Schooling session plans

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So I've listened to what you all said about progress and frequency of riding :) - next question is about flatwork schooling sessions.....

How do you plan yours? We did 40 minutes tonight which certainly didn't feel bad by any means, but it felt a bit aimless and disorganised? Do you decide on (for example) a set thing to practice each session?
 
I had an idea of what I wanted to work on but depending on how the horse came out it could change. If you do not have anything specific think transitions, transitions and more transitions. A transition can be between and within the paces, from left bend or flexion to straight, or to right bend or flexion, from rising to sitting trot, or you can transition into or out of lateral work, and depending on the horse you can do one every 15 strides or so which should keep you busy :D
 
Depends on what competing plans I have, if any, and may change depending on what I feel. For example, I might want to work on canter transitions, but if I start working and feel like my horse isn't working straight, I might decide to change plans and work on that instead. But in general, I'll pick some sort of weakness I'd like to work on, either that has been picked up on a dressage test sheet or in a lesson or just that I've felt or it might be something in an upcoming dressage test that we haven't done much of or I think he might struggle with. It might be a more general concept like "straightness" or "forwardness" or it might be more specific like "canter transitions" or "not leaning on the left rein". I tend to pick some exercises that I think might help, either something I've done in a lesson or that I've read about online (there are some great ideas for different exercises if you have a google).
 
I will always go into a schooling session with a few things in mind that I want to work on. My horse is quite clever and so need a good 3-5 different things to work on to keep him thinking. this may change depending on how he feels, and will be based on previous lessons/competitions/schooling sessions.
for example, when I next school him I have a few key things to work on, based on how he went at the competition yesterday.
so the big focus will be on suppleness and forwardness, as he got very tense and backed right off. so I want to check there is nothing physically wrong and just make sure he can still relax and work through from behind. this will be mixed up with practicing our halts, and our downwards transitions from canter to trot, as again he gets tense and tries to canter off again. we will do this in a variety of ways, but will also do some canter/trot/canter transitions but some on the straight and some with a change of lead across X. he needs to realize that sometimes we come back to trot and stay in trot, and other times we may go straight back up to canter - but it is up to me, not him.
If you are not sure what to work on, have a look at some of the dressage tests and pick out movements to practice and give yourself something to aim for. my instructor has given me so much confidence as he isn't afraid to push me to try the hard stuff, but without worrying about getting it right, so to speak. e.g in my first lesson with him, he had me doing counter canter, even though I had only done 1 intro test and 2 prelims and would never have thought we could do that.
so definitely have a plan, but don't be afraid to mix it up.
 
Yes, I always have a plan, but a flexible plan, so if when I start the horse feels a certain way, I will change my plan according to whatever I feel. I also think its important to have a warm up routine that you do every time you school, or whenever you warm up at a show, it gets you both into the right mindset, and can really help the horse focus at a show. I always start with 10mins walking on a loose rein, then I do the warm up routine specific to the horse I'm riding, then I do the "proper" work, then a cool down, then another walk on a long rein to finish.

As for the plan for the proper work, just think about what you want to improve, either from common comments on a test sheet, or homework set by your instructor. But be prepared to change, for example if you want to focus on straightness, but when you start the horse is feeling buzzy and lively, then perhaps use that extra energy and do lots of transitions to improve the balance.
 
I have a plan, but it's flexible. For instance, tonight I planned to do some pole work so put the poles out, but P felt quite hot (rideable though) and I felt that pole work might tip her over the edge so we worked on straightness and stretching and ignored the poles.

I very much can tell from my warm up what type of session it's going to be, so I am largely governed by that.
If I feel like a schooling session needs an extra bit of 'cementing' in the horses brain, I might go back in the school the next day, but if it's been a good outcome and I feel the horse has learnt well and understood, I will hack out the next day and give them a break and then go back in the school the day after that.
 
Yep pretty much as others have said - loose plan of what I want to work on and a few ideas of the exercises that will help to achieve that. If we start and the horse isn't in the right frame of mind then we might do something entirely different.

Some things can be drastically improved in one session, some take a number of weeks but I don't drill, work on the the thing every couple of days and do different exercises to improve it.

An example of that might be a horse who always falls onto one shoulder, that might take weeks to overcome as it's teaching new muscle memory patterns and a change in coordination but I would use in-hand, lunging and flat work to overcome that and various exercises throughout each session to help.
 
No, not often an actual plan. I have a warm-up routine for each horse that will morph over time as they develop, and then I just take it from there. I have a bunch load of exercises in my head - stuff I've used a lot over the years, movements from tests and just bits and pieces I've read and stored away in my brain - and I just start to play with one or two that come to mind and see what it throws up.

I do always have a general theme though. So forwardness, suppleness, balance etc that gives me an overriding focus for a number of sessions.
 
As a few others have said it depends if we are prepping for a competition or not. I start the same either way, its then what we 'work' on after that varies. I was so spoilt for a long time and 9/10 times I rode there was someone on the ground keeping me on the right track. When I didn't have that anymore I didn't really know what to do or focus on so I try and stick to the same pattern, then play with what I want after that. I think this gives some level of consistency but I still sometimes find i'm stuck on the same thing for a while until my instructor comes and shakes us up a bit! I wouldn't say i get on with a PLAN for after the warm up, as it really depends on what feedback i get from it.

My 'warm up' (after a walk up the lane/ round a field) consists of; 1) firstly; forward, is she listening? generally yep - on the occasion that its no, a few quick fire 'up downs' (transitions up or down; walk, halt, trot, walk, trot, halt etc) usually does the trick.
2) Is she straight and taking me? She has a really good knack of looking pretty and being really light which seems nice, but shes not really 'there' and so the wheels fall off later if i don't pick it up at this point. I wan't to feel her taking both arms, so have a couple of fixes for this. With her the stronger I feel she is taking me the better!
3) We then have a 'loose canter'; stretching down, long reins - Is she waiting for me on my seat or just running off? Can usually tell the answer to this by how bad the downward to trot transition is!
4) Back to trot, can i change the pace/ tempo without any drama? Some days we have to re establish the different button between more trot/ medium trot and canter.

Some days a session can just be straightening out all the above, and other days it all just works straight away so we can play with other things; try little exercises and just see what comes up, work on new bits and pieces from our lessons, or if we are prepping for a test i'll run through little segments, then join different bits together.
 
do most the above recs, but also look for something to do that`s going well to do so the horse enjoys being a good boy and picks up on the fact i`m pleased with him, also push myself to play or explore with something i think i can`t do, a little experimentation or just dreaming.


but if i felt something is not going to work i back off and think about why it dont work and what to do about it afterwards.

my only real plan is to keep myself physically relaxed and aware of my own actions.
 
daffy44 said:
Yes, I always have a plan, but a flexible plan, so if when I start the horse feels a certain way, I will change my plan according to whatever I feel. I also think its important to have a warm up routine that you do every time you school, or whenever you warm up at a show, it gets you both into the right mindset, and can really help the horse focus at a show. I always start with 10mins walking on a loose rein, then I do the warm up routine specific to the horse I'm riding, then I do the "proper" work, then a cool down, then another walk on a long rein to finish.

As for the plan for the proper work, just think about what you want to improve, either from common comments on a test sheet, or homework set by your instructor. But be prepared to change, for example if you want to focus on straightness, but when you start the horse is feeling buzzy and lively, then perhaps use that extra energy and do lots of transitions to improve the balance.
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