Is it bad to school every day?

[KINDMARE]

I usually mix up schooling and hacking. Maybe hack 3 times a week and school twice a week - but I have a dressage comp coming up and want to brush up / practice my test. Would it be to hard physically to ask my horse to school 4 days this week do you think? He is reasonably fit but not an ‘athletic’ type. I don’t want to break him or bore him.

 

[Abacus]

Probably depends what level you are competing at… it probably won’t break him; it might bore him. I might compromise on 3 days of the four, with a hack on day 3. You could use the hack to ask him to work properly, it’s just as good as schooling. I’m also wary of practising a test too many times as they start to anticipate it.

 

[doodle]

Mine would just get bored, he would then get backwards and spooky. I will
Go and do BD having schooled once before. There is lots of “schooling” that can be done on a hacking and for us that is way more beneficial than days on end of schooling. As for practising a test I will run through certain movements individually but never put them together and run through completely. I am lucky that I can remember teats quickly but if you don’t you can “ride” it through on your own feet or draw it out in diagrams.

 

[Fieldlife]

I’d never school more that 2 days in a row. So as a max.

day off,
school,
school,
hack,
school,
school,
hack

 

[Michen]

Probably, but the reality is that many, many horses do and seem to survive.

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

Why isn’t one of your existing schooling sessions a test practice?

IMO you shouldn’t need to do anything much extra approaching a test as you should be basically ready for the level you’re competing at and you’re not going to suddenly resolve / improve things like suppleness, working over the back, impulsion etc. which are the things that get you the points in a few extra sessions. In fact you can over do it and make things worse if the horse’s muscles get tired and sore before the competition.

 

[shortstuff99]

Yes 4 days a week is usually fine as long as you are not drilling the horse. One of mine dislikes hacking so she mainly just schools. At 15 years old now, she still enjoys it and is probably the soundest horse around

 

[LEC]

Why don’t you hack and then ride the test after? It doesn’t need to be all encompassing with one over the other.

 

[Birker2020]

I usually mix up schooling and hacking. Maybe hack 3 times a week and school twice a week - but I have a dressage comp coming up and want to brush up / practice my test. Would it be to hard physically to ask my horse to school 4 days this week do you think? He is reasonably fit but not an ‘athletic’ type. I don’t want to break him or bore him.

When Lari was vetted the vet rang me and said his call outs to his practice increased significantly during the darker nights/winter as people stopped hacking out in the evenings and increased workload in the school.

He said you should ride in the school a maximum of 3 times a week. Circles and surfaces are detrimental, like repetative strain injury.

 

[oldie48]

I often used to take my horse away for a three day dressage camp and also done some five day ones. tbh the three day ones were really beneficial. Day one we worked on the basics and perhaps tried something new or a bit more challenging, Day 2 was a focus on the new more challenging stuff and day 3 was consolidation day and we adapted to how the horse was feeling and how fit he was the start. None of my horses ever became sour from doing a three day or a five day camp. One of my horses was best on a three day consecutive school with the other four days being a mix of hacking and time off, so that's how I managed him. In answer to your question If you are competing at intro- novice level all you need is a horse that's on the aids, supply enough to trot and canter circles without falling in or falling out and is generally happy in it's work, you can work on that on a hack. I'm going to stick my neck out here but there's a big difference between training and drilling a horse. Everything you do with a horse is training it be it on a hack or in the school, a horse can still be supple and on the aids on a hack, they can still do a square halt at a junction, do a correct turn on the forehand or rein back properly when opening a gate, they can gallop across a field and let off steam but they don't need to be pulling like a train and on the forehand. That's my approach because I think horses like to be ridden in a consistent manner.

 

[Upthecreek]

I don’t think occasionally schooling 3 or 4 times a week would be detrimental. In terms of whether schooling in general can cause health issues there are many variables to consider such as the size of the arena, the quality of the surface and the variety/intensity of the work. Also the temperament of the horse in terms of how they feel about working in the arena is important.

 

[tristar]

I often used to take my horse away for a three day dressage camp and also done some five day ones. tbh the three day ones were really beneficial. Day one we worked on the basics and perhaps tried something new or a bit more challenging, Day 2 was a focus on the new more challenging stuff and day 3 was consolidation day and we adapted to how the horse was feeling and how fit he was the start. None of my horses ever became sour from doing a three day or a five day camp. One of my horses was best on a three day consecutive school with the other four days being a mix of hacking and time off, so that's how I managed him. In answer to your question If you are competing at intro- novice level all you need is a horse that's on the aids, supply enough to trot and canter circles without falling in or falling out and is generally happy in it's work, you can work on that on a hack. I'm going to stick my neck out here but there's a big difference between training and drilling a horse. Everything you do with a horse is training it be it on a hack or in the school, a horse can still be supple and on the aids on a hack, they can still do a square halt at a junction, do a correct turn on the forehand or rein back properly when opening a gate, they can gallop across a field and let off steam but they don't need to be pulling like a train and on the forehand. That's my approach because I think horses like to be ridden in a consistent manner.

i agree with this.
it depends if you drill or train, in fact it totally depends on the format of the days work, the demands, the movements, the aims, the approach, take it to the limit, or softly softly, before or after a hack, andajusting the plan to how the horse feels when you get on board.

 

[rara007]

4 days a week isn’t every day. To an extent any interaction with our horses is schooling, be that positive or negative! Especially if you’re changing exercises and doing parts of test riding, I’d have 0 concerns about 4 sessions.

 

[Cortez]

You can school and hack all in the one session. I never hack off our farm (which is very small), but I do school in the fields as well as in the arena. The horses would do some form of schooling every day.

 

[Abacus]

When Lari was vetted the vet rang me and said his call outs to his practice increased significantly during the darker nights/winter as people stopped hacking out in the evenings and increased workload in the school.

He said you should ride in the school a maximum of 3 times a week. Circles and surfaces are detrimental, like repetative strain injury.

I’m not saying he is wrong, but the reason for increased call outs in winter may be more than just more schooling. Mud in the field causing strains and sprains, slips which cause pulls and tweaks, and so on.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I don't think it would fo any harm but I often do a short hack and do a short schooling afterwards and I find the quality of work is better.

One of mine is not great to hack so some weeks he just goes in the school and his always happy to work his 18 now and has always been the same in all the years I've had him, he loves going in the school its his safe happy place hacking is not.

 

[spotty_pony]

I’d actually be inclined to do less schooling just before the test - if he gets bored he won’t perform to his best in the competition. If my Appy could reply to this he would tell you that it’s illegal to school more than once per week (all I could do when he was younger without big tantrums) but that’s just his way of thinking!

 

[Birker2020]

I think it depends on the time of year too. I'd say the majority of people who own horses work full time so can only hack at the weekends due to the dark nights.