what do your schooling sessions entail of?

BlizzardBudd

BlizzardBudd

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what do you do when schooling?
i am a little stuck in a rut of what i can do when schooling my share horse.. and would love some new exercises to do :o

so what exercises do you warm up with? how long do you tend to warm up for?
how long do you spend in the arena?
what level rider would you consider yourself and your horse to be at?

thank you! am honestly stuck in what i can do and Buddy is getting bored just plodding around :(
 
Have a look at some of the Handy Pony (cant remember the proper name ;) ) tasks which are included in LeTrec. When our yard was on lockdown we did this and it was so much fun, plus we all learned a lot!
 
There is always something you can work on, transitions, perfecting school movements such as centre lines or circles, it is quite difficult to ride a true circle , use poles , either on a circle or a long side, use different distances so you can trot or canter over them you could also do some work in forward seat or without stirrups.
Warm up doing stretching, work on establishing his rhythm and straightness then move on to whatever you wish to do, concentrate on something different each time but still with the basic principles in place, depending on how they go you may only do 10 mins good work some days and then spend longer chilling at the end.
Use you imagination, get a good instructor to help with more ideas or a book of exercises.
 
I spend twenty minutes warming up with ten of those being completly at.walk. I do a lot of stretching, free walk, walk on centre line. I also once warmed up trot usually do my first canter transition from walk.
 
I tend to spend ten minutes totally in walk warming up, but we start large and as muscles warm up begin doing things like leg yielding, shoulder in/out, circles, figure 8s, serpentines, half circles etc, then by time he's warmed up we're ready to do the same again progressing through trot into canter. I also use halt or walk to canter transitions to wake him up sometimes, it helps engage the back end too. I'm not into jumping but love my dressage and my boy, when fit would be able to compete at elementary level no problem.
 
Ours today consisted of learning to trot over trotting poles and not leap over them like an idiot! Lesson was a success :) tomorrow we are loose jumping! Get her thinking about where and what her feet are doing minus rider :)
 
Transitions transitions transitions! Pole work is also great.. I like to take a 20m circle, and imagining it's a clock face, but a pole on the 6,12,9, and 3 lines.. so marking it out in quarters if that makes sense? Makes your circles more symmetrical and also helps improve balance :) You can also work on extending and collecting the strides between the poles. Leg yielding in and out of circles is also good.. and I also like doing lots of working on the buckle of the rein to encourage my boy to work long and low.. he's not particularly tense just a compact little thing who needs help extending and not rushing :rolleyes: xx
 
get 101 schooling exercises, its really good and helps me plan my schooling sessions rather than go in and just amble about, has different sections so if there is something you need to work on it tells you what exercises could help :)
 
bikerchickone said:
I tend to spend ten minutes totally in walk warming up, but we start large and as muscles warm up begin doing things like leg yielding, shoulder in/out, circles, figure 8s, serpentines, half circles etc, then by time he's warmed up we're ready to do the same again progressing through trot into canter. I also use halt or walk to canter transitions to wake him up sometimes, it helps engage the back end too. I'm not into jumping but love my dressage and my boy, when fit would be able to compete at elementary level no problem.
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I'm similar to this only I walk figure of eights getting the horse walking forward and stretching down, then I add walk/halt transitions, walk/trot transitions and different shapes (circles, serpentines, shallow loops...) but still in a long stretchy frame. Depending on the horse (I can't do this on Millie yet) I add short bursts of canter before picking the horse up and starting to school 'properly'. I decide on what to focus on whilst warming up, on Olly at the moment it's stopping him from overbending to the inside and falling out through his outside shoulder, so lots of lateral work for him. Millie is still very stiff and green so lots of circles, quarter turns on the haunches, little bits of leg yielding/shoulder in and lots and lots of transitions.

I consider myself a decent rider and Olly was working at Novice before so am just going through all of his schooling with the view to taking him up to elementary.
 
the first 5-10 minutes is generally long and low in walk and trot. then I pick him up and work in for about 10 minutes doing serpentines and lots of transistions.
we have a quick canter on both reins before working on going in a nice outline.
I usually play with some lateral work at the end - a bit of leg yield, shoulder in and half pass.

if we're jumping I tend to do a 15-20 minute warm-up with lots of translations to get him moving forwards of my leg as he tends to back off fences when he's not quite warm :)

I think we're at novice level with our flatwork and we tend to jump around 1.00-1.10 at home
 
I start with 5-10 minutes of walking, starting on a long rein walk around the school in both directions, getting them nice an forward. I start stretching, leg yielding, shoulder in, circles, everything that will be done in trot and canter. Then into trot, letting them stretch if they want, but the poll is no higher than the withers. I do lots of circles and yielding on the circle, serpentines and leg yields on the quarter line to the wall and back the other way. Pick up canter and roll around until they have a nice rhythm, then lots of transitions and circles, bit of counter canter too. This is all basic stuff that horses can do, I just ask them to 'work' at the level they are ready for :) I'll spend my 5-10 minutes walking, then work through trot/canter for 20, then if they need a jump thats for about 10-15 minutes.

I LOVE pole work, I think it is so beneficial even if you don't jump. Poles placed on every quarter on a 20m circle is a great one, and you try and get the same amount of strides in every quarter. Riding distances helps control pace and trotting through a series of randomly staggered poles helps the horse work on their foot work.

I don't school for more than 50 minutes, unless they are being really ansy then they can have a bit more work ;) I probably do 3-4 schooling sessions a week, coupled with a lunge session, hacking/fitness work and a day off :)
 
Suggest you pick up this book of Heather Moffetts, tis a how to guide to schooling with loads of progressional pics of horse and rider - incredibly helpful :) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enlightened...5807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324626013&sr=8-1

Also Cobs Can is brilliant, championing other breeds to do flatwork rather than just flashy iberians ;)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cobs-Can-Om...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324626107&sr=1-1

Transitions are the key to keeping flatwork interesting to the horse and rider. Try not to do the same routine every time you get in the school, no wonder you are bored, what about the horse?!!
 
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