This week in lessons...

This week in lessons we will be working on counter bend and flexions inside and outside. The most important thing to doing counter bend correctly is to remember that you are trying to take the horses nose and hip out, and not that you are trying to push the shoulder in. Pushing the shoulder in (usually with the hand crossing over the neck....) doesn't cause the horse to carry an outside bend, rather it causes the horse to drop its shoulder and/or get crooked.

When doing a counter bend, you also have to make sure that the rein on the side that the horse is bend towards needs to act like an inside rein and have a lot of give and softness; the bend needs to come from the leg on that side (at the girth). The opposite rein needs to act like an outside rein and maintain a steady contact that the horse can reach for and that prevents the horse from bending more than it is able to.

Doing counter bend to try bend exercises can really help show and correct how crooked a horse (or rider) is, as it is impossible to do this exercises correctly without having the horse balanced and working off leg aids.

For jumping, we will be doing Joan's course. It involves a fan jump, a skinny jump and a bounce.

It is interesting that Nicole's course diagram portrayed the arena as a tiny postage stamp space, whereas Joan's makes it look like a giant grand prix ring...perhaps perspective given their respective mounts?

Karen