Losing enthusiasm for schooling

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Sprat

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I'm hoping some of you wonderfully knowledgeable people on here can help me or just impart some advice.

I feel like I don't really have any focus while schooling at the moment. I go in to work with my mare, do some warm up work and then just dabble with little bits and bobs, I can't seem to get my mind set on a proper training schedule of sorts.

I used to have the 101 schooling exercises which I was working through with my gelding but I can't for the life of me find it now.

Points I know I need to work on - Falling in / out on circles, getting her more in front of the leg, working from behind consistently.

Do you always go into the school with a plan in mind? For example, I know I need to work on X, so I will practice Y to achieve this.

I try to mix things up with polework but again, I'm lacking inspiration slightly.

Any recommendations on good books / articles for me to pour over would be great. I'm also going to badger my instructor to help me put something together for me to work on, but my day at work is slow and I seem to be keeping myself entertained on H&H than actually working!
 
I usually go in with half a plan but the horse often changes it.. I might go in thinking I'd like to work on the changes but then horse won't take the contact properly, or we have a persistent bit of crookedness or something ... so you have to be able to think on your feet.

One thing I don't do enough of is practice dressage tests.Not specifically for a show, but just randomly - I find when I do so, it uncovers little problems that I hadn't noticed, and then you have something to work on. It's also good to make sure you aren't slipping into the habit of riding endless circles or doing too much on the track.

If you are really lost for direction then a good trainer would be the best thing, as you have mentioned - how often do you have lessons? I find every 2-3 weeks is a good interval for me, so I have time to practice and improve the things we have introduced.

Those schooling exercises books are good if you are really stumped, but generally if you start by assessing the horse you have underneath you each day, you'll figure out what needs addressing :) So perhaps start out with some basic walk/halt transitions. Is the horse soft in your hand or does he resist, can you halt with a light aid or do you have to pull his back teeth out, is he square, can you get him to square up, is he in balance, does he move off with a light aid....

Then some easy bending in the walk - are there any resistances, can he bend equally left and right or is there a stiffness/is the shoulder or quarters popping out... same in trot.. assess the transitions

All that stuff is really basic but underpins all of the other work, so it's a good place to start. You can then choose your exercises to improve whatever wasn't as good as you would like.
 
also worth devoting a session to yourself as a rider now and then. Have you any position faults you'd like to improve? are you sitting straight in the saddle? can you keep your contact or do your reins always get longer? no stirrups work etc.

All of those will throw up more questions about the horse too :)
 
Yes, riding the odd test is a great way of sharpening you up. Just for something to do I recently attempted to run through a very easy Novice test with my older lad (who is at least PSG level, but doesn't do competitions any more) and it was disasterous! Awful! Any Ponyclubber would have been ashamed, so I think a new goal will be centre lines and halt for us for a while :-)
 
There's a book called Solo Schooling by Wendy Jago which I found useful and interesting when I was going through a similar phase a few years ago. I still refer to it from time to time to help me be a bit more focused.
 
If she is falling in/ out on circles, is behind your leg and inconsistent, then work on getting her off the leg and straightness, if you are getting too much neck bend without her pushing from behind and remaining in front of the leg she will not be straight and will fall in or out, any school movements ridden correctly will help straighten her up, lots of transitions will help get her moving off the leg, do some counter flexions in all paces and polework will also help, there is plenty there to keep you occupied on just the basics, maybe a session with a different trainer will give you a fresh approach and new ideas.

I never have a plan either for lessons or schooling other than to get improvements generally and keep working on the fundamental issues, unless we are preparing for a comp, it is normally more than enough to ensure as much is done as correctly as possible and the improvements come from achieving the correct movements or transitions.
 
I personally like to rotate Dressage, schooling and pole work so we both have something new to work through as well as the odd Prix caprilli or jumping to break it up
1) Dressage - i learn a test. In my schooling session i warm up and ride through the test numerous times. This can involve a straight forward ride through or certain movements alone as this gives me a direction and plan. If i can get somebody to help then i film myself and watch back later. Each week is a different test so im not going mad doing the same thing over - i work my way up the levels; if i reach the level i know my horse is no longer capable of then i only pick certain movements of it to work on. When i've hit her limit i go back to the beginning.
2) Schooling - having understood our strengths and weaknesses from the previous dressage session i then have something to work on in this session. I either repeat movements she struggled with or come up with exercises to help her. ie... this week she's not bending as much as id like so lots of serpentines, loops, leg yeilding, spiralling etc...
3) Pole work - this varies. Sometimes again it is based on our initial session of dressage or sometimes i simply do exercises i like or have seen on the internet that interest me. This morning was pole work on a circle followed by spiralling out to small raised poles.

Annnnnnnnnd repeat. Learn/ride/film a fresh test and see if we've improved and what went wrong etc....Obviously some problems need alot more work than others but i find the new test lets me move on if i've hit a brick wall the week before - the problem may still be there but it gives us a job to do. To give myself motivation i do a few online dressage contests now and then so its informal but gives me a goal to work towards in the school - i dont necessarily take them as serious as i should but its a small step :)
 
Thanks all, lots to think about.

