How To Dressage

Main Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Article Categories
    • The Scales of Training
    • Dressage Theory
    • For The Rider
    • The Horse’s Paces
    • Dressage Movements
    • Dressage Competition
    • Horse Care
    • Dressage Troubleshooting
    • Interviews with GP Riders
  • Training Forum
    • Recent Posts
    • Register
    • Login
  • Our Book Range
  • Our Podcast
  • FREE STUFF!

logo

Header Banner

How To Dressage

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Article Categories
    • The Scales of Training
    • Dressage Theory
    • For The Rider
    • The Horse’s Paces
    • Dressage Movements
    • Dressage Competition
    • Horse Care
    • Dressage Troubleshooting
    • Interviews with GP Riders
  • Training Forum
    • Recent Posts
    • Register
    • Login
  • Our Book Range
  • Our Podcast
  • FREE STUFF!
Dressage Troubleshooting
Home›Dressage Troubleshooting›How to Refresh a Horse That has Become Stale in his Training

How to Refresh a Horse That has Become Stale in his Training

By How To Dressage
March 3, 2018
4769
4
How to Refresh a Horse That has Become Stale in his Training How To dressage


Dressage training can be pretty full-on for your horse, especially if that’s your passion.

While some horses accept their daily work happily, others can become stale and resentful.

So, how do you know if your horse has become stale and what can you do about it?

How do you know if your horse is becoming stale?

Most owners know their horses well enough to recognize a change in their horse’s way of going, attitude, or general demeanor.

Typical indications that your horse might be fed up with his work include:

  • loss of enthusiasm and energy
  • resistance or disobedience
  • avoiding being tacked-up
  • appearing listless and dull

Obviously, you should have your horse checked over thoroughly by your vet to rule out physiological problems, as well as checking the fitting and suitability of your tack and equipment before assuming that he’s simply bored by his work.

Re-lighting the fire

How would you feel if you had to do the same job, day in, day out, without ever having a break?  You would probably get bored silly very quickly!

And whilst you might find dressage challenging and absorbing, your horse may require other stimulation to keep him interested.

That’s not to say that you need to give your horse a complete lay-off; you just need to spice things up for him and rekindle his enthusiasm for his work.

Freedom!

Stable-kept horses can become bored very quickly when kept in such an unnatural environment.

If at all possible, you should allow your horse some freedom every day to spend time outside.  The horse’s digestive system works best if he’s able to move around at leisure, grazing as he does so, and constant gentle movement also helps to keep his joints loose and free from stiffness.

In addition, freedom is great for your horse’s mental happiness.

If you’re fearful that your horse might hurt himself, put him in a small paddock on his own, but within sight and sound of other horses.  Horses are gregarious, social animals and don’t thrive when isolated from their own kind.

Alternative activities

You can inject a little-added interest into your horse’s work regime by adding some alternative activities to schooling.

Groundwork

In addition to lungeing, long-reining makes a great addition to any horse’s work programme.

This can be especially useful if you have a spooky horse that is easily distracted at competitions.

However, long-reining is something of an art that requires practice in order to develop your coordination, so it’s a good idea to start off by long-reining your horse around an enclosed area until you are both confident.

When you’re happy that the steering and brakes are reliable, set out a selection of ‘obstacles’ in your arena or in a corner of your field.

These items could include:

  • buckets or cones set out in a line
  • balloons tied to a stick and placed in a cone
  • a tarpaulin on the ground, held down by jump poles set around the edges
  • poles spaced out for your horse to walk over
  • pots of plastic flowers

Now you can begin long-reining your horse around your ‘handy pony’ course.

In addition to improving your horse’s confidence at approaching and passing strange objects, pole work helps to improve the suppleness of the joints, and ‘weaving’ in and out of a line of cones helps to develop suppleness.

Try placing two poles parallel to each other with a couple of meters between them and practice your rein-back, or set two poles at right angles and execute a quarter pirouette to negotiate this ‘corner’.

