How to keep your horse focused when schooling?

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louloux

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A horse that I have to school regularly at work looses concentration and focus easily. She just seems to get bored and distracted! I try doing lots of circles and moves to keep her busy and working but she just needs more of a challenge!

Any suggestions?
 
Do you always end up doing the same routine?
Also, how often do you school her? Have you tried mixing up the schooling with some hacking, lungeing or maybe some in-hand schooling?
When you're schooling try to mix up your routine, try to do lots of transitions and changes of pace within a gait, lateral work etc. Also if you try to focus on something different for each schooling session that can help to mix things up.
Hope that helps!
 
Have you tried doing lots of transitions? My horse's mind tends to wander but I find he pays more attention if he's constantly being asked to change pace.
 
Hi, well she's on full livery but her owner comes down to hack her out and take her on endurance rides so I'm only really allowed to go in the school with her and I don't think the school is as exciting at a 10k ride haha!

Yes I will try what you have recommended in the school, thanks very much! :)
 
Adding poles & cones etc can really help I think - gives you something to ride AROUND as well as over poles, but you can make corridors etc out of poles too rather than just going over them!
I find it hard to school intensively for long, and obviously your horse wont be able to concentrate forever, so I'd try to do 10mins of constant transitions, turns etc, then a good 5 min break in walk on a long rein, then another 10 mins etc (after warming up) I find this really helps! The walking also gives you time to think what next ;)
 
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