Low-Intensity Schooling

Planning for the holidays

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For most, the holiday period means time off for both horse and rider. It’s also the hottest time of the year, which makes schooling sessions quite uncomfortable, unless you’re riding very early in the morning or very late in the afternoon when the heat is more bearable.

However, if you’re hanging around at home for the festive season and want to make the most of this time with your horse, try some of these low-intensity schooling exercises. They give you a chance to work on aspects of your schooling that often go overlooked when our schedules are a bit more hectic, without working your horse ridiculously hard in the heat.

WALK WORK

The walk is the gait that gets the least attention but is, in fact, one of the most important areas of schooling to work on. The walk should be the foundation for all of your schooling. It is not the gait we use simply to get to the arena! True contact, self-carriage, upward and downward transitions, lateral movements and much more should be taught in the walk before we attempt them in any other gait.

FORWARD

• A quality walk consists of the horse taking a good length of stride and, ideally, over tracking, while still maintaining a light contact, and not leaning on your hands or collapsing onto the forehand. You want to aim for long, free-flowing strides rather than short, choppy steps.

• You also shouldn’t have to nag to keep the walk forward, so work on your horse’s responsiveness if you find that he’s behind the leg even at the walk.

CONTACT