Riding ideas

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horseygirlgold

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Hi,
My friend has gone away for 2 weeks and has agreed to let me go and ride her pony. I have ridden her a lot recently doing general schooling and occasional jumping. She can be very good but has her mare-ish days and likes to do the odd buck. I will be able to go up and ride with her friend on her horse and also her mum who will help put jumps up and stuff. However that will only be occasionally and I really want to get her fit for my friend. I'm thinking of going up there on my own to ride her. My only problem is once I'm on I can't keep getting off to move trotting poles or put up jumps. Sometimes I struggle getting her into canter so I could work on that, she does hack out but hasn't done for a while so she may be spooky, she loves to jump. Has anyone got any ideas with what I could do with her? I just need a few ideas that I can set up before I get on.
Thanks Abi
 
I would never allow anyone to jump at my yard unless they have someone with them, friends mum being near is not going to help if you have a nasty fall and get knocked out, I know you can fall off in walk but jumping is much higher risk so I think you should only do so when someone is within sight of you, there is plenty you can do with poles on the ground and flatwork schooling and leave the jumping for days you have help, you shouldn't jump too often anyway especially when the ground is as hard as it is at the moment.
 
Hi I'm fully aware of the risks of jumping. When I say I jump her I mean very small cross poles that she literally steps over, I've only recently been doing this and have never had a problem. I would never put me or the horse in a risky situation. Thanks for your reply and concern though.
 
Have you thought about setting up a TREC type course? Depending on what you have available you could make a corridor out of poles and walk/trot/canter through them. More pole corridors you could rein back through. Use poles/sticks and set up an S bend to work on your turning (can't touch the sides), a little cross pole, some bending poles to walk/trot/canter through, if you have anything you could make 'branches' to duck under (Google if you're unsure it's hard to explain!). If you have any tarpaulin or plastic sheets, get the horse to walk over these.
 
Set up seveal jumps of the same or similar height, then if one falls you have another to play with lol
 
I've a few exercises on a pinterest board http://pin.it/l5EFNUg. I really like the 4 poles laid out in a cross shape and practicing being really accurate both doing circles between them, one circle going over them and circles that go over them - it's harder than it looks! I also practice dressage tests working on the movements that I find hard (normally from one movement to another). I find schooling more interesting and challenging if I've something I aiming at.
 
I've looked at the TREC type courses and I really like the look of them, I think I'll have a go thanks for the suggestion. And yeah shes got plenty of jumps so I will set lots up so we can keep going if one falls down. And all the excersises on the pinterest board look good, I will try and remember some for when I go up. Thankyou everyone
 
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