Friday, February 27, 2009

Tuesday idea-SPURS

Today I will pick one lateral movement that will encourage engagement because it is early in the week. Later in the week I will combine lateral movements into one exercise to make it more complicated.

Shoulder-in or variations of shoulder-in; shoulder-fore and position-in, are the exercise that I'm picking (Use the book Advanced Techniques of Dressage page 46-54 as a reference). I am going to work on shoulder-in before I do transitions between trot and canter to improve the engagement and carrying power throughout the transitions.

I am going to use simple school figures at the trot and canter to finish my work out-Cool down. This will give the horse a chance to enjoy the new balance and athleticism that they have gained during the work out phase without being challenged by complicated figures. The idea is that the horse should never struggle through the cool down period. They should find the cool down easy and then it will build confidence in the horse. We all like to do things well and ending the work out while the horse is enjoying the new found balance is a good way to promote a happy athlete!!

Let me know what you decide to do today!!!
Write a comment or a note even if it is not Tues for you!!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Monday Idea! SPURS

My horses had yesterday off or they had a really easy day with their owners so today is all about suppleness. Our work today will consist of bending lines like circles, serpentines and figures of 8. On those figures we will do transitions to make our horses obedient to the aids. Most of the horses will do leg yields to stretch the long muscles of the body. The youngsters will not do leg yields they will focus on 1/4 lines instead.
We will focus on our rider's position so that we are giving very accurate aids and helping our horses find their balance.


You should walk your horse for 10 minutes.
The warm up should take 10 minutes.
2 minute break
The work out should take 18 minutes.
The cool down should take 5 minutes.

Let me know what figures that you do and how it worked for your horse. Did the time limits help your efficiency?