Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

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Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby blob » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:04 pm

I've been feeling a bit uninspired lately, so I was hoping to get some ideas for exercises that are good for green horses and that can be done in the arena (all the wet and cold has restricted my riding to the covered arena for the time being).

I'm open and eager for all and any exercises that you've enjoyed/found useful and that go beyond the obvious. But in particular, I would love exercises that help improve suppleness and back/hindquarter strength.

ETA: in this case green means the horse can w-t-c and do bends the size of a 20 meter circle in the canter (smaller in the trot). But still have inconsistencies in tempo and contact. In other words, a horse that is schooling all of TL, but not quite yet ready to show TL. And not yet schooling first level.

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby Flight » Fri Jan 18, 2019 1:02 am

I was given one a little while ago, and while my horses aren't 'green', I think it would help any horses.
Start in walk, and a slow walk and take your time initially. You then can progress it up the gaits.
Down the longside ride Shoulder in to renvers to counter shoulder in then to quarters in. With a green horse you only need slight bend changes, eg, slight shoulder fore etc. But you want to make the changes in bend really smooth and not wobble off the line too much. Just moving the shoulders around.

My horse leans into his left shoulder and wants to push out through his left shoulder so we do that sequence on the right rein. On the left rein we reverse it. Start in quarters in (gets his weight off that left shoulder) to counter shoulder in, to renvers to shoulder in.
I'll add a vid. It sounds complicated but when you get the hang of the sequence it's a nice warm up.

https://youtu.be/lX8TBiwRhWw

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby blob » Fri Jan 18, 2019 1:36 am

Sounds like a great excercise, Flight, would love to see the video and will definitely try with my mare. Though i'm afraid it's probably too advanced for my greenie, who finds 20 meter circles and going doing the long side straight and steady challenging. We havn't even started baby LY yet!

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby khall » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:33 am

blob I do in hand work with my greenies to teach them lateral work from the ground (SI, counter SI, HI and eventually HP and renvere). For US, serpentines for suppleness and transitions for strength. Some caveletti too for strength.

That is the exact exercise Cedar had me riding clinic before last. Now we are concentrating more on even more sideways in the lateral work like counter SI and SI. It is really helping Rip slowing it down and asking more sideways (which he struggles a bit with, big strong but not the most supple of horses). Felt the positive out come riding HP the other day. Especially R HP, was MUCH easier. Cedar also had me add in TOF in renvere i.e. bent toward turn.

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby Flight » Fri Jan 18, 2019 4:41 am

Sorry blob, maybe that is a bit hard for now.
Try a half ten metre circle from the wall to the centreline with some outside flexion, then gentle leg yield back to the wall. You can then go straight or turn that into a slight shoulder fore.

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby StraightForward » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:21 pm

That's about where my mare was last winter/spring. I was doing the Ritter's What, Why, How course, so we introduced lateral work in walk (only TOF, TOH, LY) so that we could do many of the exercises in walk. We used cones a lot and focused on accuracy.

A really simple on I used a lot in the 20x40 indoor is 1/2 volte with the "belly" at A or C, and then LY to the wall, a couple steps straight, and then LY away from the wall, and another half volte at the other end. If that was too much in trot, I would do a 15m half circle, and then LY to the wall and do another 15m half circle.

Another one I used a lot, is to walk to a point, and do a 1/4 or half TOF or TOH, then same thing at another point. This can graduate up to doing a little SF or SI on the wall, turning toward a cone at centerline, straightening, changing the flexion and then riding a 180 TOF in the other direction around the cone. Eg if you're going left when you turn off the wall, you would stay to the left of the cone and TOF off the right leg. It sounds difficult, but Annabelle was able to handle it as long as we didn't overdo it, and it helped her with her body awareness.

Also, riding shallow loops is great. If riding all the way to centerline is too much at first, just ride to the quarterline. As you progress, you can add in voltes at the corners or within the loop (if you can't ride to centerline, you can turn early off the short side so that you have more room to fit the volte within the loop, assuming a standard width arena).
Keep calm and canter on.

