Planning Rides

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Imperini
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Planning Rides

Postby Imperini » Fri Jun 15, 2018 5:47 pm

This whole experience with my physiotherapy has gotten me thinking about a lot of different things related to my riding and one in particular is how I plan my rides which at the moment I think is not particularly well.

With my program for my hips it started out very basic, mostly I think it was just to get into a routine and move, the intent was not to challenge and not to strengthen. Then each week new things were added in gradually challenging and strengthening. Then as the exercises became more difficult I might spend more than a week repeating a specific set until I needed to increase repetitions or move to a more difficult exercise. It is all pretty planned out, specific, and with clear purpose.

Now if I look at my rides on a day when I'm not hacking or working over poles for a change of scenery it goes something like this:
~10 mins of walking, ~10 mins of trot and canter on a longer rein with lots of loops and large circles, a walk break, ~10 mins of whatever more difficult work/exercise(s) I can think of for the day, and then cool down.

I think in order to actually see progress my 10ish minutes of whatever exercise I can think of for the day should be more planned out, specific, and with clear purpose. My question is how much planning? Obviously we have to consider how the horse is feeling on a given day and which exercise might be more beneficial for specific issues. With my own exercises I have a set routine and I stick with it for a specific period of time and then after that period of time reassess and change it up as needed but I'm not sure such a set routine is the right approach for a horse. Or is it pretty similar but maybe one or two specific exercises for a couple of weeks every [working] ride and then reassess? I guess this is also part of what an instructor thinks about when they're working with a horse and rider combination especially when they're able to work with them often. What are your approaches?

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby Moutaineer » Fri Jun 15, 2018 6:25 pm

I plan my rides based on what happened in my last ride.

Having said that, we have a fairly set routine at the start and end of each ride. We start out with a walk in-hand to assess the mood of the day and get us both moving--at least twice briskly around the arena in each direction. Once on, we walk a couple of times around the whole arena in each direction, then we start putting in circles and lateral work at the walk--lots of leg yields of varying steepness, SI, HI, HI on the circle--exercises that are basically strengthening and loosening, and get him listening to my leg. This really improves the walk and improves his sharpness off my leg, as well as getting him to release in his back and come through, without being too tiring for him.

Once I'm happy with this, we do a brief trot and canter warm up--how brief depends on the suppleness and elasticity I'm feeling at this point, and then go to work on what we need to work on.

What we need to work on is where the last ride comes in--or a specific goal we have in mind. For instance, I know that the "work" part of our ride today, while relatively brief, will be all about the collecting the canter into walk transitions because, while I thought we had this pretty much down, he proved to me in our last ride that the collection isn't quite solid enough in the face of distractions, and we have a show tomorrow which is going to have it's fair share of distractions, so we need to tweak it a bit... (I have also made the error of working on counter-canter departs in the last couple of weeks at a place in the arena where I'm going to need a good true canter depart, and you can imagine what my little worker-bee over achiever is making of that, so I've got to sort that out. It won't take but a few repetitions, but it needs to be done.)

Once we have worked on that to our mutual satisfaction, we will walk on a loose rein for 5 minutes or so, then I will get off, and we will walk in hand for another 5 or 10 minutes, which is for me as much as for him as it seems to help stop my hips from locking up.

Our rides are usually 45 minutes or so. We ride 5 times a week, usually. I aim to end up with a horse that is feeling jaunty, confident and elastic, not worn out.

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby piedmontfields » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:12 pm

Like Mountaineer, my next rides have a relationship to what I saw/learned in the last ride.

I think of a week of ride planning. I usually do a straight arena ride 2x a week in summer and 3x a week in winter. It varies by weather, but I like to avoid 2 arena days in a row. I also avoid doing 2 canter heavy days in a row. So during these hot days, this is a pretty typical pattern at the moment:

Option 1: Hack to field for work. Usual emphasis is on "self-powered" motoring in canter and trot, and variations between working and lengthened gaits. This is a fairly aerobic work-out and may also include hills. This is mentally easy work for both of us. We usually do a long cool out walk afterwards. 45-60 minutes

Option 2: Arena work with trot emphasis after warm-up. This will usually include both a fair bit of lateral work and also time in our "biggish" trot. 30-45 minutes

Option 3: Arena work with canter emphasis after warm-up. This will include things like rubberband work, counter canter, canter-walk-canter, 10 m circles, canter spirals, canter half passes, and changes if all is in order. 30-45 minutes

Option 4: Long walking hack (with hills). Usually 60-90 minutes

Option 5: Hack to field for work. This is usually a more specific session than the other field work. I will do more small circles, transitions, and patterns aka riding around the XC jumps. If I'm happy with the work, I quit early and do a quiet hack back. 45 minutes

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby piedmontfields » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:42 pm

One more thought for Imperini:

During the work portion, I do think about how much of each exercise/movement I'm asking for, and it is based on past performance/capability. This is probably what is most similar to human workouts. Basically, I'm always trying to push a little bit beyond the prior effort, without losing quality. That push might be about duration (how many repetitions or strides) or activity or bend. I do think these little pushes are what changes a horse's gaits over time.

