[ ] ENVIRONMENT/EQUIPMENT/SET UP REQUIRED:
This lesson plan requires very little preparation – just the regular review of the riding area for safety, removal of jumps etc. The sandring or the arena is appropriate, as letters on the wall are not needed etc.
- Horse selection can be important, in that a horse who often picks up the wrong lead can make a good example, especially in a group of 3. It is also important that students have learned to identity where the horse’s legs are during walk.
Introduction/Explanation (10 min)
[ ] instructor self-introduction with credentials
[ ] TACK CHECK, with explanations
[ ] SUITABILITY OF HORSE, with explanations
[ ] Instructor will be positioned to see all riders at all times (i.e. corner of the arena)
[ ] Warm Up with positional corrections, walk/trot/canter assessment type lesson. Instructor will be sure to determine that riders understand right rein and left rein, and can discuss trot diagonals.
[ ] Discuss the correct aids for transition, to confirm background
[ ] Describe canter movement, ensure rider can sit the canter
Canter is a three-beat gait with the footfall pattern: of initiating hind leg, diagonal pair, leading/inside foreleg, plus a moment of suspension.
[ ] Ensure rider can sit the canter (upper body erect, the rolling/floating-rocking horse feeling/energy coming from rear to front; Rider’s seat follows the motion of the horse’s back)
[ ] Student Practice to identify their correct lead by feel (or when absolutely necessary by dropping our eyes).
[ ] Discussion of Corrective Aids for correction of lead:
put inside seatbone forward to give horse warning
Exaggerate the correct aids
give with inside rein
ask going into a circle because the fence controls the outside of the horse and establishes correct bend, also try circles of various sizes
Remember to praise the horse the instant he gets it right
Demonstration:/Practice and Corrections (8 min);
[ ] Riders will line up facing the clock to watch a fellow student(s)/demo rider do 1 or 2 canter transitions while we discuss whether the correct strike off was achieved.
[ ] Then they will go out and canter together and call out to instructor if they are on the correct lead, and look at each other’s lead and comment on that also
[ ] For progression/more advanced riders, the final exercise can be a rider’s choice canter strike off on centre line, with a turn at the bottom of the arena onto the rein of the lead.
Summary and Conclusion (2 min):
Ask for feedback "so what happened there?"
A following lesson can be a simple change of lead across the diagonal.