The PAL Around Pony School Story
Shelley Manley has been riding horses for over 35 years and teaching young riders for over thirty years. She started teaching riding lessons at the age of 15 and taught many dozens of young riders before graduating from high school. She has a B.S and M.A in Psychology, and an M.Ed. in School Counseling. She has worked as the riding director at a residential children’s home and as a riding instructor at several other facilities. She has also worked as a School Counselor for eleven years at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Ride From the Start LLC and the PAL Around Pony School program began in 2012, when Shelley had many parents of young children requesting horseback riding lessons. This often proved a challenging endeavor, as her tiniest riders would quickly grow bored when riding and were not able to sustain attention on the pony beyond a few minutes at a time. While studying to become a school counselor, Shelley was also learning how to develop a curriculum and write lesson plans. She was studying child development in depth and pondering how to create a more age-appropriate means of introducing young children to horses. She decided to use her newfound skills to create a program that combined elements of fun hands-on learning, stories, songs, games, and horseback riding.
In March of 2012, she held her first class, offering it to a group of friends and their children. Since the students were eager to continue the program, she recognized a need to continue developing the lesson plans, and the PAL Around Pony School curriculum began to take shape. It has evolved over the past thirteen years, as a result of customer feedback. The program has operated at six different locations across the Eastern panhandle and in the nearby states of Virginia and Maryland, all with consistent success. Hundreds of area children have now enjoyed PAL Around Pony School, and many of those children have continued into regular riding lessons. Other instructors have also taught the program successfully, and it is time to bring this important program to instructors across the country.
