Ideas for schooling

[Noodles_3]

I am hoping to start sharing a lovely young cob very soon. He is very safe to hack but very lazy! Hacking is all he has done I believe. The yard he is kept at does have a school and some days I would like to ride him in there rather than just hack. However I am wondering what sort of thing I should be doing with him? I am going to be brutally honest, I'm no top rider I am a happy hacker / get on and go rider but at the same time not a total dope! I want some ideas of what I can be doing with him in a schooling session to make it less boring for him and to get him more forward going and responsive off the leg?

I am thinking ahead yes but it's always nice to know anyway Usually I would feel silly asking such a basic question with risk of myself sounding completely clueless but no one knows everything about horses and riding! I would love to potentially have lessons on him but that won't be possible at the moment. His owner isn't using me to bring he on she just needs him exercising more in the week.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

You are absolutely right, none of us know everything, no matter how many horses we have had, or how long for. It is always better to ask than to remain in ignorance.
TBH, I think you will struggle to get anything out of this cob in the school, if he is difficult to get moving on a hack. I would concentrate on schooling him while you are out and about. Some exercises to try which might help to get him more off the leg; 1) walk for 10 strides, trot for 10, repeat and repeat. With fizzy horses this gets them anticipating and is not such a good thing but it would probably be good for the cob to anticipate moving on a bit.
2) change the diagonal at trot every 10 strides
3) swap from sitting to rising trot every 10 strides
If every 10 strides is too frequent, try every 20 or even 30 to start with.
4) leg-yield round puddles/holes in the road/parked cars/tufts of grass etc
5) on a longer trot period, change the pace within the trot.
6) halt to trot/trot to halt transitions.

 

[Noodles_3]

Ahhh, thank you pearlsasinger I don't feel so daft now! Thank you for the tips I will endeavour to try those! I do agree with you though, I don't think I'm going to get too much from him. I'm not expecting it either but I didn't want it to be a battle to keep him in a faster pace than walk lol! Ive got visions of us in the school and me not being able to push him on, being bright red faced and out of breathe and looking like a dumpling! Lol. I am out of practise too after such a long break from horses so I'm not at my best, I know it will all come back with time but I don't want it to be a big struggle with him. I maybe wrong, I don't know! Just want to be prepared

 

[ajf]

A good thing to do with the 'lazier' horse schooling is to have poles, cones, wings, whatever in the school as use these as objects to go around and change direction and change pace etc. It should keep them thinking 'where am I going?' which in turn should have them slightly more awake and listening to you, but sometimes it won't work at all! Can be done in all paces as well.

 

[Kylara]

individual poles, trot poles - makes him pay attention and gives you something to aim for. The trot poles will help him use himself better.

Lots and lots of transitions - walk/halt/walk, walk/trot/walk, and trot/halt/trot if you feel he is responding well. You need to do the walk/trot/walk ones every 3-4 strides (1 stride in walk being one complete 4 beat cycle, 1 stride in trot being one complete 2 beat cycle). Have a short stick handy and every transition ask with a nudge/squeeze, then if that is ignored a nudge/kick, and if that is ignored a smart tap behind your leg to reinforce. He should quickly become off the leg with this exercise If there is anyone around for 5/10 minutes you can ask them to call out the transitions for you to do on command to keep you both paying attention! (ie Walk! Trot! Halt! Walk! Halt! Trot!) You'd be surprised how helpful having someone shout that out will be.

Also add in some 20m circles. You can push the trot on for a third, back to normal for a third and collect for a third. You can also do the transition exercise on the circle and then start to increase the distance between transitions until you have one transition in every quarter. Use all types so halt, walk, and trot in all combinations.

Stick some cones out along the center line to work around - either use them to bend around or use them to leg yield. Start with fewer cones so it is easier and gradually increase the number of cones to make it harder

If you have random poles down they are good to ask for transitions over, upwards and downwards - with a -> halt transition you want front end on one side of the pole and back end on the other side

You can just work in walk and a bit of trot to begin with until he is listening to your leg more and make sure when you do half transitions you don't squash him with your seat but instead squeeze your thighs and lift your seat to ask him to halt and do downwards transitions Also make sure that when you are riding (hacking or schooling) you have nice relaxed thighs as tense ones will indicate you want to slow and this could be exacerbating his "behind the leg"ness

It will take time but persevere!

 

[Noodles_3]

Thank you all for the replies I am really grateful! You have given me some good ideas to get cracking on with when I start riding him! I don't know if ill be lucky enough to have someone with me to shout out the commands to me but I'll give it a good bash on my own and take it from there! I start riding him from Wednesday and I am really excited for it, he's such a lovely pony with a very sensible head for a young chap!
He was owned previously by a lad I knew who is a novice rider and just rides for fun but he rode him everywhere and I think in a way it has helped this pony as he has taken a lot of confidence from previous owner and is 99% bombproof! Can never be 100 hehe. Once again thank you for the advice x

 

[paulineh]

I have an Arab gelding who does not like school work (In the school) so all mine is done out on hacks/rides.

Half halts, change of direction, leg yields ,serpentines, Shoulder in. Change from a collected trot to extended trot. BUT give him time on a nice long rein and don't school every time you go out.

if you find some little logs on your ride pop him over them. You need to keep his mind alert.

 

[sophtherider]

transitions! Halt to walk walk to halt trot to halt walk to trot... loads of them! gets them really in front of the leg. Transitions also on circles, figures of eight, serpentines gets them really listening. I swear by transitions! Good luck with him

 

[Princess Rosie]

transitions! Halt to walk walk to halt trot to halt walk to trot... loads of them! gets them really in front of the leg. Transitions also on circles, figures of eight, serpentines gets them really listening. I swear by transitions! Good luck with him

I agree, transitions are your friend!

Try to keep schooling fun and don't do the same thing each time you ride in the school.

 

[Noodles_3]

Hey all just a brief update. Not even done much schooling we've just enjoyed hacking at the moment. It's doing him well and me!