Thinking caps on please

[ihatework]

Okay, I’m very unimaginative so would appreciate some ideas please.

My rather beautiful cripple is now back in work and will be concentrating mainly on dressage (although might get the odd jump too). We are planning on Aff Novice this summer and Elem through the Winter, it would be nice to have a crack at an unaff medium or too as well.

At present we are concentrating on getting him working over his back and taking the contact forwards, we struggle a bit with his walk and he has a tendancy to get quite short and stilted at times.

So I am hoping you guys can offer some interesting schooling ideas (to stop me longing to get on the xc course!), flat exercises and also gridwork/polework exercises (with associated distances between poles!).

The catch is I only have 3 pairs of wings and 7 poles.

Thank you

 

[Jemayni]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/101-Schooling-Ex...0879&sr=1-2

.... and the dressage one from the same series. Whever I cba to go & school I get one of the excercises from either of these books & they're really good fun!

 

[khan]

I've just recently brought my warmblood back into reasonable work as he damaged his check ligament last august, we have done lots of walking since december and late january we started trot work and in the last 3 weeks canter, best of to take it slowly i think - esp as he is a bit of a fruit loop (typical showjumper sqeals and chucks himself about all over the shop given half a chance), but we have now decided that dressage will be the best option for us to still go out and have fun, so we've been trying to relax this tightly coiled spring (hard work) but we have been doing lots of stretching exercises and asking him to relax and stretch out and lenthen his strides, i've found that leg yielding has been good because he has to think, so we would leg yield off the track then a few strides later leg yield back on again, also decreaseing and increasing on our circles by leg yielding and extending in trot and more or less holding the reins in my little fingers and give give giveing with my hands and it has been working quite well so far as he has now actually started working from behind better than ever and he has stopped grinding his teeth - whoopee! Oh, he is in a happymouth snaffle with a drop noseband (quite loose)