[BarebackJourney]

Hey guys, I've been posting a few threads needing advice for the greenie I'm gonna be riding: Jake. Just wondering if I can get any advice on exercises for green horses that help them along to becoming conditioned and just all around, not so green. I'm going to be riding a few days a week and also doing roundpen work (did that today and he was VERY good - he doesn't have respect issues - he joined up with me almost immediately). Any suggestions?

[Apryle & Rayne]

Piaffe, flying lead changes ect......
jk ummm what is green broke for you? What are u training him in?
You can work on gait speeds and stops. leg yeilds, shoulder in ect.... and lateral movement really gets them supple....

[BarebackJourney]

Jake is riding english pleasure as of now. Green broke for Jake I guess means that he just all around needs a little more work. More muscle build, too. He hasn't been worked much so I'm trying to get him into shape. He can w/t/c but has some issues (check out my other threads). Thanks for the advice. What kind of lateral movement do you think I could work on with him?

[Drafthorse]

Is this the same horse who carries his head in the air?

If so, there are a few things you can start with to get all-around suppleness throughout his back and neck. You can lunge, but do not overdo it IMO. Lunging can be very beneficial, but it shouldn't override other important aspects of training.

Ground driving is an excellent tool in getting a horse to pay attention, become supple, and work on stering, collection, and engaging his rump. You can drive him over obstacles such as ground poles, raised ground poles, tarps, etc.

Undersaddle exercises:

1) Transition work - building, and falling. Walk, jog, trot, working trot, lope, canter. Then Canter, lope, working trot, trot, jog, walk, whoa. Then you can work on basic transition work - walk / trot, whoa / trot, trot/whoa, trot / canter, /walk / canter, and eventually whoa/canter and canter/whoa.

2) Stutter work -This will get his attention on you at all times. Start at a nice fluent trot, half-half and walk for BARELY a step and trot off. Do this severla times until the transition is easy, and it feels like a short stutter before a fluent trot again. This aids in using his rump, and concentration on the rider. Then do it at the canter.

3) Flexing exercises - Serpentines, circles, waves, leg yielding etc. Get him to respect your leg and seat above all. Counter bend and correct bend work.

4) Speed ratio - Transitions between collection and extention. Start at the walk, collected walk to extened walk.

(Edit: I've returned!! )

5) Speed Ratio - Transitions between working trot, extended trot, and collected trot - COUNT your strides and aim for 2 more, and 2 less then his normal. Do the same with the canter once he is ready.

6) Ground poles - Trot and canter poles in varying distances. So some bounces, some 1 stride, and some 3+ stride distances.

7) Trail ride. Never forget a good hack out to see new things and refresh his brain on the very BASICS without the stress of a working enviroment.

8) By this point the horse should be strong enough and balanced enough to begin flexion laterally and longly (Cant think of right word here, but ya get me?) . Start asking for his head, ASK - dont tell yet. He wont know what you want so the SLIGHTEST give = BIG praise and BIG release! Start at the walk, roll your heel up gently to lift his ribs, catch him with an outside half halt then tickle-tickle your inside rein. He should give to your inside rein, letting you see his inside EYELASHES, then he should give DOWN.Praise him. This is the baby steps to sucess and proper work ethic.

[Julia Slater]

You got a couple of posts out there asking about lowering his head and accepting the bit... So I'm assuming what ever you're doing now ain't getting nowhere.
Try this page...
Teaching your horse to flex is the first step towards laterals and collection and will go a long way towards teaching your horse to accept the bit.

You asked about patterns for the young horse...
I posted a few here

[Apryle & Rayne]

Draft Horse has a great outline! and as she said transitions are really good!

[Circle C]

Originally Posted by BarebackJourney

Hey guys, I've been posting a few threads needing advice for the greenie I'm gonna be riding: Jake. Just wondering if I can get any advice on exercises for green horses that help them along to becoming conditioned and just all around, not so green. I'm going to be riding a few days a week and also doing roundpen work (did that today and he was VERY good - he doesn't have respect issues - he joined up with me almost immediately). Any suggestions?

PATTERNS!!! Any and all kinds of patterns you can think of. Use cones, barrels, tires, etc etc. Just set them up and do 8million different patterns. It will help transitions, moving off leg and really staying between your legs.

Here are a few. ANYONE can benefit from these, not just barrel racers.
Good exercises for a barrel horse?

[amira_rox]

Originally Posted by Apryle & Rayne

Piaffe, flying lead changes ect......
jk ummm what is green broke for you? What are u training him in?
You can work on gait speeds and stops. leg yeilds, shoulder in ect.... and lateral movement really gets them supple....

No offence, but I would never expect a green horse to be able to perform a correct piaffe, without first establishing the basic lateral movements, shoulder in, travers, half pass, counter canter, and correct collection. For the correct piaffe a horse must be properly collected and springing forward on the spot, with the croup and hind quarters lowered, and a moment of suspension in between each step. The horse must be 'sitting' with it's weight, on the hind quarters. Anything less and its not a correctly performed, acceptable piaffe, and with a green horse, unbalanced, , the best they would probably be able to do is be forced to prance on the spot by jamming up with seat and leg. Thats just my opinion.

I would work on suppling with circles, fingure of eights, etc. to try and get the bend which will lead to the horse rounding on the bit, lots of transitions to increase balance, work on asking the horse to move of the leg by leg yeilding and asking the horse to make their circles larger and smaller with outside and inside leg

[JBandRio]

Originally Posted by amira_rox

No offence, but I would never expect a green horse to be able to perform a correct piaffe,

She was kidding read the next line

[amira_rox]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

THAT'S what JK meant!!!

Sorry, my internet speech is a bit rusty

Sorry about that, I probably came across a bit rude there, woops