I have lessons weekly if time/money allows, I have just started with a new instructor who I'm getting on well with (the old one was a bit too 'wrench her head in and kick her forward' for my liking) so I'll speak to him and see if he can inspire me.

I don't often run through tests unless I'm due to compete, so that could keep me busy for a while. I think probably because I am nowhere near ready to compete with her yet (green as grass and I'm having to learn to ride a totally different way to how I rode my gelding) I haven't been working with quite so much of an end goal in mind.

The position sessions and no stirrup work is a great idea as well. May need to find some sticky bum jods for the no stirrup work as she is rather bouncy
 
Some of the things suggested are better done with eyes on the ground/instructor present (work without stirrups, for instance) as it is very easy to do things wrong and not know.
 
Well you lot are clearly geniuses - I had a fab session tonight. Focused totally on forwardness and impulsion (not worrying about where her head is as I usually do) and did so so many transitions that it was like riding an unexploded (but great fun) bomb.

Then ran through a prelim test off the top of my head and it was easily the best she's gone so far.

I've come out of the school beaming :)

Also, with her being so forward and attentive, she stopped falling in / out on circles etc and happier in my hand.

I feel like I've had a lightbulb moment!
 
I got bored with schooling and discovered in-hand. Such a lot you can do and inspires mounted work.

Personally, I love cavaletti and gridwork.

It's winter now and our school is more a skidpark so we school out hacking now. Change of scene is as as good as a rest.
 
Do you read any riding/dressage magazines? I love trying out exercises from there & also decide what I'm going to work on that session i.e. Suppleness/sharpness/transitions/contact/forwardness/stretching/collection/my seat- there's so much you can work on, the list is endless when you consider all the aspects of schooling :)
 
I have a vague plan of what I might want to work on, but I very much ride what's under me that day. My warm ups include shoulder fore and a little bit of basic leg yielding- all things that ultimately help to straighten and engage the horse.

I had a bit of inspiration last year and as I teach a few of the other liveries (I'm a qualified instructor), I created a folder full of exercises that I leave in a drawer in my barn. The folder has a dedicated warm-up, main exercise and cool down for specific schooling sessions, plus a list of equipment needed such as poles.

My fellow yardies can then have a flick through and find a session to work through, give it a read and then off they go! It has worked wonders on cold winter days when inspiration is lacking! I add to it whenever I can and I ask the rest of the yard to jot their own ideas down if they want me to cater a schooling session to suit them.

Took a bit of time but it's been well worth it.
 
I used to religiously read horse magazines but now I tend to look online instead. However, I really like the idea of collecting a load of exercises and having them in a folder to flick through whenever I'm falling short on inspiration. May have to pop to the shop and start making my own little collection.

Tallyho, I have started a lot of in hand work which i enjoy, I struggle a lot of the time to translate it into ridden work though. I also school while out hacking but as the nights are coming so early now, work hours mean that I can only hack at weekends (one day of which is usually taken up by a lesson)
 
What does your trainer give you to work on in between lessons? I have lessons every 3-4 weeks and I always known exactly what I should be working on in between them. If something goes wrong or I can't get something, I will pop over for an extra lesson.
I know exactly what my horse's evasions are, what I'm doing wrong and what I need to do to change those, so it's just practise in between lessons to make it less of a conscious effort.

In general I try to replicate what I've worked on in a lesson. I don't always get all of it done. Some days I have to spend more time on a particular exercise if he finds it difficult. Other times, I might only do 30 mins because everything felt easy. I do have a handful of specific exercises that DR trainer has instructed me to work on, because they are targeted to specific evasions or resistances the horse has, or because she's working on strengthening something specific. For some reason he finds LY incredibly difficult so we incorporate a lot of that but with loads of praise for even trying, then interspersed with things he does find easy (he loves anything involving canter, esp changes of leg through trot on figures of 8 and serpentines). The LY is improving enormously, and quickly, because we're not fixated on it, he gets praise for it, and he's getting to do other stuff immediately afterwards which he does find easy.

I really do think that regular training is the key, and that your trainer has to give you exercises to do in between. Throughout every lesson, my trainer explains to me what we are working on, why, how this is helping me/ him, what we're doing that is wrong, how to change it. At the end of the session, she will recap, give me brief schooling session plans for the next couple of weeks, what to progress the exercises into, remind me why these exercises are important (so I know what my short and short-medium term goals are), and off I go. I am v lucky to have found a great trainer and although I sometimes get frustrated with myself between lessons, I have never ever felt uninspired because I know exactly what I'm working towards. If I do become uninspired, I just book an extra lesson.
 
chestnut cob said:
I really do think that regular training is the key, and that your trainer has to give you exercises to do in between.
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^^this is a good point and it sounds like you've found someone that suits you well cc :)
It does seem like some people don't get all of the same good stuff out of their lessons but end up just going through the motions doing what they are told, so hopefully the OP has a trainer with a similar style.
IME it's understanding WHY you are doing something, WHAT you should be noticing and feeling and HOW you can correct any problems that helps to continue your progress in the 'self study' periods when you haven't got your instructor around.

This kind of understanding also means you have a basis to explore new stuff for yourself in between lessons :)
 
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