Walk exercises for those with frozen schools...

[kerilli]

I did 45 mins of walk schooling again today (bitterly cold here, school didn't thaw till much later) and was thinking that it's actually possible to do a whole 'test' in walk. i'm not advocating this for competition, i think walk&trot tests are enough, but in case anyone is lacking inspiration, i thought i'd share these exercises, a lot of which come from my fab trainer. at the end of this lot the horses are really through and soft, it's worth the effort! even Katy, who still really wants to be a racehorse, is starting to get a topline after all this stuff.
walk serpentine 10m loops, 10m circle every time you cross the centre line.
10m circle in the corner, shoulder-in (or shoulder-fore) to middle marker, 10m circle, travers to corner.
20m circle, halt, 1 step turn on the forehand, walk on 8 steps, repeat, repeat etc.
leg yield from 1st or 2nd track to outside track, change bend, leg yield back, change bend, leg yield out again, etc, all the way down the long side.
down long side, walk pirouette before corner, back down long side, walk pirouette again.
collected walk circle, free walk on a long rein zig zag, collected walk circle.
walk, halt square, walk on 8 steps, halt square, rein back 3-4 steps, forward 6 steps, halt square, walk on.
contra shoulder-in at 30 degrees to track, change bend, straighten, walk circle spiralling in and out again.
well, it kept me amused for a long time and made a big difference. thought maybe it might help someone!

 

[rotters13]

Thank you! My walk schooling today was limited to halting without having to stick our heads up to gawp at the bird/flower/tree.

 

[PnO]

Thanks for that - begining to lose motivation, was going to lunge again tomorrow but might give this walking stuff ago! x

 

[kerilli]

well, my trainer didn't let me out of walk for the first few sessions, so i got to see the huge benefit of it. you can really concentrate on your position and balance (weight on seatbones etc) and really feel the moment the horse's balance shifts etc etc.
Sophos, we were at that stage not long ago, don't worry!

 

[Jbrogan]

Thanks be doing that tommorrow!

 

[lizzie_liz]

Thanks for that, however our arene is too frozen too walk in at the moment as it goes from rain to frost to rain.

 

[jules89]

contra shoulder in, whats that? just shoulder in with t'opposide bend?

 

[kerilli]

no, shoulder-in but facing out with outside bend, at 30 degrees to the track. wonderful exercise, really gets horse stepping through and engaging. you have to come to almost-halt if the horse doesn't get it at first and tries to run through the aids.

 

[AutumnRose]

Thats really helpful, i was thinking today there must be something useful i can do in the school atm. Thanks

 

[jules89]

so it is like right shoulder in on left rein and vice versa?
Sorry, having a senior moment

 

[kerilli]

yes, e.g. i do a small 1/2 circle in the corner at the end of the long side, come back to track and stay in contrabend, so on left rein horse is bent right and stepping across to the left.
it sounds more and more complicated like that, sorry!

 

[trundle]

kerilli, you are an absolute genius. Our school is pretty solid at the moment, and the Moose has no shoes on (so gets a bit ouchy on the hard surface), so this could be a real life-saver for us.

i might have to write all those instructions on my thigh !

 

[kerilli]

haha they take a bit of memorising!
the walk serpentine with small circles takes absolutely ages, and ages more to do really well...! enjoy!

 

[jules89]

got it now, and will be trying it soon (though grid working in a super nice school tomoro, eee!) finally getting airborne again!
btw I don't say it enough but I love your sig pics kerilli

 

[kerilli]

aww ta, i've been lucky enough to have some cracking boys and girls, bless them all.
have fun getting airborne again!

 

[amandaco2]

i woudl do 30min schooling in walk-except the school is like a frozen lumpy ice world and the horses cant even walk on it!lol

 

[CrazyMare]

I use one with my girl that really helps with changing the bend and getting them to go straight into the new outside rein

Go on a 20m circle at B/E as you cross the centreline, change the bend and do a 10m circle the other way, changing the bend back and carrying on the 20m circle. Thats probably badly described but the footsteps would look like a 10m circle sat on a 20m circle on a 10m circle.

