I need some ideas on what to do with my 4 yr old paint gelding while riding so neither of us get bored. He's very green so we only walk and trot right now until he listens better. He stiff necks alot so I end up doing bending stuff alot, circles, figure eights, an flexing. But i'm sure he has to get bored of doing that, so I need other things to throw in the routine. I mainly ride him bareback for now, He's as laid back as can be, just stubborn. any idea's are welcome from any dicipline.
Make some Obsticals For him, Like Walking over tarps, go around a barrel, get those swimming noodles and ask him to walk over them, You can do ground work to, Flex him on the ground, Lunge him, There are lots of stuff to do, What about a trail Ride, not a long one though, instead of working with him in a ring all the time take him out in a field and do circles and stuff there.
Oh yes i know i already answered Before but i just of another thing, Haha, Ropes, Get him used to ropes around him, under his tail so in the future he wont be scared and try to buck it off.
My trainer set up a box - she put blue blocks at 4 corners then laid ground pole between them to make a box. Keep your corner blocks at the ends of th poles, no wider. You can do all sorts of stuff with that. Go straight down it from any side, cut across the diagonal through it at different points, go around it, trot to the middle and then walk out. You can raise the ground poles and make crossrails out of any or all 4 sides, do verticles. It was amazingly fun and could get pretty complicated. I doubt he could get bored with that.
Add that to serpintine, figure eight, circles of various sizes and working on walk, trot, halt transitions and he coudn;t possibly get bored!! :)
thanks for the ideas, I have trotted him over little bitty jumps before (like 9" off the ground lol) so I will probably set something like that up, and I like trail riding him it's just rained so much lately I can't ride outside its so muddy so until it drys we're inside the barn arena. and I like the tarp idea, I just have to find an old tarp