Alexa's Instruction Business Is Fun!
Having been a riding instructor for the last ten years, Aberfeldy-based Alexa Reid (pictured in action, below) cannot help but stare at all the horses and ponies grazing in the fields in the area.
“I regularly see all these beautiful animals and yearn to get to know them and their owners,” she told Comment.
Alexa started her training in Cornwall where, for two years, she worked on the edges of Bodmin Moor in return for the necessary training to pass her teaching exams. “It was a really tough two years, working full time for a busy, residential riding school and then studying and training for the exams,but well worth it!” she recalled.
Since qualifying as a BHSPT she had worked in various yards, with a nine month stint at a yard in Northumberland that followed the methods of Monty Roberts, otherwise known as ‘The Horse Whisperer’. “Throughout my career I have worked with horses deemed as ‘a problem’, sometimes so severe that their owners are on the verge of having the horse destroyed,” said Alexa. |
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“However, with plenty of time and patience most problems can be resolved. It is usually a question of trying to understand why a horse is behaving the way that it is. Once you have that worked out, you are eighty percent of the way there.”
But the greatest satisfaction for Alexa comes from teaching nervous adults and children. As a young child Alexa was taught by such an unsympathetic instructor that she gave up riding altogether. “I became so frightened with that horrible, nauseous feeling before each lesson that I started to wonder why I was bothering,” she recounted. “The love of horses soon drew me back, however, and a fantastic instructor then went on to give me so much confidence that it became my career.
“Riding lessons are not about bullying,” she asserted, “but about enabling you to understand and enjoy your horse fully.”
Safety & Fun
To this end she sometimes finds it necessary to give a lesson ‘on the ground’ – in the stable with horse and owner, to help build confidence and explain the nature and instincts of the horse.
But, as Alexa pointed out, whatever your interest – happy hacker, competitor or just pony mad – there are two priorities that she will always stick to: safety is the priority, but second to that is always fun! “Once you have these two areas covered,” she maintained “success and improvement will always follow.”
For advice and information on lessons Alexa can be contacted on 01887 822957.
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