Favourite Schooling Exercise

[fimacg]

Thought it might be nice to swap some of our favourite schooling exercise, as sometimes I get stuck in a rut and bored of the same exercises, a little bit of inspiration can go a long way...

Currently my favoutite exercises all relate to serpentines.

Walk a serpentine up the school with a quarter turn about the forehand at each change of direction, to get them moving away from the leg.

Trot a four loop serpentine up the school with a 10m circle where you touch the long side and a trot walk trot tranisition as you go over the centre line. There is a lot to do and I find it keeps Brave interested as he otherwise he can just switch off.

Canter a 3 loop serpentine with a canter - trot - canter tansition across the centre line to change the leg bend etc and the quickness of the transitions helps keep them in front of the leg.

Over to you...

[solomon]

Good old leg yield off a circle mainly in trot getting that hind leg under and across. Seems to help Pete's balance issues.

[haffyfan]

Murph hates schooling so I have to use lots of transitions and changes of direction/bend etc to keep his brain occupied/on task or he buckaroo's given half a chance if he's bored.

I like 4/5 (*or as many as possible really) looped serpentines, shallow loops up and down the centre lines and quarter lines (often multiples in one length), 10 m circles up and down the lines too changing the rein it's off on each one with a few strides inbetween to get straight again. Figures of eight and mini ones...E to B so off 10 m circles again and not too dissimilar to above. Anything that doesn't give him much chance of getting away from me basically.

Increasing and decreasing circles, also some straight leg yield/shoulder in as sometimes decreasing circles get him giddy, and much as I like reining, spinning should be controlled and precise!

I also do no end of halt, trot, walk transitions within these exercises to get him listening and moving forward off the leg as he also often turns into a donkey and refuses to do anything whilst schooling (which is actually preferable I must say to his bucking/leaping antics).

I'm interested in reining/Western and i use a lot of western ideas/influences in my riding and use side pass and work through pole lanes both sideways and backwards regularly - I use rein back a lot mixed in with the transitions too, which of course some say teaches a horse to be nappy but i think it's important to have control of the feet (initially taught through groundwork) and moving backwards is the least natural thing they do hence having control over them moving sideways and backwards as well as forwards is always a good thing.

Murph may not have many good points to show off/shout about but no one could/can deny who see's him/rides him thats he's a whizz with gates!!

[kitcat]

I had an interesting one in my lesson last week. RI had me canter a diamond at E-B. I was actually easier than it sounds (not that I got it right most of the time) and help to get the hind legs right under and working properly.

We also do loads of transitions. The worst being canter to sitting trot - however, it does focus the mind on balancing a large and bouncy horse to get a smooth transition.

[scattymare]

My favourite exercise at the moment is a walk pirouette on a circle – trot half a circle, walk just before the point of turn and half halt and turn a half walk pirouette then trot immediately forwards the half circle and repeat in the other direction. This really gets Eddie stepping under herself and rounder – but I can only do a couple as she starts to anticipate and ends up spinning on her quarters rather than ‘walking’ them round.

We’ve had a bit of a break from schooling recently what with one thing or another but started again this week and very pleased she hasn’t forgotten too much. Except how to halt! Lessons re-start on Saturday – think I’m going to be in pain on Sunday morning!

[fleabitten]

I only really know exercises you can do in a group, but a good one we did recently was:

setting up trotting poles on 3/4 line at one end of the school, then putting out a single pole with the ends pointing to A and C, then putting up a small trotting jump (X pole) on 3/4 line opposite the trotting poles. its about rhythm and accuracy - looking up and ahead, using correct aids to make smooth turns and keeping an active rhythm the whole way through the exercise. You can either start off with the jump or the poles and you have to meet the centre of each. Then you can either go around the top of the single pole or trot over it in the centre.

A more advanced variation, i suppose, would be to do it with canter poles and a slightly larger jump and canter the whole exercise - but we never did that.

[brigadier]

I have two that I love, one that is great for rider and horse alike and suits novice and the other for the more established rider.

The first is where you teach the rider to feel for the diagonal in trot. The rider sits into a slow rhythmical trot on the circle and feels for the bump in the outside seatbone and then rises. Because the rider has to relax to feel it the horse starts to relax and swing through with its steps so it benefits the horse and the rider.
The second is the turn ont he haunches into canter- done on a circle the rider halts at a given point, turns on the haunches for a halt turn, changes flexion and then canters on the new rein. It really makes a horse sit on its hocks for the transition and produces an upward lighter canter. It does require some skill from the rider as most novice riders cannot feel for the 'sit and wait' of the turn on the haunches, and end up pulling the horse around, which puts it on the forehand and destroys the exercise.