Transitions, transitions, transitions

[mickey]

I am really trying to incorporate a lot of half halts and transitions into my horse's work, and it seems to be paying off.
Do you think anyone in your yard does enough of them? I just see people going round and round on the whole......

 

[camilla4]

I think most riders underestimate the value of this kind of work Mickey - I do see a lot of riders in schools without any sort of aim in mind!

 

[JosieSmith]

No.

I see people going round and round, and quite often do it myself I'm ashamed to admit.

But I had a brill lesson on monday about improving Belle's way of going, bearing in mind she's 20 (but a young 20) so now we're practising, starting tonight.

I'm hoping she'll come off my leg a little more and be a bit more responsive and pay more attention to me rather than what's going on in the next field!

 

[soph21]

I love making them really listen and work!
Its god for them and you, I think it stops you getting bored too

 

[Morrigan_Lady]

I do alot of transitions, mainly to get the little buggers to listen to me!

I never see anyone at our yard, so I have no idea what others do.

 

[Tickles]

Lovely exercise: serpentines but cantering the half-circle parts. Makes the tranisitons have a purpose and have to be doen in a certain place.

I often find I don't do enough transitions to/from canter and I def miss out transitions within the pace quite often. Tend to do a lot of halt/walk/trot/walk/halt ones in my warm up though which I'm quite proud of

 

[Booboos]

Sometimes it helps to set a goal, e.g. how many trot-canter- trot transitions can I fit in a 20m circle, or do parts of a dressage test which usually involves transitions.

 

[Helbert]

I think Andrew Gould would agree with you. He was going on about them in his demo at Your Horse Live on Saturday. He said they are the basis to all his training whatever he is teaching his horses. I have started to use them loads more since then. I will let you know if I see much difference!

 

[milliepops]

[ QUOTE ]
Lovely exercise: serpentines but cantering the half-circle parts. Makes the tranisitons have a purpose and have to be doen in a certain place.


[/ QUOTE ]

agree, this is a good one. I like to use serpentines in canter with a simple change across the centre line. It's made all the difference to my horse, and you can tweak the serpentine to make it more loopy - don't go straight across the centre IYSWIM, so you can fit about 5 or 6 loops in a 20x40 school.

I definitely don't do enough though! I've been to a few Carl Hester demos where he says you should be doing 100 in a session

It sure makes your schooling sessions much more productive. Have to admit though, riding after work in the dark leaves me uninspired and half asleep, and then I revert to roundy-roundy

 

[mickey]

Yes, I once heard Carl Hester talking about the tonnes and tonnes of transitions he does in a schooling session. I find it amazing when I see high List dressage instructors come out and teach someone for an hr with very little transitions! Incredible!