Loan pony arena riding ideas!

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Oscarboy

New Member
May 27, 2022
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Yesterday at 7:27 PM
Hi,
i recently took a gorgeous skewbald pony on loan and am really enjoying him.i am 14 and go once a week.i was wondering however if anyone has any advice:
i've been riding for about 2 years and am confident in walk,trot and canter.i have not done any dressage/jumping whatsoever.I cannot afford lessons on top of my loan pony costs so i ride him myself without a teacher.however i am finding it really difficult in thinking up what to do each ride in the arena(.obviously this is not an issue when hacking out but i also ride in the arena).i looked it up online and all i got were results on 'schooling' your pony with complicated flatwork plans to improve the horses dressage,impulsion,suppleness,way of going etc.All these are way above my level.i can't school a horse never mind the fact that he is fully trained at 23 and doesn't need any training.So i want advice with what to do during my arena rides within my capabilities.i am very confident and happy to try new things -fear is not a factor ,it'd just ideas.
Thank you in advance!
 
Welcome to NR.

Even at 23 there is always a benefit to schooling, much like us, horses can get rusty if they don’t practice things they have learnt in the past, also keeping the older horse supple is important.

I understand you can’t afford lessons as well, they’re expensive! Perhaps you could print out some basic dressage tests for inspiration or get yourself a copy of 101 arena exercises by Cherry Hill (it’s a book) which I really like as the exercises are progressive and will help you learn.

Schooling can be really simple things to help the horse and rider be more disciplined. Whatever you ask for insist on it being done promptly and as correctly as they are able to, even just getting a good square halt is an art! Walking a certain number of paces, then trotting a set number, then walking a set number is good for getting your transitions really sharp, then move on to trot/canter in the same way. Doing good equal serpentines gets the horse flexing nicely. Riding actual straight lines and real circles (not wobbly lines and egg shapes) is a real skill (most RIs will tell you, most people don’t do this well) - perhaps you could get someone to video you to see how well you can do them then practice and video again in a month to see if you can improve it. Schooling is good fun when you get into it, no matter what level you are at.

Then you could consider doing some trotting poles, do some research online about the pole spacing and then you can give it a try, done right the trot shouldn’t feel much different, just slightly stronger than normal. You don’t need to know how to jump to do this.
 
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Thank you so much for your reply Jessey.i appreciate your clarification on the topic!do you think the book will help me as it contains a lot of dressage exercises(i checked it out) and i have not been taught dressage at all and i can't teach it to myself?!?
 
Oscarboy said:
Thank you so much for your reply Jessey.i appreciate your clarification on the topic!do you think the book will help me as it contains a lot of dressage exercises(i checked it out) and i have not been taught dressage at all and i can't teach it to myself?!?
Click to expand...
Dressage is just riding a series of movements, and all the basic movements have applications even when you’re just hacking, for example you’re going down a bridleway and there’s a rabbit hole you see last minute and you need to move to one side to keep his feet out of it, you could throw a little lateral (sideways) movement in there to move his whole body over quickly.
The book starts with very basic exercises and builds you up to more advanced ones so no reason you can’t learn as you go.
 
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