Advice on Schooling!

[kirstie]

This is really for the both of us (amba and me) i'm going to be schooling her twice a week as a rountine, as shes just about green and very unschooled. Hacking twice/three times a week, and long-reining two/three times a week.

How would we start to school? What exercises for green horses? (Shes 12, 13 in 21 days) Shes only walking at the moment but trotting can start next sunday, probably. She can get quite lazy, always on the forehand her circles are squares, she does a lot of falling in, she does listen to your voice very well, probably stiff as a board.

I hope to do some simple dressage tests with her in the winter so would like to look decent. :)

In trot she goes like a giraffe 90% of the time, the other time shes not quite an outline or on the bit but more her head down instead of up, in walk her head is down not giraffe mode 70% of the time, we always start on a loose rein to loosen her off and shes getting used to the fact espically on the long-rein to go long and low.

What sorts of things should i be doing to start off with?

Thanks Kirstie

[Daffy Dilly]

Depends what you want to achieve I guess.

I have just started completely reschooling a 15yo. We're moving away from pull and kick to pure weight aids. Do you have an instructor?

As she can only walk, can you manage 15 minutes in the school without once going in a straight line? Aim - encourage the back end to step underneath (small - as in less than 5metre - circles will really help) and flexion from the poll to the tail, which will eventually result in an continuous, un-asked for outline.

A good precursor to this would be teaching her to flex to either side in halt. I lift a rein, and Daffy flexes in that direction, as far as I ask. If he needs reminders, small vibrations down the rein add that bit of encouragement. Literally started by dropping one rein and lifting the other (keeping a contact) and as soon as he turned even an inch I dropped the rein. Now that we want him to stretch to my toe, treats are doing the trick.

I think I rode in the school for 10minutes earlier. At the end of that session, as soon as I asked him to turn to the left he went into an outline. His right side is more difficult for him so we aren't there with that one yet.

[eventerbabe]

quality of paces and flexibility. i think that's where i'd start off. i'd also book some lessons with a decent instructor too.

Make sure she's walking forward and purposefully, but without rushing. If she starts to rush, half halt. Work on lots of transitions (halt to walk) to get her using her back end. When you step up to trot, again, if she starts rushing or feeling unbalanced half halt. You mention she falls in. What do YOU do when she does this? Are YOU making sure your aids for whichever movement you are doing are correct and helping her as much as possible? When working on circles, imagine amba being wrapped around your inside leg. Make sure it's on at the girth for her to be able to do that.

You mention outline and head position a few times so i'm assuming you are aiming for a nice outline? don't get tied up in where her head is right now. Lots of transitions, spiralling on circles (almost a prelude to lateral work) and half halts should get her using her hind quarters and also get her carrying more weight there too. once you've cracked that, the front end will sort itself out :)

[kirstie]

Thanks for both for the advice :)

DD - I'd like to do some prelim, so really working to wards that, we can't even do a simple 20 minute without it going into a square :o. I haven't got an instructor yet, I'm hoping to get one at the end of June, when she's a little more fitter.

can you manage 15 minutes in the school without once going in a straight line?

You mention she falls in. What do YOU do when she does this? Are YOU making sure your aids for whichever movement you are doing are correct and helping her as much as possible?

No (will answer EB's question as well) for example when i asked her last night to do a 20 metre, it was a mixture of a square, a circle and coming off the track. She started off ok but then, she fell off onto the inside track when i used my inside leg to push her back on the track and left rein to guide her, she went forwards to trot. Is this wrong? I half-halted to bring her back, when asked again the same thing happened.

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll have a go at the flexing tonight, and during some small circling tonight with her.

EB

Make sure she's walking forward and purposefully

Will have to work on this, she can be quite lazy and slow, but when you ask her to go more forwards she rushes into trot, then in trot she just stampedes around, half-halt her for this.

I'm assuming you are aiming for a nice outline?

