HHO Lockdown Mk2 Virtual Clinic

[milliepops]

seeing as there was broad agreement we're going to be using the exercises suggested by Georgia Davis here https://www.facebook.com/dressagewithgeorgia

There will be 3 a week if she sticks to schedule

Here's the first which although it's described as suitable for Intro to Novice horses I reckon it can be useful for many training above those levels and I'll be giving it a go later

New thread each time?

https://www.facebook.com/dressagewithgeorgia/posts/163829195407023

 

[tatty_v]

Ooh I’m really pleased these are back. We squeezed in an arena hire last weekend and I went back and did exercises 1-6 from the last lockdown!

 

[Cob Life]

Thanks MP! I’m not always great at keeping up with facebook

 

[Roxylola]

I've seen elsewhere mention of people finding this type of exercise can hot up their horses. The use of transitions to improve engagement and impulsion can still work, it could be modified to use transitions within the pace, or slightly longer periods of walk and/or trot. Even with a hot horse this could help engagement and acceptance of the leg.
Hope this helps anyone feeling like this isnt for them. Even as an instructor knowing a combination I can have a plan to use an exercise and may need to modify it on the day - so I might still focus on transitions to improve impulsion but as trainers and riders we've got to deal with the horse we have in front of us.

 

[nikicb]

Oh this looks really good. I have discovered that Maddie is rather lazy!! I will have a play on Sunday and report back. x

 

[rara007]

Will be giving that a go! Do do very similar but making a point to concentrate should be useful.

 

[greenbean10]

Thank you MP! I tried it this morning - makes me realise how few transitions we actually do!

Worked really well for my hot but lazy horse (I promise this is a thing!). Got her working from behind which is always hard with her, and she gave me some of the best canter transitions we've ever done afterwards! I've decided I will actually just do this exercise most days in my warm up as it worked that well for her.

 

[milliepops]

Thank you MP! I tried it this morning - makes me realise how few transitions we actually do!

Worked really well for my hot but lazy horse (I promise this is a thing!). Got her working from behind which is always hard with her, and she gave me some of the best canter transitions we've ever done afterwards! I've decided I will actually just do this exercise most days in my warm up as it worked that well for her.

sounds great! i think hot and lazy is quite common actually

 

[Sprat]

Pleased we have started up these threads again. Will have a crack this eve and report back

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Ooh yes will definitely give this a go although will have to wait until next week after my exam. I can feel my resolve slipping on waiting for a Pivo for Christmas so chances are at some point I'll be uploading a video of my attempt...

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I am also following this. Horse is getting a bit frazzled in his training as we introduce passage and more frequent flying changes, so I'd like to step him down for a little bit and/or remember to do the basics. Or just have ideas from another source.

I also think my horse has picked up a crack habit. Can't explain his madness otherwise! Ok, maybe it's the weather change ?

 

[daffy44]

I love these exercises, I think its such a good idea to help keep focus and motivation during lockdown. This weeks exercise is great, you can never do too many transitions! But if I may, I'd like to add something else to the exercise, this is for everyone, but particularly for those of you who are finding it relatively easy. Dont just make the transition as if you are ticking a box, but really think about your aids and the quality of the transition, see how light you can make your aids, less is more! See if you can make the transition just through your body, no pulling or kicking, and making sure the horse stays really through and connected in the transitions.

Feel free to ignore me, but its just another thing to think about while you are doing the exercises.

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

Ooh thank you for these this looks a nice easy one to remember and he needs to get his arse in gear so this will be useful!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

So we started off with some of this tonight ?.

Skylla is getting much better at being balanced downwards, if I ride from the seat + upper thighs and because I know the halt/walk can be fragile I rode that well, but she was being a little rude in the contact in the upwards. So tiny flexions to relax the jaw and rewards with a forward hand and she was much better.

Really good to work her through, plus we’re doing much more sitting now so it all tied together. Using my whole body to influence her whole body ??

 

[Northern]

Going to join this as well as a secret non-lockdown member
I'm currently working on getting L in front of my leg, so this exercise should be perfect for her

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Oohh, think I will join in this time (I stopped riding last lockdown). I was just thinking that I could really do with something to focus myself as I am getting a little unstructured with schooling Jacob right now!

 

[Surbie]

Thank you for posting this and Intro to Novice describes me & mine perfectly!

Wobbly Cobbly is great at going up a gear but coming down can be a bit drifty & aimless so this will be fun.

 

[BronsonNutter]

So, me and the baby TB had a bash at this. She was FORWARDS. Not sure if it was the exercises, the fresh clip, or being drugged up on her happy pills but we had a lovely swingy trot afterwards, then couldn't stop cantering. She is a fan of a downwards transition though and standing still so 'aim for 3 seconds of halt' is easy. Little difficult to get into all of the corners whilst concentrating on transitions, but I think that is probably more to do with being mounted on a juggernaut that doesn't really bend yet.

 

[Wishfilly]

Had a go at this with Blue today. It was interesting, because I thought, like others, it might wind him up a bit- he's quite tense and likes to rush, so we don't need more forwards as such. But actually it was really good at getting him to listen to me and not just rush off into trot, but pay attention.

