Post by fleabitten on May 11, 2015 11:56:04 GMT
Murphy is now in week 13 of ridden work! Have been given the go ahead to start schooling and so I did my first session today. I hacked up the road for 10mins or so for a little warm up and then went into the arena. I did transitions around the edge mainly - halt, walk, trot - and some half circles across the arena and changes of rein up and down centre line, across school and on the diagonal, then finished with a little experimentation with leg yield in walk. 20mins. I thought he would have been well fit for more but actually when i rode it seemed long enough and judging by what he felt like with regards to suppleness and balance i thought that 20mins was enough to begin with. (Fitness wise, it didnt even touch him) Unsurprisingly he was stiff in corners and turns and he hollowed in trot. Positive points were a good forward trot and he was willing to make a nice shape in walk. It was quite strange feeling him so stiff/unbalanced when i have been so used to him being well schooled, but really its only to be expected having only been hacking in straight lines and lying about the field all winter!
So Im looking for suggestions on things to do with him that would be most beneficial. I think my concern, in truth, is knowing how hard to push him/make him work - i feel that i am a bit wary now and afraid of doing something wrong. Before i would have got cross with him and made him work and do what i said when i said it and not let him be lazy and get away with doing the minimum! I had thought maybe a 1/2 hr lesson would be good so i had someone on the ground to tell me when it was ok to push him but then i thought that it was maybe too soon to get a lesson and would it be worth paying to get someone out do do a half hour walk and trot lesson? Would we really get benefit out of it or could we do as much ourselves at home until he progressed a bit?
As we have been taking it so slow im wondering what sort of timescale and what sort of progressive plan would you do with regards to schooling, as well as how many minutes do you think you need to be schooling for to improve fitness in the school for lessons? With regards to canter, owner seems to be holding this off for as long as possible though says she plans that we start to introduce it fairly soon. So i would imagine in the next couple of weeks canter could be incorporated once we see how he goes with the walk and trot work.
Sorry for the essay!
So Im looking for suggestions on things to do with him that would be most beneficial. I think my concern, in truth, is knowing how hard to push him/make him work - i feel that i am a bit wary now and afraid of doing something wrong. Before i would have got cross with him and made him work and do what i said when i said it and not let him be lazy and get away with doing the minimum! I had thought maybe a 1/2 hr lesson would be good so i had someone on the ground to tell me when it was ok to push him but then i thought that it was maybe too soon to get a lesson and would it be worth paying to get someone out do do a half hour walk and trot lesson? Would we really get benefit out of it or could we do as much ourselves at home until he progressed a bit?
As we have been taking it so slow im wondering what sort of timescale and what sort of progressive plan would you do with regards to schooling, as well as how many minutes do you think you need to be schooling for to improve fitness in the school for lessons? With regards to canter, owner seems to be holding this off for as long as possible though says she plans that we start to introduce it fairly soon. So i would imagine in the next couple of weeks canter could be incorporated once we see how he goes with the walk and trot work.
Sorry for the essay!
were doing 30mins now and have started cantering and has going great so its just a case now of building on that bit by bit. Think it was just me worrying initially if he would cope. Planning on getting some lessons in the next few weeks to give me a focus and help with building him up correctly. 
for so much hard work we thank ye!!