Schooling exercises on a Hack

[Spacejet]

Hey all
I dont have access to an arena or field to ride in, only hacking.
I wanted to start incorporating more schooling exercises into my hacks but lacking imagination!
I have started leg yielding in walk and trot, and also working on softness by bending head and neck while remaining straight at walk and trot also.
I was going to start looking into shoulder in too, but does anyone have other things we could try? We're aiming for suppleness and responsiveness to aids ?

Many thanks!

 

[ihatework]

I teach lots of things to the young horses out hacking. LY, SI, Trav, HP
Use visual markers for control/accuracy in transitions
Work within paces - half halts, couple of collect steps, medium steps etc.
positioning of head & neck
Give and retakes.

 

[Red-1]

My biggest lesson for them is to keep going without a leg nag! Once they learn to self-motivate, I find that the rest is a lot easier.

I also like to vary rein length and frame. So, a few hundred yards in a shorter walk with shorter frame, then allow some stretch and encourage them to take the space.

Halt and wait is also a much valued commodity.

Even when riding a straight line, I know which rein I am on. You may not be able to see it, but I will ride either right or left rein, and change them frequently.

On a quiet, single track lane, I will ride to the offside. I think they do have some bend when ridden at the side of the road, by virtue of the fact that their shoulders are narrower than their quarters, and riders look over the right shoulder frequently. Riding on the offside, where safe, helps even up the unconscious bias.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

My coblet (profile pic) is 9yo this year; I've had her since a just-backed 4yo and in that time she's seen the inside of a school ONCE. Ohhh the shame of it, but we don't have facilities at home.

We do have a little bit of space at my yard and have put up little TREC/Horse Agility style obstacle courses for her at home which helped us both in the early days to gain confidence and developing a bond.

We hack out regularly and do stuff like leg-yield (serpentines), lots of pace-changes & transitions, half-halts etc., and learning about "working" and "extended" trot etc, impulsion/collection etc.

My mare was always intended to be a happy hacker and she knows her job and does it well, but I know of a certain renowned Devon Olympian female eventer who lives in the area (and who I've seen out with hers when I've boxed over to a friend's!) and she does a LOT of hacking-out to bring on hers; interestingly she does a lot in walk and canter but not so much in trot, apparently.

 

[Jango]

Basically you can do anything you can do in the school (bar circles for my hacking as it's mostly tracks!). So transitions of all kinds, lateral work, bending etc. I also do some light seat stuff for me, can do no stirrups if your horse is safe..! In trot I also do sit for 2, rise up and hold for 2, sit for 3, rise up and hold for 3 etc all the way to 10, then all the way back down.

 

[webble]

Loads, leg yield, shoulder in, transitions. Aiming to do 5 strides in one place then 5 in another, weave in and out of grids/white lines. All traffic depending of course

 

[LEC]

I do a lot of travers and renvers. Change direction of neck as well, flexion left and right, can they hold it and stay straight, offer it immediately with just the leg? I change neck outline from free walk to medium walk and same in trot. 4 strides trot, 4 strides walk and mix numbers up. Does transition up and down happen immediately? Am I straight - check seatbones, check straightness, are my hips loose? Can I ride one handed?