Walk Exercises

[Jo C]

I am now allowed to walk Patrick for 10 minutes a day, unfortunately I am having to do this in the school as I can only ride after work in the week. Bearing in mind he is just coming back into work are there any exercises I can do to keep his attention? If I allow him to just plod around he starts getting bored and spooking at scary things outside so I need something to keep him interested without asking too much of him at this stage. Tonight I was doing collected walk and then asking him to extend slightly then come back into collected. I also did some shoulder fore but am not sure if this is asking too much. Any help gratefully received. He had laminitis by the way. I have to up the work to 20 minutes next week so will have to try and keep him interested somehow for that!

 

[alleycat]

You could try long-reining him for a bit of a change. That would make him concentrate & take the weight off his feet. Maybe he was broken in like that anyway- but if not it would be a new thing to learn & keep his interest. What breed is he?

 

[Law]

I don't know how much strain it would be on him but I like to do lots of halts and softening, turn on the haunches (might be too much for him

)and turn on the forehand.
What about long reining in walk, circles and serpentines etc .. it's quite easy to overdo a good walk so it's a tricky one to call.

 

[Jo C]

He's a Connemara, long reining is a good idea but would have to be careful if others want to use the school, I could easily do it if no one was around though - thanks.

 

[Jo C]

I know Law - usually I would hack him but I just can't do that when it gets dark so early, I'll give the long reining a go I think. I wasn't sure whether to try some leg yielding or would that be too much?

 

[kerilli]

leg yielding. shoulder-fore. walk zig-zags, changing bend and direction. renvers, travers. free walk on a long rein (if you trust him not to zoom off!), gathering up again. slightly lengthening and shortening strides. working gently on getting him flexing to inside hand and accepting the contact, then letting outside rein half-halt through. that's quite a lot to be going on with, hopefully!
i can school for an hour in walk without getting bored. i must be a weirdo.

 

[_jetset_]

Sorry... what exactly is he recovering from? I am having a mind block at the moment

I would just do lots of changes of direction, serpentines, loops from the track etc etc. But as I can't remember what he has been off work for, I don't want to suggest much lateral work as it depends why he has had a holiday

 

[Jo C]

He's had steroid induced laminitis so has had complete box rest for 4 weeks and is only allowed to start with 10 mins walking, he still isn't allowed to be turned out yet though. I need to build up the walking for the next few weeks before I can introduce trot work but just didn't really know how much I could ask of him.

 

[Jo C]

[ QUOTE ]
leg yielding. shoulder-fore. walk zig-zags, changing bend and direction. renvers, travers. free walk on a long rein (if you trust him not to zoom off!), gathering up again. slightly lengthening and shortening strides. working gently on getting him flexing to inside hand and accepting the contact, then letting outside rein half-halt through. that's quite a lot to be going on with, hopefully!
i can school for an hour in walk without getting bored. i must be a weirdo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you - you don't think the lateral work would be asking to much? I usually do a lot of my warmup in walk, things like shoulder-in for 2 strides then ask him to straighten his quarters so he is on the inside track then shoulder in for 2 strides again so you gradually go across the school - would that sort of thing be ok also?