Ride balanced turns and confidently slice fences.

Schooling the shoulder in.

Mastering the slice.

Today's exercise utilizes very little equipment and can be helpful for a variety of rideability questions that come up on course.  With this simple pattern and single jump we can school elements of track, pace, suppleness and balance.

Start with the right flat work in your warm up. 

I always want my warmups to be a thoughtful progression through increasingly difficult exercises.  Start with larger circles at slower speeds.  Gradually work through large patterns in trot before introducing large patterns in canter.  Once your horse has schooled larger patterns at canter you can school smaller circles, tighter changes of bend and more intensive exercises in trot again. 

We want our warmup to focus on working the horse through the elements of the German training scale. Transitions and changes of stride length can school rhythm, smaller circles and changes of bend can school suppleness, leg yield and transitions can improve our contact or connection and so on.  

Schooling the shoulder in.

After a proper flat warmup you can begin schooling the shoulder in.  First lets start with a good understanding of the shoulder in.  The shoulder in is a valuable exercise for teaching the correct use of the hind legs and it improves the horse's suppleness, balance and strength.  It naturally strengthens the horse and riders understanding of riding inside leg towards outside hand.  

In the shoulder in the horse will be slightly bent around the riders inside leg bringing the horses forehand slightly to the inside of the track.  When done correctly the horse will fill out the outside rein nicely and and he sill be positioned between the riders inside leg and outside rein.  The inside rein is gently encouraging flexion while the outside leg is keeping the horses hips from swinging out.

Inside leg to outside rein.

To school the shoulder in prepare with a 10 meter circle in the corner before the long side.  As you complete the circle push into the corner a little more deeply and then as you come out of that corner ride the first step of the small circle off the track again as if you were going to repeat another circle. But instead of riding the second circle you are going to continue straight down the long side striving to maintain the same shape in your horse that you had achieved on the circle.  Maintain a slight bend and inside flexion.  Feel the bend and flexion help you truly connect into your outside rein. 

As soon as you feel your horse fall in or push through your outside aids and drift out immediately repeat a 10 meter circle to the inside.  The change in direction will help your horse regain their balance and the circle will allow you to regain the inside flexion and balance to the outside rein.  Ride out of the circle by stepping one stride back onto the circle and then continuing down the long side in shoulder in.  Repeat as many 10 meter circles as you need to as you continue down the long side.

Look through the circle.

Make sure you aren't using too much inside leg and causing your horses shoulders or hips to fall to the outside. 

Make sure you are achieving bend by pushing his ribs to the outside and not just pulling his head to the inside.  Don't bring the horses forehand too far to inside and force them into a leg yield instead of a true shoulders in. 

Over time you will be able to incorporate a few steps of shoulder in during many jumping exercises to increase your horses balance find connection in the outside rein and maintain impulsion from the hind end.

Figure Eight with circles and slices

This is a simple pattern that practices a variety of rideability elements.  At the very least this exercise will help the well schooled horse and rider practice landing their leads, executing accurate and balanced turns and confidently slice fences.  Being able to ride a nice angle over a jump is useful for jumpers making up time on course and are often an option we see in jump offs.  The angled fence can also make the hunter more brave and confident on the roll back and they are seen in our derby and special classes in many hunter rings.

Circles & Slices

Leads, balanced turns & confidently slice fences.

Lets start with the jump as just a pole on the ground and get the rider and horse comfortable with the track and the slice.

You can approach the jump off of either lead and you can start with just a very slight angle across the pole.  Keep your eyes up looking past the pole and your body balanced and patient to the pole. Make sure you keep your horse balanced in the outside rein.  You can use a little flexion to keep his eye towards the center of the pole.  After the pole you can school the horse through a simple or flying lead change and ride as far away from the jump as you need to to give yourself room to make the circle at the top of the arena.

Prepare to land the correct lead.

While you ride the circle you want to use the bend to push your horse out towards the outside rein.  You want to school them to be supple in the circle and the connection with the outside rein should balance them back to the correct rhythm.  As you complete the circle you want to look ahead of yourself on the track and visualize a chute towards the pole.  Once your turn is complete and you are on your track to the pole concentrate on pressing the horse lightly off the new inside leg towards the new outside rein without having them leave the chute.  As you get closer to the pole this slight bend will help keep his eye towards the center of the fence and the outside rein will help prevent him from falling out and running out on the pole.  Now you are able to school your other lead change and your circle on the other lead before approaching the pole from the direction you started.  I like that you can keep repeating the exercise to get on a bit of a flow and evaluate your horses balance on both reins.  It is easier to identify weaknesses on a particular rein when you are going back and forth between them comparing your horse quality of track and pace between the two reins.  

There are a couple of ways to progress this exercise.  First, with the jump remaining a pole practice more angle on your approach to the fence. You can also decrease the distance you ride away from the fence and there for decrease the size of the circle and the length of the approach.  Once your horse is comfortable with the angle and the circles being smaller and the distances closer you can build them jump. I would start with a cross rail to help the horse get centered on the jump. Your first time approaching the jump you may want to make the angle a little less severe and take a few trips to get your horse confident with the jump  before going  back to jumping the deeper slice and executing the smaller more difficult circles.

Trouble shooting

Try not to pull your horse around the circle with the inside rein.  This balance will encourage him to drift out on the approach to the fence and possibly run out. Make sure you have a true bend through his whole body and him balanced between the inside leg and outside hand so that your aids are working to turn him with out the inside rein pulling.  If your horse does run out analyze what happened before reacting.  Determine what went wrong so that you can correct thoughtfully and not emotionally.

If you find your horse very stiff in the turns or having trouble maintaining the rhythm go back to your flat work and school the shoulder in with circles again as well as transitions to help him regulate his rhythm.