Developing KD's dressage training schedule

Oh yes, look at me go. I'm so into my horse's new name that I'm even calling him by his stable name already. Wooh!

I realised last night that since I've such a long lead up to picking up my new pony, I've been putting off a number of tasks for various reasons, such as 'don't bother buying extra tack til you know your new horse's colour/size'. One other thing was a training schedule for the first week back. But... well.. I'm picking him up on Saturday morning. And it's thursday afternoon. And I'm working for the next 2 days and have things planned for both nights.... oops.

So I spent my lunch break today frantically googling training schedules. I had spoken to a few pony people about it recently but hadn't taken it much further. I found a great resource today by Michael Hillman and plan to use it when drawing up my plan for the next wek. But it also includes  a number of other useful tips to consider for the long term, such as:

• spend time building goodwill with your horse - for example spend a lot of time grooming. Who doesn't love a good massage?!
• Have a plan but be ready tp adjust it for conditions, your headspace or your horse's mood
• Using hacking out as a good time to practice dressage movements as generally horses love hacking out and so are moving forward and relaxed.
• Remembering to take a step back and change things up if it's not working. Hillman points out the old axiom: 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different. If its not working, change something'. This is something I need to remember as too often I get bogged down in trying to do something rather than taking a breath and trying a new approach.

There are some points that conflict with other things I've heard, such as Hillman recommending bringing in new content at the end of a session whereas others recommend doing so after a warm up at the start. I think I'll take the middle ground, as Hillman was still right - start the session doing things the horse knows and is comfortable doing; but then I'll move into doing a new movement early while KD is still fresh enough to take in new material. Another point Hillman raises conflicts with a great book I'm reading at the moment by Denny Emerson. Emerson argues that no matter what, good riders ride every day no matter how they feel. Hillman argues the opposite - he says if it's raining, you don't want to go out and neither does your horse so build some good will and groom or do something else instead. I think Emerson is more focused on pushing the lazy or unmotivated rider while Hillman is approaching things from building a lasting relationship with the horse (though he does point out that a few wet sessions will do the horse good in preparing them for wet weather competitions). So again, I'll take a middle ground - I wont let myself squib out if I'm not feeling well/lazy/having an 'ugh' day; but at the same time I won't ride just to prove a point if the weather is beyond foul!

Hillman's article is available from - I'll be keeping an eye out for more from this writer/rider!
http://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/horses/training_schedule.htm