Back to square one

[Pink Gorilla]

Does anyone else's horses go back to square one with their dressage training after a couple of week's break doing other things (hacking, jumping, lunging)? We're certainly not high level and just compete in BD Quest. But I really felt we were making great progress. Then we had a couple of chill weeks, including a riding holiday at the beach and some lunging due to lack of time. Now it's like his lovely way of going has vanished! He's wooden, hollow, behind the leg, not moving sideways off my inside leg. Yet my friend, who I went on my riding holiday with, can just pop on her horse after months of just hacking and school beautifully.

 

[mini-eventer]

I carry my schooling over to my hacking which helps, they hack into a contact, when walking do a bit of legyeild/shoulder in etc. Ensure they are sharp off my leg. Chose canter leads transitions within gaits etc.

They will get chill periods during a hack, but still always have to respond to aids

 

[silv]

Does anyone else's horses go back to square one with their dressage training after a couple of week's break doing other things (hacking, jumping, lunging)? We're certainly not high level and just compete in BD Quest. But I really felt we were making great progress. Then we had a couple of chill weeks, including a riding holiday at the beach and some lunging due to lack of time. Now it's like his lovely way of going has vanished! He's wooden, hollow, behind the leg, not moving sideways off my inside leg. Yet my friend, who I went on my riding holiday with, can just pop on her horse after months of just hacking and school beautifully.

No mine are still the same even after a couple of months off, sounds weird that your horse has done this.

 

[LEC]

No, the principles I want in dressage are reinforced every single time I ride. Every time I hack I am effectively schooling. Can I get the neck where I want it, get flexion, get the ribs, shorten steps, lengthen steps etc etc I don’t have an arena so hence every time I ride it has to be as good as I can get it. You can’t expect a horse to just go oh it’s dressage today and come out the same. It always needs to be worked on.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Yes to an extent. Lottie's main issue in dressage is her anticipation. She is forever offering options and trying to work out what comes next like: "this? now? trot? turn? Which makes her choppy and we lose rhythm and harmony.

But these are the things that makes her a fab jumping horse - she lands and looks for the next jump or the flags and sorts her leads out. So everytime we focus on dressage, the dressage gets better and she waits to be told more. Then we go jumping and she is back anticipating: she looks for the fence, finds it, locks on to it and takes me to it, lands and changes leg. So next time I am schooling she turns across a diagonal (say ) and thinks 'ah lead change' and switches even though we were meant to trot at X , and she keeps offering unwanted behaviours - jogging, trying to turn where it makes sense to her, surging. And when I repeatedly have to correct, she gets tense too.

In hacking I view that as partly fitness building but also a mental break, so I don't school her. She is on the buckle and sniffing the air. I don't let her choose the gait, obviously, but she does repeatedly ask to go faster - though respects a no. And sometimes we walk the whole hack. But that does not help her dressage anticipation either, as she is allowed to ask the question. And asking the question is the issue in schooling. I don't know what the answer is really. I don't want to shut down her jumping enthusiasm and intelligence. I want her to just go out and have fun when hacking. But the dressage is the area that both those things affect. For now I am just living with it.

Your horse sounds different though - hollow, wooden and stiff and not moving laterally could suggest your horse lacks suppleness and seizes up to an extent after a break, and so finds working correctly physically challenging, and therefore resists. But loosens off and improves with more focus on it?

 

[Pink Gorilla]

Yes he definitely goes better when we do little and often. He does have Pssm1, so I think that could be to do with it. However that usually just flares up in the spring. He's been wearing a muzzle when out grazing and losing weight, so his diet it correct for his Pssm1. I sometimes worry I'm the problem. In August, he went to my instructor's for a week's schooling and I kept him going after that winning some comps and getting my best dressage score to date. Then obviously when we had our riding holiday, he still worked, but had a mental break from schooling like you said Amber's Echo. So our holiday included a beach ride, a xc course, chilled hacks with friends and then a couple of lunging sessions when I got home. I worry now I had that break in consistency after he was at my instructor's, that she was the cause of his good way of going for me these past few weeks and not because both he and I had gotten better. I find myself now making excuses to myself to lunge instead of ride, as I'm genuinely feeling like I can't ride and I'll just make things worse.

 

[eggs]

No but I ride the same way whether I am hacking of schooling in that I expect him to be as reactive so my leg, bend or flex when asked, lengthen or shorten the stride, etc.

 

[SEL]

Yes he definitely goes better when we do little and often. He does have Pssm1, so I think that could be to do with it. However that usually just flares up in the spring. He's been wearing a muzzle when out grazing and losing weight, so his diet it correct for his Pssm1. I sometimes worry I'm the problem. In August, he went to my instructor's for a week's schooling and I kept him going after that winning some comps and getting my best dressage score to date. Then obviously when we had our riding holiday, he still worked, but had a mental break from schooling like you said Amber's Echo. So our holiday included a beach ride, a xc course, chilled hacks with friends and then a couple of lunging sessions when I got home. I worry now I had that break in consistency after he was at my instructor's, that she was the cause of his good way of going for me these past few weeks and not because both he and I had gotten better. I find myself now making excuses to myself to lunge instead of ride, as I'm genuinely feeling like I can't ride and I'll just make things worse.

But remember a horse with PSSM is going to find schooling harder than horses without the condition - no matter how hard you manage the diet.

 

[lme]

I'd hate to have to school on hacks. Yes mine are expected to be responsive but we mainly hack to have a chilled mooch around the lanes, usually with little to no contact.

 

[Muddywellies]

No, mine comes back feeling better after having a break.

 

[Squeak]

I made the mistake earlier this year of having a couple of weeks where we didn't go in the school and where I didn't work him properly on any hacks and he did go backwards however it only took a couple of sessions to get him back to where he had been so hopefully yours will be the same.

Lesson learnt that it didn't work for him and I know that I need to make sure I work him for a bit on a hack to keep him ticking over.