These exercises are likely to be perceived as a game by your horse, rather than work and are great for keeping him interested, while craftily keeping up your schooling.

Go wild in the country!

Even if you don’t enjoy jumping, you and your horse might enjoy taking part in one of the many cross-country rides that are held in the spring and autumn months.

These non-competitive rides are usually organized by local charities to raise funds for good causes and take place across participating farmers’ fields.  Jumps are included around the ride, but they are completely optional.

These rides are perfect for freshening-up a bored horse, as well as raising money for good causes.

You can enjoy a bracing gallop if you want to or simply stroll around the ride at a more sedate pace.

Even if your horse is not confident at hacking out on his own, you could join a group of riders on the day or go with a few friends.

Another option is to box your horse to the beach or to a country location and just go for a long ride.

Working-out while hacking out

Hacking out can be used to give your horse a change of scenery, whilst discreetly incorporating some schooling.

Make sure that your horse walks forward and into the bridle during your ride and ensure that he remains supple around your inside leg when you negotiate corners and turns.

On long rides, allow your horse to work on a long rein for short periods to give him a breather, paying attention to the transitions in and out of the free walk.

When riding down bridleways, practice leg yielding or half-pass from one side of the path to the other, remembering to change the bend as you do so, and ride a few steps of shoulder-in, travers, or renvers along the hedgerow.  You can ride these exercises in both walk and trot, making sure that the transitions are obedient, smooth and sharp.

Think about your route before you set off and try to include some hills for trot and canter work.  This is great for encouraging your horse to use his hindquarters when moving uphill.  Try allowing the horse to stretch in trot and canter whilst riding with a light seat so that he can really use his back underneath you.  These exercises are great for improving suppleness through the horse’s back, as well as for improving his fitness.

Walking downhill is a really good way of working your horse’s pelvis and effectively giving him a deep physio work-out for the muscles in this area.

In conclusion

With a little thought, you can freshen up your horse while still continuing his training.

Try to include daily turn-out for total equine downtime, and spice up his weekly work programme by including hacking out, groundwork, and exciting day trips.

Related Reads: 

  • How to use Poles to Improve Your Horse’s Way of Going
  • How to do Basic In-Hand Work
  • How to Plan Dressage Freestyle to Music in 7 Steps
  • Rollkur Explained: What It Is And What It Isn’t

 

Previous Article

How to Improve Your Sitting Trot

Next Article

How to Ride Shoulder-In

How To Dressage

We are an information blog breaking down the How To's of dressage. All of our articles are put together by British Dressage judges to help you train your horse correctly, get higher scores and win your next dressage competition.

Related articles More from author

  • How to Ride Larger Horses and Bring Them on the Aids Dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Ride Larger Horses and Bring Them on the Aids

    June 24, 2020
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Stop Your Horse From Opening His Mouth Without Using a Flash Dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Stop Your Horse From Opening His Mouth (Without Using a Flash)

    January 9, 2020
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Stop Your Horse's Poll From Getting Too Low How to dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Stop Your Horse’s Poll From Getting Too Low

    July 30, 2018
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Work Your Horse Long and Low how to dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Work Your Horse Long and Low

    March 26, 2018
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Get Your Horse In Front of the Leg how to dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Get Your Horse In Front of the Leg

    March 29, 2018
    By How To Dressage
  • How to Stop Your Horse From Leaning on the Bit dressage
    Dressage Troubleshooting

    How to Stop Your Horse From Leaning on the Bit

    March 15, 2018
    By How To Dressage

4 comments

  1. Sarah Johnson 1 November, 2019 at 16:34 Reply

    This is a great article to understand how to reignite a horses spark especially if they feel stale with their training. I enjoying changing up my horses training when he gives me the impression he’s bored.

    • How To Dressage 1 November, 2019 at 17:47 Reply

      🙂

  2. Sarah Johnson 1 November, 2019 at 16:44 Reply

    This is a great article on how to refresh a horse that has gone stale.
    When I feel my boy is getting a little bored or stale we change up his riding even if it’s going for a gentle hack. He then perks up.
    This article would be good for those who are new to training.

