School Ideas Please.

TheresaW

TheresaW

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We are in quarantine for a month as there are a couple of horses with Strangles on the yard. Can anyone give me some ideas how to keep my 2 entertained for the next month? We are used to hacking out pretty much everyday. One of mine does have ringbone and arthritis, so we are a bit limited what we can do with him. Although he is sound at the moment, I obviously don't want to aggravate anything.

Any ideas greatly welcomed.
 
Polework? Or...download some dressage tests from dressage diagrams and practise them
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Can you ride with other people? If so, you could try some drill riding
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Good ideas so far, thankyou. I was thinking about printing off a walk and trot dressage test to start with as am hoping to do a bit of dressage this summer. My sharer has also asked if she can enter Mac, and I have said fine. At the moment, Mac will be fine for walk and trot tests, but he can't seem to canter on his right leg. While we have all the time in, it is something we want to work on, so, any ideas?
 
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but he can't seem to canter on his right leg. While we have all the time in, it is something we want to work on, so, any ideas?

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Can't or won't canter on his right leg? I had 5 years of wrong leg canter before we finally got Chloe sorted. She just didn't see the need to go on the right leg...
Will he lunge? If so, then does he canter on the right lead on the lunge?
What does he to do avoid the correct lead?
 
Not sure if its can't or won't. When cantering on the right rein, he just canters on the left leg, keep bringing him back to trot and asking again, but no luck.

He will lunge, left rein fine. When we start to lunge on the right, he becomes a bit of a pig, trying to run away, bucking etc.

When out hacking though, about 8/10 times he'll canter on the left leg, but has been known to go off on the right!
 
Sounds very similar to Chloe, except she doesn't lunge at all!

I was going to suggest building up his right leg canter stamina on the lunge, but I'm not convinced that would work if he's a pig on that rein. It's probably stiffness related, especially if he hardly ever canters on that rein... sooo... here are a few ideas:

1. Use a pole in the corner of the school, and ask for canter as you go over it.
2. As soon as he takes the wrong lead stop him before he manages a stride if possible.
3. Make sure he's responsive to your leg aids and goes when you ask for canter. Lots of trot, walk, halt transitions before you start work on the canter transition.
4. Work on his suppleness - do accurate 20m circles in trot - mark out the 4 edges with cones or poles to ensure he's straight on the circle. Once he's managing this, then try spiralling him in and back out using your legs.
5. If he's escaping through the left shoulder when you ask for canter, try going up the 3/4 line, and leg yield to the fence and then ask for canter.
6. As soon as you get the right canter keep it going for as long as you can!

I don't see why your sharer shouldn't try some prelim tests with him. They'll probably get a 4 or 5 for canter if they do go off on the wrong leg, and she keeps trying to correct it. At worst she'd lose 10 marks from it, which could be made up if they do an accurate test and decent trot work.
I took Chloe to prelim competitions knowing there was only 25% chance of me getting the right canter!
 
Thankyou. Am going to print this off and keep it. I am happy for Mac to have a go at Prelim, we were just worried about the cantering side of it. I think we are both going to enter walk and trots to start with anyway. Dolly canters fine on both legs, but at the moment, I struggle to keep the canter steady in the school.

Still, got lots of time to practice now.
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