Littleriver Equestrian

12/08/2024

SPRING HOLIDAYS

KIDS DAY PROGRAM - $120
Including riding, horse care, gearing up and games. Suitable for beginner/new riders and up.
-Thursday 10th October 9.30-3
-Friday 11th October 9.30-3

ADULT DAY PROGRAM - $100
Including riding, horse care, gearing up and games. Suitable for beginner/ novice riders and up.
-Saturday 12th October 9.30-2

3 DAY CAMP - $350 (only a couple of spaces left)
Suited to riders capable of walk/trot and above.
This camp is adventure themed! (Think amazing race, scavenger hunt, hacking, obstacles)
-9am 30th of September to 5pm 2nd of October. $350

Contact us to book https://www.littleriverequestrian.com

09/08/2024

TODDLER PONY PROGRAM!

We have space in our Junior group this Saturday (tomorrow) 12.30-1.30pm.

This program is an opportunity for those (2-6yrs) to come have fun at the farm with a parent or caregiver.

Some activities we may do include grooming horses, farm walk, pony ride, coloring the ponies and more.

Limited spaces, please PM to book. $45 per child
(or join in for the rest of term which works out to $40 per session!)

08/08/2024

The newest addition to the farm 😍

04/08/2024

Check out our August newsletter below

If you want to keep up to date sign up to our newsletter on our website!
littleriverequestrian.com

We got hit by some decent rain for the past week, this meant the ponies all got some time off and we got to focus on getting some theory education in!

03/08/2024

In house event Pole/jump course competition! (Open to students only)
Friday 9th of August

Starts at 3.30 with poles on the ground.
We will have all classes for all levels. We will pop riders into the suitable class.
$25 on a school horse
$20 on your own horse

(All of these are open to all current riders, from lead rein to cantering and jumping)
Contact us

01/08/2024

Did you know we offer Positive reinforcement lessons!?

Positive reinforcement (R+) is a powerful training tool, which we personally use in combination with pressure release (the most common training method in the equine world)

You can use R+ to train skills (from rear, to line up, to picking up feet, catching) as well as build a relationship with your horse and build positive associations.

What are positive reinforcement lessons?

While we add in positive reinforcement education to our regular session a R+ specific lesson is 100% focused on it.
This suits any level from complete beginners to those with their own horse.

Learn how to train tricks, work/ train at liberty, problem solve and more!

01/08/2024

SPRING LITTLERIVER CAMP DATES!!
9am 30th of September to 5pm 2nd of October. $350

Riders need to be capable of confidently walk and trot minimum.
This camp is adventure themed! (Think amazing race, scavenger hunt, hacking, obstacles)

Staying over night is not mandatory if you would rather go home for the nights.
We have an awesome team of school horses we use for camp or you can bring your own horse/pony.

Limited spots. Riders must be 8+. Mssg to book.

31/07/2024

TODDLER PONY PROGRAM!

We have space in our Junior group this Saturday 12.30-1.30pm.

This program is an opportunity for those under 6yrs to come have fun at the farm with a parent or caregiver.
Some activities we may do include grooming horses, farm walk, pony ride, coloring the ponies and more.

Limited spaces, please PM to book. $45 per child
(or join in for the rest of term which works out to $40 per session!)

30/07/2024

Pony club unmounted theory session.
Sunday the 4th 10-11am for NZPCA members only.
$10 pp

Please contact us if you would like to attend.

29/07/2024

We had such a great time out at the Wairarapa Pony Club dressage day yesterday.

We took three riders and horses up who all did an amazing job.
Every rider and their horse had slightly different goals, with the overall aim being to have fun and give their horse a good experience.

Loved seeing the progress between the first warmup/test and the second set, ours riders all taking on the judges comments and learning from them.

We had a awesome support crew come with us who's jobs including cheerleading from the sidelines, giving high fives, hugs and being grooms for the riders.

A huge thank you to all of the support team, parents and the riders for doing a great job.

28/07/2024

One more late night before you get a night off before Dressage starts 😁🌿 Please note there aren't specific start times for each combination in the Jumping phase.

27/07/2024

We are off with three of our riders to the Wairarapa dressage show tomorrow!

