First Thursday as the Instructor at East Devon Group.

The first Thursday teaching as the Instructor at East Devon RDA, I decided to go over things that the riders had done before we stopped for the Easter break so I got the helpers to set the school up as shown below. The helpers are finding that using my layout plan sheet very good and it doesn't take very long for them to set out the school how I would like it to be set up.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
        I wanted to get the riders to do a lot of steering today and halting to improve their control of the horses.

 I used the above plan in these various ways. The riders did all these exercises on both reins.

• I got the riders to steer through the cones which were down one side.
• The poles were placed on the 5 m  line so the riders had to steer through 3 cones and then walk between the 2 poles. 
•  I got the riders to stop between the poles, I asked them to count to a number before walking on and steering through the next set of 3 cones.
•  The riders were asked to take an item from one upright while they were stopping between the poles and then walk around to the next set of poles and stop between those poles,placing the item on that upright. As well as going around on the track, riders were encouraged to go around in a circle.
• The riders walked from a barrel to the poles on the 5m line and then back to the barrel in the corner, sometimes being asked to stop between the poles and count to a number.
• The riders that are trotting were asked to trot from one barrel and then walk at the next barrel, this was good as the riders had to prepare to walk and trot.
• The riders were also asked to collect an item from one barrel and steer through the poles and place the item on the other barrel.
• Riders were asked to change direction by going down the centre line, sometimes stopping at the uprights which are placed at 'X' , some riders swapped items between the uprights.

The above exercises also incorporated several dressage movements.

• 5m loops.
• Riding down the centre line.
• Halting at X.
• 10m circles. 
• Halting and immobility for 5 sec

All the riders enjoyed their riding today and did some very good steering though the obstacles and stopping, whether they were using their reins or just their body to control their horses.