The three most recent Questions
|
Flying change of lead: my horse inserts a stride of trot
My
horse changes lead easily from the right to the left, but systematically
ads a stride of trot in the changes from the left to the right. Is your horse related to Trotters? When teaching your first changes of lead, did you ask directly for a flying lead change or did you change through trot? Nevertheless,
it is an interesting problem, and difficult to resolve. 1. Try to modify
your way of proceeding, to feel the very moment you must act by anticipating
or delaying the aids, by acting faster or more smoothly, by having a
clearer action of the upper body and by opening or closing your fingers
more. This should
put you on the right tracks. Watch… observe… All these factors have
great influence on your horse's psyche. It is by modifying the elements
that you will obtain a result. Very little
is often enough…! |
My horse confuses the outside leg aid for half-pass with the aid for
canter
The outside leg aid to ask for half-pass
is indeed very close to the aid for the canter depart. If the leg only
is used, the horse can be confused. A canter depart is not asked only with the outside leg. You must also move your outside shoulder back, put a little more weight in your left buttock, lighten the inside shoulder of the horse and move your outside leg back a little or very little. If the horse moves his haunches in, rather use your inside leg to ask for canter depart. The shoulders and the eyes are directed forward, in the axis of the horse. Unlike the canter, in a half-pass you must look in the direction in which you are going, putting your shoulders parallel to the horse's shoulders. Delicately send your hip and your body toward your inside elbow. To ask for half-pass, move your leg further back than for the canter depart. At the beginning, you can also use the voice aid. Say, "canter", like
on the lunge, for the canter depart. You might very delicately use a
crop on the inside shoulder for the canter depart (just the weight of
the crop) and on the outside hip for the half-pass. Rather ask for half-pass when leaving the rail on the short side of
the arena or on a diagonal.
Everything is a matter of tact, especially if your horse is sharp. |
When I ask for extensions at the trot, my mare forges. To what is this
due? How can I fix it?
When
a horse extends his trot distinctively, the hind legs hit the ground
well in front of the prints of the front legs. Therefore,
be very careful to keep your mare in balance on her haunches when extending
the trot, with her hind legs well engaged. The problem should disappear. If it continues, you can modify the shoeing of your mare. First,
have the toe of the hind legs squared off ("square toe"). For extreme cases like race Trotters who amplify their strides a lot, they use modified shoes (the outside branch of the shoe is longer) to try to spread their hind legs. But
we are outside the subject of classical riding… |
Posture-position / Walk / Trot / Canter / Shoulder-in / half-pass / Flying change of lead / Pirouette /
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|