Simple Exercises for young horses

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Deefa

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What flatwork exercises do you do with you young horses to help with balence etc.
We now have walk trot and canter greenly (nice contact but no outline as such) Are plain transitions the best thing to get horses thinking a little more or do you have any favourite exercises.
Also any good books and dvd's?
 
Hi one of my favorite exercises is a leg-yield in walk when hacking, obviously not on the roads. I vary the sharpeness and always do a straight line between changing directions. I find it helps with getting the right amount of bend and getting straightness and forward movements. Simple and basic but usefull
 
spiralling in and out.
leg yielding to the track in walk then in trot. when this is established, leg yielding from the track back in, and then leg-yield zig-zags from about 3rd track to outside track and in again, rpt rpt.
loops, figure of 8s, serpentines (getting stricter about the lines and turns as balance improves).
transitions, between paces and a little bit of variation within the pace if the horse can cope with it.
baby shoulder-fore.
work over poles placed randomly.
 
I keep them keen by short sharp transitions, school movements, small figures of eights, big ones, few strides of walk, then trot a few strides then canter a few strides than walk. then halt to trot etc. :)
 
Deefa said:
Kerilli - How do you start to teach leg yield and shoulder fore, ridden or ground?
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umm, i guess they've learnt to move over from my voice in the stable, so i usually start under saddle, from first track to outside track (natural pull of the fence/track works in my favour) and perhaps use my voice a little if they're not getting it. i find that turning my shoulders towards the track, and weighting my outside seatbone and pushing it forward, brings the horse across fairly easily.
shoulder fore - i usually teach a bit of contra-bending first, and once they get the idea of that (that their body doesn't have to follow their nose!), i find shoulder fore quite easy for them to understand.
 
Deefa i highly recommend Basic Training of the Young Horse by Ingrid and Reimer Klimke. I have a baby and this is my bible. It tells you all the types of exercises you should be doing in the first 6 months, 2nd 6 month and 2nd year etc. It also describes the aids for teaching turn on the forehand, leg yield etc etc.

As per Kerilli - lots of trot, walk transitions. shallow loops, serpentines, figures of 8. don't canter for two long and lots of transitions to trot and back to canter after the trot established again. Pole work, cavalettis.
 
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