You can also move the 10m circles to the 3/4line and fit four around the 20m

 

[TarrSteps]

When I was a kid I had a very classical (German, although not traditionally German in his ideas) trainer who would spend hours and hours in walk. I though he was bonkers.

But I get it more now - it's very helpful and doesn't knock miles off the horse. Plus it's very Zen.

That's a great list.

For the jumping obsessed

, you can also add pole work.

One really useful exercise (you see sj'ers do it in the warm up all the time) is walking over a single pole on the ground, getting the horse to step over it with the forefoot you want (MUCH harder than it sounds - most horses will try hard to always step over with the same leg first). You can start by just trying to feel which leg leads, then how you need to arrange the horse to get the foot you want over first. Then you can ride forward to the step you want, and on a holding stride, across the diagonal, on a curve etc.

Another is poles at four points on a square, riding 1/4 turns at the corners - this is great for practising "pushing" the horse around turns at speed rather than pulling on the inside rein. You can change it up by riding a "clover leaf" with a 10m circle to the outside at each corner (so if you start on the square to the right, do a 10m circle to the left after each pole.

You can also do walk poles, either set for one stride, or set as in trot and take two in between. This is also great for getting the horse working through its back, stretching into contact. To make it really tricky, make sure you do it with each foot leading and don't let the horse "cheat" by walking over the first pole leading with the foot you want and then putting in a shuffle step to accommodate the other poles more comfortably.

If you want to really get fancy, put one end of the pole up a few inches, then vary the part you walk over so the horse has to pay attention to picking up his feet.

These are also great exercises for horses (or riders) that get tense when they see coloured poles.

Then, when the ground thaws, (it has to eventually . . ) you can do all the same tasks in trot and canter and add them into your jumping.

 

[spookypony]

These are really good ideas! I think I'll print out this thread when it stops growing...

 

[Baydale]

I guess you're not at work today, TarrSteps?

Then, when the arena has thawed and you can canter, do the Kenneth exercise of cantering to a single pole on the ground, or even more difficult, two poles four strides apart. That made kerilli, TableDancer and I more tense, not less tense.

 

[KatB]

Walking over a raised pole (about 18") at different angles is really good for the horses to use themselves, stretch their legs and apparently it helps any tension in their hamstrings

May explain why my horse is so laid back to a fence

 

[TarrSteps]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess you're not at work today, TarrSteps?

[/ QUOTE ]

Grr. The Dog With Too Many Clothes and I are having another enforced day of rest and boredom. (I HAVE things to do, I just don't want to do them . . .)

Apparently even the walker froze yesterday. And the GSCH confined himself to a careful trot 'round the field, rather than his usual hysterical mad dash. Must be bad.

 

[Baydale]

Hmmm, and British daytime tv isn't worth watching, is it? Try the Horse and Country channel for Ferdi Eilberg Masterclass or the 6yo and 7yo classes from Quainton Stud.

So I suppose you don't want to hear that I managed to ride on my lovely unfrozen arena at 6.30 this morning, albeit with a slightly treacherous 100m of icy track getting out there?

 

[TarrSteps]

Bite me.

I could do something constructive on my website but that's too much like work. Far, far more productive to discuss walk exercises etc. on HHO.

 

[harrihjc]

oo thansk for these ideas all, I was just pondering how on earth I'm going to get the pony exercised in the dark with a frozen school, we've been able to do nothing but hack for about a week!

 

[CBAnglo]

I totally agree with Kerilli.

My instructor did not let me out of walk for our first lessons together. We did lots of suppling of the horse and to get me concentrating on getting a true change in the bend.

We still spend the first 20 mins of our lesson really getting him on the aids and supple by using exercises in walk. All the ones described by Kerilli and one of my personal favourites which my instructor made up for me which is to ride a shallow serpentine on the track making a 10m circle in each corner, concentrating on asking for the opposite bend in the circles. It sounds really easy but is really difficult to ride correctly and to get the serpentine to be as even as possible. I use this exercise in every schooling session now and it has made a really big difference in both my horses and myself.

I also do inhand schooling when the school is too bad to ride in - we do lots of shoulder in etc and you get a different perspective from the ground.