Everyone who has ridden a dressage test knows the cold sweat that centre line encourages. Riding a horse in a straight line is easy if you know how to go round in a circle.
There’s no need to get dizzy…. get direction
Do you manage a close approximation or an accurate set of 4 arcs joined exactly on the quarter points when you ride a circle?
What happens as you leave the security of the boards and turn into your circle? For the unwary and the unprepared your horse will fall off the track and onto his inside front leg and this will doom your circle to be ovoid ….or even rather square as he swings his quarters out and away!
Testing your circles out.
Having someone on the ground is very helpful. If you are with a trainer they can watch how you are riding and point out what you are doing and how you could improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your circles. Its so easy to fool yourself but a good instructor will quickly pick up on how your riding is affecting your circles.
During your sessions you and your trainer can work on using circles to improve everything from transitions to trotting down that all important centre line.
Have you ever actually tried it yourself on your feet?
Walk then jog in circles (you can do this when no one is watching or you can let people know exactly how eccentric you really are! )
Walk in an arc one way and then move into the opposite arc. Be aware of how you use your balance, and your weight to achieve the change in direction. Do this at greater speed and see how smoothly you can do this without falling into the movement and loosing your balance. Go round in a circle and decrease the dimensions noticing all the time how and where your weight is. Shift your body change where the tensions are change where the weight is in your body. Push off with your outside leg and then change to pushing off with your inside leg. Turn your shoulders into the circle then turn them away from the movement. Its so simple and its an interesting exercise and helps you see how much subtle movements in yourself drastically influence your stance, weight, flow and momentum. Try gently exaggerating the movements as you ride, change your weight and use the feel of pushing off with your inside leg on your walked circle and see how that affects the horses ability to turn then try allowing the weight to drop down into your outside stirrup, how does that change the way you are sitting on the saddle?
Practice circles at home.
Do this at walk on a loose rein and be aware of the direction and way your horse moves. As you did on the ground combine this with concentrating on the movement of your shoulders and see what affect this has. Your shoulders, head, arms and hands are directing the direction of travel you’re going in and everything below your shoulders is generating the momentum and flow of the movement from the other end. Remember that your eyes must look directly at right angles forward from your shoulders and with luck (if things are going to plan!) should be looking forward through the horses ears. To check on progress check if you are in fact looking between the ears and if, by rote, the ears are pointing in the same direction as your line of movement. And if they are….that it is the quarters that are pushing the front end along that line too then, generally speaking, if everything is going along the same curved line you will be riding a round circle.
When hacking out use every opportunity to ask for a change of direction by asking for the horse to start off a circle. So don’t just sit there and enjoy the scenery think about using your hack to practice riding beautiful bends! ….And find yourself a trainer to help you perfect your technique from the ground.
