Schooling exercises

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SJ_06

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Does anyone know of any to help a lopsided 4 yr old who isnt very strong on the left and often 'drifts' when jumping?

Ive heard leg yielding makes them stronger but he cant do it yet,

So any tips welcome,

x
 
Ty some exercises on a circle, pushing him onto a bigger circle with your legs, and then back onto a smaller one. Do it very gradually at first concentrating on keeping him soft and maintaining your bend to the inside.

Once he is more established you can ask him to bend to the outside as you reduce your circle too.

This should put him nicely between your hand and leg so you find it easier to keep him straight..

Make sure you do it on both reins as working him too hard on his bad rein may cause him to over compensate!

Its a start anyway..!

Good Luck!!!
 
Ahh thankyou
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will give it a go
 
lots of circles! do that thing where you start with a 20m circle, and then staying on the circle you gradually make the circle smaller so your on a 10m circle and then make the circle bigger. do this on each rein. and his drifting>> have you tried angling poles to the jump?? if you get that i mean?? where you have a jump up, and 2 poles either side of the jump and they make a point at the centre of the jump so the horse won't drift?? sort of explains it!
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good luck!
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You really need to start teaching him leg yielding & shoulder fore as this will greatly increase his balance & that will stop him drifting.
Working him on 20m circles & then pushing him in to a 10 metre & out again is fine but to do this properly he needs to be using himself correctly & crossing his back legs. The crossing of the back legs will balance him & this comes from the leg yielding. I cannot stress how important leg yielding is in getting a horse to balance himself, work correctly & not fall out through the shoulder.
 
Well theres 1 problem, i dont know how to teach it. When i try to push him over he just gets faster?? and then gets stressed because he dosent know what im asking type thing..
 
Dont panic about the leg yielding thing, as a lot of top dressage riders use the circles to prepare for it before trying a true leg yield moving from the centre line to the side of the arena. The excersize encourages the horse to move away from your leg. Its not important for a horse to cross his back legs over when trying to keep him straight to a jump!!! <font color="blue"> </font>
 
Open your outside hand and drop a bit more weight ito your outside stirrup whilst putting a bit of pressure on the girth with your inside leg. It should cause him to almost drift outwards on the circle.
Try asking very quietly in walk keeping your hands soft and sit nice and deep into your saddle. Remember to ask very gently as he needs time to work it out! Lots ofr pats when he gets it right!!Do the same but with opposite hand/leg aids to move back in. Hope that works!?
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The way I taught mine leg yielding was to start in walk, turn down the three quarters line and ask him to move towards the wall to hit the track by the last quarter mark by using your outside leg firmly behind to really exagerate that you want his back end to move over too. If he fell out through the shoulder then i would ask him to go straight and try again next time. (think i'm making this sound complicated!) Once your horse has got the hang of going to the wall (they find this easier as there support from the wall) then you can try zig zagging- i'll try and do a pic in paint or word to show what i mean!
 
Excuse the absolutely awful paint sketches I'm rubbish but hopefully this will help you visualise what i meant!

hhoschooling3.jpg

For this first image I was showing the horse coming off the track at the three quarters line, going straight to E and then asking it to move towards the wall in time for H


hhoschooling.jpg

For this one I was trying to show coming off the 3/4 line and asking horse to bend neck ever so slightly left whilst asking the back end to move over to the wall whilst moving forwards. (on the left rein so asking horse to move to the right) Even if you get one or two strides that is excellent and lots of praise so that the horse understands that is what you wanted. If it gets flustered and stressed then just ask it to move forwards and stright and rejoin the track at the other end.

hhoschooling2.jpg

For the image above I was tring to show you the zig zagging - so if you are on the left rein again at k you would ask the horse to move away from your right leg, firmly behind the girth try and get it to move out to 5m off the track at E and then with your left leg behind ask it to move right back to the track at H.


Hope i haven't completely confused you and made no sense!!


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Ahh thankyou everyone, I have actually been teaching it the way you have said, opening the outside hand ect and working on the circle, but wasnt getting any progress, Anyway today i tried again and got a few steps!!(made dad stand infront of me to make sure haha) maybe its starting to go threw to him?? lol *pleased*
 
I taught mine on a circle, then when it came to tryign on a dtraight line i only took him about a 1m off the track and used his natural drift onto the track as well as strong aids to get ti through to him... then gradually increased the distance.
 
btw on the circles (the comment i put above) you need to use LOTS of leg and give really clear signals so he knows what hes doing. lol


oh and Lau?? the 3rd pic thing you put up, we were doing them in out lesson today, 5 meter loops??
 
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