Loose schooled the horses today

[SupersonicDave]

Was great fun!

ex racehorse gelding was an absolute star! Took him a few minutes to realise he was not on the lunge we had a jump up and he kept loloping round the school and popping the jump while we just stood there, his ears were pricked the whole time. He jumped about 3ft in the end. Was so lovely to watch him sorting it out for himself and figuring out where to put his feet. He was so pleased with himself. I think he learnt a lot.

My darling mare however, was a tramp galloped flat out unless she was squealing and bucking. She cleared the jump everytime but was not paying much attention to it, was more loose than schooled won't be doing that with her again.

that sounds fun, our school is not fully fenced at the moment so it would just be loose hooligans if I tried

how do you get them to jump?

Loose schooling over jumps is great fun and really helps horses to see a stride for themselves.

Mitchiest - I find a large whip is fairly effective at getting them to jump...

Hmm, fence is kind of a necessity

We had 2 of us in there with sticks, but actually didn't need to use them.

Also, make sure you have polos or carrots in your pocket so you can catch them again!

Going to film gelding next time.

want to see film of it! there is a secure 20x40 school I could use, it just feels small in there

is not as if mine aren't quite good at free schooling themselves when I'm not around though is it

I might try to loose school dhorse when the paddock isn't so slippy but it's not catching him I'm worried about. It's keeping him out of my space that's the problem, he gets a bit over-friendly and doesn't seem to realise that he isn't a puppy!

I think that by wearing a hat ad carrying a stick you can keep yourself safe. I put an old bridle (minus the reins) on them so they knew they were doing work, not just being turned out iyswim? As for catching them again, both made it very clear when they had finished and stood by the gate back into the yard.

I find it quite hard to get enough work into them in the short amount of time i have, so to get both exercised (and worked quite hard!) in one afternoon while DD was at pre-school felt like quite an achievement!