Practicing test patterns for fun

Did you ever think of practicing test patterns just for fun? I know not everyone has competitive aspirations but if you are looking for a challenge and variety in your play and practice, test patterns can be a good learning tool and can be used in many creative ways.

Horses like patterns and shapes because they give them and their person intention and a goal. They give the horse a sense of purpose and destination. It is also a great focusing exercise for distracted horses and fearful riders.

Test patterns come in all levels and abilities so don't think you are not ready to try them. They generally start at the walk, trot/jog. You can also walk the whole pattern, trot in canter sections, and modify the patterns to your level. You can gradually work toward doing it exactly in your own time.

Obviously riding patterns is one way to use them. But you can ride them Bitless, Bareback, English, Western, Gaited or any other style you may do.

Did you ever think of just leading your horse around the pattern? You can practice leading from both sides and if you have a young horse, un-rideable horse, or a horse being rehabbed. This is a creative way to use patterns.

Another fun challenge is to do them at Liberty. Can to get your horse to do the patterns mirroring you? Can you get your horse to circle around you? You could put treats along the shape of the patterns and guide your horse to them. Be creative, modify the patterns to your own liking. Make up your own original ones!

If you do compete, these are fresh ways to practice and make it more fun. See the links here with Western Dressage patterns and USDF Patterns and enjoy the video of some patterns I make up.
Western Dressage Tests
USDF Tests
USEF Tests

Mounted Relaxation and Suppleness exercise examples

In riding and ground training, the best exercises allow for minimal interference from the rider and allow the horse to fully understand, participate offer his interpretation of what you have requested. You then can fine tune the pattern as the horse understands and raise the level of difficulty when it is appropriate. This would be when the horse is pretty consistent and relaxed in the exercise. You can then add the next element of difficulty which could be speed (change of gait), smaller circles, more impulsion etc.

Here are a couple of basic super simple Rhythm, relaxation and suppling patterns to try:

1. A simple Circle of 20 meters (aprox 65 ft): A circle ridden in a reasonably correct shape will naturally encourage the horse to settle into a relaxed, Balanced, and Rhythmic gait. For faster horses trying going 1-5 meters smaller. For less energetic horses, work with a large circle to encourage forwardness (energy). Change directions once you start to feel some consistency or if you have a greener horse who is taking a longer time.

2. When the above exercise is easy, you can add 6 strides straight ahead then circle, then 6 strides straight ahead, then circle and repeat until the whole pattern is as consistent as possible on the horses easy side first. Now go to the harder direction. Again here if you have a forward going horse you can reduce the circle 1-5 meters, And keep it nice and larger for the lower energy guys and even increase the number of straight ahead strides to 8-12. You can also keep switching directions back and forth.

As always, I would like to hear feedback on what you discovered with these exercises, any problems or successes in the comments section.

Stride counting exercise

Here's a simple little exercise which can easily be incorporated into any pattern shape like a circle, serpentine, figure eight or on the rail. It is also applicable to any discipline, English or Western.

I want you to pick 4, 6, or 8 strides to work with and stick with that same number the whole time you do this in both directions. So if you pick 6, use only six. Also use the higher number if your horse is greener and work your way down to the lower ones as you master the exercise at each number. So when you have it good at 8, go down to 6 and so on.

The first stage is to work on walk to halt at the stride number you have selected. So from halt you would count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 halt again and repeat on whatever pattern you have chosen to ride. I'm not going to tell you what this will do because I want you to discover it and report back in the comments what you found. All I will say is to do it until it is relaxed and as effortless as possible. Make mental notes of how it feels in the beginning attempts, and then notice changes until it's easy and relaxed. Make sure and stay in the halt on a slack but not loose rein for at least 5 seconds and that the horse will maintain the halt on the slack rein. If he doesn't, remind him of your request patiently until he does.

The number up repetitions is not as important as the moment you get relaxation and the feeling of little or no effort. When you get that, Let the horse stand and relax on a loose rein or free walk on a loose rein for at least 30 seconds before resuming and or changing directions. This can be progressed to trot to walk when it is good in walk to halt. This exercise can also be introduced at liberty and online first and I encourage this whenever introducing a new exercise or pattern before doing it mounted.

Pay attention to little changes good or bad leading up to it being good. If your horse is stopping crooked or sideways from where you planned to halt, Guide them calmly back to the spot you meant to stop. Let me know what you discovered in the comments!

http://fdhorsetraining.com/