How to become a riding instructor

If working til 9pm, providing an on-call agony aunt service and getting soaked to the skin several times a day sounds like a great day's work, then a career as a riding instructor could be for you. Nicola Strong reports.

Sharon Kilminster began working at a local riding school in the late 90's having studied there for her NVQs in horse care and riding, and has never looked back. She now runs her own business, Kilminster Equestrian Ltd, providing freelance training for horse and rider in Hampshire. She gives us an insight into her chosen equine career...

"I've been working with horses for over 20 yrs and schooling was always high on the list of priorities, but to school you need to understand. The more I learned the more I wanted to do, so when asked if I would like to do a teaching qualification within the riding school I was working at, I jumped at the chance! My first qualification was with the Association of British Riding Schools (ABRS), closely followed by the British Horse Society (BHS) preliminary Teaching Test. (PTT)"

One of the great things about being an instructor is the scope you have to continually develop your skills and progress; since taking those inital steps into teaching, Sharon has gained many further qualifications, including her BHSAI certificate, has trained to be a BD judge, and most recently achieved level 2 in coaching sport and riding. Even with all these accolades, Sharon still wants to push herself. She explains; "My long term goals are to continue teaching and coaching, and hope to further my qualifications not only within the BHS but also the UKCC and British dressage within the judging capacity."

For Sharon the enjoyment and job satisfaction is so vast that she is unable to break it down into a sigular highlight; "Each client has different needs and the highlight is always to help each individual achieve their own personal goals, knowing you helped them get there." The bonus of course is being able to use and apply your learnings for your own riding. "I think my highlights from a riding point of view would have to be the journey with Pepsy, taking on a 4 month old hairy cob and transforming him into a versatile riding horse who gave everything for me."

Rewarding career
Clearly, teaching is a highly rewarding career to choose, but there are things to take into consideration before committing to it. Sharon has this advice for anyone keen to start teaching; "Firstly decide if it's for a riding school or self employed, as teaching in a riding school is different to teaching the one on one own horse scenario.

"A lot of riding schools will pay for your exams and training while you work, which does give you good grounding for the exam process, while going it alone you need to ensure you keep up to date with current procedures within the BHS or ABRS as things do change.

"It's always a good idea also to find out if you're ready for the exam by having a training session with an exam centre, so for example if taking your stage 3 riding exam (needed to gain full AI status) have a lesson on a stage 3 horse both on the flat and over jumps, and ask the trainer if they think you're ready. These exams are expensive and to have to resit it again is going to cost more money.

"If you choose to work on a self employed basis you need to ensure you're prepared for a lack of income when the weather turns bad. The chances are that when it snows for a week, most of your clients won't be able to have lessons.

Irregular hours
Be prepared to work 'out of hours' as most freelance work is done in evenings and weekends when people aren't working - it can be quite antisocial! Although saying that, personally I don't have a problem, it's a way of life for me not a job, so the somewhat antisocial hours don't bother me at all.

Working in a riding school gives you a constant income and usually better hours, although you may not teach as much as you like, or as I found when I was in that environment, I never left the arena which didn't suit me at all! Which ever route you take, teaching is a very rewarding job, and no two days are ever the same. I would certainly recommend it."

Anyone who would like to find out more can do so by visiting www.kilminsterequestrian.co.uk.

Horsemart reader and blogger Nicola Strong has been riding for 23 years and is taking her first steps into the world of British Eventing and British Showjumping with her main horse Willo (Caherpuca Star) and is supported all the way by trainer and sponsor Sharon Kilminster. She has her own blog at www.headstrongequestrian.com.

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