If you only have fifteen minutes...

I tend to ride for at least 45 minutes - more often closer to an hour. If I am hacking out I either box him somewhere or go for a nice amble around the fields which I couldn't do in 15 minutes. We would have to turn back which I don't like doing.

If I am schooling then it takes a good 10 minutes to warm up properly and that would mean that I would have to cool down straight away without doing much. I wouldn't have enough time to jump in that time so we wouldn't get any real work done. Lunging is quicker to prepare for and makes him work harder so it's more time effective in that sense. I need to work Ben reasonably hard to keep his weight down, especially at this time of year where the grazing muzzle has come off and I am scared his weight will balloon.
 
And also I do prefer to ride for longer. I always make time to ride for as long as I want to - that's why I will be riding at 9pm tonight once my kids are in bed and everything at home is sorted.
 
Reason I ask really is because I have read a few articles in various mags which give instruction / guidance for fifteen minute training sessions. For Storm and I it wouldn't work very well anyway as she needs a good fifteen minutes just walking to get her loosened up. I don't worry about cooling down as such because now she does a lot less she doesn't get sweaty the same and doesn't really exert herself. We do a few laps in walk but not quite so much cooling down as when she was working hard.
 
I don't think I have ever ridden for just 15 minutes. And as I only hack it would take me near enough that just to walk to the end of our laneway and then back again. I guess the least I do is 45 minutes and that is on a day when I am in a hurry as I have to be somewhere or something.

I spend a good 15 minutes walking out and at least ten walking back home, with the faster stuff sandwiched in between that usually. At the moment we are only walking though because of her recovering fetlock joint.
 
I don't see the point in hacking for less than an hour generally speaking but excluding warm up and cool down I have often schooled for 15 mins or less, particularly when I was schooling daily, this was mostly because I went in with it in mind to achieve something specific and if she got it right first time then I don't see the point in going over and over it just for the hell of it. Of course if she didn't get it right we might be there for an hour :)
 
I currently school D in 20-25mins max, so for her, I'd school her. As she's still learning everything, I don't generally do the old 'warm up' as such, she'll get her 5-10 mins of walk before we up the pace into trot where we tend to do a few nice circles, Serpentines and changes of rein etc. As part of her warm up, we tend to incorporate leg yields and shoulder fore (she's pretty flexible for a 3yo!!!) to loosen her off and 'get her on side'. If we miss out the leg yields then I tend to find we fall out thru our right shoulder on left circles as we return to the track a lot more.

As a cool down I tend to do about 3-5mins, of walking, halting and some changes of rein etc. I'll generally add canter in literally at the end before I cool down for a couple of goes on each rein. I could really do with taking her in the field to solidify her canter now as it's come on enough to do more than just 1 side of the menage but it's an uphill menage and she has been fairly trippy when unbalanced so I'm reluctant to start cantering her downhill just yet! We will trot downhill but it's a constant check, release, check, release to keep her from running (that's when she trips as she just plows onto the forehand).

So yes, a normal schooling session on D.

Gem, probably some trec training. I'd try and focus on one to two obstacles or our CoP however, and again, 5 min warm up and less of a cool down as if I'm practicing obstacles it tends to be fairly slow going anyway (a lot are done out of walk).
 
Today I spent twenty mins in the school, first ten minutes asking for her opinions on the new saddle before I got on. Ten minutes just getting a feel for it. It didn't need anymore than that as needs tweaking.

Eta I actually have a stopwatch so I know exactly my time, you may be surprised to time yourselves. Its possibly not as long as you think.
 
I used to ride for fifteen minutes. We'd do a quick tour around the rabbit warren of paths beside my field and back home. But that was confidence demons that wouldn't let me go further afield. If I only had fifteen minutes I'd do that. It would remind me how far we've come and it would keep Flipo accustomed to work, especially if it was in the winter which it's more likely to be, with regards to day light putting a barrier in the way.
 
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Its nice to look back on the journey we have all made.
When I first hacked the cob off the yard, we did 15minutes. :) We went down to the tree, round it and back. It was the most memorable 15 minutes we have had. Time is irrelevant if you achieve something.
 
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Flipo's Mum said:
I used to ride for fifteen minutes. We'd do a quick tour around the rabbit warren of paths beside my field and back home. But that was confidence demons that wouldn't let me go further afield. If I only had fifteen minutes I'd do that. It would remind me how far we've come and it would keep Flipo accustomed to work, especially if it was in the winter which it's more likely to be, with regards to day light putting a barrier in the way.
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I can only hack for fifteen minutes due to my rubbish confidence. No wonder madam thinks she is retired.
 
I'd put the bareback pad on and have 15 minutes in the school, probably just practice walking nicely, halting, a couple of turns on the forehand, then leg yields and possibly a little bit of trot. I'm so boring.
 
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