Downwards transitions need lots of preparation and our halts were, uh, not great- but it was really good for me to think about just how much preparation I needed to get walk on the markers!

I'll definitely be using this exercise in the future as well! It made me think I need to be doing way more transitions!

Our canter is still a work in progress, so I'm not sure how many of these I'll be able to join in with, but it was great to have a focus today and something to try out in the school!

 

[Surbie]

We had a lot of fun with this today. Our warmup was an energetic 30min walk to the bridleway and back, then into the school... He is bang on for the upwards transitions and is super pleased with himself for getting it right but downwards is much harder.

It's trot to walk he finds particularly hard - any ideas why?

I'll have to do this one a lot more I think and work harder at my prep for coming back to walk or halt.

It also improved his canter - we did trot-canter-trot a few times on each rein and they were noticeably better.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I did this with Jacob today but kept it to just the A and C markers as our school isn’t very big and we need lots of prep for downwards transitions. I got a fantastic swingy and consistent trot from him, although he did start to get rather sprightly! I really like this and will keep working on it.

 

[Cob Life]

Thank you MP! I tried it this morning - makes me realise how few transitions we actually do!

Worked really well for my hot but lazy horse (I promise this is a thing!). Got her working from behind which is always hard with her, and she gave me some of the best canter transitions we've ever done afterwards! I've decided I will actually just do this exercise most days in my warm up as it worked that well for her.

the cob is hot but lazy, is sharp and will go but doesn’t actually want to work

we didn’t get to try this (it think it will work well for him) as he refused to go up one end of the arena because The cat was there

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

we didn’t get to try this (it think it will work well for him) as he refused to go up one end of the arena because The cat was there

I'm sorry but this really made me laugh - I love a real cob attitude!

 

[Cob Life]

I'm sorry but this really made me laugh - I love a real cob attitude!

You can imagine the melt down when the cat dared walk INTO the arena.
He however did not care about both neighbours hedge cutting and strimming

 

[Kat]

I tried this on Friday evening but didn't get chance to post.

We had a walk trot and canter first then started the exercise.

It started fairly well, albeit I would have liked a sharper upward transition. The trot - halt - trot was pretty tidy and I find this type of thing helps us get a neater halt that isn't against the hand. The first few tries of trot- walk - trot were ok but then we started to lose the walk and get a daft joggy not quite a walk instead. I find this quite difficult to correct, so any tips would be good. I tried asking her to halt when she jogged but because she isn't really listening the halt tends to be rather agricultural which spoils the nice soft halt we were getting from trot. I tried walking for longer and only trotting when she was walking properly but this wasn't massively helpful either.

Ended the session with some nice trot on a figure of eight and then regretted not re-clipping a week ago because she was steaming so she'd obviously worked hard!

 

[rara007]

It was quicker than I thought I’d would be in a 40x20! I actually found it highlighted our corner out of the shirt side straightness, or rather lack of. I tend to just leave it to him and he gets too deep into it and disengages. Here he had the stay between both legs as our transition was so slow we were still establishing working come the corner.

 

[nikicb]

I tried this with Maddie today. I really focussed on the downwards transitions being from my seat/weight rather than the reins. We didn't do trot-halt-trot as at the moment the trot-walk transition results n a distinct lack of energy in walk, so I thought halting from trot might exacerbate that. But we did trot-walk-trots instead. For a pony who has an active hind leg, she is still rather behind my leg, but I am already finding that she is getting better. To put it into context, when I first got on her (when I viewed her), as soon as I stopped asking her to walk, she stopped. I would far rather this in a horse than the other way around, but she needs to learn to keep forwards without nagging. Today, even before doing this exercise, she marched off as soon as she was asked from the mounting block.

 

[j1ffy]

This exercise was timely for Danny and I, as we've been working on trot-halt-trot then very clear half-halts in our lessons. He has a tendency to go against the hand in the downwards, particularly as I ask for more engagement (MP saw him at his worst at AMD a couple of weeks ago!). I found the exercise really helpful, I realised that I don't do enough work at a specific marker and it's such an important discipline when working alone.

Danny was a lot softer than in our lesson last week, or was after we'd worked through a bit of excitement about horses galloping around in the field near us! Justine had recommended not warming up on a really long rein, as he just gets in the habit of being on the forehand. Instead I worked him up fairly deep with a low neck, but still with a good feel on the rein. I think it helped as he was in a better balance when I picked him up.

The exercise felt good, it steadily improved on the right rein and he became straighter and more direct. The left was immediately easier and I finished it up with some trot-halt-trots on the CL, which were also much straighter. There was still plenty of fuel in the tank so I did similar work in canter-trot-canter and it showed up a lack of understanding of the aids in straight lines - he thought he needed to do a simple change. So again really useful to help him stay on the aids and the canter felt more engaged.

I'm looking forward to working on this week's exercise (leg yield straightness), it's something else we've been working on

 

[Sprat]

I liked this exercise. I found it made me prepare for the transitions more so than I would normally do (I tend to just throw us both into them which is a bit crap tbh). I liked how we improved the aids coming from the seat rather than the rein for the downwards trans. As a happy progression, it made a good improvement with the simple changes down to walk.

I'll be continuing to use this and looking forward to the next one.