Feel free to pop over to the Solway showgrounds if you want to watch!
Our first rider is on at 9.50am ❤️

Wishing luck to Lani on Tussock, Lexi on Lily and Alice on Charlie 🍀

21/07/2024

I just wanna do a huge shoutout to all our helpers over the holidays ❤️

It makes our job so much easier having so many hands on deck.
From feeding to holiday programs to lessons to working ponies. We appreciate all the people who choose to come and spend time with us helping out. 🌻

A special shoutout to Alice, who was here every single day of the holidays helping out, plus attended camp too!
Can't forget our wonderful staff member Elliette who is always a reliable hand, especially in the busy holidays. ❤️

I would love to do a special shoutout to all but we might be here all day 😆

21/07/2024

We had a ton of fun on today's adult program!

Lots of learning, obstacles, games, handling skills, snacks and more.

We had a great range of levels from novice riders, returning to riding and regular riders.
This might need to become a regular holiday addition!

19/07/2024

Term three spaces and updates

🌸Pony group spaces in🌸
Monday senior group (4-6)
Tuesday intermediate pony group (3.30-5)
Thursday beginner pony group (3.30-5)
Adult group (Mondays 10-11.30)
Homeschool group (Tuesday 10-11am)
Toddler program (Saturday 11.30-12.30)

🌸Weekly private spaces🌸
3.30pm Mondays
5pm Tuesdays

During the day spaces available too!

17/07/2024

We had a wonderful Full day holiday program today, following our fun 2 hour session yesterday.

We were lucky to get great weather (Could almost forget it was winter if you ignore the mud!) and had a great group of riders.

leading and riding obstacles, making collages, gearing up, catching, ridden games, putting bridles together, clicker game and more!

Onto tomorrow for a morning of lessons and finishing the holidays off with our Adult holiday session on Saturday. ❤️

15/07/2024

MERCH ORDER!!
orders 19th of July.

All of the options below will be in black with grey logo as per our stable colours.

You can have your name/nick name printed on the back of the original Hoodie/ T-shirts for an extra $12. (text print will be grey).
Original Hoodie - $70
Softshell jacket - $80
Zip up Hoodie (Logo print on back, with small logo print on front chest corner) - $80
Caps - $30
Beanies - $25

Please message to order, we will be closing orders 19th of July.

11/07/2024

We had such a fun time on Winter camp this week!

This camp had a working student theme which meant lots of fun theory on important working student skills.
Everything from floating to clipping to lunging to worming and more.

We had the wonderful Brea Walker come in for a chat, she talked about how she ended up working for top eventers like Mark Todd and Laura Collett as well as becoming head groom and rider for sport horse stud Xtreme sport horses. As well as going over how to plait and tips and tricks!

So happy we got great weather which meant heaps of riding time.

We had an amazing group of campers, Including one of our old students who travelled up from Cromwell (where she now lives) to attend!
We love seeing the campers become fast friends, supporting each other throughout camp and creating life long friendships.

10/07/2024

10/07/2024

Some super fun unmounted learning over our Winter camp.

As all horse riders know, we end up spending more time on the ground taking care of our horses then riding!
Therefore on the ground education is super important!

Over camp we covered a range of activities, floating, clipping, lunging, clicker training, worming, feeding and more!

02/07/2024

PONY HOLIDAY PROGRAMS

KIDS DAY PROGRAM - $120
Including riding, horse care, gearing up and games. Suitable for beginner/new riders and up.
Wednesday 17th July 9.30-3

TWO HOUR PROGRAM - $60
2 hours full of learning about horse care/riding and games. Suitable for complete beginners to novice riders.
Tuesday 16th July 9.30-11.30

01/07/2024

ADULT DAY PROGRAM

Including riding, horse care, gearing up and games. Suitable for novice riders and up.
Saturday 20th July 9.30-2
-$100

29/06/2024

WINTER LITTLERIVER CAMP!!

9am 8th of July to 5pm 10th of July. $350

This camp is working student themed.
For many riders, being a working student is their way to a solid career and improving in the sport. It's the path most top riders have taken at some point in their journey.
We will cover a range of skills that are required as a working student in the industry.

