[Blistering Winds]

Anyone go by the arena books to work your horses? If so, how long on each page do you usually work your horse?

the only one I currently have is the 101 dressage exercises.....it has a section for warm up that I plan on implementing starting today....as well as "loosening" exercises that will be added into the regimen on BOTH horses.....modified for Sage since she is still young and new to riding period. But having a focus point helps me anyways.

But not many of the pages does it give a time frame/repetition. Some do....some don't.

So if you do use some of these exercises, about how long do you stay on them before moving on???

[JustEnufFlash]

I don't know about the book you have, but I have one that explains the goals and purposes of each exercise. I too have a greenie, so when I introduce new exercises, I stick with them until we both have an understanding of the goal of the exercise...that way I'm never pushing too hard and he doesn't get overwhelmed or bored. Once you have a general understanding, I would choose similar exercises to build off the original until greenie had a good understanding of what you're asking. I usually incorporate 15-20 minutes of new work in a ride. Always end on a good note!

[JBandRio]

I think how you approach each exercise depends on your goals at any given time. For a horse who knows how to do the piece-parts, the exercises are a great way to make things interesting - do several each day.

But for a greenie, I found that for the most part, starting at the beginning and working on each one until it's pretty good, then moving to the next one, as JustEnuff said, is a great way to build a solid foundation. It's fun to pick a later exercise and have it point out where the holes are

[jumpthemoon]

We used to train with the author of 101 Dressage Exercises, Jec Ballou. When we rode with Jec we would work on one exercise until we got it right. Keep in mind we were riding a four year old; so sometimes we only focused on one or two exercises per lesson (45 minutes) depending on how difficult they were and how Hank was progressing. Hope this helps.