How much schooling?

[wiseowl]

Just wondering how much time people spend working their horses in the menage. I like to school but am always mindful of over stressing the limbs. Would welcome your views on this please, eg no. of times per week, length of time spent, what movements you do etc. Thanks.

[highlanderpony2002]

We dont have a school but school the mare alternate days for 6 days s she hacks three and schools three one of the hacking days we hire a school about a mile away and she has an hour in there then hacks back. The three schooling days she is schooled on a dry part of the field on short grass over sandy soil so good going for about an hour. Hack last about one and a half to two hours so she is very fit
She was quite green so is establishing head carriage in walk trot and canter and rhythm and balance. She is leg yielding and a bit of shoulder in for straightness. At the school she does a spot of schooling followed by about half an hours jumping practice

[wabuska]

Very little bar schooling on hacks. It's something I would like to do more of, but faced with the great outdoors and going around the arena we tend to head out the gate!

[Mellymoo]

I tend to school once a week in the school itself, and we practice lateral work and bending correctly. We school on hacks though too, where we do anything apart from circles! The most we spend in the school is an hour, because he is an old fart and I get bored!

[cheekychops]

Luckily we have an indoor school but I confess I haven't been taking advantage of it as much as I should. I try to school twice a week, for half an hour each mainly doing lots of transitions, bending and establishing a good rhythm. We are doing some lateral work - leg yield and shoulder in. Canter at the moment is short bursts only as very unbalanced! I alternative between ridden and in-hand work, which he really enjoys. I keep sessions short as he is very hairy!

[Deleted]

I wouldn't ever school for more than an hour, you can do fittening work and building stamina out hacking, schooling is about giving them a mental challenge and an hour is a long time to be mentally challenging them.

Talin is still quite green so I would only do an hour with him in a lesson when I'm stopping to talk to the instructor regularly so he gets breaks. I find twice a week is enough for us to make progress and prevent him getting bored. He does get bored very quickly. Schooling on our own I ususally limit to 30 mins.

[rifruffian]

I go into the school with something specific in mind. This is to learn something new or improve/refine something previously learned. Relative to what's gone before it's never hugely ambitious. When that specific aim has been achieved, once, that's the end of schooling session. So duration is variable and sometimes quite short. Frequency.......quite often.

[jennyb]

In an ideal world (i.e. when I am not injured and am fit to ride as much as I want!), I would hack twice a week, lunge once, and school 2-3 times per week. Horse is competing BD Medium, working on some Advanced moves. I tend to school on average for no more than 40 mins at a time, lots of warm up on a long rein, the time spent "gathered up" (for want of a better phrase, sorry, back pain is making brain go fuzzy!) is relatively short and will consist of time spent "revising" moves that he knows already, or practising new things in short bursts with plenty of praise when he gets it right and/or tries hard.

So basically warm up on long rein working on rhythm, bend, transitions, circles, maybe leg yield in all three paces. Then some technical work - medium/collected paces, SI/O, travers, renvers, half pass, pirouette prep, piaffe, changes. Then a nice relaxed cool down on a long rein. With the technical work I tend to pick one or two things to work on each session, unless it's lateral work when part of his training needs to be smooth transitions in and out and between the various lateral moves so we will mix them up quite a bit.

[antares]

It totally depends on the horse and the aims with that particular horse.

The horse I sold before Christmas went in the school once or twice a month as I just wanted to keep him tuned in a little but he was really a hack with the odd clear round SJ and the odd XC round thrown into the mix. We did however school on hacks, made him work from behind with some leg yield and shoulder in, transitions within the paces etc as I feel it is better for them to work properly.

My horse before that was a comp horse jumping 1.10s and 1.20s and I brought him through from some skinny wimpy scatty ex racer (my trainers words, not mine) to something that resembled a decent comp horse. I would generally school at home 2 days, lesson 1 day, comp 1 day then hack 2 days with 1 day off.

[Beth&Rosie]

Well at the moment, when I am at school until 4:15 and not getting to the yard until 5, or 4ish on Saturdays (when I also have school! ) it is almost always dark when I am down, so not much hacking can be done! So that's 4 or 5 times in the school per week, including one lunging session, and either hacking or competing on Sundays.

During the holidays (eg. The last couple of weeks) she is ridden in the school between 1 and 4 times a week, hacked the other days, and hunting most Saturdays or competing Sundays.

When we are in the school I tend to do about 45mins. We do lots of practicing rhythm and transitions and pole work. When I have a lesson, normally once a week, we tend to do jumping then(or if my parents come down to help!) because otherwise I am always off and on picking up jumps or changing the height etc.

Hacks are 45mins to an hour, mainly on roads at the moment as all the bridle paths are really muddy, but we use this as an opportunity for spook busting, practicing leg yield and stuff. When we take them out to the forestry place nearby, we practice jumping the logs they put out on the paths especially for riders!

[wiseowl]

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post, your replies are interesting and helpful.
I would also be interested to know what type of in-hand work people do. I know cheeckychops mentioned this.
I've had a few years break from horse ownership so would appreciate any help to get me back into it.

[madmare1]

I school my younger mare most days, as she is NOT one for hacking out, and being backed in March 2012, we are just establishing some really good work. Older mare, I don't bother schooling anymore (but if she continues behaving like a spoilt brat she will get some schooling..naughty old lady) middle aged (13yr old) gelding is currently just being brought back into work, so gets lunged one day and lunged and ridden the day after. He has had Cellulitis in his hind leg (before I got him) so we are working on building his muscle up and getting him right.

[jennyb]

In hand work for me might be tagged on to the end of a lunge session. This week for instance we finished with in hand leg yielding and giravolta. I find in hand most useful for steady lateral work or teaching new things like jambette in prep for Spanish walk. However I spent HOURS doing basic in hand work with this horse when he was young, starting with basic obedience to voice commands, progressing through transitions, changes of pace with the gaits, turns, and progressing to lateral work over time. Richard Hinrich's book is a great starting point.

[curlytobiano]

oh my goodness Jenny I don't even do as much as your warm up in a heavy schooling session! leg yield in all 3 paces! ;D

[jennyb]

Lol, he's competing at Medium, he should be able to cope with a bit of leg yield..... ;D