New school to get children riding

A NEW pony riding and horsemanship school has opened at Berringa and staff are aiming to teach children how to ride and care for ponies, and understand how they think and learn ground handling skills.

Owner and instructor Sarah Walkerden said that growing up, horsemanship was not something that was regularly taught.

“I’ve been involved with horses since I was a kid and I grew up riding ponies but didn’t really have much instruction,” she said.

“I bought my own horses but still really didn’t know what I was doing and riding instructors could only help with the riding part.”

As a result Ms Walkerden decided to get in contact with experts on horsemanship.

“I educated myself on how horses behave and think and feel and that is now how I approach horses,” she said.

“The horses mental and emotional wellbeing is at the forefront of everything.”

Now with her own children, Ms Walkerden said she hopes they can learn the same skills.

“Through teaching our kids we’ve been able to instil good habits and we’ve been to other riding schools and weren’t 100 per cent happy with how the horses behaved with issues we wouldn’t necessarily put up with,” she said.

“We thought perhaps other kids would enjoy working with horses in a different way.”

It is hoped this new centre will make horsemanship accessible to more families.

“When it comes to beginner kids particularly over our side of town there’s not a whole lot of options and we want to make it really accessible,” said Ms Walkerden.

“We’ve heard from a lot of parents of autistic kids or kids with ADHD that traditional riding schools don’t work so well for them so hopefully we’re fulfilling a bit of a gap.”

To find out more about these sessions visit bit.ly/43XG7hR.