As anyone who owns lesson horses knows, it’s a constant struggle, and balancing act, to keeping your horses conditioned and keeping your lesson kids happy. This is an exercise that I used to do with my former trainer and while it sounds simple, my students really started to get a feel for what it’s like to have an adjustable horse simply because we made a game out of it!

What You’ll Need:

2 Ground Poles

Set-Up:

Set your ground poles in a line that rides a nice, easy 6-strides.

The Exercise:

Ask your students to ride through the line without any other instruction. Since some horses have naturally shorter strides, they may get seven strides comfortably while other horses may get the six strides due to a naturally longer stride. The goal for this exercise is to have your students successfully add and subtract strides in the line thus learning how to lengthen and shorten their horses. Because this exercise includes a “challenge”, students see it as a game thus working harder to get the correct number of strides.

I used this in my lesson this past weekend and the results were fabulous. Horses were engaging their hind ends and students were beginning to realize their ability to adjust the stride of their horses.

If you try it out, comment with your experience! I’d love to hear!!!!