I thought I had it under all sorted knowing and understanding the theory behind a rider's ability to maintain a good connection with the outside rein and thus have solid control of the outside shoulder.
My horse, however, is very smart, and as a means of joking his way out of the more difficult exercises he would spin to the inside, playfully avoiding using his inside hind leg.
I thought he was being wicked, tried to re-enforce my inside leg aid and keep the bend to the inside. Actually my preoccupation with the bend to the inside left a weakness in my riding, in that I was also relaxing the outside rein. The important thing, which my horse reminded me, is that even if you are flexing the horse to the inside, you must not give away your outside rein.
This takes feeling, because of course if you don't allow with the outside, you may end up trapping the horses energy between both reins and really just pulling his head in. 'Allow', however, does not mean give away and the aid to flex to the inside or the outside for that matter must be used in unison with a controlled yet subtle easing of the outside, but without losing that connection completely.
Once I realised my error, I began to ask more subtly for the inside flexion, while focusing my attention on my outside rein and outside leg. Did I have control? Was he maintaining the straightness during the flexion? Or more importantly, was I maintaining my line throughout the flexion or did he fall through the shoulder, or change the course of our circle as I gave the aid to flex?
Once I learnt to ask the flexion, while still keeping my line on the circle, I realised I had regained control of the outside, allowing me to not only control the speed of the horse, but also the line of his shoulders, and thus the ability for him to move freely through his body.
To test me expertise, a dog ran along the outside of the arena and my horse got a nice fright. Within the split second I felt him go to spin towards the inside, but before he could get his shoulder around, my outside rein was there to say, "Ah no sorry, I have control of the outside of you and you will stay on my line".
After a very confused look on Batialo's face and a small snort/squeal of cheeky surprise we continued and the next time something from outside the arena took my horse's attention, he didn't even attempt to veer into the circle, already aware that the outside rein was still there, elastically waiting and maintaining the straightness of the shoulder.
Then the focus comes onto the outside leg, that must remain always relaxed, long, loose, and ready to apply itself should the second diversionary tactic take place; that is, the quarters in, or quarters out escape, where the horse instead of using his strength to come underneath and carry himself forward, he diverts his energy out the back door, through either the left or right side.
If you have an effective outside leg, which is ready to guide the horse on the straight or apply pressure if the horse goes to put the quarters out, then the horse will have to maintain his centre in the rider's realm and use the impulsion of the hind legs to push himself up and forward, and not lose the energy out the sides.
by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage
Photo © Astrid Appels
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