How many different things do you teach your horse at once?

[PonyIAmNotFood]

Just a musing really, how much do you think you can work on at once? I'm schooling my loan mare at a higher level than I've ever schooled before, and feel like I switch between what I'm schooling quite a bit. Such as (large and messy!) canter pirouettes one day to (messy and beginners) half pass and 'elevation' work the next, to getting her leg yeilds more expressive, to working between medium and*collected paces. I feel like we don't spend very long on anything in particular, I think I'm finding that this keeps her enthusiastic for each movement but possibly is hindering her progress?

So how much variation is too much? How much time do you spend on one thing?

 

[blitznbobs]

Just a musing really, how much do you think you can work on at once? I'm schooling my loan mare at a higher level than I've ever schooled before, and feel like I switch between what I'm schooling quite a bit. Such as (large and messy!) canter pirouettes one day to (messy and beginners) half pass and 'elevation' work the next, to getting her leg yeilds more expressive, to working between medium and*collected paces. I feel like we don't spend very long on anything in particular, I think I'm finding that this keeps her enthusiastic for each movement but possibly is hindering her progress?

So how much variation is too much? How much time do you spend on one thing?

Tbh at this level you can mix it up as much as you like as you are just building on what you did yesterday... In a lower level horse you wouldn't teach everything in walk before you moved on to trot - and improving quality of things is not new it is usually just asking for more - whether that is collection or extension - the same but more... As long as your horse isn't throwing the towel in (when you obviously goback a step) and you consolidate everything you do as you go along I wouldn't worry about variety...

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

That's good, I'm just playing about really, not aiming for anything in particular. We'll never compete at any level higher than elementary and she'll retire before we're schooling higher than medium. I just didn't want to be confusing her old lady show jumping brain with too many things at once and stopping her from grasping things as we do them! She seems happy enough.

 

[kerrieberry2]

my boy is only just back from being backed, so working on 1 or 2 new things each time. even if its just meeting new things out hacking. every ride /I've felt we've learnt something