Equestrian Center Community Riding Program

Community Riding lessons meet on most Saturdays throughout the school year. Occasionally, lessons are scheduled on Sundays or weeknights in addition to or in place of the Saturday lessons due to facility availability. Extra lessons are available over winter break, January, spring break and summer recess.

Lessons are scheduled “fresh” each week. Emails are sent to the group on Mondays or Tuesdays asking who is coming and who is not for the Saturday lesson that week. A lesson list is then sent out on Thursday afternoon with times, groups and instructor assignments.  Horse assignments are posted on the bulletin board in the morning before lessons start for the day.

Group lessons are $50. Private lessons are $70 and available through special arrangement.

Riders may cancel a lesson with no penalty up through Friday at noon the day before. A missed or cancelled lesson “last minute” will result in a $10 fee payable at the next lesson. We work very hard to schedule each horse for each rider and to pay our instructors fairly. Please email/call to let us know if you have to cancel after the lesson list has gone out via email and/or to cancel last minute.

Riders should arrive for their lesson ½ hour before their assigned time to groom and tack up. At times, horses are used in back-to-back lessons. Should a rider not have to tack up because of this, we expect that rider to assist others. The same goes for un-tacking, cooling out and cleaning tack after the lesson.

We are a community program. Riders may be asked to help set jumps, move equipment, longe horses, hack, clean tack, bathe horses, provide medical care, assist with horse show jobs and above all else - give lots of love to our hard working school horses.

Riders are to wear proper riding attire for community lessons including an ASTM-SEI approved helmet, breeches, tall boots/paddock boots with half chaps, tucked in polo shirt or neat similar, belt and gloves.

IEA MEMBERS:  All members of the Mount Holyoke IEA Team must be enrolled in our Community Riding Program and be active participants, paying for a season’s worth of lessons in three installments.