Are you playing games with your lessons? A favorite of kids and mine was, while on a lunge line, to play Simon Says. “Simon says put your left hand on your helmet…” Also I agree with others. Goals? At 8? I wanted to be a jockey. Seriously, I just loved to be at the barn. My first place had a dozen pastured horses in one herd. I’d go out in the morning and spend ALL DAY hanging out in the pasture with them. Several times a week. Just play now, she’ll figure it out.
At 10 I wanted to go to India, be shipwrecked with a horse on the way home…
I really didn’t have much idea about what actually existing disciplines I might like, I hadn’t experienced most of them on any kind of practical level. And even now I still like to do a little bit of everything.
”‹”‹”‹1. Ride with eyes closed and tell which leg is moving when. This is so useful.
2. Ground pole courses but “ride like a hunter” and “ride like a jumper” over the same course. Even at a walk or trot. You can talk about what angles are reasonable to jump at, how tight corners can be, how to get a flowy hunter corner.
3. Ground poles/Xs and pick your own course. Talk about what courses are acceptable/what makes sense. “Oxers” must go certain ways, etc. If a group lesson, first person picks the first jump, second person goes over one and adds one, etc. It’s a memory challenge and a course design challenge.
4. Dressage geometry and letters. Round circles. Precise transitions (even walk-halt-walk).
5. Showmanship/ground patterns. Keeping a horse walking correctly beside you, jogging a horse on the ground, more geometry.
6. Narrow obstacles for precision, either jump standards or cones to make skinny “jumps”.
7. If you have a horse who will do this and a surcingel, vaulting. Even just a kneel at a walk and around the world at a halt.
8. Open the gate while mounted.
9. All the games.
Combine a lot of the above into a crazy course. Some jumps to be “huntery”, 20m circle, “tight” rollback from the next jump to a “skinny”, halt at a specific spot, dismount and walk a section, stand the horse up and show to judge doing four corners, back on and pick up a bean bag from a barrel, bean bag on top of head through the next section, drop bean bag in a bucket and let yourself out the gate.
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