Walk and Trot exercises for fresh horses

[scheherazade]

Hi All

With the recent cold weather pale pony has been a little more lively than normal (he is a bit of a pansy when it comes to cold. Or wet. Or wind. Or the leaves are looking at him funny) and limited riding (I work full time so can only ride after work) has meant he is rather fresh.

However, like many people I should imagine, the school is getting rather hard if riding in the evenings, and so am limited to walk and trot work only. Where I might usually give him a bit of a canter to get rid of the "fizzy feet" I am loathe to do this when the ground is so hard.

Any ideas for exercises that will get the horse really working / stop him being so fresh / be super beneficial etc, that I can do during the colder evenings when I cannot canter for one reason or another?? WHen he is fresh he struggles to keep a lid on it and I am a nervous numpty and am more inclined to get off than battle through (as I ride on my own and cannot afford to have an accident) Realise I should man up a bit and grow a pair but my pair growing capacity seems to have become stunted in middle age!!

Any ideas? Diet coke and Thorntons chocolates for all useful suggestions!!

 

[ironhorse]

A very sharp cheeky horse that I used to hunt taught me lots of useful things!
If I wanted to hunt him, I had to ride him on a Friday night as that was the yard's 'quiet' day and he was always very up for it!

I would usually get straight into trot as soon as I was on - on a longish rein so he could still warm his muscles up, but very forward.
If I wanted him to concentrate I would trot a diamond shape rather than a circle, turning gently through the corners - this kept him out of the corners of the school which were always good for a spook and made him use the outside of his body. You can progress this to making transitions before the corners of the the diamond and then either walking them or using a turn on the forehand or haunches.

Lots of transitions and wiggly half wine glass shapes to change the rein are good too!

 

[kerilli]

one of the exercises my trainer really loves is what he calls 'contra shoulder in', but it's more like a 35-45 degree to the track leg yield. because the horse is stepping sideways it makes it much harder for them to launch or do anything daft, and it's beneficial because they have to use the inside hindleg more to step across. you only do it in walk though, ever. must admit i've started using an extreme version while hacking out on the roads (it's v quiet round here, i wouldn't do it near traffic!) to disengage the hind end and avoid launch manoevres...
so, at start of long side, contrabend, then ask horse to step across more so body is at 35-45 degrees to track, body bent away from direction of movement, so you're in sort of 'extreme-shoulder-in' position, and proceed in walk. the fence or edge of the arena stops the horse from going forward, and you have to make it very clear that the 'open door' you want the horse to step through is along the track, in the direction of its outside shoulder. mares in partic can get a bit flummoxed or stuck and maybe even say 'oh, do you want me to go up then?' so you have to leave that door open with a soft opening hand to show the way if necessary. you'll feel the horse really stepping over with inside hind if it's working correctly.
other good ones:
in walk then in trot: leg yield from 3rd track to first, change bend, then from 1st to 3rd, change bend, repeat all the way down the long side, so a little zig-zag, see how many you can get in down long side. then in trot, prob with half-steps if ground not great.
walk serpentine, 10m loops down school, 10m circle every time you cross A-C line. hard to do perfectly!
collected walk 6-8 circle, extended walk across diag, collect and circle again.
leg yield in and out from small circle obv, esp if horse starts being antsy about it!
hope that's a start!

 

[Goldenstar]

I take the same approach as kerilli ask them to do stuff it gets them thinking and they settle quicker as a result.

 

[KVH]

I'm glad you posted this, you've taken the words out of my mouth OP!
Any more ideas, but slightly more simple for a green 4yo?

 

[K27]

loads of loops and circles/turns to keep them thinking, spiralling in and out on a big circle, and riding squares.

 

[scheherazade]

Thanks, got some great ideas to start with, will keep you posted as to how we are going.
Kerilli please can I kidnap you and bring you down to Kent as you are always so full of great ideas. Please please please??? However as I am an idiot, please could you use very very short words re contra bend exercise - if you are on the right rein for instance, quarters are on the outside track, shoulders to the inside but do you have right or left bend (or straight) Sorry, am in living room and I just can't visualise anything, I need to be actually on the horse - I am a bit speshul in my brain with stuff like this!!!
Sorry, you are probably now completely exasperated by my eejit-ness. But offering extra chocs as an incentive...

