Planning your schooling sessions

[Roody2]

What with the weather and not actually being able to ride, I started thinking about the riding I have been doing.
I got my horse about 3 months ago, he had a sore back when I got him so he has had physio, properly fitted saddle and stretching regime etc to get it all back to normal.

Now I know there are certain exercises I have to get him to do when I ride him to strengthen and supple him, but thinking about it, I don't think my schooling sessions have any real structure apart from warm up, get working and stretching, and cool down. I never plan to teach him anything specifically like shoulder in, or leg yielding but these sometimes come as part of the other work.

So, my question to you is, how many of you properly plan your schooling sessions and how far do you go - do you set a goal (e.g. perfecting canter transitions, or getting the striding right to a jump) or do you go out to the school to ride, play and enjoy your horse? If you do plan do you find it works well and helps you to meet your goals?

 

[daydreamer]

I would like to know what other people do too!

I don't have my own horse but have had lessons for years and years so am very used to having someone else tell me what to do! Last year i started riding a share horse and i find it quite hard to know what to do when schooling. One thing i have done is try and identify an area to improve on and then use the book 101 schooling exercises to come up with some exercises to try in the school. Whenever i do this i find it does actually help but i find it hard to know how long to do a particular exercise for.

I still find it very hard to do this consistently and to plan for the long term. I am usually fairly intelligent but sadly seem to be a bit of a numpty when it comes to schooling

 

[CBAnglo]

No - just work on whatever the horse needs working on in the session. It may take longer to get relaxation, or to get the horse on the aids and I dont like to school for more than 40 mins really. If he is being an idiot, I just try to get some sense out of him and then call it a day.

My instrutor works like that as well - she never plans our lessons just sees what we are worst at on the day and tries to fix us, one little bit at a time (losing battle).

 

[trundle]

I do plan my schooling sessions. "Plan" may be too posh a word for what i do, which is jsut go in there with an idea of what i am going to work on, and a couple of exercises from 101 Schooling Exercises. I find if i don't have at least some idea of what I'm going to do, i just get vague, and Ella and i go round and round in circles - literally and figuratively - and don't really achieve anything.

 

[maxapple]

I'm currently riding two youngsters for a friend - with them I set myself a small goal for each session as I'm keeping schooling really short at the moment. E.g. yesterday my aim was to get a nice free flowing walk on the mare I ride - as she can be really nappy, and with the other horse I wanted to work on his trot and walk - trot transitions.

With my own pony I tend to pick a dressage test then work towards learning than in a session so that I am focusing on particular things without actually trying too hard.

I find if I don't have a focus I end up trotting round in circles and getting bored very quickly!