Any exercises to help small horses/ponies cope with senior/BE distance

[Ahrena]

Okay well its still like 3 years off

Buuut I figured, if theres exercises that could help, it would be a good idea to introduce them asap so it can slowly filter into her mindset sort of thing.

You might have seen my post in the NL about pictures of small horses/ponies doing BE/BSJA, and its about the same horse. Okay she's only 6 and needs a lot more work and mileage before she's anywhere near good enough to be unleashed onto affiliated turf, but like I said, if theres anything that can help might as well start now.

She's anything from 14.2hh - 15hh, gonna be properly measured in the New year for her LHC. She's also a welsh cob (pos x hackney) so has high knee action, she's very quick but I think she probably takes lots of short fast strides rather than covering the ground with a big stride.

She has a huuuuge jump on her, cleared my 5foot+ round pen (not the metal cages, a wooden one!) when I was doing (or attempting?) join up and she had other ideas, and has popper several rather big fences with me on her too. I have jumped her over BSJA strided doubles before up to about 1m which she seemed okay with, though did feel a bit "long" or put in 2 short ones, but didn't seem to have any problems, nor had them down or stopped.

She's more important to me than any competition, hence why I'm keeping her (I bought her to bring on then sell, otherwise I'd never have gotten one her height since she's on the short size for me at 5 foot 6, but have to admit to falling for her hook line and sinker from the day I met her), but I'd love for us to be able to affiliate and me not to feel like i'm holding her back.

So does anyone have any ideas? I've figured that she'll cope better with distances than she already does now as her flatwork improves, when I'm able to shorten and lengthen her myself, but has anyone got any ideas or advice, either flatwork, jumping or whatever?!

Here's some piccies of her incase anyone cares.

(her first proper time xc)

Thanks anyone

 

[only_me]

try placing canter poles at a set distance, say 7 strides. then inbetween the poles, wait until you can do the 7 strides nicely, and then ask her to lengthen and get 6 strides, and if she is really motoring along then you could ask for 5. also works the other way for shorting, 8 strides then 9.


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also, you could to grids but have them slightly longer than normal, to get her to stretch for the fences.

long-reining will help her knee action, and working her long and low will help strengthen and lenghten her stride.

but, it is more important to keep her togther and rounded than to have her long and flat, as she will jump better when she is coiled like a spring. when she is "together" then you can ask for her to do some extended work.

hope that helps

 

[Rosiefan]

As far as BE is concerned, is she going to be fast enough XC. This was really the problem with Rosie's 8 year old 15.3 appaloosa although it may have been OK given time. Good luck

 

[Ahrena]

Thanks Only_me

I think we'll give those things a go, sounds good.

Rosiefan - I don't really think she'd have a problem speed wise, she's very quick and can keep going forever but then I've never done BE and havn't done any ODEs with her yet, but showjumping she always beats all the big horses even when its run on jump off not a turning one, if that makes sense.

Thanks

 

[MagicMelon]

I'd do as much senior BSJA now as possible because I think that'll naturally get you both lengthening in the double and on the related distances. That way, when it comes to the eventing season, hopefully it'll be easy!

At home, Id do lots of gridwork and slowly moving the distance out so she has to stretch more.

 

[Ahrena]

Thanks

She's not ready to do BSJA now and we won't be doing BE next year - she might have been except I badly judged how much to feed her over the summer as I'd never had a cob before and ended up feeding too little for her energy requirements and she got very nappy and we had a couple of nasty experiences at shows, so she's having a "break" then just a play around for a while before doing anything serious, but that's a good idea. I do lots of gridwork anyway, to slow her down plus I love it (am I strange?) so I'll gradually extend that from her comfortable distance to BSJA distances.

I know its a while off yet, but I figured if I start working on it then, hopefully by then it'll be ingrained in her mind. Maybe. xD

How much are you allowed to win, both BSJA and BE until you're out of the smaller classes?

 

[JamilaParr]

progressive transitions... lengthening and shortening the canter, during schooling.

 

[Thistle]

ride her in a big round open 'shape' keeping a forward rhythm. That works with our 14.2 anyway.

 

[lifeslemons]

Being small can have its advantages! Although she may not cover the ground in the same was a rangy T.B etc, being small and nippy she should be at an advantage when tackling narrows and curving dog legs etc. Good luck!

 

[SpruceRI]

Gridwork and SJ courses with distances where you have the option to shorten and lengthen the stride to get, say, 5 strides in, or 4, or 6. Practice riding the 'correct' line between 2 jumps on a curve, and then cutting the corners a little.

Practice jumping your SJ's and small XC fences at angles.

Being able to jump at an angle has been the saving grace for Rosie and I, and what she tends to do with the SJ is 'run down the side of the fence' a little to put more room in for a 2nd stride. So, she'll start off jumping the centre of the first part of the double and then jump the very left hand side of the 2nd part which tends to give her a foot or 2 extra to get a shuffle stride in.

If the first part of a double is an oxer, and second an upright we're OK as she can do 1 stride and a 'flier', so takes off a bit far away from the 2nd fence, but there's no width to it so she can clear it. But if the 2nd part is an oxer I try to place her close to the bottom of the first part of the double so she doesn't land too far in and can fit 2 short bouncy strides in, giving her more scope/space to get over the oxer.

So being able to lengthen/shorten is really important.

You can use the same on the XC, plus if you can keep them in a good forward rhythm before the fence and afterwards, without oiking back too much all the time, you'll certainly make the Intro and PN time.

Took my Welshie years to master speed though, so don't get dejected when the time comes!

 

[Ahrena]

Thanks everyone for all your ideas. Next time I ride during daylight (yess holidays as off next Wednesday!), I'll set out some poles/grids and get to work on these ideas, and in my lesson on Wednesday I'll ask about lengthening and shortening and see if we can do that.