Trail riding your ATV is an activity the entire family can enjoy and being able to bring the kids along for the ride is a big bonus.
One of the biggest bonuses you can give your kids is to get them lessons from a DOT approved riding course. They will learn proper handling techniques, maneuvering skills and good safety practices to insure that all their ATV rides are safe ones.
Teach your children to do a basic pre-ride inspection. This simple step will save them a lot of grief and time when riding. Most problems start really small and learning to maintain their ATVs can't really start too early.
When riding on an ATV trail your children should be wearing proper safety gear. Make sure that your kids are wearing protective clothing. This includes a long sleeved shirt, long pants,gloves, boots, and chest protector. As far as safety equipment make sure your kids are wearing goggles and a full face helmet. There is debris and slapping tree branches on ATV trails and it's not fun to get debris in your eye or get slapped in the face by a tree branch bent forward by someone in front of you.
Which brings us to another point, teach your children to not follow too closely and teach them when fording a stream or when they are crossing any place on an ATV trail, to wait for the person behind them to catch up, everyone on the ATV trail should learn this technique.
Also teach your kids to stay on the designated trails and never got trail blazing as many trails are bordered by private property and should not be trespassed upon.
