Anyone else been without a school for months, so horses not even slightly competition fit?

[maya2008]

As title really. Not even any flat land to school on for ages. We played a bit on the sloping field (circles impossible in anything other than walk!) and hacked a lot. Now the world is opening up, and we have been to arena hire, to find that the corners come up ever so fast and 20m circles are no longer a thing! I am trying to guess how long it will take us to get ready for a dressage test or small SJ round...but have no idea really. They are fit - for hacking. Not at all for being in the arena!!!!

 

[marmalade76]

Years! Never had a school when I was competing, now I have one all to myself and I'm past it!

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I've no school, have spent the whole winter hacking and latterly in the last month schooling whilst hacking.
Yes, we found it hard the 1st time in an arena again 10 days ago, today was jumping and oooh, the corners came up very quickly, but this just made me work harder to keep control and balance.
If you had it before, it will only be rusty not vanished
Get schooling while hacking! You'll be surprised at how you can get very inventive if you have to, it's easy to succumb to tootling out.

 

[suebou]

Competed at royal highland, aintree, BS national finals, riding club championships, area qualifiers, etc etc On different horses and ponies. Never had a school or flat field.

 

[maya2008]

Competed at royal highland, aintree, BS national finals, riding club championships, area qualifiers, etc etc On different horses and ponies. Never had a school or flat field.

It was never a problem before lockdown - we could go out and hire schools, compete etc. Tier 4 then national lockdown kind of caused a bit of a problem there!

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Competed at royal highland, aintree, BS national finals, riding club championships, area qualifiers, etc etc On different horses and ponies. Never had a school or flat field.

Yup, similar here. Did actually hire an indoor the week before Olympia tho as thought that prudent with a youngster 1st time qualified, but otherwise other Olympia visits, Wembley, RIHS etc etc and never had arena's to use, I'm so used to schooling whilst hacking.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Ah to have a school to ride in! But alas no. All of mine are broken and ridden away in the field, with others loose around them. They don't get ridden in any sort of company until they actually go to a show and most have never seen an arena before so are happier on grass.

You don't need a school to have a well schooled, balanced, light in the hand horse.

 

[LEC]

No arena since January and come out competing this weekend at 100. Slightly disappointed by dr score but one of those things I have to take on the chin as can’t exactly improve it yet. Tbh I miss having an arena desperately. I have found I am much further behind where I would want to be and I can’t sort little niggles I used to through things like grid work and cavaletti

 

[Reacher]

Yes me too OP, and last weekend was first time I could hire an arena since December.

I try and do lots of transitions and leg yielding , canter lead changes etc hacking but the surface isn’t ideal either (bridlepaths are a bit stony / were muddy / now going hard) - it’s not the same as having access to an arena.

I subscribed to an online dressage training thing which has been very good but hard to implement the training pans which all have circles in them!

My horse gets fed up with indoor arena hire ( the nearest available arena for me - he gets grumpy I think as it’s not very big ) so having hacked all winter instead of lessons has had some benefits in terms of his headspace and also his strength has improved so there are some plus points but it’s very difficult to do the stuff you could do if you had havd access to an arena. At least facilities are opening up again

 

[maya2008]

I try and do lots of transitions and leg yielding , canter lead changes etc hacking but the surface isn’t ideal either (bridlepaths are a bit stony / were muddy / now going hard).

That is our problem! Either too muddy to canter or too hard... so we are trot fit but not at all canter fit. Also, they are not used to an arena surface, so instead of being all bouncy and forwards like out hacking, they are less sure of the ground/finding it more hard work and thus the energy is missing. I literally need to get them fit enough to cope with an arena surface - by riding in an arena. The circles were also a problem, and I had nowhere to teach the youngest ridden horse about jumps/striding/fillers etc. Normally we do school hire, go to clear rounds, go to baby cross country etc to teach them. But this year, none of that was available for most of it!

 

[millikins]

I agree that you can do a lot of schooling when hacking but a school has its place too. I managed to hire my neighbour's school for the first time since I bought the shetlands in Nov and took them up to long rein. We've worked hard in the field and walked out on the road but they both went beautifully after a few spooks, first time in a school or surrounded by strange horses. I found it very reassuring that they had learnt their lessons so well but it may be that I was more confident/competent with an enclosed area, a fence line and corners.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

I don't have access to an arena and haven't been in one since 29th December. I hired one last week and it was the first time we'd ridden in a circle in over 3 months. My boy and has been hacking all winter but not cantering due to the ground, so we had a good spin over a few jumps. Took him out actual showjumping at the weekend and came second so the rest hasn't done him too much harm. i wouldn't worry to much about fitness, i found my horse was fine. It was me who was rusty!