 

[kerilli]

no worries, i had to have it shown to me very patiently a number of times (by my very patient classically trained German trainer, fwiw, if that lends this exercise a bit of gravitas or anything!)
so, you're on the right rein, tracking right. you come around the corner approaching K on the 2nd track (say 1 to 2m from outside track) and you go into left bend and put horse's front left foot on the outside track, keep left bend, right front foot and left hind are almost in line on the 2nd track (would be perfectly in line in true shoulder-in but for this it's acceptable to be on 4 tracks), then right hind is the innermost. So, you're in the shoulder-in position you'd be in if you were tracking left down the opposite side, but you have the horse's head to the wall instead of facing across the arena. (Is that even more confusing?!) direction of travel is to the right, down the track, in the direction the horse's right shoulder is going.
I.e. imagine you're doing a sort of exaggerated shoulder-in, so at more of an angle than normal shoulder-in, always in walk only (too much effort to do this in trot at that much of an angle) but you're on the opposite side of the school to the one you'd normally do it on, but with the same bend and direction of travel.
think of it as shoulder-in 18m across the school from where you'd normally do it, is that better?!
the more words i use the more complicated it sounds. i need a piece of paper and a pen! sorry!

 

[SpruceRI]

Thanks, got some great ideas to start with, will keep you posted as to how we are going.
Kerilli please can I kidnap you and bring you down to Kent as you are always so full of great ideas. Please please please??? However as I am an idiot, please could you use very very short words re contra bend exercise - if you are on the right rein for instance, quarters are on the outside track, shoulders to the inside but do you have right or left bend (or straight) Sorry, am in living room and I just can't visualise anything, I need to be actually on the horse - I am a bit speshul in my brain with stuff like this!!!
Sorry, you are probably now completely exasperated by my eejit-ness. But offering extra chocs as an incentive...

I thought it was only me who didn't quite understand!!

 

[scheherazade]

Thank you, so in super stupid terms, quarters in, shoulder out, wrong bend (from what you would expect)???
Told you I was special!! Glass of wine doesn't help either!!!
Am seriously hoping that south Lincs is near kent so you can come teach me (geography not my strong point either!!) ETS I am not actually a stalker, nor a kidnapper, however will confess to being more ambitious than my actual talent usually allows!!
Will definitely be trying this as soon as my sense of direction gets this figured out, sounds like a fab exercise (not just for the horse but also my brain!!)

 

[Frankie10]

Im in the same predicament due to frozen school! I'm using the time to teach my youngster lateral work- in walk if the school Is bad& trot if it's thawed a bit!
There is a great book I use for ideas- called 101 schooling exercises. I think it's by jaki bell.
X

 

[kerilli]

haha i nearly moved to Kent 6 years ago, obviously should have! If you kidnap me I'm afraid you'll have to make space for 4 horses, 6 dogs, 2 geese, 2 guinea fowl and a random number of chookies... i travel light, obv...
yes, you've got it. it's just exaggerated shoulder-in, in walk, down the wrong side of the school, does that help?!

 

[scheherazade]

haha i nearly moved to Kent 6 years ago, obviously should have! If you kidnap me I'm afraid you'll have to make space for 4 horses, 6 dogs, 2 geese, 2 guinea fowl and a random number of chookies... i travel light, obv...
yes, you've got it. it's just exaggerated shoulder-in, in walk, down the wrong side of the school, does that help?!

4 horses and 6 dogs sounds lovely, however birds are the work of the devil and truly terrifying. All that flapping and pecking brings me out in cold sweats. Below is why :warning graphic content:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f....270696097400.151115.653787400&type=1&theater

Hope link works! Apologies in advance for the nightmares

 

[kerilli]

link doesn't work, prob a good job! it's not a link to Hitchcock's The Birds, is it?
i can cope with birds, they don't worry me at all (was doing close-combat goose-wrestling the other day, they're very naughty!), the only thing i can't cope with is humungous spiders, so should be okay even in Kent!
oh, forgot, i have 8 ducks too, they're really really funny and make me smile a lot. they'd charm even you, i bet!

 

[scheherazade]

link updated, try again!!! spiders don't worry me. I'll get the spiders, you're in charge of bird control. Deal?!?!

 

[kerilli]

Okay, that one's scary. As long as there's none of those around, deal. The tarantulas are all yours though.

 

[scheherazade]

Kent is officially a tarantula free zone. Border control are very strict about tarantulas. Not so much with "asylum seekers". Hoping the tarantulas don't start trying to claim asylum, then we are really screwed!!!!

 

[kerilli]

hahaha good point.

 

[SpruceRI]

I'm in Kent.... I'll look after the chooks and ducks but I'm scared of geese - sorry!

 

[scheherazade]

Hello Fellow Kent-dweller - whereabouts in Kent are you? *waves*