I've just returned to riding. My mare is 21 years old. She's not been ridden in 10 years. We are now committed to riding twice a week, Wednesday and Sunday.
I'm wondering what kind of things we could work on so we don't become bored?
I don't have access to trails. I ride in a large field (about 5-6 acres) I don't have a ring.
Would like to know the kinds of things you work on throughout the week, so I have some different exercises to work on.
We ride western for the most part, but I've ridden and jumped in the past (a long time ago... in a galaxy far far away LOL).
Right now we are working on walking (she's slow and lazy, I am trying to get her to pick up the walk and move out a bit). Trotting (she's too fast... I'm working on getting her lovely little jog back). Doing circles and bending exercises. And we just cantered for the first time our last ride.
Excellent topic!!! I haven't been riding for along time due to knee issues and I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine with Solon once I can actually ride again.
We are doing free lunging right now just so he is getting some exercising in. I also work on yielding, side passing and we do a lot of trick training.
As far as not becoming bored, I like to create interesting obstacles for us to work through on the ground. You can make interesting things out of just about anything you can find around the barn. It keeps everything fresh and new and he never really knows what to expect.
I use barrels and we will either back figure 8's or do haunch/forehand circles around them. We have an old mattress that I'll drag out and have him walk over (that one really freaks out most horses). We have a set of 'fingers' which consists of two posts that have styrofoam pieces threaded through them. You set them close together and the horse has to walk through it with the foam fingers touching the horse. That's another tough one to get horses to go through either walking or riding. I'll get a picture this week.
I use tarps on the ground with poles along the side and the horse has to walk over them.
You know the moving reindeer with the lights that everyone uses at X-mas time? Those are excellent to get your horse to walk around.
I make a pole pile. Take a bunch of poles and make wheel spokes at various heights to the horse hast to step over them.
Balloons tied to buckets or cones. Have a fan with plastic strips tied to it so they fly out when the fan is on. Frogs that croak when you walk by.
Basically anything I can find at the barn. I'll take some pictures of the next one I do and share them.
Sometimes Solon just looks at me like he's saying, "what were you thinking when you made that???" :shock:
Ground poles are always great for getting horse and rider back into shape. I always thought it was fun to ride with other people. You could always just take some big round or square bales and place them in a "weaving" pattern.
We go over anything and everything we can! We'll back for a good length of a trail. We work on pivots on the haunches and forehand, and side-passing. We also do those from the ground without any contact from me (and no holding onto reins/leadropes/etc). We work a LOT on whoa. He does it very well (I can ride him bridle-less and have him stop from a gallop) but we still practice it all. the. time.
We open gates, we go through water, I mount him from trees or fences or tractors. We do a LOT of bonding. I'll hop off for a bit and just love on him and scratch the hard-to-reach places. Then we'll ride again!
Set the ground poles up in a box, and pivot in them. Then make an L-shape and side-pass and pivot over the L-shape. After, back through the L-shape!
I still do de-sensitizing things with him, even though he's now 11 and he's been putting up with me doing them for that many years! I think it makes for a good horse.
We trot and lope imaginary barrel patterns and lope and trot imaginary pole patterns (because I'm too lazy to set them up!)
We walk over jumps that are really high and hard to walk over.
After riding, we do in-hand things like showmanship. We back, pivot, sidepass, trot, walk and lope. I make him stand square and perk his ears up.
Pretty much anything I suddenly feel like doing, we do! You should, too!
Love this thread. The home depot here has landscape timbers for about $2 and we picked a few up and I have some extra I am going to use as ground poles. I am getting back into riding as well. Don't forget about getting yourself in shape as well. I am going to start walking 3 times a week and try and lose a few lbs myself. I know the horses would appreciate that ;P
Have fun with it! It's open to your imagination and yes, let me know with what you come up with. I'm always trying to find new things. I'll do the same!
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