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Post by rainbow on Jan 22, 2009 13:51:39 GMT
Right as u knw ihave taken on a 4yr old coblet.
He hates the school and can be quite nappy to the gate in generally where ever he fancies goin he will go. He is very strong in the school.
What i wanted to knw is what kinda exercies could i do to help a4 yr old, i mean to help bring him on abit. I have started doing some pole work with him.
I knw i need to work on his canter as he is not very good at getting the right lead but i wanted to work on his walk, trot.
Also what could i do to make things a bit more interesting?
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Post by kitcat on Jan 22, 2009 14:21:18 GMT
When I was riding a 4yr old in my lessons, my RI had me doing lots of things to keep his brain engaged. So lots of transitions, circles and serpentines. I had to put something in on each long side so that he never knew what was coming next and had to concentrate on me. We also used to put random poles down around the arena so there wer lots of changes of direction to go over and around them. He only got nappy and silly when his concentration slipped.
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Post by racaille on Jan 22, 2009 18:04:02 GMT
I agree Kitcat, boredom is the big thing to avoid. Racaille will be four any day now and his concentration slips very quickly, so we try to keep things short and sweet with lots of variety. And when he does something well, I reward him and leave it, rather than trying to recreate the same response time after time after time. ......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ;D
I also try to hack him out as a change of scenery is really important; he needs to see things too.
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Post by brigadier on Jan 22, 2009 18:32:53 GMT
Avoid the boredom thing at all costs but you also need to concentrate on establishing rhythm, obedience to the leg and forward movement. So you will need to do lots of circles, serpentines and figure eights. Introduce half halts early as its this exercise which will pay dividends later. Dont do too much in one session and dont punish the nappiness so that the horse associates misbehaviour with the whip or a slap, just be firm and continue to ride forwards. and whatever you do dont let the horse get away with any napping, always make sure you finish when things are going well- if you think you are pushing him then you probably are.
If you have a bad session, finish on soemthing you know he can do well, even if its only bending his head round to the right and left.
If you can establish an active pace without too much leg then you are doing well- lots of youngsters let you push them as they are unsure, so keep them active with the half halts to balance.
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Post by rainbow on Jan 29, 2009 11:39:43 GMT
Sam did a really good schooling session day after i posted this. I did lots of different transitions, serpentines, goin in and out of things, changing the rein, circles and in the end he was bending nicely in the circles, goin nice an forward, good halt walk transitions andactually manged to stay in cater the whole way round theschool which is abig improvment  so thanks guys Also wouldu think it is too soon to start with him to dothings like leg yield turn on forehand etc? Oh and last sunday we jumped not veyr high i admit, but we did mange to do a nice grid with the jumps getting a little bit higher each one. But then he got bored so called it on agood note. Willbe jumping again on sunday so will try to get friends oh to film me |
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Post by rainbow on Jan 29, 2009 12:24:08 GMT
well my hack last week was brill we went for some fun canter up a field and it was great! TBh i was really nervous (last time i galloped or cantered outside was when i was 15 so long time ago lol) but my mate was great and plus sam is a really good confidence giver. but yeah it was fun and when toby stoped sam was like ye ha lets go! but yeah  we did the wrong thing of cantering on the way home so they both exploded. |
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Post by spotti on Jan 29, 2009 12:41:08 GMT
Whoops - exploding horses are not good (although it is quite fun to do lol). Glad you had a good hack and not sure how I missed this thread but its really good advice on schooling etc because my horsey hates schooling too and recently has taken a dislike to hacking aswell (long story, its on here somewhere) so we've been forced to use the school and that has just made everything go bottoms up! I'll try some of these tips with her next time because she is a super-huge napper and gets bored very easily and also will let me nudge her on every single step if I let her so trying some of these tips might help (loving the idea of random poles by the way, especially if you do something different at/before/over each one...I actually can't wait to try schooling now  ) |
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Post by kitcat on Jan 29, 2009 12:50:31 GMT
Spotti - random poles are great fun .We used to keep the poles to one half of the school so they weren't too far apart. I suppose that depends on the size of the school though.
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Post by Becca on Jan 29, 2009 13:58:51 GMT
Also wouldu think it is too soon to start with him to dothings like leg yield turn on forehand etc? never too early to start lateral work  as long as your aids are correct all you are doing is asking the horse to move away from the pressure same as asking for forward. In an ideal world you want a horse working well on flat before you move onto jumps. Say he stops at a jump, you dont wont to turn him away if he can step over it, if he tries to move sideways or run out you need to know he will listen to you leg to keep him straight or straighten him up if he faffs about (technical term that ). leg yeild, turn on the forehand, rein back all useful hacking too Glad he is enjoying it more, you just have to be 1step ahead with fun things to keep him thinking. I love trasition work find it livens them up to do the other things loads |
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Post by mossh on Feb 5, 2009 23:42:56 GMT
And Sam is actually amazing Jo, you know he is. He's getting better all the time and starting to learn, i think the lunging lesson helped to teach him to move away from your leg.
Hes a fab horse in the making, even when Toby as diving in and out of hedges and being a general idiot with his head on the floor and tanking off, Sam never bothered about a thing.
I'll sort some random poles for the next lesson as soon as the snow goes.
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Post by rainbow on Feb 14, 2009 10:00:41 GMT
yeah he was fab. Mossh got off to the gates the other week while on a hack and well toby decided that he wasnt allowing her back on. So tanked off. Sam got a bit euurrgh whats happening but he calmed down and was fine with toby running off into the distance! such a sweet heart. Yest Mossh gave me another lesson, With some raisd trotting poles and when he found his feet and lited them over them he went over quite nicely. At the end for a good note Mossh put a jump up think she said about 2foot which is a good height, spesh as im not overly good jumping, he put in a coulpe of dirty stops but the last time we flew would of been aswsome foto. hehe so yeah he is coming on quitre nicely and mosshs mattie bum is doing well too (16.2 tb who likes to play up sometimes) i think he has actually started to listen and want to work. *runs off to post fotos of him as mossh hasnt yet * |
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for so much hard work we thank ye!!
we did the wrong thing of cantering on the way home so they both exploded. 
)
as long as your aids are correct all you are doing is asking the horse to move away from the pressure same as asking for forward. In an ideal world you want a horse working well on flat before you move onto jumps. Say he stops at a jump, you dont wont to turn him away if he can step over it, if he tries to move sideways or run out you need to know he will listen to you leg to keep him straight or straighten him up if he faffs about (technical term that 
Always saddle your own horse