I'd like to eventually have her in some sort of outline, without her nose sticking in the air, but I'm not wanting it now, i agree i need to focus getting her going more fowards and more supple, will do some spiraling and keep up with transitions.

Thanks guys if anyone else has anything to add, much appreciated. :)

[kirstie]

I tried all the suggestions tonight the flexing she touched my toe a couple of times on each rein, the left she does without even putting hardly any contact on, the right she cant quite touch my toe but with practice she will. The transitions went well, as did the half-halts, we didn't do any spiraling but will work on that in the next couple of sessions. :)

On the circles how do you keep them on the track, i was using a corner to do the circle and as she just came round and finished she fell off into the inside track, kind of went straight or cut across into the circle. I'm doing something wrong here, how do you push them back onto the track? Where do your legs go? I feel as if her head is going in one direction and her legs are going somewhere else.

[Daffy Dilly]

She probably doesn't understand the concept of moving away from the leg, which is what you'll need to push her onto the track.

On the left rein, ask her to flex to the inside slightly and walk a 5m circle. It helps if you put something like a cone in the middle so you can judge distance. Put your inside leg on and ask her to make the circle bigger, looking ahead to a point on a slightly larger circle. As soon as she takes a step which moves her away from the cone (but still on the circle) take your leg off to reward her. You can do this to make the circles bigger, and similarly use your outside leg to spiral back in. Using this, you should be able to push her onto the track by asking for a slightly bigger circle.

Having the flex established first helps, which is why it's worth trying on the left rein first. Doing this she'll eventually learn to move across when the leg is applied, not just that she needs to move forwards.

[kirstie]

Thanks for explaining in more detail DD it makes sense to me now :)

Will have another go tomorrow and see what happens.

Think we're in need of an RI soon though, its hard knowing if your doing some correct without having someone on the ground telling you are/aren't

[Daffy Dilly]

Whereabouts in the NE are you?

I have to say I'd never been taught like this before - nobody else has ever showed me how to ride off weight aids - infact nobody ever told me exactly what they were and how to use them, nor that I was sitting incorrectly. And she has no expectations either, like my others did, other than I try and practise what she's shown us. If I want to try and include what I already know, she'll tell me how to, and if I shouldn't, what's wrong with it. She will explain a concept and we'll do it in baby steps, my other instructors often seemed to want to rush things.

She charges £20 for an hour, although hasn't yet finished on time. She's based in Lancashire, and I'm down in West Yorkshire, about 20-25miles from the border, so she's willing to travel.

[kirstie]

I'm in Stockton about 30 minutes from Durham, Lancashire is just over 2 hours so too far, i have a RI in mind though, who's really good, who i'll ask sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for the recommendation though :)

[coss]

haven't read all the comments but i thought i'd give you my ideas which will probably incorporate the other answers :p

for a green horse i would start with spirals. i started reschooling my 30yo when she was 28 and spirals really helped... they also helped my gelding who will be 12 this year. spirals encourage the back end to engage and supple the pelvis area. falling in is a big problem with my mare and spirals have really helped as has shoulder in and haunches in but i wouldn't ask a green horse to do these... my mare already understood them.
pole work is very good in a lot of cases for schooling. putting 3 poles on a curve will encourage you to ask for bend more (if a horse goes to bang your leg into a fence post you will squeeze with that leg to try and prevent you're leg banging into the post - this will often make the horse move away from the post) so by giving you a bend to focus on you will ride better and the bend of your horse will improve. the poles will make your horse pick the feet up more which will make the back lift and aid suppleness.
work on circling. you say that they end up quite square but if they are improving then you shouldn't worry. you'll get there :)
transitions may help but they aren't good for ALL horses. they do tend to help engage the hindquarters but they can also cause resistance and the giraffe neck. if that is the case then only ask for transitions when there is relaxation so that transitions become a relaxing point.

hope some of that made sense and helps, good luck :)