schooling on a field/ no working surface?

U

UKa

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 September 2004
Messages
960
Location
Herts
community.webshots.com
Hello, all, I am still debating what yard to move to if and when the time comes soon, one I have in mind hasn't got a school (yet) but they say you are allowed to use the field in the summer for schooling. I was wondering if this will be any good, of course it will be highly depending on grounds (e.g. how hard they are or how slippery in the extreme cases) - how realistic would it be that I could school in a normal fashion and would you have lessons on such grounds? I would like to continue competing at local Prelim dressage competitions and continue having lessons every 4 - 6 weeks if possible...
 
UKa said:
Hello, all, I am still debating what yard to move to if and when the time comes soon, one I have in mind hasn't got a school (yet) but they say you are allowed to use the field in the summer for schooling. I was wondering if this will be any good, of course it will be highly depending on grounds (e.g. how hard they are or how slippery in the extreme cases) - how realistic would it be that I could school in a normal fashion and would you have lessons on such grounds? I would like to continue competing at local Prelim dressage competitions and continue having lessons every 4 - 6 weeks if possible...
Click to expand...

On the one hand you can argue that if you school your horse until it goes well in a field then once you get him in an arena at a comp he'll practically float as he'll be so well balanced. Plus it's a good education for them to learn to listen to you despite being in a big open space.

However, for me it wouldn't work - my boy has some 'issues' with canter which we're working on, and being in a big open space would not help him to remember he is no longer a race horse :D

Depends on the horse I think!
 
I have an ex-racehorse and always said I could never go to a yard without a school. However things got a bit desperate round here due to lack of suitable, pleasant yards and I found a perfect yard within 3 miles of me for £20 a week incl straw. Being on a tight budget, I couldn't not however it doesn't have a school. I thought it would be a total nightmare, but actually it's been fine if anything a good thing for me not relying on a school.

Only problem is if it's wet I don't use it, but I just school on a hack in that case.
 
ghostie said:
However, for me it wouldn't work - my boy has some 'issues' with canter which we're working on, and being in a big open space would not help him to remember he is no longer a race horse :D

Depends on the horse I think!
Click to expand...
Hm, that could be an issue, as she can get excitable in open spaces... but I would be happy to give it a go, it is more the surface I am worried about for schooling :)

I have started schooling on hacks now anyhow as it makes riding more interesting for me and keeps her mind off the surroundings :)
 
I school in the field as I only have a small lunge school which is too big for my horse's strides! For the first few weeks she was a little excitable as she obviously thought it was somewhere for her to run around not school, but she soon settled down and now I don't see any difference. Only problem is that the grass in winter can get really muddy and damaged, so if they only let you use it in the summer, where will you school in the winter?
 
UKa said:
Hm, that could be an issue, as she can get excitable in open spaces... but I would be happy to give it a go, it is more the surface I am worried about for schooling :)

I have started schooling on hacks now anyhow as it makes riding more interesting for me and keeps her mind off the surroundings :)
Click to expand...

My boy was the same, in fact any strand of grass was enough to have a good old leap around. However he's now getting over it, has the odd 'moment' but generally realising he has to work. I want to event him and sometimes the arenas are just dr boards in a huge field so I guess it can only be a good thing.
 
I am at a yard with no school - it's hard. I've only been able to ride a few days on the paddock over the past 6 months due to the very wet weather (and we are on well drained land). Also, my pony can get very excited and the first time I took him in he rodeoed spectacularly. There is a hedge at the bottom of the field that he hates, so I tend to school away from that and we just go for a little 'look' at it now and then. The ground being a bit unlevel keeps me on my toes, too.

Having said all of that, you can get by when the going is okay. And I think it benefits you out hacking as your horse will be used to cantering on grass in open spaces. I'm thinking of getting some dressage markers this year and measuring out a 'school', if that's okay with my YO. Then I will be more disciplined about corners instead of drifting everywhere. I also want to get some jumps.
 
