Ways to make schooling more fun?

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justmyluck99

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I often find myself bored after being in the arena for 30 minutes or so and lacking ideas of what to do! I'm not a dressage rider and only do the odd little SJ or ODE, we're just about able to do a few flying changes ;) what are your favourite exercises to keep both horse and rider motivated?
 
Cones for weaving through at different paces?
Make a square out of 4 poles and practice your transitions, making the upward or downward transition in the middle of the square?
Place two poles at each corner of the school adjacent to the walls to practice bending in to the corner.
Knot your reins, hands on hips and concentrate on having your horse respond to your legs, seat and voice, rather than your reins?
Make 'pathways' with poles and with your knotted reins practice steering with your legs through the pathways?

Just a few exercises I used to use with clients when I was teaching!
 
peony said:
Cones for weaving through at different paces?
Make a square out of 4 poles and practice your transitions, making the upward or downward transition in the middle of the square?
Place two poles at each corner of the school adjacent to the walls to practice bending in to the corner.
Knot your reins, hands on hips and concentrate on having your horse respond to your legs, seat and voice, rather than your reins?
Make 'pathways' with poles and with your knotted reins practice steering with your legs through the pathways?

Just a few exercises I used to use with clients when I was teaching!
Click to expand...

Thankyou! Some great ideas there :)
 
MORE fun? It's MASSIVE fun, if you know what you're doing and where you're headed with it. More than fun, it's actually a compact to help the horse be a better athlete, be better capable of carrying you and stay sound. Teaching the horse how to do this is a DUTY and all riders should strive to help their horses. Best excercises are really simple, basic things like being on the bit, bending through corners and turns, correct transitions up and down and answering the leg politely and instantly. It's not the horse's job; it's YOURS.
 
Cortez said:
MORE fun? It's MASSIVE fun, if you know what you're doing and where you're headed with it. More than fun, it's actually a compact to help the horse be a better athlete, be better capable of carrying you and stay sound. Teaching the horse how to do this is a DUTY and all riders should strive to help their horses. Best excercises are really simple, basic things like being on the bit, bending through corners and turns, correct transitions up and down and answering the leg politely and instantly. It's not the horse's job; it's YOURS.
Click to expand...

I know I just need some ideas of where to start!I'm only 14:o
 
Not sure if you have teaching experience, but I always used to wonder what kids would find fun - as they learn a lot more if they are having fun - and I would come up with all sorts of ideas! Of course it helps adults too, especially knotting your reins and steering with your legs. If I ever had clients that were too hard on the horses mouth I'd take their reins away from them haha it really got them thinking and they realised they don't have to hang off the horses mouth to stay on!

Let your imagination run wild, it's always a bonus if you have poles, cones, barrels etc as it will get your horse thinking too. Why not do some DIY barrel racing?! You could put out jump wings and practice your transitions by going up/down a transition in the middle of the wings - see how good your aim is and how much your horse is really listening to you, it will be easy to tell as you will either go up/down a transition in the middle of the wings or you won't :p
 
Have you tried the canter adjusting exercise with two poles/ low fences? Lay them out either end of the arena, I don't tuned to pace them out. Then canter over both counting strides first naturally. Then repeat but add an extra stride, then add 2 strides but ensure you can jump from that canter. Add 3 if you are doing well. Then shorten stirrups right up to jockey length, repeat in your xc canter and position, adjust the stride numbers without sitting down, take strides out, how few can you get keeping the canter jumpable. Play with it, challenge yourself but ensure whether long or short your horse has enough power to jump correctly.
 
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