Lessons from riding

Riding club offers unique classes for Dubai children as young as three

Ryan and Efe, both four, were walking their horses around the riding arena, sitting up tall and straight. Every so often, one of them laughed, eyes lighting up with joy. When they broke into a trot, Ryan put up his hand in the air and shouted "yeah". Joanne Ivimey, running beside his horse with a firm hand on the reins, laughed with him.

"He was very active and I wanted him to focus and concentrate," said Niamh Staunton, Ryan's mother. "He has been riding for a year. Riding gave him the love of animals and their touch. Through group lessons he has learnt to share and be organised."

For the first two lessons, Ryan was looking for aeroplanes in the sky. From the third, he was listening to Ivimey. "She is such a lovely teacher and he listens to her more than he listens to me," said Niamh, smiling.

Ryan and Efe were taking "Tiny Tots" lessons at the Desert Palm Riding Club, Dubai. "Only we give riding lessons to children as young as three and four in Dubai. Most schools think children cannot start to learn riding until they're six or seven.

"I think children are so advanced these days and I see no reason why younger children shouldn't come to learn to ride in a controlled environment," said Ivimey, manager of the riding club, a British Horse Society Instructor, and also a riding club and pony club examiner.

"We focus on giving them confidence and we play lots of games involving colours and shapes," she added.

The children, clearly, love the lessons. Ryan and Efe, for example, couldn't wait to wear their boots and safety helmets and get on their horses. "It is so much fun," said Efe. "I love the horses," added Ryan, before going off for a ride on a horse-driven cart.

The Desert Palm Riding Club is an easy 15 to 20 minutes drive from the first interchange on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, towards Hatta.