New share horse and ideas for exercises to do??

PingPongPony

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Hello all :)
Unfortunately my loan horse which i had for 3 years has had to go back to her owner two weeks ago, because i am struggling to find time, money and energy to keep her, my parents aren't horsey and are only prepared to pay the rent, i have to pay the rest and she was also on full DIY so it meant a lot of work, as well as working part time to get the money to pay for her, as well as keeping up with the enormous amounts of school work, I just had to make the hard decision to let her go back.
Anyway, as sad as it still makes me, i have to look forward and move on, that means getting my horsey fix. I may not have enough time every day to do my loan horse justice but i certainly have enough time to share a horse with someone :)
So meet Vita, 17hh 9 year old warmblood mare. She mainly does showing with her current owner, but she did BSJA with her previous owner, and her current owner has said that she is happy for me to jump/hunt/xc her, so our intention is to go out and about indoor sj over winter, hopefully get her fit enough to also have a go at hunting once or twice before the season ends, and do some low level ODE's in the spring/summer.
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Now for the other bit that i was going to ask you lovely people, Vita needs to learn to be a bit more responsive to the leg, she also needs to learn to soften up her neck and not fix it into position, she needs to learn proper self carriage not just 'being on the bit'. (she is ridden in a loose ring happy mouth double jointed snaffle in every day riding, the bit in the photos is her showing bit)
So do you have any ideas how i can start working on those??
Here's the catch, i can only use a school for 1 hour on thursdays, because there is no school at this yard, but the lady who is willing to lend me her school, isn't willing to have it used all the time, so i can use it for an hour a week.
So the exercises would have to be something i could do out hacking, and maybe a couple that i can just do in the school :) So let the ideas flood in please! :D
 
She looks a lovely horse to share, lucky you! I'm no expert (and I don't really do hacking!) and it would depend on ability of horse and rider but some things to try.... transitions within the pace to encourage responsiveness, could try even in walk out hacking, big walk/little walk for a particular number of steps or between particular landmarks. You could try upwards and downwards transitions out hacking obviously, counting a set number of strides is very good for discipline. You could try gentle flexing of the neck in walk swapping between left and right bend and straight to try and release the neck. This could also be done out hacking. In the school i would work on circles and turns to improve lateral suppleness which should improve suppleness over the back. Out hacking you could try a little leg yield if safe from one side of the road/track to another to improve obedience and engagement from behind.

As ever the real advice should be to get a qualified instructor in but i know that can be tricky, i ride and share horse and have only ever had about 2 lessons on him in at least as many years! Naughty me!

Good luck with your share horse!
 
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