How can I keep him interested?

Happy Ponies

Happy Ponies

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I'm startig to get to the point with my loan horse where I'm really struggling to come up with new and fun exercises for our riding sessions and I can tell he's beginning to get bored out of his mind at being dragged into the same school multiple times a week to just be doing a selection of circles and serpentines at different paces.

I've tried to liven it up with poles but that ends up with him getting fed up or too excited about it (and sometimes rider losing their very weak nerve and preventing doing the more challenging :( ). Lunging I try to do often and that he finds just as boring as I'm new to it so just use the bridle and lunge line combination maybe with some poles.

Hacking is a no go zone unless it's the yard manager/my riding instructor on him as I'm not allowed to hack (he's unpredictably spooky and knocked his old owners front teeth out over a butterfly...) and jumping I'm not good alone.

So I'm at witts end trying to keep him active and interested and wondered if anyone had any exciting schooling ideas on here. If he's bored he won't work properly and him being him, he only puts minimal effort in unless I give him a tap of the bottom and tense him up...
 
Try doing some despooking stuff with him, either in hand to start with if he is very spooky, or ridden. Add in some gymkhana games things, so bending poles, picking things up off barrels and riding to next barrel/jump wing to put it down. Try barrel racing patterns using jump wings as barrels.

Set up an obstacle course of trec style obstacles. You can use poles and jump wings to make loads of different things. Narrow corridor of poles, 3 poles long and 1 metre wide, and teach him to walk, trot and canter through without touching them. S shape poles and teach him to negotiate without touching poles, then do it backwards. One pole - side pass over it. Reverse into pole corridor without touching either pole.

Teach him to do things like turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches.

Go to the pound shop and buy a bunch of cheap stuff to use to despook him. Bunting, flags, blow up balls, weird kids toys, tablecloth to walk over. I get a load of stuff and just use it till it breaks to get mine used to doing different things. Start off by leading him round things and encouraging him to walk over things like tarp, table cloth etc. Then ride him round the things, over things, under things.

Google Trec and working equitation - they have different ideas of obstacles and activities to do.

I hate schooling on my own so I do have to try to keep us all entertained so will often school for a bit and then do some barrel racing to spice things up! Also, as it is summer, do you have a field you could school in for a change?
 
Finding enough stuff to do when confined to a school is challenging - especially at first! You can have a look on horse magazine websites as they sometimes put exercises up on the sites for free - your horse, horse & rider and horse. There is a relatively cheap book called 101 schooling exercises which is good if you are more paper based - and you get to take it to the yard. It sometimes takes a little outside inspiration!

Horse agility and spook busting are great fun - but you need a bit of confidence to get started. Especially if you have a spooky one to start with!
 
He actually isn't spooky in the school unless something out of the ordinary happens (bird flys out suddenly whilst we leg yield or a cardboard box moving in very strong wind are the only real spooks I've had him do). I might try the bending poles/gymkhana games for something different as I quite enjoy them and he doesn't do them a lot being 16.2/3! They do trec style things at my yard (theres a ihra there who does a lot of clinics etc and I know with his owner he did one which he didn't seem to be phased by, in his own environment he's very happy it seems!

There is a riding field that I can go in although I require supervision to go in there I believe and as I go up later the ponies who live in there are out by then annoyingly.
 
101 schooling ideas is really good. I have that book and although I hate schooling (we both do) actually you can take a couple of ideas in the school, see how you go and concentrate on one. I don't go in with a set plan though, I wouldn't want to force the exercise and have a negative outcome which is why I take in a couple of ideas for that session to try :) Almost makes it fun ... almost! I say get loads of de spooking stuff and work on your inhand work as well. Long lining through pole mazes is good inhand work and gets them really listening and stepping under themselves. There's loads to do you just need to get inventive :)
 
I have the same issue for different reasons. I have the 101 exercises book and it's great but it is ultimately schooling so if you want to really mix stuff up I would try ground work - whether it's trek, de-spooking etc. Mine really enjoys it and I feel like we bond more doing it. We do bending, stretching, turns on forehand/haunches and I'm aiming at shoulder in, leg yielding (all from the ground). You can mix schooling with this too - so bending, stretching on the ground followed by ridden work. Best of luck!
 
Is it possible to travel somewhere else and hire a different school? Or even go somewhere different for a lesson. Mine gets bored easily and I know i need to go somewhere when she starts napping hacking. Do a trip and she's perfect again. She also hates schooling so I really feel for you not being able to hack.
 
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