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby Dresseur » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:27 pm

I know it's boring work for the rider, but simple is best when it comes to greenies. You do have to keep building on the work you're doing, because the real meat and potatoes of suppleness comes from the lateral work. So I would start thinking of doing mini-lengthenings, do lots of serpentines, and start adding more transitions. If there are inconsistencies in contact and tempo, work on that - see if you can maintain the same number of steps in a 20 meter circle, start challenging your horse by doing a few 15 meter circles. Start leg yields if you haven't already - if you have, start asking the horse to do leg yields away from the wall. Ask for a step or two of shoulder in (literally a step or two) by doing a circle at the end of the arena and then asking the horse to carry that down the long wall for a second.

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby Ponichiwa » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:46 pm

I'm in a similar place with my greenie. We've gotten to the stage now where we're not hitting major milestones every ride anymore-- I guess we're actually starting on some "dressage". What we're doing:
- Transitions off of the rail (centerline, quarterlines), including halts. Starting to get more independent of the rail.
- Counter-flexion in serpentines at the walk/trot. Establishes the basics of "move your shoulders when I ask". I also play with the size of these serpentines, too.
- Spiral in/out of circles at the trot and canter. Bonus points: you can ask for a step or two of shoulder-fore positioning as you transition from the spiral in to the spiral out. Other bonus points: can you do this in a stretchy position without changing speed or tempo?
- Canter transitions from straight lines instead of circles. Full disclosure: Queso and I aren't quite here yet given that leads are still hit-or-miss.
- Riding out in the pasture to keep things light (as time, weather, and daylight allow).

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby Anne » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:26 am

I'm also at a similar stage with my youngster : I agree with Dresseur and Ponichiwa above, and because I didn't see it mentioned, will add : shallow loops in trot along the long side (as shallow/deep as you can manage), and leg yield head-to-the-wall at walk if you are having any trouble getting across the concept of 'sideways'.

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby Chisamba » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:43 pm

I like to ride a really accurate ovalish shape. 10 m half circle centered at A then being very careful not to drift into the corner, an arc to E, the to a 10m half circle at A, then an arc back to 10m half circle at C. You dont quite to a half circle just enough to meet the arc

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Re: Good Exercises for Greenies/basics

Postby AmityBee » Sun Jan 27, 2019 9:33 am

I work with an instructor who likes to incorporate tools like poles and cones into her lessons. Her setups sometimes create the physical need to do something and since I also have a horse who works better if things "make sense" those exercises have been very helpfull for us.

We have been working on straightness, bend, self carriage, responsiveness and much more. What I love about most of her exercises is that you can go from simple and easy to quite advanced depending on the level of horse and rider. All you need is a few ground poles and some cones. I went and bought a stack of soccer training discs and love them. They are cheap, light weight and very durable!

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c ... ning+discs

In the first pitcture there's your average serpentine. We usually start with just walking through them as we do with every pattern. We want the horse to know what comes next. Make sure you are precise, use your weight and leg aids, easy on the rein aids. After a couple of walk throughs you can start to increase the difficulty. Trot, leg yield, s/i, h/i. Keep the bend and change from s/i to h/i or keep to s/i (or h/i, ) but change the direction at every cone. Do it at the walk, trot, chanter... (if you can, I can't :D )

Dont' forget to take breaks! I usually only ride this "one way".

The other two exercises in the first picture are for straighness. In my case straighness at the canter. They've been very helpful for me and they look easier than they actually are. It's a simple pattern, do it first at the walk and trot. I this case do not "ride" between the poles, be passive and let your horse figure things out by himself. At the trot we added a s/i through the bend then straight through the poles again. Then trot through the bend and canter through the poles. The final step was just cantering the pattern with a simple change at x.

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The exercise at the bottom of the second picture is again a simpe ride through but the way it is set up it will help the horse to step under/carry himself better through bends and corners. Do it at the walk fist, then trot. Don't over do it, again this is (physically) harder that it looks.

The other three patterns are just cones with the emphasis on transitions. Whenever you pass a cone do something. Walk/halt, walk/trot, Walk/trot/canter/trot/walk, trot/canter, trot/halt, walk/canter, s/i, h/i, transition within the gait... whatever. Just do it on point. You can stay on the outside circle or continue by spiraling in and out. You can ride the pattern as circle or square...

But again, don't forget to change direction and don't forget to take brakes!

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