Saddle Up! Top 5 Horse Riding Lessons near Adelaide

Located 45 kilometres away from Adelaide CBD, Adelaide Northern Horse Riding is one of the top horse riding lessons providers in South Australia.

The centre is owned and operated by John and Michelle Hall, who are both highly experienced in horse riding. Michelle is a former horse trainer, a successful dressage and hacking athlete, and an experienced coach and trainer.

What we love most about Northern Horse Riding are its huge arenas. They have an Olympic-sized dressage arena and a general-purpose novelty arena that’s 30m x 44m, which allows riders of all levels to learn riding easier.

We also love how great they are at handling novice riders. They’re very patient, especially with kids, and give instructions that are easy to understand.

The horses are also well-behaved. We immediately felt comfortable with our horses because of how calm they were.

We especially love this about them since we noticed that they have a lot of kid riders who just started riding.

They also have professional indemnity and public liability insurance, so you can rest assured that you’re safe in their hands.

However, the owners are not always on the ranch. When we came, another coach took care of us instead of Michelle.

They’re also closed on weekends, which is not good for kids who have classes during the weekdays.

Nyroca Riding Centre has a long and rich 70-year history. They’ve taught over 12,000 people how to ride horses and have helped over 13,000 people who want to experience trail rides.

Nyroca offers both private lessons and group lessons, but it’s essential to get private lessons first before joining lessons because they need to know your skill level.

Our favourite thing about Nyroca is they offer lesson packages at a cheaper price. Since you won’t perfect horse riding with one lesson, this is very helpful, as individual lessons can be expensive.

They have a private package that costs $405 for 5 private lessons and $290 for 5 group lessons. All of these prices are for the price of 4 lessons if bought individually.

We also love the trail rides that they offer. These are great for clients who finally got comfortable with riding after a few lessons.

We’re just a bit disappointed with their customer service. We didn’t get any assistance for the first 30 minutes when we came to visit, so we were lost with what to do.

Another disappointing thing about them is the trainers sometimes leave the guests and horses unattended, which can be really dangerous, especially when the guest is a beginner.

Templewood is a horse riding centre with 200 acres of land in the Adelaide Hills, just 45 minutes away from the CBD.

They’ve been operating for 50 years and have a very clean reputation among horse riding fans, so you can rest assured that they know what they’re doing.

Our favourite thing about Templewood is they have facilities that can cope with bad weather, so they don’t have to cancel lessons if it gets too hot or cold.

Riders, however, can cancel or reschedule their appointment if they don’t feel like getting a lesson during hot or cold days. Just notify the centre at least 24 hours before your appointment.

We also love that they offer a wide variety of lessons. They have children’s sessions, private lessons, group lessons, cross-country lessons, and day schools, so riders can choose which one will work for them.

The only drawback is their lessons are quite pricey. Private lessons cost $90 for 45 minutes, which is usually the cost of a 60-minute lesson in other centres. 

There are also some centres that offer 60-minute lessons for a lower price.

We’re also not a big fan of their booking process. You can only book through phone calls, which is very inconvenient.

We faced quite a problem when we were booking because they weren’t answering the phone. We had to call them back a few times before the booking was confirmed.

Megan Jones is one of the best riders in Australia. She received the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and was chosen to represent the country in the London Olympic Games.

Based on her credentials alone, it’s no surprise that her horse riding lessons are part of this list.

Megan Jones offers group lessons, semi-private and private lessons, and school holiday programs.

What we love most about this riding centre is its extremely huge property. The training facility is a beautiful 100-acre property that makes horse riding so much more enjoyable.

While on the property, everything in our line of sight was green, which felt very relaxing. It’s a great place to come after a tiring, stressful week in the city.

They also have a large team of horses, so they can accommodate a lot of riders. It also gave us a chance to choose a horse we felt more connected to.

The lessons, however, are quite pricey. Private lessons cost $130 for 50 minutes of lessons, while group lessons cost $95 per hour.

If we only base it on Megan’s background, we’d agree that the price is reasonable. But while Megan is great, we found some of the coaches to be quite inattentive. 

We weren’t happy when we saw some of the coaches leave the riders to get water and coffee. Some of them were also talking to each other and glancing at their phones while there was a guest waiting for them.

With 30 years of teaching experience and impressive qualifications, the coach at Cartmel Rise Equestrian Centre is one of the best people to go to when you need to start your lessons.

Lyn Jutilane-Maynard is an Equestrian Australian Level 2 Dressage coach, a coach educator, and an FEI dressage rider. She also has a British Horse Society Intermediate Instructors Certificate.

But more than her qualifications, Lyn’s attentiveness is what impressed us the most during our kid’s lesson with her. Her eyes never left the horse and our kid, and she made sure our girl was comfortable as they went through the lesson.

Another great thing about the centre is they have an all-weather surfaced 60m x 20m arena, which allows the horse and the riders to move freely.

The only disadvantage they have is they only entertain riders who made prior arrangements. So, you have to call at least a day or two in advance to get a lesson.

They’re hard to contact at times too, which makes everything about the booking process even more inconvenient and frustrating.