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.