Western Riding Instruction

Western Riding at Passive Horsemanship.co.uk. Our aim is to teach the sort of basic western riding skills, which will be universally appreciated by dude ranches to help them offer their guests enjoyable, exciting rides, in safety. No one wants to be on a ride where they feel their lack of equestrian skill is holding everyone back from enjoying the full dude ranch experience. We try to bring a whole family or group of friends up to a similar riding level, where no one is going to feel they should have stayed at home.

Combining arena work and trail rides across varying terrain and weather conditions is how we help folks develop the confidence to join their friends, family and fellow travellers to enjoy their vacation together. I always ask my pupils where they are going, so I can study the dude ranches website to get an idea of what they are likely to experience.

My many experiences of the wonderful ranches I have personally stayed at, sometimes allows me to tell them at first-hand what they can expect. I always ask for feedback when I invite my pupils to come back and ride with me again. In many cases this will not be the first time that I have been told about a particular ranch and the wonderful experiences they encountered. This often happens to the extent that never having been to a particular ranch, I get to know the names of the wranglers, how good the horses are, hear about the wonderful food and always, how amazing the country is.

My teaching style is to give tutorials before I get anyone on a horse; let’s face it, if I wanted to teach someone to drive agricultural machinery, they would want to know where the basic controls are and I would be keen to make sure they were confident and at ease using these, and certainly didn’t wind up in a wreck.

This then gives me the chance, to explain the basic three dimensional rein control of how to rein a horse and the drive line philosophy of leg control. I also make suggestions to the correct sort of physical exercises folks can do, which will enable them to supple up for those long rides. I even advise on the proper clothing and under garments that can save the tenderfoot from all sorts of embarrassing saddle sores, occasionally recounting one of my first ever dude ranch experiences…many years ago. It was June in the Rockies, there was not a cloud in the sky and the birds were singing. By lunch time the hail was blowing sideways and only the wranglers had slickers. It was a mistake I certainly never make again!