exercises to do in field

[Quartz]

OK, have eventually moved my horse to mine. Hooray!!! First night tricky of course and first ride as he was on edge. But yesterday all ok, soooo after two days of riding in the field I am already running out of things to do. Any ideas??? Am not doing to much cantering as field is slightly uneven with holes and he has been lame in the past so don't want to hurt him. Do canter on the straight but just no circles. Maybe I'm wrong, just let me know. Will be doing our first hack next week, which I have been really worried about. But have found a girl down the road who is happy to come with me on her poney. Very sad grown adult relying on teenager to come with me, but never mind. She also has a practice race track in her back yard (lovely with sand!!) so hope she may let me gallop around it!!!!! Anyway back to original question, any ideas for field work???? Thanks

 

[schneeko]

Same things as in an arena to be honest.

Lots of transitions and circles of varying sizes. If you have any logs, bales etc. you could make some little jumps to practise on.

Good luck with your hack

 

[E_Lister]

I posted a similar post the other day. There were loads of great ideas on there, the best ones for "spicing" up a schooling routine were:

Ride the letters of the alphabet, the shapes are all very different and it keeps you and your horse concentrating and on the ball. You can use them to incorporate various different moves, from simply keeping your horse straight, to bends, to more complex things like a turn on the forehand, depending on your ability.

Do handy pony/le trec type exercises. They get your horse listening to you and can lead to useful skills.

Pole work?

I like trying to do the 10 minute exercises that HORSE magazine publishes, many are beyond me, but they are nice and add variety.

Walk and trot dressage tests?

Hopefully some of these ideas will inspire you for your schooling, like they did mine

 

[Sparkles]

I school exactly the same in the SJ paddock as I do in the school.

In fact, I rarely use the indoor tbh. I've been riding in there just when I was initially backing the youngster and riding him away, but now he's ok to be ridden outside now so haven't been riding in the school at all. I much prefer riding them outside to inside, allows for so much more movement from them!

All an arena is to me, is a surface to ride on when the ground's not great to ride on otherwise Can do exactly the same anywhere else....don't need a bit of fencing and surface for it