How to get back in to riding.

[Evol_or_revert]

Iv had a bad year so far...

First I was very sick for 6 months and couldn't ride at all, had my parents looking after my horse. Then we had winter. Then I had exams and had to study alot as i missed most of my school year. since exams have finished Iv had a chest infection and now asthma(sp). but once I get over this I want to finally start riding again! Now because of being sick I have to take it slower then normal people.

Iv drawn up a table (that i hope to follow to the very min lol) that starts with 10mins a day walking then builts up to 20mins over 20days adding in some trot then final a little canter. I feel a bit silly about it all as it is a slow built up but in the end it will mean i can ride for longer :D

So any suggestions that people have on what work can be done with a horse that already knows everything. <~~~ thats my problem lol. Any games people know of? or fun things we can do with all the walking time we have.

I am completely lost for ideas!! My search engine search aren't helping much at all.

Thanks guys

[Tangle]

Sorry to hear you've had such a rough time of it this year, but glad to hear you're feeling better :).

With what to do in walk, I'm not very good at games, I'm afraid. To start with I'd just drop your stirrups and try and follow the horse's motion - if you haven't been on a horse for 6 months you'll probably be a bit stiff :rolleyes:.

Can you stop off your seat? How accurately can you stop off your seat? Can you get one stride of walk between halts? Two strides? Three?

Can you collect the walk with your seat?

How good are you/your horse at turning off weight aids? You could try going around the school on a long rein and see how accurately you can turn.

You could ask for bend - both on circles and on the straight.

Then you could start building up mini-dressage tests. Or you could go onto lateral work.

Good luck - hope that gives you some ideas :) If your horse knows everything you should be able to get a pretty good idea of your progress ;)

[bexj]

Don't feel bad about taking it slow - after all, you would if it was your horse that had been ill. I can't help with specific exercises, but as an asthmatic, that was developed following a bout of bronchitis in adulthood, I can sympathise with how you feel - it can be very tiring. Just you take it steady - you will probably find trotting quite exhausting, so don't force yourself if you start getting breathless, and make sure you carry your inhaler with you ALL the time - just in case. You can't overdose on Ventolin, so use it when you need to. Gently building up the aerobic exercise off the horse will help, and you might find things like dusty environments (stables:D ) may affect you.

Glad you are feeling so positive about getting back into it:D

[JaniceH]

Due to my 'issues' when I rode I was restricted to walk and trot only, and because my breathing was not terribly good, trot was for short periods only as I got too out of breath.

This is some of the things we did:

Turn on the forehand
Turn on the haunches
Leg yielding
Round cones, slalom style
walking/Trotting poles
Serpentines concentrating on making the loops perfect and the straight lines straight
on a 20m circle walking round, leg yielding to make the circle smaller and then bigger again.
Making squares, turning on the forehand/haunches at the corners
Making hexagons, same as above

All the above can be done in walk and some also in trot too.

Have fun getting back into riding

[Evol_or_revert]

Thanks for the ideas :D I will be putting them to alot of use! Turn on the forehand, Turn on the haunches aren't used much at all where I ride, Iv heard of them but never seen them or done them.. so :D nickys going to learn some new tricks hehe.

Bexj I use to have asthma when i was little then it disapeared for about 8 years, then I got a chest infection and now it's back. lol just what i wanted :rolleyes:.
When I was little it woke my parents up and they gave me stuff to help, now i wake myself up and have to find my own drugs lol!

so the update is.... I went riding today :D The most windy day of all ahh! Just did 10mins walk and a little trot each direction. Nicky was very well behaved, and I didn't get tired at all which was a good start :D

Iv taken all unnessarcy stuff out of my grooming box to make it lighter, and only putting on bridle, saddle blanket and saddle on nicky, so make things much easier.

Hopefully it doesn't rain tomorrow so i can set out on my second day :d Iv very excited :D.

[shirley]

You always try to do some exercises to help get your body more toned, supple and build up stamina that way as well. This will then help your riding and as you get fitter, so will your horse and before long you will back to where you left off. It is wise to set up a programme, but also keep in mind that progress does not always go by the book, you have to keep in mind that some things take longer to acheive than others, but rule of thumb is as Aesops Fables put it from the race between the Tortoise and the Hare - it is slow and steady tortoises that always win the race in the long run - so slow and steady and you will always acheive where you want to go.
Good luck. One other thing I do is think where I was a year ago and where I have come and this usually gives me a psychological lift.

[NZhorserider]

Teach him party tricks:D