A pain to school

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charliechalk1

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My Welsh section D is a nightmare to school. He is currently ridden in a dutch gag which I need for brakes and to stop him carting me round the school. He gets very bored doing the same thing. After a while he thinks everything is a race and rushes things. He absolutely loves to jump but finds the schooling boring. I try to do some circles, transitions and normal schooling etc. but he just seems to think its all one big race. I'm rapidly running out of ideas of how to make things more interesting for him. Has anyone got any suggestions?
 
Try putting some poles on the ground, in curves, or just 3 or 4 dotted around the school. Also try some different exercises like diamond and square shapes. Another good one is a 10m circle in the corner then across the diagonal to x, another 10m circle there, then diagonal to the other corner at the end of the same side, one and a half 10m circles in that corner, then diagonally across to the middle of the same long side, 10m circle there, etc. The combination of circles and straights works really well. Try introducing some turn about the forehand and demi pirrouttes, even if not very good, to give him the idea of stepping away from your leg. Leg yield on a straight line, from the 1/4 line to the side, or the other way. Also shrink a 20m circle to a 10m circle, 2 10m circles as slow as poss, then leg yield out to a 20m circle and ride more forward, before slowing down and shrinking in again. I hope these help, but nothing will be as good as some lessons with a really good instructor, who should be able to give you some excerises specific to your horse.
Good Luck!
 
Does he hack out well? If so do your schooling on hacks. Use lampposts/trees to mark your transitions, leg yield round drain covers, do serpentines on tracks, open gates with turns on the forehand, circle and spirals can be done in open spaces. Just make sure that he is listening to you all the time and doesn't anticipate.
 
charliechalk1 said:
My Welsh section D is a nightmare to school. He is currently ridden in a dutch gag which I need for brakes and to stop him carting me round the school. He gets very bored doing the same thing. After a while he thinks everything is a race and rushes things. He absolutely loves to jump but finds the schooling boring. I try to do some circles, transitions and normal schooling etc. but he just seems to think its all one big race. I'm rapidly running out of ideas of how to make things more interesting for him. Has anyone got any suggestions?
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Maybe theres a reason why he runs off? Is his saddle ok?

Your bit could also be the answer- have you tried anything else. Ive seen lots of horses respond to a dutch gag by running off. Single jointed ones are the worst. They are also designed to be used with 2 reins on a pressure release principle. if you only use one pair of reins there is minimal release- its just not physically possible, getting worse the lower down the bit you have the reins. This alone is enough to make a horse ignore you.
 
I had this recently with my cob, he did everything at break neck speed. I started having lessons with a new instructor, he asked me to warm up before our first lesson and he was going to watch. Anyway the walk and trot was bad enough but when i cantered he actually came into the arena and asked me to stop as we were soooo out of control.

He took me back to basics and said 'your horse wont learn anything at that speed, he also wont build up any correct muscles unless you slow him down'. Since then i have concentrated on slowing him down and getting his head down as he used to just put his head up and not listen. We had to do everything ultra slow, and when he didnt like it we just had to carry on. He now is working 100% better than he was before, after only 3 months the improvement is amazing.

Best bit of advice is to slow everything down, we spent sessions in walk and just concentrated on head carriage working through and slooowing down. It works. Now i can actually ride him forwards and ask him for things instead of fighting to keep control.

Hope this helps.
 
Some horses really object to the leverage effect of a Dutch gag. I guess the problem is at it's worst when you are schooling on the flat and trying to keep a consistent contact? Does he rush forwards with a high head carriage, hollowing through his back? If so I would think about changing his bit. I'm a French link loose ring snaffle fan myself, but if you are really concerned about brakes you could try a Waterford.

Next, he needs to learn to accept and understand your aids. A good test of this is to apply one leg only - does he step away, or does he just brace against the pressure? If the latter, you need to work on teaching him to move away from pressure. His resistance might come from lack of understanding or it could be an evasion, but either way I'm sure you can train him out of it. Use the advice from the posts above: try turns, circles and transitions. But lateral work will help most of all, as it teaches the horse that pressure means 'move away' not 'rush off forwards to escape'.

Maybe I'm teaching granny to suck eggs here, but I'd start with practising quarter turns on the forehand. Start by turning across the school and halting facing the wall but a few metres from the track. Slide your inside leg back to ask for a few steps across. Half halt f he goes to move forwards, but if he goes through your hands use the wall to stop rather than tugging on the reins. Praise any suggestion of moving away from your leg. Having someone on the ground to ask him to move over the first few times will help I'd he is not familiar with this exercise.

Once the idea of moving across and away from your leg is established try leg yielding in walk and eventually in trot. If he gets tense or confused go back to basics, to your turn on the forehand. Use half halts to keep the pace steady, but avoid constant pressure down the reins.

If you can, find a good instructor to give you some help from the ground. As an incentive, think how much your horse's jumping will improve when he is more supple and responsive!

Sorry for the mini essay - I hope some of it was helpful :) And good luck.
 
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