Natch
Well-Known Member
Schooling exercise ideas needed please! Before F and I get stuck in a rut. I tend to work on the same 3 things and same exercises most of the time, and he is an intelligent and easily bored horse, so I have realized I need to shake it up a bit before he gets bored in his schooling as bored = finding mischievous and unique ways to evade!!
3 things I tend to need to work on with him are;
Straightness he is much better off one leg/on one rein than the other, as he prefers to curl the same way no matter which rein given the chance!
Leaning he is built on his forehand, so everything I do tends to involve trying to get him to power through from behind and lift his front end, rather than drag us both along by leaning on my hands. He is quite a trippy horse as a result, in fact hes just a clumsy bum if he is a) on the forehand or b) stropping and trying to evade
Canter particularly right canter have just about (touch wood) fixed getting the correct lead on the right rein, but he rushes into and in canter. Left canter is starting to come together, more bouncy, more balanced and less hurried.
Our typical schooling session is warm up long & low (or higher if hes tripping much) walk/trot both reins, into riding the corners, turns/circles and shallow loops and leg yields, building up to a forward going relaxed trot in an outline without him leaning, walk to catch our breath & check girth, trot again, by which point he decides its canter time (it is, but not while he has a strop pulling on the bit, rushing, star gazing etc) so sort the trot back to how it was a minute ago, and when hes more relaxed then canter (always left rein first, its easier, if I do right first he tends to strike off on wrong leg) large, then 20m circle, change rein and repeat, back to walk for a rest then because the canter is the main thing to work on at the moment Ill get some nice slower relaxed canter left, and then try a bit of slowing the charge I mean canter - right.
Not always a rigid set routine, depends on him & me on the day, but generally most of the above in some sort of order. He will come off the forehand, and he will improve in canter during the session, and as long as Im focused his straightness will be ok too. I started trying to introduce a flying change but dont think hes ready yet. He is only allowed to jump tiny jumps (and gets ridiculously excited by even a pole on the ground) so we do a small jump or trotting poles occasionally, but we need more variety! Please suggest some new exercises I can try with him, and things I can start to move on to? We complete at Prelim generally getting 60-70%s and would like to move on to Novice at some point, but dont know whats involved. Oh, and hes a big strapping Welsh D built like a brick sh*thouse!
Large glass of rose for getting this far!
Well, it is Friday
3 things I tend to need to work on with him are;
Straightness he is much better off one leg/on one rein than the other, as he prefers to curl the same way no matter which rein given the chance!
Leaning he is built on his forehand, so everything I do tends to involve trying to get him to power through from behind and lift his front end, rather than drag us both along by leaning on my hands. He is quite a trippy horse as a result, in fact hes just a clumsy bum if he is a) on the forehand or b) stropping and trying to evade
Canter particularly right canter have just about (touch wood) fixed getting the correct lead on the right rein, but he rushes into and in canter. Left canter is starting to come together, more bouncy, more balanced and less hurried.
Our typical schooling session is warm up long & low (or higher if hes tripping much) walk/trot both reins, into riding the corners, turns/circles and shallow loops and leg yields, building up to a forward going relaxed trot in an outline without him leaning, walk to catch our breath & check girth, trot again, by which point he decides its canter time (it is, but not while he has a strop pulling on the bit, rushing, star gazing etc) so sort the trot back to how it was a minute ago, and when hes more relaxed then canter (always left rein first, its easier, if I do right first he tends to strike off on wrong leg) large, then 20m circle, change rein and repeat, back to walk for a rest then because the canter is the main thing to work on at the moment Ill get some nice slower relaxed canter left, and then try a bit of slowing the charge I mean canter - right.
Not always a rigid set routine, depends on him & me on the day, but generally most of the above in some sort of order. He will come off the forehand, and he will improve in canter during the session, and as long as Im focused his straightness will be ok too. I started trying to introduce a flying change but dont think hes ready yet. He is only allowed to jump tiny jumps (and gets ridiculously excited by even a pole on the ground) so we do a small jump or trotting poles occasionally, but we need more variety! Please suggest some new exercises I can try with him, and things I can start to move on to? We complete at Prelim generally getting 60-70%s and would like to move on to Novice at some point, but dont know whats involved. Oh, and hes a big strapping Welsh D built like a brick sh*thouse!
Large glass of rose for getting this far!
