07/01/2021
Early morning winter training sessions listening to those gorgeous bird songs āļø
Whilst Iām working on qualifying, and Iām sorting out all the ābusiness-yā bits of business, Iām going to use this account to document my training journeys with Hope, Sputnik and any other animals that fall into my lap!
This lil clip comes from a lovely early morning training session in the school with Hope. The light was gorgeous, and it was just a bit cold and frosty! Which I love!
I tend to start sessions in the school on the ground with Hope, and if sheās feeling up for it Iāll mount. If not weāll just chill on the ground. Thereās a lot of anxiety for her in the school, sheās on her own and often canāt see any other horses. So all I really want from her is relaxation.
Sheās a busy thinker, so incorporating Targets (all the barrels!) and Poles work really well for her. They give her a visual focus and allow her to understand with clarity what I might be wanting from her.
You see here in this clip that we Target to the first barrel before a standard āwalk with meā over the poles which I set as fairly long walk strides, or short trot ones. The aim here was I wanted to really get her to extend her stride and push up and over the poles whilst maintaining a rhythm with me, before finishing on the last Target (just out of shot). This exercise is good for the mind and for the body!
After this I did hop on and do some simple trot steps through this set up, as well as popping them up to raised poles for a few repetitions at the end. Then we called it quits. Probably did no more than 20 minutes. Itās important for her to really feel in control of her sessions and I never push beyond where she is comfortable. The raised poles are hard work, physically and mentally. So once we achieved that, itās time for a big jackpot reward and a good scratchy groom!
What sort of exercises do you do in the school with your horses? What other exercises like this do you think might work for your horses and ponies? Does your horse love or hate poles?