Speaking of adding value to the inter-ear space, do you want to use the intellect increased thanks to fresh air and horse rides towards the study of English? Conversation practice with a native speaker and a holder of a bunch of teaching diplomas and certificates is available Tell your Russian friends!
RIDING LESSONS
Uncle Pasha is the only one of us who can, with a degree of credibility, play the role of a riding instructor.
What he can teach you:
- The basic care of the animal and daily procedures: feeding, watering, cleaning, checking for trouble.
- Saddling or harnessing a horse.
- Taking care of the tack, including basic repairs.
- Safety basics. In fact, he is kind of obsessed about people not breaking their necks. Not out of his love for humanity, but out of profound distaste for visits to the hospital's emergency ward.
- Calming down a horse that is acting wild. A disclaimer: that's not for everybody. Doesn't seem to be a matter of force or anything else I can name. You need to view the horse as a small fuzzy animal. Don't tell me what she is in reality. That reality is real is an inappropriate attitude to take in certain matters, interaction with horses among them.
- Field riding, including negotiating very rough terrain.
- Hoof care. Cleaning and checking them. How to stop a crack. What to do about imbedded objects.. The basics of shoeing. He would rather not do the latter because horse shoeing involves more than what can be learned in a 40-hour course in the Brockville Veterinary College and by flipping through a couple of books, but he found himself in a situation those who claim to be able to shoe a horse do a shoddier job than he does.
What he cannot teach you
- Dressage. In fact, he has a very vague idea what it is except that it requires a stylish dress and a horse that costs more than he will ever see.
- Jumping. Teaching the animal to jump is no problem but he will not sit on top of it, and will not recommend anyone to do that. If you truly need to get over a fence, just get off, climb over, and your horse will follow. Why complicate things and risk breaking something vital? Those who lived for a month even with a small crack in a rib will understand. I tried in my younger days. The only good thing was a mild buzz from strong pain killers.
- Moving your bum in a funny way they way they do in riding arenas.
The possibility to sleep in the back seat as opposed to driving (he hates driving) may make him open to the idea of getting out of Moscow, where he spends his days and nights trying to make money to support this silly project, in favour of playing the role of a riding instructor.
The best or the worst thing, depending on the angle you look at it, is that he developed his own method of of teaching horse riding
Try NOT to read about his approach to teaching in general. If, however, you cannot sleep without having your curiosity satisfied, proceed to www.unclepasha.com and look under English Teaching and Communications Consulting.