Inona said:
Only problem is that the grass in winter can get really muddy and damaged, so if they only let you use it in the summer, where will you school in the winter?
Click to expand...
hopefully they will build a school by then. If not, I suppose I can school out hacking in the winter period.... haven't been doing much this winter anyhow due to weather conditions.
 
metalmare said:
I'm thinking of getting some dressage markers this year and measuring out a 'school', if that's okay with my YO. Then I will be more disciplined about corners instead of drifting everywhere. I also want to get some jumps.
Click to expand...
I think that they measure out a school like that for the summer...
 
I have no arena although we do have an enclosed paddock which we can school in. The ground in it is not brilliant - muddy and slippery after rain, hard as iron in dry weather.

Last year after harvest (liveried on a working farm) I schooled on the stubble. Much better surface IMO and although we had a few 'Squeeee' moments to start with, she did settle and do some nice, calm work. The difficulties were trying to stay within an arena size - I kept drifting down the field and I had at least one dog chase my horse (field had a footpath through it) each session. Good experience though.
 
I think it makes total sense to get used to grass as like you say it is often a grass arena at comps. I only have my field and it can be a pain not being able to do much in there in wet weather, but we have the added problem that the bridleways also get waterlogged and we have to do loads of road work at the best of times, so if you have good off road hacking then I would defo go for it!
 
I don't have a school so I school in field and out on hacks. I do have a weekly flatwork lesson in a school but generally if my field is unridable- usually this school is too:rolleyes:

I have a big enough flat field that I can pick and chose where I work and move around to not damage ground. I find that when I do get to a school he goes better from having to work on uneven surface at home. Also when I go to events he's so used to working in open spaces he can just get down to it.
 
I currently don't have an arena (will be building one this spring though, hopefully) I also have use of a small arena literally over the road from my house. Last summer I used this arena 4 times a week. Horse was going beautifully.
I took him to a ODE....we ended up last after the dressage :( it was an arena in a field & it utterly blew his brain.
This autumn & winter I'm only using the manège once/twice a week the rest of the time I'm schooling on hacks & in my field. He has learnt that wherever we are, whatever is under his feet he listens to ME!
 
i dont even have a field to school in - i've schooled my mare on hacks for the 5 yrs i've had her - although we do hire an arena for lessons/to remember what a 20x40 looks like!
i've totally reschooled her - i got her as a 10yr old who'd only ever hunted and could not trot a 20m circle let alone canter one.
we were competative at prelim after a couple of years - competative at BE90 DR at 3 yrs - last yr we had a year off due to moving house and she had a series of silly illnesses - then this year we're competative at novice and doing the odd elementary for *****s and giggles

it is totally possible to do everything on hacks - stealing 10mins or so in open fields when you can (but check farmers are happy for you to first!)

one thing i must say is - my mare copes far better in dubious BE dressage arenas (slight slopes, bit muddy etc) than many others as she will school on all terrains :)
 
We don't have a school but only because they were kept at home, if I was choosing livery I would definitely want one.

We usually use 3/4 different areas of our field for schooling dependent on where the horses are etc. Spend much of the spring limited due to growing hay then the rest of the summer with rock hard/cracked ground (less of a problem this year it was just wet :p).

Essentially I enjoy schooling and prefer hacking to be hacking ;) :). and it severely limited any jumping practice due to ground issues.

However we did manage to go from a pony that wouldn't track up to competing BD elem with the addition of fortnightly lessons on some rubber :D, and they do always compete well on grass.
 
metalmare said:
Having said all of that, you can get by when the going is okay. And I think it benefits you out hacking as your horse will be used to cantering on grass in open spaces. I'm thinking of getting some dressage markers this year and measuring out a 'school', if that's okay with my YO. Then I will be more disciplined about corners instead of drifting everywhere. I also want to get some jumps.
Click to expand...

Hi this is like the yard I am at - we already have the markers etc & we get on ok - winter is obviously harder - but there is an all weather outdoor a couple of minutes walk away that we can hire if we need it - it is a small yard - no problems & this makes up for not having a school x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top