Looking for feedback for a winter weekly training schedule to help keep me on track for the next 3 months…spring will include hacking and hills. Thinking something like the following. Looking to work on changes for spring 3rd level showing goals
Day 1 -Day off
Day 2 -Stretchy with lots of canter work
Day 3 -Lateral & bending exercises
Day 4 -Canter work
Day 5 -Compression/extension exercises
Day 6 -Patterns / cavaletti
Day 7 -Stretchy
Every horse is different, so you need to find out what works best for you. Personally, I’ve done well doing a program similar to Carl Hester where I work my horse no more than 2 days in a row before we do something completely different, like go out on the trails, etc.
I try to do this even in the winter. Some days it means all we do on the trails is go for a walk if the ground is hard, but I find that keeps my horse’s mind fresh for when we do go back in the ring.
I’m curious to see the responses to this… We don’t have a set plan with my horses, but tend to go more by how they are showing us they need to work. So on days when they’re higher headed and tighter, we use lateral bend to get them to lengthen and round the whole body and swing. Days when they’re pushing forward happily, they are asked to sit and do lateral work. Etc. I’ve found that a notional rough idea is great, but sticking to it is never really precisely possible.
I also love to ride out when possible, and had fun yesterday taking advantage to the extra energy of a trail ride to get the canter I needed for counter canter, canter-walk transitions and really swingy lateral work. My friend I was with used the energy and flow to get some changes - they seem to work best schooled outside the arena.
I do like SnicklefritzG too (Carl Hester and many FEI riders)
2 days of work
1 day “off” : Trail ride / long and low / hacking type of ride / lunging / a real day off.
Training days : the focus can be on either one of these training elements.
Stretchy/compression
Lateral work
Transitions/quickness
Figures
Cardio
Muscles
I might vary the warm up a bit but I usually work 3 or 4 days in a row, then a day off with no human interaction, then a hacking out or poles day then back to the 3 or 4 days of work.
Work days at this level all begin And end with stretchy circles, then lateral work/half passes and always some exercises on changes I like to do bigger/smaller steps at all three gaits, even if it’s just a few out and back along the long side
I get bored dedicating a riding session to just one thing
I think your winter schedule looks good.
All of my workdays include compression/extension exercises (that is: “on and back”, small steps and big steps, every day in every gait). Every warm up includes lateral work at the walk, generally leg yield to get him to “give” over his back.
Reading with interest, as I have not gotten a horse up the levels, having mainly ridden lots of babies. But I also don’t have an indoor arena, so my winter riding is also weather-dependent. If I look at the extended forecast and see that the Arctic blast is coming, I may ride 5 days in a row, but try to mix up what we do to keep it fresh, knowing they’ll have 3 days off coming. I try to ride at least 3-4 days a week in the winter, and they have regular turnout. I just had a lesson (I haul to indoor about 5 miles away), and my mare was much more consistent in contact (former hunter now focused on dressage) but she was too out of shape to stay solid in canter for long. I figure even if we walk and do lateral and work on contact and transitions within gaits, we can get the conditioning back as the weather improves.
I personally like to combine lateral and bending with compression/extension work. A trainer I worked with last year had me do that and it was really helpful.
I’ll echo these ideas and add in “in hand” work/flexions. They have really helped my program, as well as longing on gentle arcs (more controlled) to see the symmetry and movement (with bend).
My ridden work tends to follow a general pattern were I do a lot of transitions to the halt, on and back, and work on straightness. My horse does really really horrid work if not even in both reins- the tricks are there, but need quality. So I probably look more basic than I should, but if I then do one or two exceptional SI or whatever I’m good! 
This isn’t a horse you can sort of hope and pray through a movement. Just my impression, its not typical.
OP, I think you are really limiting yourself by saying each day I’ll work on X. And at least for me, a lot of what you list is incorporated into every ride.
My typical weekly schedule is, for example, a lesson or schooling ride on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, with a day off on Saturday, and stretchy/fun rides the other days. Those might just be stretchy rides with trot and canter and transitions, it might be cavaletti, it might be a trail ride, it depends on the weather and the availability of space in the arena. I don’t do back to back schooling rides because my particular horse is one who tends to get tight through the back, and I myself tend to get sour as well, so breaking it up works best for us. But our stretchy is serious stretchy, often with transitions within and between gaits, serpentines and smaller figures, even lateral work, all while stretching.
Schooling rides/lessons, I use transitions within the gait, between gaits, and easy lateral work as my warm up every schooling ride. Then, depending on where I feel we are lacking on that particular day, we’ll pursue that for the ride. So we touch on everything you mentioned, but there’s no set schedule to work on each thing because horses just don’t work that way. You may want to work on canter, but if horsey decides that day he’s feeling really good and has forgotten what a half halt is, it’s time for transitions between and within gaits.
[QUOTE=Nestor;8997821]
OP, I think you are really limiting yourself by saying each day I’ll work on X. And at least for me, a lot of what you list is incorporated into every ride.
[snip]
Schooling rides/lessons, I use transitions within the gait, between gaits, and easy lateral work as my warm up every schooling ride. Then, depending on where I feel we are lacking on that particular day, we’ll pursue that for the ride. So we touch on everything you mentioned, but there’s no set schedule to work on each thing because horses just don’t work that way. You may want to work on canter, but if horsey decides that day he’s feeling really good and has forgotten what a half halt is, it’s time for transitions between and within gaits.[/QUOTE]
This is how I school my horses too. The first 15-20 minutes of every ride are testing how my horse feels under me, the next are targeted work to improve whatever needs it, and the last 15-20 min are something completely different and that my pony finds easy/fun to reward the try from the middle bit.
I also keep a “macro” view of the work as well-- just to make sure that a) I don’t fry a pony brain by drilling something that needs time to sink in, and b) I don’t neglect to work on other things that will bite me later when I try to progress.
Life’s a bit complicated with work-- I don’t always know what days I’ll have time to ride, so I take advantage and school every day that I can. I don’t always school for 45-60 min-- sometimes I just warm up and then go for a trail ride.
My experience: my horses’ trot and canter work is usually out of sync with the levels. One day the trot work is easily 4th but the canter is struggling at 2nd, and the next I’m having no issues with the canter but can’t trot peacefully along in a straight line to save my life. My recommendation is to keep progressing the connection at each gait and leverage the higher-quality gait to help the lower one.
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