This week in lessons

Two weeks ago we worked on a perfect 20 meter circle, and that went very well. Last week we worked on a 15 meter circle and found some issues, in particular at the canter, with some horses/riders only able to do a good 17 meter shape, so we will return to that one day.

This week though, we are going to use the 20 meter circle to develop a good leg yield. On a 20 meter circle, the horse requires very little bend to maintain the shape, which is part of why it is so easy. For a leg yield the horse should have NO bend through its body, and only a slight tip of the jaw/nose away from the direction of travel.

So in this exercise, we will do 3/5 of a 20 meter circle, then start to turn a little sharper to go down a little past the quarter line, a rebalancing step to package the horse together and then bring the inside leg back to push the horse laterally to the wall. This uses the horse's natural desire to get back to the wall to help with the leg yield.

The most important thing when doing the leg in this manner is to keep your hands together close to the neck! You do not want to open your outside rein or you will be encouraging the horse to fall out with its shoulder to the wall. An opening inside rein may be helpful if the shoulder starts to lead, but in general, it is usually more helpful to balance the horse back, straighten it out by going forward, and then asking for the over again.

In jumping we are going to count down striding to a jump on an arc/turn, and do some work jumping verticals at interesting angles. It is helpful if you can see a distance when jumping out of a tight turn as the horse doesn't have as much time to set itself up, and if you are jumping at an angle, the horse won't have a clear view of the jump out of both eyes, so its depth perception is compromised.

To assist, the rider must keep the horse between their legs and to the center of the jump (or at least make sure that both horse and rider are aiming for the same part of the jump!). Even pace is very important, as is keeping the hands close together.

(Miranda was the clear winner at counting down strides last week...way to go Miranda!)

Karen