" Tonya has been a speaker for some of the nations most prestigious equestrian association conventions including USEA and USDF. She also conducts USHJA-Affiliated clinics. In her one-on-one consulting Tonya teaches mental skills to enhance performance and helps riders build personalized mental preparation routines. During this webinar Tonya will share tips and strategies for Integrating Sports Pyscology Into Your Teaching Program....More This presentation covers the different learning and teaching styles of students and coaches. The speaker is Christy Landwehr of CHA. It is a fast paced, thought provoking look at the student/coach relationship and the skills and practices of a good riding instructor....More
data-page_number="1672"Webinar: Coaching Riders from the Inside Out - How Focus, Inspiration and Community Can Empower You
data-page_number="2315"Horse Business Webinar: Training for Teaching with Lendon Gray
data-page_number="1807"Webinar: Equestrian Sports Performance - Teaching the Anxious Student
data-page_number="1748"Webinar: Integrating Equestrian Sports Psychology Techniques Into Your Teaching Program
data-page_number="1209"Webinar: Riding Instructor Skill Builder
