what to do to keep schooling fun?!

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emilyandbobby

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I have a welsh cob who is relatively lazy and doesn't listen to your leg very much after being in a riding school for 5 years!

we want to vary what we do when in the school because when we don't have a dressage test to practise we both find it quite boring.

I was wondering what you all do to get your horse interested and if you had any tips on what I should be doing too?
any help would be very appreciated thankyou:)
 
We have poles but only in the field not in the school, and my hacking around isn't very good at all its all road work on busy roads. Thank you for the suggestions though will try and get the poles in the school hah
 
Yes, I've got a welshie who's quite lazy and I find pole work helps liven him up a bit. You can be quite creative with poles for example a square shape but with open corners do you go over poles or through corners at walk or trot. Helps bending too. Also canter poles as well ad trot poles. If you have lessons identify areas which need improving and work on those. As he doesn't listen to your leg I'd work on that via transitions and squeeze of leg followed by big kick if he doesn't respond followed by tap with whip if still not listening. They are hard work when they are behind the leg. Try lots of shapes, transitions, leg yield, shoulder in, counter canter.
 
Thank you this is very helpful was going to try shoulder in and then flying changes just go mix things up a bit pole work seems to be popular!
 
Polework as mentioned is great. All you really need are four poles and you have lots of fun exercises - circle of poles, zig zag lines, changes of bend - Google 'four poles' or 'four fences' schooling exercises.

Something I also do is lots of transitions to keep my mare busy. She's very clever so takes a lot to keep her on her toes! Transitions between paces (trot to walk, trot to canter), within paces (collected to medium canter) or direct transitions (trot to halt, walk to canter. As soon as she starts anticipating a movement Ill mix it up and do something different.

Groundwork and lunging is also helpful to mix things up a bit.

I do a lot of roadwork with my mare too - we use it for cardio work - an hour of fast hacking (plenty trot and short walk breaks) is a great form of interval training to build up stamina.
 
I've started basic gymkhana type activities (bending, picking stuff up/ putting it in buckets etc) with my 5 year old to help stop her schooling getting boring. Plus I figure it will help with her bomb proofing at the same time. I also try to have a different main focus each sesdion- trotting, circles, leg yield, shoulder in, halt transitions, neck reining etc to make sure I am varying the sessions and not just working through the same list of exercises every time.
 
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