what to do with a *very* distracted horse

[notpoodle]

usually, when my pony gets distracted (as in 'oooh so many things to look at *outside* the school' ... 'birds! bees' etc), i do some walk-trot-walk transition type stuff and it normally does the trick.

today, however .... there was lots of horses in the field next to the school (not literally next to it, there's a path between the two), making a bit of a racket and things ...

found myself on a whinnying pony for most of my ride (very strange feeling, the whole pony was shaking/vibrating), and a pony who'd freeze (eyes on stalks et all) and do strange things like doing rapid u-turns and stick her head up very high :rolleyes:

i tried to just get on with it, but most times trying anything other than just going round was an absolute b**ch to do.

any suggestions what i *should* have been doing?

julia
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[Ipsa]

Have you tryed to do groundwork with your pony. If you have his respect and attention on the ground it will make riding a lot easier.
There are proabbly some good threads on here about groundwork that you could search for.

[RachelEvent]

It all depends on what exactly your own horse reacts to, and works for them..

With Ferdie, and therefore as a first idea for anything else I am riding, I really attempt to get their mind working. I'd want to keep the legs moving, with Ferdie, I'm better going into canter and asking for something that really get's his mind going, such as canter leg-yields and canter-walk-canter (simple changes) I'd change the excercise after every few repetitions, and make sure that their mind couldn't swerve onto anything other than my isntrucions. I'd put in plenty of small circles, changes of rein, serpentines, random transitions. I'd generally stay out of walk and halt for more than 10 seconds, as it is often at that point that the attention sways.

I try to keep all of my schooling quite like this, plenty of variety and ideas - I'm working with a fit horse and he needs this type of work. Keeping sessions short is always something to remember, stay in the school for only half an hour at a time, but make that half an hour interesting and useful. I tend to leave the basic but essential bits, like walk to halt transitions and straight centre line practice for the last 10 minutes, at a point when you have the attention and half worked off any initial excess energy.

For other horses, this approach may be totally mind-blowing, and would respond better to some simple trot work just maintaining a rhythm on a 20m circle etc.

Rachel xx

[notpoodle]

hm, we're fine on the ground, she really isn't disrespectful or anything :)

canterlegyields :rolleyes: seeing we're still practicing to get semi-controlled canters in the first place, i think that would be a tad ambitious :D

i've been doing the random circles and serpentines though, along with transitions evolving around walk, halt and trot ....

julia
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[RachelEvent]

I wasn't suggesting to do canter leg-yields, don't worry! But in Ferdie's case, something sufficiently confusing that he has to concentrate on not getting his legs tangled instead of his horsey friends!

The key with this is just occasionally giving them a bit of a surprise, whether that's half-halting and then riding a small circle - 10m is small for a horse, but as angel is so small herself, you may be finding yourself riding 7 or 8m for the same effect. I wonder if Angel's cottoned on, as smart ponies do, and it will take a little bit more than you expect for her to have to concentrate. Regarding the canter work, don't stay in canter to long - plenty of upwards and downwards transitions in it, plenty of circles in the canter. Try some walk to canters, the quality of canter obtained tends to be better, and you'll be improving her reaction to your leg aids. You don't want to be disregarding quality, still think about bend and rhythm etc. but just keep doing what she doesn't think you're going to ask for. You're not dealing with a half-wit horse, as an exmoor she's probably very intelligent and will be able to predict you better than you can predict yourself :p

Rachel xx

[notpoodle]

a halfwit she is not :D i'll try to be more random/less predictable next time, that sounds like a good idea :)

julia
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