book16

16 Riding in patterns.

The easiest way to get to a show is to train the patterns that are included in the test, and the easiest way to mentally kill the horse is to train patterns. Almost every rider wants to belong to a group where you use the same kind of equipment, the same kind of clothes and the same type of horse etc. And then they also ride in the same way, normally in the ring and always the same pattern.
A horse learns a pattern very fast, and can do a test. But that horse will not develop and the horse and rider never advance, as a rule.The jumping horse is trained to be in the air as much as possible, even though every trainer knows you win the show in between the jumps. The jump rider who gets his horse to the right spot at the right time has got the best chance to win.
If the dressage rider leaves the ring and goes out on the trail, he will discover that the horse can do dressage movements outdoors too. The horse gets more confident if he is trained in new surroundings, f.ex. he can see a purpose in doing a flying change while circling around a tree.
While riding you train obedience and response, if the horse is obedient he will do what is asked of him independent of which discipline the movement belongs to. The horse can jump in a dressage saddle, he can do piaffe in a western saddle, he can do a sliding stop in a jumping saddle. If you train his elasticity and his strength he can perform better. What is not so good needs developing, to train what the horse already does well is not so important.
During the warm up the horse shows where the holes in the training are, if they are worked on, the horse improves. It is enough that something is better each training session, the horse's capacity is then developing. F.ex. a horse that jumps anything but is impossible to steer on the ground, why then train jumping when something else is lacking, if it's possible to steer the horse, the chances to win have improved. If a leg yielding is no good, it doesn't help to ride leg yielding on the diagonal for hours every day. The fault is to find somewhere earlier on in the chain and by going back in the education you can find the fault and correct it, then you can improve the leg yielding.
Don't train the pattern, train the components. The horse couldn't care less what you call the pattern, he will do the movement whichever competition rules the rider follows.

If you take good advantage of the situations the horse's training can go faster. Is the horse's energy level high one day make sensible use of it, f.ex train the piaffe which requires a horse with lots of impulsion. Feel what is suitable to train and adjust to it.

On a hot summer's day with 30慢 in the shade the ideal is to train stand still, less ideal is to jump a cross country course. Are there lots of mosquitoes in the evening, the horse can't stand still, go out on the trail for condition work instead. Go ahead of the horse, if you feel the horse wants to stop, ask him to stop and take advantage of his volunteering. But be careful to differ between letting the horse decide and making him do what you want.
The indoor arena.
If you study how arenas and indoor schools are being used, you will discover that only a small part of the whole surface is being used. Many people advertise an outdoor ring of, let's say 60 by 100 mtrs., which sounds very good but no instructor will stand so far away from his student that he can't see, hear or give instruction.
The best distance is no more than 20 mtrs., almost all schooling can be done in an area of 15 by 20 mtrs. You make a horse obedient by riding in a chaos, not by cantering straight forward. In the small ring you must change direction and speed all the time. The horse gets more attentive if he doesn't know what's going to happen all the time. The attentive horse waits for the signals and reacts immediately.
To make a small school is more realistic for many riders. Putting up roof and walls on a small school can be a 5:th or a 10:th part of the price of a big indoor school. In the little indoor school on the prairie you can also school show jumping on different types of obstacles. A big indoor school is needed for group lessons and for training an obstacle course, but for the average rider the small school is enough.

If you need a big ring, there is almost always one available not so far away for most people, go there, do what you need to do in the big ring. You will find there won't be so many trips. If 20 mtrs. is not enough to learn a flying change that horse/rider will never learn it anyway.

For many people the equipment for horse and rider is the essential. But the horse only cares for how it is used and how it fits.

Top. Page 1. Next. Previous.