Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity.
This week’s question posed is: What are ways to teach your students to be welcoming and inclusive to newcomers of the sport?
Here are their answers:
“Inclusion starts with the trainer, which then creates a culture at the barn. I give acceptance, kindness, openness, and empathy with all my students. When students see respect and patience from their trainer, they mirror it in the barn culture.
What feels obvious to longtime equestrians can feel overwhelming to newcomers. I encourage questions, and a culture of curiosity and learning. We are all life long learners. I really spend the time teaching horsemanship from the very beginning to help foster understanding and take away the fear of doing something wrong.
I like to pair newcomers with established barn members as a mentor/barn buddy. This empowers the more experienced person and lets the newcomer learn in a supportive way.
We celebrate effort, not perfection. Progress is not linear, and every day is worthwhile.
When success is experienced more broadly, more people feel like they belong.
I like to create shared experiences. Barn days, schooling sessions, events, help newcomers feel connected and included. Fostering friendships and community are at the heart of our barn.
Encourage questions and normalize not knowing. We all have more to learn. We can encourage each other to always be seeking more knowledge. We all start somewhere.
Remind students that their actions shape the sport, and ultimately the welfare of the horses. We need horsemen and women to care for and love our horses. Encouragement and inclusion go a lot further than criticism.
After all, we are all in it together, and that’s beautiful.” –Amy Hill
“Students notice more than we think. Research shows that young people are often keenly aware when issues of ethnicity or disability are handled carelessly—even when adults believe they are doing fine (Sandberg et al., 2024). In barn environments, where culture is learned almost entirely by watching others, that awareness matters. Inclusion can’t be something we hope happens. It has to be taught.
One helpful shift is to stop treating inclusivity as a personality trait and start treating it as a skill. Skills are observable, teachable, and correctable (Naess, 2026). We already do this with horsemanship. We teach riders how to introduce themselves to a clinician, how to wait their turn, how to speak respectfully to trainers and barn staff. Welcoming a new rider, explaining routines without eye-rolling, or stepping in when exclusion shows up should be held to the same professional standard. Modeling calm peer correction—especially when humor crosses a line—sets expectations without turning every moment into a lecture (Eldridge et al., 2025).
Clear and visible consequences matter, too. One reason sports environments often feel more inclusive than other youth spaces is that expectations are explicit and accountability is consistent (Sandberg et al., 2024). In the barn, addressing microaggressions shouldn’t feel awkward or extraordinary. It should feel routine—no different than clarifying a rule in the show ring. We explain the difference between a brief break of gait and a prolonged one all the time. We can also name exclusionary behavior when it happens—whether it’s a joke at the expense of a beginner, a rider with a disability, or someone who doesn’t quite fit the dominant mold. When those moments are addressed calmly and consistently, riders learn quickly what kind of space they’re in.
Inclusion also means normalizing differences without requiring assimilation. Jenny uses a three-step mounting block. Johnny prefers a two-step. Neither choice needs justification beyond safety and function. The abilities of either rider need not be openly discussed—Jenny’s hypothetical physical limitation is just as easily accommodated as a small rider on a tall horse. That kind of normalization requires instructors to make the sport’s invisible rules visible—and to be honest about which norms are preferences and which are truly necessary. Riders often need help unlearning the idea that fair means the same. Fair instruction doesn’t mean identical tack, identical timelines, or identical approaches. It means anticipating needs, communicating clearly, and responding with empathy (Whelan-Jackson, 2010).
None of this works without leadership; neutrality in barns tends to reinforce whatever norms already dominate, rather than challenging them (Naess, 2026). Educators and instructors shape culture by what they address and what they ignore. Teaching students to notice who isn’t in the room—and letting that awareness inform programming decisions—is especially important with adolescents, whose attitudes toward inclusion can harden over time.
One simple but powerful step is inviting newcomers into the system itself. Walk through orientation materials together. Ask what needs clarification. Invite feedback. When new riders are treated as contributors rather than problems to manage, inclusion stops being performative and starts becoming part of the barn’s everyday professionalism.” –C.J. Holthaus
“Our barn has grown a lot over the last few years, and we have a wide variety of riders from very beginners—both children and adults—to seasoned competitors and everyone in between. When a new rider arrives for our mandatory barn tour and interview, I always give them my standard speech that this is a no drama, no gossip, no bad vibes environment. We are all here because we love horses, and we’re all here to enjoy them! If I have kids or adults there that day that I can introduce people to, I always do. And truly, we have such a wonderful barn environment that the current riders often take it upon themselves to make introductions and show newcomers around! I will remind my younger crew to ask new riders where they go to school or what their horse’s name is, etc., and we try very hard to foster an atmosphere of inclusion and support right off the bat! When the people in the barn are friendly, happy and have regulated nervous systems they already feel and give off welcoming feelings for new friends moving in!” –Brittany Massey
“It is vital that equestrians interact with the public whenever possible. We are lucky to work with horses daily, and the best way to show gratitude is to share that joy. This can be as simple as acknowledging a child who wants to pet a horse or celebrating a new rider’s small wins. Making the sport feel approachable is how we ensure its future.” –Dustin Cossaboom
