Good exercises from steves spring clinic

[el]

OK!! I've been doing some cool fun stuff with my horse over the last week or two, so I though if anyone wanted some fun things (and really useful too!) you might enjoy these. A lot of these Steve did at the Silversand clinic recently. And they are not just for fun - they are all valuable training skills

CONFIDENCE

Do this first, as it makes all the other exercises MUCH easier & better! ;0

Get a long stick and tie a light 6ft rope (or similiar to the end of it). Have your horse in a headcollar/halter with a 12 ft rope/lunge line (the normal ones are too short for these exercises).

Give your horse a LONG lead rope (stand away from him). Start to wave stick & rope gently away from him. Build it up slowly (noise, movemnet & energy of rope & stick) till you are waving the stick as fast as your arm can, there's LOTS of energy and your horse is half asleep. (takes a few sessions this one to build it up slowly)

If your horse isn't too happy, walk well in front of your horse, leading him, while waving stick & rope gently about in front of you (well away from horse). Your horse will be walking after you & the rope. (Your horse will think he's actually chasing the stick & rope and will get braver after you do this for 5 or 10 minutes). Good to build leadership, give a spooky/unconfident/unfocused horse some focus & confidence in you as a leader.

Aim to get horse 300% with both types of this exercise in your training area. Aim - you can drop lead rope and do this A LOT and your horse will stand still by himself while all this energy is going on around him.

Only when you've got focus & confidence, move onto the next exercises.

LEADING IN DIFFERENT GAITS.

Ok - so mostly we lead along with horses when we want to lead them, and when we want to school them faster than a walk we stand still and get them to circle around us. Here's a fun adaptation of this, starting with the basic model first. (when you've done the basic model, then you can move onto the advanced bits). Your horse is in a halter / headcollar with a lunge line or 12ft lead rope attached to it normally (under chin).

Part 1 - Start walking with your horse (& stopping inside shoulder dropping in).

Stand at the near side of your horse with a loose lead rein. Twirl end of lead rein in upwards circles near your horses near shoulder. This should encourage your horse to move near shoulder away from where you're standing, and start walking. Also good to start moving with shoulder not dropping in, and you automatically seem to get a little bend in the inside neck towards you.

Part 2 - Walking with your horse.

Now walk around with your horse at a good energetic pace. After a while, slowly start to slow down your walk..(dont slow down quickly, slow down slowly!!) until you're doing a slow walk. The plan is your horse will realise you're slowly down (cos you gave him good body language hints) and slow down with you for a few steps. Walking slowly is difficult for a horse, so do a few steps of slow walk, then speed up slowly again to a normal walk. Play with a fast walk too All the time you or your horses should pull once on lead rope - it should all be done by you SLOWLY walking faster or slowly, and your horse listening to you and following how fast / slow your body is moving.

Part 3 - Stopping.

To stop your horse, go from a normal walk, to a slow walk. Them go to a slower walk...... then eventually stop. You & your horse should both be standing looking the same direction. When you stop, if your horse ends up facing yyou, then you're stopped too fast and your horse swung out his hindquarters and faced you. Try it again from a walk, but slow down SLOWER! Think of it as a game. Then to walk on again, twirl end of rope upwards at shoulder near you, and horse should walk on with a little bend towards you.

Part 4 - changing directions (hindquarter yield & forequarter yield).

You are walking along with your horse. First you want to push your horses hindquarters out so they are far away from you, and your horse is facing you. To do this on the left rein (going counterclockwise), you will already have the lead rope in your left hand, so point your left hand (and lead rope) up to heaven. At the same time point your right hand at your horses stomach, behind the girth (where you heel would be if it was behind the girth). After a few secs (or less) your horse should stop & look at you. Now to get your horse to turn onto the right rein, put the lead rope in your right hand. Stretch your right hand out to the right as far as it'll go. With your left hand, twirl the end of the rope towards your horses far shoulder to get him to move his shoulders and start walking on the right rein.

To go the other way, just switch all the left stuff above to right, and right to left.) When you get good at this, you'll have a regular footfall the whole time from leading - HQ yield - FQ yield - leading. IT'll become like a dance.

Part 5 - trot & canter.

Ok, so you're walking around the paddock. If you're going left, your lead rope should be in your left hand.
Left hand = direction. Right hand = speed.
Walk faster.
Get a bit animated - if you use a voice cue to trot, nows the time! Trot along with your horse. Again, play with different speeds of trot - how slow can you ask your horse to trot? how fast?!
Can do the same in canter too. To slow down, dont pull on lead rope, you just SLOWLY slow down your body, and your horse should mimic it.

ROPES (desensitisation)

Rub your horse all over with a rope (12 ft /lunge line ideally).
Now rub him all over with a rope with energy!

Now twirl end of rope around his legs. Practise putting it around a leg, then slowly pulling it free. Do all four legs. Then throw rope gently over his back and pull it off. Twirl rope over his back, toss it behind his hindquarters, etc. whatever you can think of. Walk with rope dragging along side your horse. Stand horse in centre and then leave him go and walk around him, dragging rope all around him on the ground. Then gradually do all this stuff with MORE ENERGY!!


