Hi!
I’m looking for some new flatting exercises to do on my own during hacks. I’ve looked around a lot but struggle to find many exercises. They can be simple or more complicated!
I appreciate any suggestions!
I know the struggle! As an adult ammy with competition horses at home, I get it. Here’s a little bit of my routine and then just what I like to throw in to my daily rides:
- WALK: while warming up the walk, start to ask for as slow of a walk as you can. I met one. Step. At a. Time. Then working walk, extended walk, etc.
- TROT: simple long side extension, short side collected sitting trot
- WALK: I don’t know if you consider cavalettis part of flatting, but my vet had me walk them on the highest height while rehabbing my horse and now I incorporate that into our exercises at home.
- CANTER: starting with a large circle and spiral inward slowly, then spiral back out. The key is to do it slowly, so that each ring is slightly more in/out
- CANTER: hand gallop down the long side, regular or collected canter (depending how difficult you want to make it) down the short side
- TROT: This one is good if your horse is dull to the leg like my jumper mare…from the trot, walk for as few steps as you can (preferably one) and pick the trot up again. Hard work for the hind end, so I keep this light if they do a couple good transitions
Other:
- I throw in the occasional turn on the haunches to change directions, doing this from the walk
- leg yields
- shoulder in/haunches in. I personally also keep this light because my horse tends to get wiggly if I over-school this, YMMV.
Looking forward to seeing other responses and getting ideas myself. Good luck!
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Thank you so much!
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I use RideIQ since I lack creativity. It’s fabulous and keeps me on track. Cost less than a single lesson.
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We, horses and humans, always benefit from more strength and better muscling.
This book teaches you how to develop both, on the ground and in the tack:
55 Corrective Exercises for Horses
Love, love RideIQ!
Also the other way round- shorten on the long side and lengthen on the short side.
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One of my favorites is having 3-4 trot poles set on a circle. Trot the poles, then pick up the canter for the circle, then downward transition and rebalance in time to trot the poles again. Rinse and repeat.
These are great ideas and you’ve given me things to incorporate in my ride this week!
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I like to warm up with walk squares to practice straightness and outside aids. I do these at the canter as well adding extensions on the straight sides of the square. You find out immediately how straight your horse is especially if you stay off the rail.
I also like shoulder mobility exercises, like counter flexing while walking a circle. Go slowly with these and let the horse really stretch.
I will also do extensions across the diagonal staying all on one lead so that one short side is the true lead (I usually do a circle before extending across the diagonal) and then counter-cantering the other short side.
I like doing canter to walk or canter to trot transitions for a set number of steps. For a more broke horse, I’ll canter 10 steps, walk 10 steps, counter-canter 10 steps, walk 10 steps, etc. Be really disciplined about the exact number of steps, can be more steps so you have more rhythm. Work to make your aids as small as possible and timing.
On really broke horses, I like to serpentine holding one lead and then eventually I’ll just wander around jumps in the ring (when I’m riding alone) holding one lead. This gives me a sense where the horse is leaning. This is best done without stirrups so you can really feel what the horse is doing underneath you.
Lastly at the canter, when you’re doing circles, play with pushing the haunches in and out. Best to start this at the walk to get the feeling.
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