by Lin Stone
Entire contents © copyright 1999 by Browzer Books
ALL Rights to Original Work Reserved to the creators.
Mary has a lot of horse sense to pass on to visitors and students. She started her life among horses with 4H during high school. In college she received a B.S. in Animal Science, then completed graduate school with a degree in Reproductive Physiology.
Students receive personal attention from Mary and Gert in all beginning classes. They learn about horses in progressive steps. First, they go over the safety rules extensively since even an old horse can surprise you. They learn how to approach a horse, how far back to get from that horse when legs are being cocked, and a crash course on how to read horse language -- watching their ears, cocking of the legs, judging tenseness by skin resistance, how to tie up a horse.
"The most important thing they must learn is how to be observant," Mary stresses. "Even the horses you know can be in a bad mood one day."
All these lessons come first and must be mastered before students are allowed to begin riding. "They have to learn how to take care of a horse before we let them on a horse," Gert explains.
And before that great day arrives, students will also have had dry-run lessons on how to hold reins, put foot in stirrup, how to sit down quietly, organize the reins. Once students reach this stage they begin a more constant routine of training.
Their lessons will be 2 hours long. Grooming takes up 30 minutes, riding takes 45 more, and they do the putting the horse away routine in the remainder of their time. More experienced students will be helping the less experienced students.
Students are always assigned to one quiet, safe horse in the beginning. As experience and wisdom come to the students Mary will begin adding horses to their line.
"No two horses are alike," Mary stresses. "Every horse will teach you something different." A bulletin board tells students which horses they will be learning from that day.
Kids and adults take lessons at different times. For safety reasons, boots and helmets are required for everyone. Adults want to know WHY something is done in a certain way, and kids want to know HOW to make horses do something in a certain way.
Twice a year there is a trail ride to enjoy. Oklahoma offers a whole book of trail rides. After graduation, Majic offers a Show Program to the better riders.
Mary and Gert try to get the family involved in the younger student's progress, but parents are not encouraged to watch during the whole lesson time. That lets kids do their actual riding lessons alone with the same coaches throughout.
This little girl leading small pony, was three years old. You will note she has her helmet on, and she is holding the reins correctly, and she is on the correct side of the horse.
Majic Stables only accepts kids now after they are 5 years old.
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