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby demi » Fri Jun 15, 2018 9:58 pm

Imperini, ride planning, and how to do it, might become more obvious when you move to your coach’s barn at the end of the month. My riding routine has changed since I’ve been hauling in to a trainer every other week. I watch what the trainer does, and look for things that I think I can do myself, then I work on those things at home. As Rocky progresses, my rides at home have changed. So far, my warm-up and cool-down routines have stayed the same, simply lots (as much as 20 minutes) of walk, marching along at a good tempo, full arena, frequently changing direction across the diagonal, and a few halts, and halt-back- walk. I need a lot of walk for my own body to warm up so will continue with that, but again, as Rocky progresses, the warm up might become more like the one Mountaineer describes, where I’ll add lateral work at walk.

I try to do an arena ride, as described above, 3X a week, and then do a walking trail ride once a week, plus one lunging session a week. That too, will probably change depending on what my trainer does. I have at times, done a hill work ride once a week, but since I’ve been with the trainer, the hill work has taken a back seat for a while simply because there isn’t enough time.

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby Josette » Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:27 am

I do not plan my rides but ride the horse I have that day - his mental status. I ride in an outdoor ring surrounded by woods and start my rides with a long walk on the trails. Some days he is very looky and reactive to squirrels, checking out the horses next door, shadows on the ground, etc. Other days he is lazy or very tuned in / attentive. This state of mind determines my agenda when we enter the ring. Yesterday we focused on lots of canter departs and change direction - keeping him calm and obedient. Day before we only did trot work with lots of figures and transitions. I believe previous riders/trainers were forceful and insistent to get him focused and in work mode. He was drilled and stressed mentally - so my PLAN is to avoid that so he ends his ride positive and relaxed. I ride the horse not the agenda.

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Imperini
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Re: Planning Rides

Postby Imperini » Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:40 pm

Absolutely I think everything will become more clear when I'm riding with my coach regularly. I'm realizing that while I can stagnate at training/1st level okay myself with sporadic lessons that I'm going to need to be more serious about getting help if I ever want to go further. I'm sure the perspective of someone else who has taken a couple of horses to GP will make a big difference in planning but not only that, what they know, different exercises or combinations of exercises, etc will be part of that.

Of course the joke was on me yesterday, I went with a general plan of what I would work on but I was met with a fat leg instead. I suspect it's from a small scrape as there is one and she's blown up before from scrapes on her legs but beyond making sure she wasn't lame (she wasn't) I didn't want to push my luck and work her so my plan changed to goodies and grooming.

Also this popped up in my FB feed today https://dressagetoday.com/instruction/d ... to-move-up .. I feel a little spied on :lol:

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby piedmontfields » Sat Jun 16, 2018 3:14 pm

Josette, I agree with your point, too, that we ride the horse under us! Case in point today when I did an early ride this morning. My "plan" was to go to the fields and work---but what we did was very much about the horse today (she was pretty amped and not exactly obedient, so we addressed very basic responses and eventually got to energetic trot lateral work and mediums without charging/running as the last set of work).

I also agree with this point in the article Imperini linked to:

"Your horse can make bits of progress every day if you habitually challenge the status quo. On training days, take your horse to a level of challenge that stresses him just a little. Horses and people learn at different levels of stress, but no stress means no growth."

https://dressagetoday.com/instruction/d ... to-move-up

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Re: Planning Rides

Postby Tsavo » Sat Jun 16, 2018 6:10 pm

My rehab rides have been very simple to plan... if my horse handles what I ask, we do something more the next ride.

In the last week, my horse has improved day to day. So by Friday we were cantering most of the way around the edge of a hilly 2 acre pasture in both directions with no grunting. I do not believe he was capable of doing that without grunting or doing it at all at the beginning of the week.

Each day I add more laps on the grass around the ring. I like the firmer footing of the grass compared to the arena. Today I trotted and cantered him in both directions for 3 laps. He can fairly easily keep his back up for most of this work. I can move his shoulders and haunches a bit because he is not protecting any leg.

He can now handle trotting downhills. The tripping is almost gone and so I will start to ride him on contact more. He is back to normal in the pre-ride groundwork department.

The days when he is limping on the LF are getting more and more infrequent. The left hind episode is gone through the power of no prayer whatsoever. If I could ride him 7 days a week instead of 5, I think he would probably be sound virtually all the time. If I could ride him twice a day I would. I wish I listened to my vet not to retire him although it is gratifying to bring him back. His canter, before he tires, is like sitting on a cloud. That was his best gait most of the time I owned him and that is coming back fastest. Of course canter is also easier than trot for an arthritis rehab.

I was reading about how to tell if your horse is lame. Short, choppy steps up front indicate they are bilaterally sore even if they are not limping. My horse was doing this for weeks and I thought he needed shoes. He probably needs shoes also but I think the chopping was the arthritis. Tripping also indicates unsoundness and he was certainly tripping. I was consigned to the thought that his trot was shot. But I have recovered his trot and it is at least 50% back to normal. And the tripping is almost but not quite gone.

At some point he is going to plateau and that is fine. It will be enough.


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