Plan For Riding

Hey all,

I was wondering what is a basic plan for riding. I'm an advanced beginner and don't start lessons for another three weeks. The horse I am riding is pretty good and knows his stuff. But I am still kind of picking and prodding what I want to do every time I ride. I ride English and plan on at least to be able to go out on a trail. Maybe go to a hunter pace this spring to ride the trail & handy course.

So I was wondering what part of my riding I should work on first? Like..

1 ride- Work on good circles
2 ride- Work on diagonals and leg yielding
3 ride- etc etc.

Also- At how far into riding should I be before I take Madhi for a trail ride? The place I ride has a few trails and I'm eager to try them. The old horse I rode we did more walking around the grounds than arena work. I went through a few gates for practice, around logs, over small logs, down a big hill into the woods, etc.

I'm not sure if I can help you with your ridding, but I can offer some advice for riding.

The best to do is keep your schedule flexible. Do a little bit of everything every ride. You can focus on a main thing, but don't just do that. I'm personally not much for circles; I like to get my riding students to do squares. It teaches you good turning and is quite a work out, much more so than circles. Keep it interesting for the horse and do lots of transitions. Walk to trot, trot to canter, canter to walk, walk to canter... Any combination you can think of. Getting good, solid transitions and excellent turns should keep you on your toes for three weeks. Go over ground poles and practice two point as well. You should be able to do any in two point that you can do in full seat. Ride without stirrups as much as possible, and do some bareback if you can. NEVER forget your basics. Go down the list... Heels down? Looking ahead? Heel/hip/shoulder line proper? Hands? Good steady bit contact? Ect?


As far as trails, it's best to be able to walk/trot/canter well, control you horse in all kinds of situations (in the event of a bolt or buck), and be confident. Confidence is a big thing. You need confidence to even get your horse to walk away from the barn and onto the trails.

Do you guys know any good websites with videos on ridding english?

You can look into the youtube videos, but in all honosty... You can't learn to ride from books or videos. You need the practical experience. I would work on your control. If trail is your current goal then you need to be confident in the saddle. You need to have a good solid seat and an able response system. Work on your walk to trot transitions upwards and downwards, work on your canter transitions, upwards and downwards. Do not hit the rail, do serpentines, circles, corkscrews, etc. The diagonals are something you should work on the entire time.

Being flexible in your goal for the day is very important. Every day and every ride is different. If something isn't working on a particular day, alter your goal/expectation and do something different before you and your horse get frustrated. It will also give you insight on the strengths and weaknesses of your horse (and your riding).

If you've never had him out on a trail before, it's best to go out with another rider and experienced trail horse at least once, especially if you don't know the trail history of the horse. It's a completely different world outside the ring for most horses.