Schooling...how long?

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MissJessica

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Just a musing...this weekend at the National Dressage Championships I spent a lot of time at the warm up, some riders warmed up for over an hour, really focused & asking lots of their horse.

I've recently been able to get out completing at a low level in dressage & my horse has felt a little cooked when warming up for his second test. Like the sparkle has been and gone.

I am considering increasing my schooling time at home to longer than the normal 40-50 mins when possible as I'm probably quite predictable to my horse. He hacks lots & good distances but that can't be compared to the challenging school movements.

I am also looking at feed to ensure he has enough energy although out hacking he most definitely doesn't tire!!!

But curious as to know how long you all school for? And whether you find the same issues re competiting.
 
I school until I get the result I am looking for- after a 10min warming up and loosening, so it might be a total of 20mins or 1 and1/2 hours.Then anothe 5-10 mins cool down and relax.
I have known horses that at a show need an hour before their class, others that need 5 mins. That entirely depends on the horse.
 
I school for as long as I need until my pony does what I wanted. Bearing in mind that's he's still a baby, so our schooling sessions are at most about 35 minutes right now (normally 25-30), but this seems to be the general consensus around most of my horsey friends. Go into the arena knowing what you want to achieve, and do it. Whether it's practicing getting the right leg in canter and trot-halt-trot transitions (my current aims) or walk-canter, leg-yielding, medium strides and simple changes (as my friend is doing; but she tends to only focus on two or three of these in each session).
My friend was competing at Nationals this weekend - in the Novice Restricted, she did very well! - and warmed up for about half an hour, because that's all she and her horse needed.
You need to remember that you know your horse best. Some horses need an hour of warm up, some need half that. Some need lots and lots of pushing and some need just to do a quick reminder of the movements involved before the test.
Maybe play around with your warm-ups until you find what works :)
 
Following with interest.
How often to do you school for? I aim for 2-3 sessions a week (~hour per session).
My lad takes about 20-30 min to starting relaxing into his work and offering anything half decent to work with, as he gets fitter this is getting less but it means at competitions warm up time needs to be 40min to get the best for the test.
 
Mine's 5 so I keep them fairly short and easy for him. 2 sessions a week, around 30-35 mins depending on how he feels, sometimes that's inc warm up and cool down, other times not. He needs to be fitter but I try not to do too many circles given his age and stage of training.
 
Depends on how he feels on the day!
Yesterday I did over an hour. The day before I hacked out for an hour (our hacking is v hilly) and popped in the school just to try something quickly. We only did 10 mins as he offered exactly what I wanted immediately, so there was no need to carry on. Of course he was already nice and warm from hacking anyway, so I didn't need to go through a routine to warm up the muscles. How many times I school depends on work and how many times I can get to ride but currently 3-4x a week plus hacking, and as above I will sometimes hack before or after I school.
At a competition I usually do 45 mins before my DR test. If I'm doing 2 tests I tend to only do 20 mins before the second one.

Also, define "challenging school movements"? If you're doing low level DR then I think you can do a lot out hacking. I do lateral work when I'm either on v quiet lanes and on tracks - far more than I'd be expected to do in a DR test at my level, but you can do it.
 
Horses (just like people really) lose concentration very easily and need to be motivated to keep going or things just get more and more difficult to achieve as time goes on through a schooling session... I would always aim to keep it under an hour but it really depends on the specific horse. Some need a longer time to settle down and get working than others. Younger horses probably less (30ish mins) and horses that know their job less as well (20ish mins). The ones in the 'middle' a little more. And of course I think it's a good idea to alternate groundwork (lunging, long reining, in-hand, free schooling etc) with schooling (including pole work) and hacking (including walks in-hand for younger or nervous horses).
 
was thinking about this only the other day as my little Novice horse was flagging at her second test a few weeks ago. It's entirely about fitness for her as she doesn't appear to fizz up at shows, so no adrenalin buzz, and I don't see a need to increase her feed.

I've only been doing 30 mins or so at home in the school because I was trying not to over work her and wanted to keep her sweet, but that hadn't given her the base fitness to do 2 tests on top of travelling etc.

I've increased her work since then to 45 mins in the school. It's fairly intensive with lots of transitions, longer spells of canter and transitions within the paces. By mixing that with focussed walk work ( starting half pass, improving pirouettes etc) and changing between stretchy and up together work, she's more than capable.

2 weeks down the line & with a few longer hacks, she did a cracking job at her last show on Friday with plenty in the tank by the end. I don't need a long time to warm up though, 20 minutes for the first test is plenty and then a 5-10 minute reminder for the second is about optimum. Any longer and she just switches off. I try to keep the warm ups short and focussed, not pootling around for hours just for the sake of it. She needs to be in front of my leg and swinging, and that's about it :)

My other horse goes well with a 30min warm up for first test and 15 mins before the second test. Less than that is not enough to relax her, too much more saps her sparkle. She does 45-50mins at home. Hacks are 1-2 hours and very hilly. They usually do 2 days in the school followed by a hack during the week & repeat (unless they feel like they need more hacking), with a day off when it suits me or after a show.
 
I only school for 30 mins tops. I think schooling is very repetetive on horses joints and ligaments. Hacking I will do an hour or an hour and a half at a time. Schooling is very hard work, add on top a less than desirable surface, and the repetetive movements involved, half an hour or 40 mins is sufficient in my opinion. It must be quite boring for the horse too.

At competitions I might warm up for 25 -30 mins before my test. I find its a waste of time any more than this as Bailey switches off anyway in the collecting ring. As soon as he gets out into the main arena his way of going is totally different.
 
Mine's the same at competitions. Less is more with him so we warm up for 10-15 mins (after a 10 min wander round to loosen up) and then do our test. If I do another (I often don't bother as he does tend to go quite flat) I only warm up for 5 minutes as long as there's not too much of a gap. This is despite schooling for up to an hour at home, I think the whole day just wears him out, not just the work.
 
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Are you thinking about schooling or warm-up for competition?
They are not necessarily the same - it depends very much on the individual horse, and it's as much about their character as their physical condition.

For example, when I had two very different horses competing their home schooling was actually quite similar - about 30-45 minutes in total but actual concentrated bursts of only a few minutes followed by a short break then another short burst etc. The purpose of this work was to learn and then perfect various elements.

When they went to shows the warm up for each was very very different because they wer very different characters with different strengths. One horse was a very bold 'jack the lad' type who could be a complete oaf if there was a fanciable mare on the showground - for him the very best warmup was a long hack to get all the muscles working followed by a few minutes getting him sharp to the aids then straight in. He was happy to concentrate for long enough for a test but no longer so this worked for him. If you saw him at a competition you'd think that he'd only had a two minute warm-up. The other horse was a much more cautious type and she took comfort in having a routine that we'd been through many times at home so her warm-up appeared to be longer as she liked to do it all in the collecting ring.

The little horse I have now is very different again, she likes to have time to suss out all her surroundings (including checking out what's in a rubbish bin and what's living in the field next door to the showground etc etc etc) Her warmup is actually split into a number of sections - have a look round, do the physical get-the-muscles-ready type stuff, another rest and have a look round, then final 'sharpen-up' and in.
 
catkin said:
Are you thinking about schooling or warm-up for competition?
They are not necessarily the same - it depends very much on the individual horse, and it's as much about their character as their physical condition.
Click to expand...

Yes this is why mine needs very little at a show, and much more time at home. At home, work for her is about
(1) learning new stuff,
(2) practicing just-learnt stuff and
(3) refining established stuff.

At a show she just needs to show off (3) to the best of her ability which fortunately doesn't take so long to achieve :)
 
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