Coming Back into Work After Winter: Making the Best of Just Walking Your Horse

If like me you don't have access to an indoor arena your horse may also be coming back to work after three months of terrible weather and not being ridden.

We all know we can't pick up where we left off in the fall. Like a human athlete, our horses have to be brought back gradually to peak fitness. And that starts with two weeks of walk, beginning with twenty minutes a day and building up to one and a half to two hours (in an ideal world).

That much walking can get pretty dull! Keeping it interesting and beneficial to both horse and rider can become a real challenge, but there are things we can do to put that single-gaited time to good use.

I start by addressing my personal riding bugbears.

First I practice sitting more quietly in the saddle and not working harder than the horse, to get a bigger and more active stride out of him. I ask him once with my legs, and if I don't get a response I ask more strongly until he's putting the required effort into his walk.

Another issue I have is not lengthening my legs enough. It's hard for me to do this and have them be effective. That's why it's so important for my horse to march forward right from the beginning. It's easy to have long, quiet legs and a quiet seat when the horse is moving actively!

Once I've addressed those two problems, I can get working on my horse. That first week we can't make tight turns or small circles, so after walking him in a straight line on a light contact, I ride him in very large circles and begin to supple him. Asking him to go long and low I bend him left and right - not too much - until he loosens up. After shallow serpentines on the long side I test how well he's listening to my legs with some shoulder-fore and short leg yields.

In week two I introduce shoulder-in, decreasing and increasing circles and longer leg yields. I even get adventurous and try the elusive renvers in preparation for Second Level (I can dream!). Some turns on the forehand and rein-backs, plus a couple of trail rides ridden with more contact, give added interest to our sessions.

By week two and the introduction of trot work, we'll be well in sync with each other and Cruz will be more than ready for the next gear.

Riding Lesson notes

Today's lesson was, as usual, very educational and humbling! Let's see if I can remember everything.

We concentrated on getting me to look up instead of at Cruz's neck and react to the feel of him in the reins. I can assess what's going on and adjust my riding much faster this way.

1. I need to ask Cruz to give on the right rein until he does it. Whether I'm riding to the left or right, I need to get him to submit to the right rein. Once he does, he gives in the back and is more supple - in all gaits.

2. When he doesn't want to bend left (once we start what he considers to be 'work') I mustn't turn him in small circles while emphasizing my left rein and asking him to get off my left leg. This makes him more unbalanced, and upsets him. I need to work him on a larger circle where he has a chance of co-operating, and loosen my upper thigh, while keeping my legs quiet. I have a habit of using too much left leg, which encourages him to move sideways.

3. Moving sideways instead of forwards as asked means he is behind the leg and able to evade my aids. I must keep him in front of my leg and using his rear end, then he won't feel I'm in his face and will be better able to co-operate.

3. When I asked him for left canter from walk he got discombobulated very fast. If this happens, I need to stay calm, keep my left rein asking for inside bend, loosen my thighs and relax my legs again. Just stay like that and he'll give in graciously, without a fight. It really worked.

4. Maintain that right rein (without giving up the left rein) while cantering down the long side in left lead. If necessary, move his head left and right - just minimally - to keep him supple in the neck and round and giving his back. Same goes for right lead canter, but he did that better anyway, 'cos it's easy for him.

5. Cruz doesn't want to get underneath himself in canter, so he tends to rush down the long side. I have to make sure I get him round, and with half-halts bring him into a more balanced canter. At one point he did a flying change from left to right lead to get out of cantering to the dreaded left! That was a first.

6. As a general rule, use shoulder fore whenever I'm riding down the long side.

7. Use shoulder fore coming onto the quarter line and moving into leg yield. Look where I'm going, so we don't overshoot the quarter line and go round in a circle again. Keep the outside rein guiding the horse on the line I want to take, maintain the shoulder fore and ask him to move laterally.

8. When in sitting trot in the final phase, ask him to lengthen and shorten (not 'go faster' or 'more slowly' because the impulsion and activity have to remain the same) to get him used to bringing his hocks underneath himself and strengthening his hind end.

Great trot, square halt, big pats with sugar and walking to cool him off.

A Good Rider is a Good Leader

Have just come back from riding Cruz in the rain. Hey, we're both from England - we can take it!

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but Cruz is in such a good mood and so co-operative that I'm in high hopes of a good show on Sunday. He's teaching me things he's tried to tell me for ever, but which I am only just now listening to. Poor Cruz has a rather dense mum.

I have a really irritating habit of adjusting my left rein all the time. I don't keep my fingers wrapped round it tightly enough and it gets longer as I ride, necessitating constant shortening. This means the left rein is never steady and annoys the heck out of Cruz. It has taken me years to figure out just how disconcerting it is for him, which is very embarrassing and makes me feel bad for him. So much of his anxiety in left canter can be traced to this one issue, plus not enough right rein.

What it boils down to is that Cruz has never had constant reassurance and true leadership from me. It's like being a girl with a dance partner who is supposed to lead but keeps changing his mind about where he wants to go or how to get there. He sometimes has his arm round your back, supporting it, then takes it away, then puts it back. Can you imagine how worrying that is, having no support from your partner and not knowing what's coming next, as you're never being properly prepared for the next step?

I'm working hard to be the reassuring, confident leader of our dance partnership, and keeping steady contact with my hands, appropriate leg pressure and bend/flexion, forward movement and preparing Cruz correctly and in timely fashion for transitions.

It's really working! 

He went long and low and stretched and bent in walk, trot and canter, snorting away and letting me know he approved of the New Me. His transitions were smooth, and even his first canters were easy to sit to, as he gave in his back early. Consquently I positioned my legs better in left canter, as I am just as right-handed as Cruz is and we both struggle on the left rein.

Once again, the session didn't need to be long. His work was just as good in sitting trot, and with my keeping a firm but soft hold on the left rein, he is happy to give to it in the canter transitions and stay flexed correctly to the left both on circles and on the straight.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of being a good leading dance partner. Even when he heard a deer moving in the woods and thought about taking off, he stayed calm because I kept him between my hands and legs.

Another good day!