Riders need to be capable of confidently walk and trot minimum. Staying over night is not mandatory if you would rather go home for the nights.

We have an awesome team of school ponies we use for camp or you can bring your own horse/pony.

Limited spots. Riders must be 8+. Mssg to book.

26/06/2024

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

📝 Kimberley Reynolds

📸 Max & Maxwell: Equestrian Photography

26/06/2024

WELFARE WEDNESDAY 🐴 Today, we're discussing the fascinating topic of dominance patterns in horses.

The social dynamics of horses are intricate and reveal unique dominance patterns among individuals. While the idea of a strict dominance hierarchy has been popular, recent insights show that this concept doesn't fully capture the reality.

Instead, horses exhibit 'bilateral dominance,' meaning each horse understands their position of dominance or submission in relation to others for specific resources.

For instance, in a group setting, horse A might dominate horse B, and horse B might dominate horse C. However, horse C could dominate horse A, and horse D might dominate both horses B and A, but not C. This dynamic demonstrates that dominance is fluid and resource-specific.

One horse might be more dominant when it comes to food, while another could be more dominant in securing space. Although in some cases, a horse might appear dominant in all areas when paired with another horse, this is not the norm.

A common misunderstanding arises when terms like 'dominance' are used to describe a horse's behaviour toward humans, often attributing undesirable behaviour to the horse's dominant nature. However, what is perceived as dominant behaviour is usually a result of inadequate training. Horses do not see humans as part of their social hierarchy, nor do they understand human notions of 'respect' in the same way we do.

Successful trainers recognise this and take responsibility for their horses' learned behaviours, rather than attributing issues to dominance or disrespect. Embracing this perspective helps in fostering a more harmonious and effective training environment.

⭐This information is adapted from Pony Club Australia's rider manuals, which members study on the way to achieving their proficiency certificates.

25/06/2024

HOLIDAY LESSON DAY
The perfect time to trial a riding lesson with us, get in some extra learning through the holidays or start your horse journey!

Thursday 18th July
10-10.45 Independent beginner group
11-11.45 intermediate group (capable walk, trot canter)
Max 4 in each group session. $55 per rider

Private lesson spaces for all levels available throughout the morning.

Reminder that we also have camp and holiday programs throughout the holidays, details on our website.
Message us to book.

25/06/2024

MERCH ORDER!!

All of the options below will be in black with grey logo as per our stable colours.
You can have your name/nick name printed on the back of the original Hoodie/ T-shirts for an extra $12. (text print will be grey).
Original Hoodie - $70
Softshell jacket - $80
Zip up Hoodie (Logo print on back, with small logo print on front chest corner) - $80
Caps - $30
Beanies - $25

Please message to order, we will be closing orders 19th of July.

24/06/2024

We are heading up to a fun Winter sale at the Waikanae PC clubrooms on Sunday!

We are taking a range of items, some books, saddles, bridles, saddle blankets and stuff on our swap rack which has been sitting for awhile!

Details below

2nd hand and new Equestrian gear.
This is going to be huge! We are packed out with new and used quality gear.
Sunday 30th June
12 noon start
Waikanae PC clubroom
Clothing, comp jackets, many saddles, covers, stable rugs, boots, new and used books, dog coats, bits, saddle blankets etc.
free reusable carry bags
Sausage sizzle and baking 🌭

22/06/2024

Pony club theory tomorrow
11-12pm $10

Open to all NZPCA members, message us to attend. ❤️

19/06/2024

The benefits of playing games 🎳

We play games a decent amount in our program. It's an activity that benefits all levels and can be made as simple or complicated as you like.

The basic games are great for practicing steering, stop, go and balance. Then we can add games like the bridle game or the brush game to help theory knowledge too.
We have games that help with leading skills, that focus on teamwork, we have the ability to add a jump in or we can get riders to practice specific riding skills while they ride the game (2 point, one hand etc)

Games are great for confidence building at all levels. And are an activity that multiple levels can do at once.

There are so many extra skills involved (leg ups, mounting, changing stirrups, helping team mates, timing)

And last but not least they're fun!!
Kids especially learn best when it's fun and they tend to learn the most when it doesn't feel like learning!

Do you have a favourite ridden game?