Free schooling.

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princessmolly

New Member
Jan 29, 2008
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Norfolk
Hello
I really want to start free schooling my pony but i have no idea where to start, she dosent just go around in a nice circle she zips everywhere, any ideas on how i start free schooling!?

Thanks
 
Its taken me a few attempts to get prepared and be able to get a good free schooling session from Tyler.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think so much of it lies with body language and positioning. Tyler pretty much goes at the speed and goes to the place I want him.

I quite enjoy doing jumps while freeschooling. Our ability to jump straight bars has greatly improved. Polework and some general manners have been also been areas I focussed on.

Not into it in a serious way or even sure if I do it 100% correctly, but it certainly seems t be working
 
wildponies said:
Yep... that's pretty much freeschooling for you... ;)
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Yep that's pretty much it!

Much better than lunging because a) you dont get yanked around by a rope and b) you don't get dizzy walking round in circles :D
 
Basically it has its advantages over lunging because it doesn't put so much pressure on horses' joints. If you think about lunging, the horse is going round and round in circles. You can't lunge for more than 10 minutes on each rein really without starting to have an effect on the joints.

jenmac - Body language is a usefull tool when freeschooling and you can control your horses speed and direction once you've mastered it.

Freeschooling is great for allowing the horse to let off some steam if they are fresh, allowing them to move freely without restriction and particularly for schooling youngsters over poles and fences, allow them to get an idea of jumping without the interference from the jockey.

Freeschooling is useful if you are looking to build up muscle in your horse, get them fitter, can't ride them because of siddle fit or you can't ride them because they are unbroken... amongst others!
 
Sammii you say wooaahh just like me!! starting slightly higher then going lower and hanging on to it for a little length of time.

Wow, we could be twins!

ETA - freeschooling, like lunging, allows you to practise your voice commands (as demonstrated by sammii) which, once in place, can be used when ridden to and also act as a useful tool and method of communication between horse and rider :)
 
Haha, I feel like such a numpty when i'm lunging or free-schooling 'cause i'm like a hummingbird the whole time. I don't know why I bother really cause Red only stops when he wants to. :D
 
Oh god, I should have re-watched those videos before I posted them. They are so embarrasing :eek:

They are from the first time we tried free-schooling him to be fair...that's my excuse ;)
 
Hey. My horse doesnt want to free school or lunge. She just either turns to face me or just follows me and once she has finishe following me she turns does what she wants to do which is walk to the gate and stand there for ages. She does not respond to whips or noises of any kind. I dont know how to get her to listen to me and to ge her to do what I want to do with her. Any suggestions???:confused::confused::confused:
 
I wish i could freeschool lady but we dont have a closed in arena, its just open which is a pain as i think lady would just run off at given the chance, mind you i could always give it a go.
 
Sammii said:
Oh god, I should have re-watched those videos before I posted them. They are so embarrasing :eek:

They are from the first time we tried free-schooling him to be fair...that's my excuse ;)
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The first time? That's amazing! What a very sweet horse he is ... Had you done a lot of lunging with him before?
 
Gemmahorselover said:
Hey. My horse doesnt want to free school or lunge. She just either turns to face me or just follows me and once she has finishe following me she turns does what she wants to do which is walk to the gate and stand there for ages. She does not respond to whips or noises of any kind. I dont know how to get her to listen to me and to ge her to do what I want to do with her. Any suggestions???:confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...



Linda:

I went to the Richard Maxwell demo last week: he gets them to move away by spinning a rope at their shoulders . His website isn't very informative, but it's worth reading the book or getting the video.
 
im quite lucky as i have a round pen at my yard so i can free school but i have found very useful as it has help ferg to lunge properly too! when i first started lunging (didnt think of free schooling!) he would only go round on one rein he just would go round the other way but nowi have been free schooling him quite regularly on both reins he now lunges on both reins too!!:D but i much prefer free schooling now!
 
LindaAd said:
Linda:

I went to the Richard Maxwell demo last week: he gets them to move away by spinning a rope at their shoulders . His website isn't very informative, but it's worth reading the book or getting the video.
Click to expand...

Never heard of him. Does he have a site or something I can check out??? Thank you for answering my question/ worry on this thread. Very grateful x x x
 
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