•    Ages 4 to adult
•    Indoor arena or outdoor arena accommodates all seasons and weather;
•    Year round lessons; spring through fall includes trail riding;
•    Special occasion cart and pony rides.
•    Safe, kind, and dependable horses who love children
•    A staff of lifetime-experienced instructors and certified elementary teacher.

Our focus is on safety, fun, and building self-confidence through
creating a positive riding experience.

To insure at our stables that children are taught by instructors held to the highest standards for 2012, all our instructors are required to sign and follow a Code of Ethics, be police background checked, and subject to random drug testing. Your child, the safety of your child, and your child’s enjoyment advancing through riding with responsible instructors are the basis for our core values!

Creative riding lesson activities (instills self-confidence and accomplishment) as appropriate for students’ riding ability:

•    Bareback riding: teaches self-reliant balance beyond relying on a saddle and stirrups; gives a better feel with the seat for the movement of the horse and muscles (and is wonderfully warm when winter riding!)

•    Indoor Trail patterns: teaches memory and pattern sequence; pick-up and lean-over activities challenges riders to purposely put themselves off balance and regain their center; teaches more reining and leg skills to position horse for obstacles; encourages creativity on horseback and adds interest to indoor arena riding.

•    Games on horseback (such as broomstick polo!): encourages riders to feel comfortable on horseback regaining center of balance; engages semi-private lesson riders to interact competitively for fun and adds interest to indoor arena riding.

•    Outdoor Trail riding: scenic riding that requires slight nuances of reining to navigate changes in the terrain (that transfers to slight nuances of reining necessary in the horse show arena.)

Private Lessons  
•    $40 per hour of riding time
•    $25 per half hour of riding time

Semi-Private Lessons (2-3 riders)
•    $30 per hour of riding time

 

About your lessons:
(What riders want to know…)

Riders are required to wear a protective helmet (a bicycle helmet is acceptable only until long term commitment is established) and a shoe or boot with not less than a ½” heel. (This prevents the rider’s foot from accidentally sliding completely through the iron or stirrup while riding, which would contribute to falling from the horse.)

Our niche in the riding instruction world is to establish the basics: heels down, elbows in, sit up straight, and proper hand position; to nurture a rider’s natural passion/obsession with horses, and build self confidence through a variety of riding activities inside and outside of the riding arena. We chose to be creative with our riding activities to keep riders stimulated and interested in doing more with their horse, learning more about horses, and confidently doing more with their horse. The order of importance for horseback riding under our tutelage is: safety, fun, knowledge, and competition. We do not believe in pigeon-holing your child anymore than we believe in pigeon-holing our horses. This is why we offer the range and variety of disciplines we do, because no one excels at anything they neither want to do or are made miserable doing! 

Riders are not routinely put on a lunge line: independent riding is encouraged from the first lesson. We walk along side of the lesson horse’s shoulder until the rider feels confident enough to ride a distance from the instructor. Our lesson horses are kind, sweet, sensible, dependable, and generally wonderful with children. They are show ring horses, but we do not teach riders to “push buttons” on “push button horses” (unless they want to meet us at Meijers with a roll of pennies.) We teach riders to ride and enjoy riding!

A favorite for riders in the winter riding program is to ride bareback the last 15 minutes or more of their lesson. This experience provides the rider with a better feel for the natural movement of the horse beneath them, improves balance that builds the rider’s self-reliance on their legs independent of stirrups, and is very, very warm in cold temperatures!

Spring, summer, and fall lessons take place in the outdoor arena as weather conditions allow. Outdoor lesson activities include riding horses on the track around the outdoor arena and on the groomed trail around the perimeter of the property (approximately 15 minutes in duration.) By riding in environments other than the arenas, riders learn the small nuances of reining needed to navigate their horses around the gentle turns of the riding path, as opposed to the repetitious and limited reining required when only riding in an arena. Road riding ventures teach riders safety outside of a contained environment. Learning to be aware of changing terrain and environment influences carries over to safe bicycle riding and automobile driving practices.

By expanding our riders’ experience on horseback that includes a variety of riding environments, riders learn to ride and have confidence in their ability to ride. They learn to anticipate and be prepared for horse’s movement and behaviors. They learn to “read” a horse’s body language and communicate with the horse using their body language. Experience beyond the arena gives riders more of an idea of where they want to take their riding ability into the future: into the show ring, or just casually riding for the joy of riding.

Parents’ patronage and entrusting their child to CornerStone Acres for their riding experience and riding lessons is appreciated. We find teaching to be as rewarding and enjoyable for us as we hope (and believe) it is for the lesson riders (and parents.) By limiting the number of riders accepted and limiting lesson days, we believe we do a better job of teaching with more patience, more creativity, and more attention to individual rider’s needs. Due to demand for lessons and for those who want to take lessons at our barn, the lesson policies are as follows:

Lessons are for one hour of riding and does not include tack up time. There is a 10-minute allowance for late arriving without prior notice. We are tolerant as long as the leeway is not abused and habitual. Riders are to be on time and ready to ride. Lesson horses may or may not be immediately ready when their rider arrives. If arriving early, riders may accompany us to get the horse from the stall or turnout, learning safe handling practices and tacking.

You must call at least one half-hour in advance for rider absence. Missed lessons cancelled in advance are no charge, or made up on an alternate day and time. Lessons missed without notice will be charged for and paid as if it took place. Three no-call and no-shows removes the rider from the lesson schedule and sacrifices their lesson time slot to another rider.

Through the winter months, temperatures at or expected to be 25 degrees or less one half hour before the lesson constitutes an automatic canceling of the lesson without requiring telephone notification.

Canceling lessons or make-up lessons to accommodate vacations or holidays are on a mutually arranged basis.