Easter Rides at East Devon RDA.

The last week before Easter at East Devon RDA, I took both the Thursday and Friday riding sessions.
 Easter cakes  and Easter eggs were  brought in for every one to enjoy.

 

 

I designed a course of different things that the riders had done with me over the few weeks that I had been covering the riding sessions.

I even made a 'gate' using two blocks and a pole.
which I used to teach all the riders how to approach a gate and open it.

Once the riders had got on their horses and settled into their riding, we did all the obstacle's that I had put up in the arena.

The riders did the course once, then a lot of the riders that had been coming off the lead rein came off the leading rein for the second time of doing the course, they also had to look out for cardboard pictures of Easter eggs that were hidden in or on the obstacles, which they exchanged after they had got off their horses for an Easter egg and cake.

   

The course was.

First they had to bend around the cones and then stop between the uprights move a bean bag from one upright across  to the other upright.
Then they had to walk to the upright by A and pick out a coloured ball which they carried and placed it in the matching coloured bucket while walking towards C.

 

 The riders then walked through my 'road' and turned to either trot or do a nice walk from one block to the next block.
Then they walked to the 'gate' and asked for it to be opened ,the riders had to remember to say 'thank you' to the person opening the gate and wish them a 'Happy Easter'.

Everyone had a lot of fun and felt they had achieved a lot over the weeks.

On the Friday after the rides I was given an Easter egg to say thank you for coming and covering the rides over the previous weeks.
Over coffee I was asked if I would do the rides on a permament basis, I agreed to do the Thursday rides after Easter as I am able to move some other work around,Friday is a little difficult to do permanently.

 

 

 

 

Friday riding sessions.

My third week of taking the Friday riding sessions at the East Devon RDA group I wanted to carry on with the same theme as the last couple of weeks using poles on the ground, I used a similar idea as I had done last week by putting poles on a  20m circle, this time I used both ends of the school so two riders could use one end and another two riders the other end.
I also used two uprights and some cones, as shown on the layout plan.

The helpers on the Friday sessions are not the same ones as that come on a Thursday so I was able to see if these helpers found my layout plan useful to use. They were impressed with it and all agreed it made setting up a lot quicker as everyone knew what was needed and where it was to go in the school.

I had bean bags and other items on the trays of the uprights.

The cones were set up down one side, these were used to warm up both the riders and horses.
We did some of the exercises over the poles that we had done over the last couple of weeks.

One of the exercises was to walk over the poles one way doing a whole circle,then walk to the upright and then stop collect an item off the tray and walk across the middle of the school to the other upright and stop,place the item on this tray and then when reaching the track turn and go the other way and over this circle of poles.
 For the last session where the riders are needing more of a challenge I got them to ride a small circle around each of the poles and then a circle around the outside of all the poles.

All the riders enjoyed their riding sessions and found these exercises quite challenging.

Some of the riders managed to ride off the lead rein towards the end of their session, which gave them a great sense of achievement.

The helpers enjoyed the sessions as they found it better than just walking around the outside track in the school.

More Relief Coaching.

I got a phone call from the chairman of the RDA group that I have been doing the relief Instructing for to see if I could take another session at very short notice as the Instructor was not able to take the session, luckily I was able to move some other work around and could do the sessions for them. 

I hadn't taken these sessions for a very long time so there wasn't any riders that I had instructed before, I knew also that there would be a lot of helpers that I wouldn't know and they wouldn't know how I work so I made up a riding session layout plan template that way I could design the layout of the school and they would be able to follow it and set up the arena for me.

They were very impressed  and it worked really well, so next time I see my instructors on group visits I'll be able to show them and see if they think they would find it useful.

 It certainly helped me with planning the sessions and allowed me to think of how I could adapt the various things to cater for all the riders, it also means I can save the plan for future use.

I kept the layout very simple for the riders as I wasn't sure of their ability.

I used barrels, cones, poles and uprights.

Here is the plan of the layout that I did.

I got the riders bending through the cones so they could practise their steering, some where able to do this without very much help.

I wanted to get the riders thinking about where they were riding so placing the two pole on the 5m line down the K H side, I got the riders to steer off the track and walk along side the poles and then re-join the track before the corner, this is the starting of getting them into the idea of 5m loops.

There were  items placed on the uprights, the riders had to stop by an upright and collect an item and walk through the 2 poles over X and place it on the other upright, this was good as they could change the rein when reaching either B or E. I added in a halt through the poles as well to create a more challenging exercise.

The barrels had items on, so riders had to collect something from a barrel and then either steer through the cones and place it on the next barrel, or steer of the track and walk along side the two poles, making the loop, then place the item on the next barrel.

I was very impressed with some of the riders as they did some very good steering and stopping, some even managed to do these exercises off the lead rein, the helpers all enjoyed the variety and thought it was a good with the loops as it made a change coming off the track around the arena. 

I got the thumbs up from the riders too as they all said they had enjoyed their ride and found it fun.

Relief coaching. Second week.

Accuracy

Relief teaching again the following week I wanted to carry on with the same theme of accuracy with the riders.
 So I use the poles in a very similar way to the previous week in that I placed them in a 20m circle using four of the poles and the other 4 poles I placed on a 10m circle inside the larger circle.

This time I placed the uprights with the trays on at the outer ends of the poles on the large circle.

The trays had various items on.

I used this layout in several different ways.

I first got the riders to walk around the outside of the large circle, then after they had done this, I got them to stand next to each pole, making sure that their leg was beside the upright.

Then the riders had to move an item from a tray to, first the next tray, then to a tray that I said.

The riders first walked over the large circle of poles and then over the small circle.

Making sure that the horse that they were riding went over the coloured part of the pole.

 

For some of the riders in  the last session, I brought in the idea of leg yielding using this layout, The riders walked over the centre of the pole, then they asked their horse to move away from the centre of the pole to the outer coloured part of the pole nearer to the outside of the circle by using the leg, they could see how well they got on by where they walked over the pole. 

For the first session riders, when they were walking around the outside of the large circle, I got them to count out how many strides that their horse had made till the next upright, they did this to each upright until they had gone all the way round the circle.

Some where the same and some had different number of strides.

This brought in the idea of rhythm and paces. Riders can be encouraged to ask their horses to make bigger or smaller steps so as to ride each segment with same number of paces.

All these exercises where done on both reins.

Although these riders only walked these exercises, trot could be incorporated by trotting round the outside circle, practising transitions from walk to trot, from 1/4 or 1/2 circle uprights, aiming to show the change of pace as the rider goes by the upright, (accuracy ).

Then progress to trot, walk and halt transitions doing this on both reins.