Excersises for bending?

[MB1201]

Good evening,

I am just looking for some ideas to improve my ponies bending. Up until a few months ago she had only hacked and only done her first bit of schooling with me - she is a chunky fell pony so initially was like steering a barge!

We did our second ever dressage test together yesterday and won it surprisingly! However, the judge commented that the mare needs to establish more inside bend around the riders leg - what sort of excersises can I do at home to improve this - especially in walk and trot ? she is difficult to keep straight and bending correctly as she needs a lot of inside leg. We do have an instructor, just looking for ideas for excersises that we can try at home

 

[Welshie95]

Amateur rider here so feel free to ignore me completely Serpentines are really good to test your accuracy, if she's unbalanced you can transition to walk as you cross the centre line and establish your new bend, do as many or as few loops as you feel you can manage; 15/10m teardrops back to the track; down the centre line and do 10 m circles from there so she's not relying on the fence for balance; loops from the track (e.g. KXH or FXM, shallower if needed until she gets the idea). Transitions up and down the pace or within if you have gotten that far will also help her sit back more so she's not ploughing around on the forehand as much which will in turn help her bend easier

 

[fredflop]

Groundwork would be an excellent place to start

 

[Tronk]

Another amateur here so again feel free to ignore! My instructor recently had me doing 10m circles in walk initially ridiculously over bent to the inside for a couple of laps, then ride completely straight with no bend for a couple of laps, then finally with completely the wrong bend for a couple of laps. Then go round with a normal inside bend. Do on both reins. It made my youngster really sit back off his forehand and riding with a 'normal' bend felt easy all of a sudden! This can then be done in bigger circles in trot- I've not entirely mastered that yet.. I find it a useful exercise to get my horse concentrating and working into a contact instead of messing about and evading me.