    • How To Dressage 1 November, 2019 at 17:46 Reply

      Thanks so much! Horses need variety just as much as humans do. We’d all get bored doing the same thing every day.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

0

WANT MORE?

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • How to Have Patience With Your Dressage Training

    How to Have Patience With Your Dressage Training

    By How To Dressage
    January 19, 2021
  • How to Keep Your Horse up Through the Corners Dressage

    How to Keep Your Horse “up” Through the Corners

    By How To Dressage
    January 12, 2021
  • How to Understand a British Dressage Test Sheet

    How to Understand a British Dressage Test Sheet

    By How To Dressage
    January 5, 2021
  • How to Stop Your Horse From Coming Too Short in the Neck Dressage

    How to Stop Your Horse From Coming Too Short in the Neck

    By How To Dressage
    December 29, 2020
  • how to piaffe dressage

    How to Piaffe

    By How To Dressage
    December 22, 2020
  • How to Passage Dressage

    How to Passage

    By How To Dressage
    December 15, 2020
  • how to sit up straight dressage

    How to Sit Up Straight

    By How To Dressage
    December 8, 2020
  • Dressage Training Plan

    How to Structure a Dressage Training Plan for Your Horse

    By How To Dressage
    February 13, 2019
  • how to create the ideal arena surface footing for dressage

    How to Create the Ideal Arena Surface Footing for Dressage

    By How To Dressage
    October 31, 2019
  • How to Import a Dressage Horse

    How to Import a Dressage Horse (from Europe to the U.S.)

    By How To Dressage
    October 19, 2019
  • How to Fit Horse's Noseband

    How to Fit Your Horse’s Noseband

    By How To Dressage
    October 5, 2019
  • How to Safely Ride and Lead horses

    How to Safely Ride and Lead

    By How To Dressage
    March 13, 2019
  • How to use Poles to Improve Your Horse's Way of Going how to dressage

    How to use Poles to Improve Your Horse’s Way of Going

    By How To Dressage
    September 5, 2018
  • What is the Difference Between Bend and Flexion dressage

    What is the Difference Between Bend and Flexion?

    By How To Dressage
    June 25, 2018
  • How To Dressage
    on
    January 25, 2021

    How to Get an Independent Seat

    Hello Sandi, Thank you ...
  • Sandi walters
    on
    January 23, 2021

    How to Get an Independent Seat

    Please explain 'open your ...
  • How To Dressage
    on
    January 20, 2021

    How to Stop Your Horse From Jogging When They Should be Walking

    Hi Claire, Thank you ...
  • Claire
    on
    January 20, 2021

    How to Stop Your Horse From Jogging When They Should be Walking

    I ride a VERY ...
  • How To Dressage
    on
    January 20, 2021

    How to Stop Your Horse’s Poll From Getting Too Low

    Hello Marion, Thank you ...
  • Marion Boyle
    on
    January 20, 2021

    How to Stop Your Horse’s Poll From Getting Too Low

    A topic that might ...
  • How To Dressage
    on
    January 7, 2021

    How to Safely Ride and Lead

    Hi from the UK! ...

Article Categories

  • Dressage Competition (28)
  • Dressage Movements (44)
  • Dressage Theory (45)
  • Dressage Troubleshooting (45)
  • For The Rider (30)
  • Horse Care (39)
  • Interviews with Grand Prix Riders (8)
  • The Horse's Paces (22)
  • The Scales of Training (8)

Free Email Courses

how to dressage paypal dressage newbie email course

how to dressage competition email course

WANT MORE?

Useful Pages

Home
About us
View Our Book Range
Join Our Facebook Group
Forum
FREE STUFF!
Contact Us

See our social side

Our Podcast

how to dressage podcast
Copyright © 2018-2020 How To Dressage
Privacy Policy
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links that are included on this website are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you make a purchase. If you would like to support this website in some way, using these links will help you do exactly that. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.