Teaching pace to 1st Timers

[carolinagirl191]

I'll be teaching "pace" at an adult camp later this week. The camp is multi-disciplined, not eventing specific. These are pleasure riders looking to try new things. I have access to a steeplechase course, so I can meter and mark off distances. I want to teach them how to use a bridge. After a Q&A and a get to know them (for me) session we will move from a large ring to the course. (I did search the archives and found a couple of good practice suggestions).
I have no real expectation that these people are going to be speed deamons, I would hope to move them comfortably outside their daily comfort zone. What I want them to take away is working knowledge of their horses natural walk, trot, canter pace and what they have to do/how much they have to do to bump it up and bring it back.
Hopefully, I'll be engaging enough that they might 1) plan to enter our little unrec. event in Oct. 2) Give hunter pacing a try or 3) BOTH.
I'm looking for suggestions/exercises to flesh out their experience and an article or bullet list to give them as reference. Anybody kept a good reference article on pace? Thanks

[Lori B]

Now that is what I'd like to be doing this summer. Send me to horse camp! Or sending myself to horse camp. I don't have any suggestions to make, other than to remind you that many ammies are afraid of really going forward (me, until last year). If you help some of them get more comfortable with forward, that will be a big win for them. Understanding and managing pace is icing on the cake for such a rider.

[shawneeAcres]

One thing that is a real eye opener is to ACTUALLY MEASURE OFF and MARK a distance, 300 m, 325 meters and 350 meters for low level riders. ASk them to establish a forward canter and then time them thru 300 m, see how close they are to 1 minute and then work at getting to that pace, if they are up to it do this for 325 and 350 so they learn what that pace feels like. MAKE SURE to work on them actually galloping in two point, that is something that so many riders just don't do.

[Whisper]

Even if they're only going within their comfort zone, I think it's good to learn pace. My instructors have worked with me a bit on this, and when I went to the hunter pace last autumn, we discussed/practiced it a bit while schooling, and she made a couple of comments about it while we were actually out there (we won one of our pairs classes, and came in 3rd in the other).

So, in addition to galloping faster, have them trot, do a slow canter, and a fast canter, etc. See if you can help them fine-tune, or time them and have each rider (and maybe the people watching) guess how fast they were going before doing the official calculation. Maybe bring up the way that a horse who is on the forehand or getting a little tense in the neck and back feels like it is going much faster than it actually is in mpm? When a horse is a little eager, especially going back toward the other horses, it feels like you're hauling ass even when you're just cantering along. Can you also mark off a few spots *with* terrain, to get a feel for how the pace is a little different (especially downhills)? Can you give them exercises to do at the canter in a standard or dressage arena to work on getting a better feel/instinctive sense of pace?

[joiedevie99]

When we did this with pony clubbers, we marked out a track with stakes every 50m. We would start by asking them to go 100 mpm. It helped them get a feel for what was going to happen while going slow enough to really process it. We would yell "30 seconds left" when they were half way so they could judge how close they were to that 50 m stake. Then they knew if they were too slow or too fast and could adjust in their second 50 m.

Then we had them guess how many mpm their horses trot was- and everyone got a turn to trot it at their preferred pace and find out how many meters per minute it actually was. Depending on how everyone comes out, pick a nice forward trot pace and have everyone shoot for that. By the time you move on to canter, everyone will get whats going on and be a bit wrapped up in the 'game' - which works to your advantage.

[snoopy]

One thing that is a real eye opener is to ACTUALLY MEASURE OFF and MARK a distance, 300 m, 325 meters and 350 meters for low level riders. ASk them to establish a forward canter and then time them thru 300 m, see how close they are to 1 minute and then work at getting to that pace, if they are up to it do this for 325 and 350 so they learn what that pace feels like. MAKE SURE to work on them actually galloping in two point, that is something that so many riders just don't do.


:yes:

I like to use the 300 meter measure and start off doing it in three minutes, one and half minutes and finally one minute so that the riders get a feel for the pace at a slower speed as well as the faster pace.

I still do this with young horses as each horse covers ground differently...EG length of stride.

[InstigatorKate]

I was going to say mark out different distances with different color flags, each distance accounting for 1 minute of riding at that pace. ie red flag is 100mpm, yellow is 200mpm, green is 300mpm. Riders then have the opportunity to ride the distances at their comfort level, trying to get a feel for their pace against the clock. The less brave ones may want to do the shorter distances several times, while the speedier ones may want to do the longer ones. I'd go up to 450 which is a decent, controlled gallop.

[carolinagirl191]

Thanks for the input! They were great.
I had been told on Tuesday that these were real beginners, very timid, that I might have 2 willing to canter in the open. So, I marked 350 meters on the steeplechase course and 200 meters within the covered. We started mounted, discussed the concept of 2 point, bridging your reins and resting your knuckles on the neck. For those "worried" about a run away we discussed the useful tool "pully rein". Then we WALKED sitting and standing in stirrups. We raised stirrups and talked about getting off the horses back without collapsing and leaning forward on the neck. Then we trotted posting and in 2 point, talked about adjustability to send them forward and bring them back at W,T,C. They practiced cantering, hand galloping and collecting in the ring. Several were very effective at supporting w/ leg in the downshift. Paraded everyone out to the course and only 2 out of 11 didn't canter/gallop. I'm so proud of them. One lady, who I've only seen walk on a horse, cruised the 350 meters dead on novice pace. One of the mom's who has started riding trusted her daughter's horse and ran beautifully at training pace. Everyone was consistant and in control on happy, forward horses. Even my "trot only" lady, got off her horse's back and allowed him to move freely, balanced across the ground. There were lots of smiles and clapping for one another. Thank you all for your suggestions!