Tips on basic flatwork?

[Vixxy]

I have a muscle illness (lupus and arthritis) that often seriously restricts my riding ability, my mare has spent some time now without much work due to me having a down spell so we both have to get back into shape!

At the moment I am just walking and trotting my mare in the school and out hacking and it is becoming a little boring, I am sticking just to walk and trot in order to build my muscles back up and regain some confidence as each time I have a bad spell it is like starting over for me which can be really frustrating.

My intention with my mare this summer is to compete in some very basic dressage starting just in walk trot tests as I have never competed in dressage (in my younger days before diagnosed with my illness I showjumped).

Can anyone recommend some flatwork exercises in both walk and trot to keep my mares attention and make it a little more appealing for us both? I am running out of things to do and riding is becoming stale for us both, any help greatly appreciated!

 

[daydreamer]

hmm,

a quick and easy (and not too strenuous) one is transitions after a set number of steps, e.g. walk 12 strides then trot 12 then walk 12 etc etc. You could also include halt. Sounds boring but if you make sure you are making your transitions sharp and precise it is surprisingly difficult and also good for discipline.

Also there are the typical circles etc, i guess if your mare isn't very fit try and keep them fairly large. Some variations, either for now or later on, ..... 3 circles up the long side of the school, start in one corner circling into the school then ride towards the centre line, when level with E or B circle toward the fence (opposite way circle to the first one) then ride back towards the last corner and do a last circle in the same direction as the first, All the circles should be the same size. If your school is big enough you can do a large circle in the middle of the school and then do little smaller satellite circles to the outside (opposite direction to the big one) then back onto the big one. You can build up to doing this at 4 points on the large circle. You could also try a little leg yielding on a circle? Start with a large circle, spiral in to about 10m or so and then leg yield back out.

Phew! I hope that makes sense and some of it is useful.

 

[daydreamer]

oh...

also some pole work might be good if you aren't already doing some. Trot poles for a long and short stride to see if you can adjust the length of stride or maybe a trot pole fan, practising halting exactly between the tube made by 2 parallel poles

erm, i'll stop now