Dressage and hot horses

[chestnuttyy]

Looking for some schooling tips for my hot headed beastie. He's a 'raring to go at all times' type of person and I'm struggling to contain his enthusiasm when schooling!

Our main issue is jiggling about in walk. If my leg move at all, or I shorten the reins to make a free walk to medium walk transition then he just starts jiggling. He does the same if I try and make the transitions when out hacking.

Does anyone have any exercises that may help?

 

[shortstuff99]

What I like to do with my hot horse is make sure that I've made it very clear that I want walk. So I make sure my seat bones 'walk' in the rhythm that I want (this does not mean push with the seat) just moving them in the rhythm helps the horse to understand.

I also make the horse walk, if they jiggle half halt and bring back to walk, when they have walked for ten strides (nicely) I go up to trot for about 10-20m and do the same again. The key is to make sure they walk and then reward with the faster pace. They soon learn to walk nicely to get to do more exciting stuff! Hope that helps.

 

[eggs]

Make sure that you sit up straight and don't lean forwards when you pick up your reins out of the free walk. The trick with hot horses is to use stronger, not lighter, aids so he has to learn that you can move your leg but remain in walk. I also find it helpful it I think 'walk' rather than 'don't jiggle'. You need to keep repeating the medium to free and back to medium transitions. It would be best to do these at the end of a schooling session rather than at the beginning. If he makes a mistake in the transition then as shortstuff99 said, half halt, regroup and establish and walk and ask again.

 

[Cortez]

Just think how easy the piaffe will be!

 

[wkiwi]

Make sure you can ask for stretch with the horse still in the outside rein contact. Then, when he starts to tense at walk, use the 'stretch' aids to ask for just a slightly longer frame and lower neck position (talking inches here, not going to into stretch itself). If he knows about keeping the outside rein contact then this should help stop him jogging, as they usually lift their neck and head slightly to do so. Remember that in a long-rein/free walk he should never drop the contact completely with the outside rein (a bit like keeping hold of someone's hand when walking along with them) - so when you go to shorten the reins the 'feel' between you and the horse should be exactly the same even though you are changing the rein length. Most people need to practice shortening the rein while keeping the same light contact (so that the horse doesn't think he is being given a signal).
If he isn't good with the outside rein contact, then use small circles to establish this (works for TB's off the track, though takes patience initially).
Ideally, your legs should only move if you want to give an aid, so work on keeping them still if you are not asking something (otherwise he will be less sensitive when you want to do more advanced things later). You can however teach alternate leg aids to ask for longer strides at the walk (as the horse walks, you will feel one leg being 'sucked into' the horse's side, then the other; use each leg in time with the 'sucking in'). The horse usually shortens its stride before jogging, so if you are asking for a longer stride then you can prevent this.
Also, tip pelvis slightly so that weight onto fork instead of seatbones (without leaning forward or changing balance in any other way), as this helps block the movement via the seat (instead of inadvertently giving a seat bone aid to move faster/change pace).