PATTING (desensitisation)

Stand beside your horses back. Pat it ALL OVER. back, top of hindquarters, shoulders, far side (over the back) etc. Until you drop lead rope (in safe area!) and pat everywhere and horse stands totally relaxed.

HEAD TURNING

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BAREBACK MOUNTING

Make sure all your patting & head turning is 100%. SERIOUSLY - DONT GET UP BAREBACK UNTIL IT IS. Then get a friend out to help you, and have your horse in a safe enclosed area and wear a hard hat etc.

Pat your horses back, and bounce beside his back. If he's a little horse hop up half way - leaving one leg by his side where the girth would go, and the other foot put right up at the top of his hindquarters (see why you canted your patting to be good!)

If he's a big horse, ask your friend for a leg up and do the same. Always have one hand holding onto both mane & rein. If horse moves, leave go of mane LAST, so if you fall your feet will hit the ground first, not your head.

Then sit up & enjoy the view Practise getting up & down on both near & far sides. Practise your head turning when your up there both ways too

[el]

Good exercises from steves autumn clinic..

Ok, just back from Steves Sept clinic near Gatwick (thanks kas), here are some groundwork and riding exercises for the winter!

GROUNDWORK

1. Push, don't pull part 1 this exercise looks simple but there's a lot in it.



2. Push, don't pull part 2 this exercise also looks simple but there's a lot in it. You want to have no stuck places, all regular rhythm so its like a dance.......



3. Push, don't pull part 3



4. STARTING A YOUNG HORSE. Before you ride them, gallop them (pony them off another horse or get maybe a 44 ft line). Excellent for introverted horses. I'm going to do with this Oz too

5. ATTENTION Stand in front of horse on loose rein. When you move a step or two to the side, does your horses head follow you?

5. ATTENTION PART 2 - Can you keep your horses attention on you for 30 secs? (not steve i don't think but i like it)

7. CONFIDENCE WITH HIGH ENERGY part 1 - Mad stick waving from spring clinic. More info here.
irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation&action=display&thread=423

8. Leading in different gaits - from spring clinic, more info here. irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation&action=display&thread=423

9. CONFIDENCE WITH HIGH ENERGY part 2
Pat horse really energeticlaly all over. (preparation for bareback riding also) - from spring clinic, more info here. irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation&action=display&thread=423

10. DESENTISISATION Introduce your horse to one new potentially scary thing each day. Even small stuff - new rope lying on the ground in horses normal paddock can be worth doing.

11. Halt to walk: Horse to step before you do.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


IN THE SADDLE

1. RIDDEN FEEL :: Walk in a circle around something (fence upright, barrell, person standing etc). Look at the object in the middle of the circle the whole time. Walk, then while still looking in circle, do a HQ yield and swing horses HQs outside of circle, then put in a backup, then swing horses FQs back the way you came and walk off on circle, but now going opposite rein. Repeat. The whole time you've got to look at the centre of the circle and FEEL whats going on with yuor horse.

2. BALANCE ON HILLS :: Find a hill. Do some circles around the end of it to build up horses confidence going a little way up hill. When good, walk astep or two down hill. Then stop. Then backup a step or two up hill. Then stop. This will get horses HQs in under him = much better brakes going down hills. Park at various places over hill and then ask for 1 step up or down, ajhead or backwards. Mix it up.

3. STEERING USING YOUR SEAT One rein circles :: Ride a circle with just one rein (eg halter and rope). Ask you go around circle, keep throing rein over horses head from side to side. No matter what side rein is on, keep horse on that circle.

4. FOOTFALL :: when in saddle at halt, figure out where your horse feet are without looking. Do same in walk. Get helper on ground to tell you if you need help. Practise.

5. Ride using one rein. You can do this in normal bridle. Need disclipine but its really good for you. One rein at a time riding.

6. The Sugar foot jog AKA the fancy fairy feet jog... trot around everywhere up and down hills maintaining the same speed and rhythm of trot throughout. You can do this for a while until speed becomes regular throughout.......this came from Pat P I think and he used get folks to them it every afternoon for a good while

7. Backup in circles - spin preparation Do circles in backup. Tip nose to the outside and have your outside leg back a bit. Use your hands only if horse gets stuck. When you've got this backup circle REALLY good, then you're ready for your spins as most of weight will be on HQs, FQ will be very light and movable, so you'll just need to open the front door to get a spin.

8. How slow can you walk down a hill?

9. FOOTFALLS QUIET As you ride, listen to how loud the horses feet are as they land on the ground. Now think about making them more quiet.

10. Push, don't pull this exercise also looks simple but there's a lot in it. You want to have no stuck places, all regular rhythm so its like a dance.......



11. Push, don't pull part 2



12. WALK Do a normal walk, then a slow walk, then a fast walk. Mix them up.

13. TROT Do a normal trot, then a slow trot, then a fast trot. Mix them up.

13. CANTER Do a normal canter, then a slow canter, then a fast canter. Mix them up.

[el]

A heap of other exercises here on the Irish site: irishnhsociety.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation