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HOW DO YOU PRACTICE ALL THE THINGS?
I mean. I'm working towards first level dressage on Courage. I want to jump something decently by the end of the year. We toodle around western, but have no real goals.
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I keep getting stuck on the part about having to practice two totally different things on the same horse with the usual limited schedule of an adult ammy.
For those of you our there making two disciplines (or one that includes three) HOW DO YOU DO IT???
Loads of Dressage, basically. It improves his jumping, but jumping doesn't have quite as strong of an effect on Dressage. Dressage improves all the things.
ReplyDeleteI have to make a schedule for each week's rides, so ideally in a 6-ride week I shoot for 1 day conditioning (trot/canter sets), 1 or 2 days jumping, 3 or 4 days dressage. Sometimes I swap out a trail ride for a dressage or jumping day if we need the break, and am not opposed to adding in more of whatever seems to be our weak point at the moment. But definitely heavier on the flatwork and working on terrain vs jumping!
ReplyDeleteBack when I evented, I had a schedule for each week's 6 rides. Usually one day conditioning, one day of grids, one jumping (in a lesson), one 60 minute walk on the trails, and 2 days of dressage. Sometimes I'd switch out the grids for an extra day of dressage, or two days of conditioning instead of a day of grids, etc. But basically, you need a schedule and you stick with it. There's never enough time for all the things!
ReplyDeletei think about this a lot bc i'm actually not very satisfied with the current balance in our work load. i think we jump too much and don't dressage enough. and we also maybe don't get out of the ring for trail rides / conditioning enough. i think it perhaps might depend a little bit on what your horse does the best at and enjoys the most. something that they're already really good at might not need as much work... but then again you want to keep the fun stuff in there to prevent burn out.... idk. balance is hard lol
ReplyDeleteI completely suck at it. I often try to do some dressage-y work when I'm jumping, but really can't focus that much. I also can't do too many days of dressage without a break because of the two princess brains in this equation. So I just accept slow progress and frustration on both fronts.
ReplyDeleteYes. The scheduling must be crazy. I struggle with practising just the one discipline.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how they do it. I basically concentrate on dressage until I realize that Tucker is getting bored and that usually coincides with the boarders at my barn planning a jump school, so I play along over their warm-up jumps and then the jumps go up and I get nervous and watch. So yeah what I'm saying is I'm not good at this.
ReplyDeleteI don't. Lol
ReplyDeleteAgree! Much easier that way ;)
DeleteI'm lucky with my multidiscipline beast that her disciplines are eventing and dressage, so we have to practice dressage anyway. Honestly though, 6 rides a week, no excuses. It's the only way we can get to our A-game in both disciplines.
ReplyDeleteDressage helps all the things, for sure. Fitness also helps all the things... and, I don't worry about being the most awesome overnight. We just choose a skill, and improve on it. Then choose another skill, and improve on that. Changing it up keeps our minds fresh. ;)
ReplyDeleteUsed to event. Practiced dressage for three days a week, jumped two days and did cross country/trail riding with fitness gallops once a week. During the dressage schooling, I also did four minute canters/gallops on each lead for fitness. Had one day off. Switching the disciplines allowed various muscles a day off to rest and rebuild. Jumping in the arena always had a dressage type warmup...basically to establish suppleness and responsiveness. Even in the cross country stuff, dressage played a role. The first goal was always to have a responsive, athletic horse. Before a competition, I did not jump during that week, but just focused on the dressage. Most of that schooling procedure came from my trainer at the time who had been shortlisted for the US Team until her horse broke his foot. She knew her stuff.
ReplyDeleteDressage is the basic. As another Olympic trainer I worked with said, "The key is to get the horse to the fence. His job is to get over it. But you have to ride him to the jump." A supple, round, correctly moving horse jumps the best.
I grew up riding at a very competitive jumping barn. The type that spends winters in Ocala. And yet every rider spent a lot of time doing dressage as ground work. We didn't really even call it dressage. It was just what we did as flat. Dressage is training. It's the foundation for everything else. So when you practice dressage, you're also getting your horse ready to jump. So do the dressage as much as you need and throw in some jumping when you want to. I don't know how you work in the western. If you're looking to do western dressage then that's easy enough. If you want to do gaming, then I guess add some poles and barrels to your dressage. Again, the dressage skills - getting on the hind end, bending, etc - will all transfer to the other sports.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea. I still (kind of) event and it's hard. If you focus on dressage you get really good at dressage and then jumping gets bad. If you focus on jumping, jumping gets better, dressage gets bad. Like your dressage muscles and jump muscles ARE EXACT OPPOSITES. I think the answer is, ride six days a week. School dressage three times, jump once or twice, hack one day. But, hah, that's funny for an ammy...
ReplyDeleteAt least with xc, the principles aren't that different than stadium. You just might be a little more forward and get out of your seat. But schooling xc, the main goal is just to introduce your horse to a lot of different obstacles, and learn how to change his and your balance over varying terrain. But the basics to jumping are still the same.
Also, I hope Courage's leg is better! I'm too lazy to post on two haha.
When I evented, I would ride 6 days a week and have a schedule (jump x1, dressage 3x, conditioning x1, and hack out/trail ride x1). Sometimes we'd jump twice, sometimes we wouldn't jump at all. It was more of a, "if you want it, you'll make time to do it" type thing. That and I really did not want to die on XC.
ReplyDeleteI think what helped me was when I realized my training goals/expectations on my young/green horse were going to take much longer if I was cross training. Not that he couldn't be a great dressage and jump horse and trail ride but that any one aspect of it was easier when I was 100% focused on it. Our dressage game was on point and meeting my expectations only when we stepped back and were in a total dressage program. I don't have it figured out but I know that tension you're feeling is real! It's hard to be good at all the things! Also I didn't divorce my dressage work from my jump schools. We did the same dressage warm up before jumping and I worked the flat as if I wasn't taking a single fence until he was going around relaxed, obedient and supple. Same went for in between the fences/rounds.
ReplyDeleteDon't really do official multidisciplinary. But we do fairly dressage quality work on the flat before every lesson , then jump. I guess if you are dealing with different tack that's not as easy. I know I get better jumps after reestablishing my controls over shoulder, haunchs, half-halts etc. If your 5 days, then maybe two dressage, two jump with decent flat warm up, and one western/trail day. I'd prob have an OCD calendar written up.
ReplyDeleteI could also see using your western day as trail ride day, maybe with obstacles in beginning or end of ride. I can't talk right now, I'm barely getting to the barn.
I find that working mostly on dressage(my main focus anyways) is beneficial because it helps with all disciplines. Then the rest comes more easily; not easily, but more easily. If the horse does well at dressage, then the horse can most likely do well at at least lower levels in other disciplines. My trainer has ridden in almost every discipline,(though does;'t compete in anything other than dressage any more), and says that she mostly worked on dressage at home. If a horse is balanced and rhythmic like they kern in dressage, then then can probably do well at at least small jumps. So if I did dressage and jumping, I wouldn't jump as often as I do dressage. Even barrel racers and cattle horses, for example, can benefit from balance and rhythm learned in dressage.
ReplyDeleteI'm always up for trying new things. Basically I look at it this way. I want Brantley to be as versatile as possible. I'll get to the barn and depending how much time I have... I'll pick and choose what I want to do. But I agree with most people up top, dressage is something to totally focus on because with that will come the other stuff too! Hell, you could work in some cross-rails into your dressage pattern if you wanted to. Your limit is your imagination. :D
ReplyDeleteI started to write the longest comment ever and decided to turn it into a blog post. Ha.
ReplyDeleteIt can be hard! I don't know how those that are competitive in english and western on the same horse do it. I feel like being competitive in dressage and jumping would be much easier. I came from the school of thought that jumping shouldn't be done more than one or two days a week. So, school the jumps a couple day a week, then spend the rest schooling dressage.
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