How you ask for outlines

[Christian30]

So personally for my own training one aim I want to be able to do is sit on any horse and have them work round and from their hind end, and hold a true outline.
I find that with certain horses I can do this and with others I cannot
Vice versa with my instructors and fellow riders they can also do this with certain horses and not with others.

I generally tend to get a horse to work rounder first by closing my legs on and pushing not for a faster but for a longer stride I keep my outside leg behind the girth and use my inside leg for impulsion I make a fist with my outside hand and pulsate my inside rein and soften both hands and repeat process until I feel the horse take my hands forwards.
With some horses this works great and I can feel a light contact and balanced paces
Other horses I do this and they feel resistant strides go choppy and they go above the bit and just don't respond.

My question is how do you tend to ask a horse yourselves as I want to see how other people do it and try different methods to potentially incorporate into how I ride at the moment to see if this will improve my riding with horses I find elusive

Hopefully that makes sense

 

[paddi22]

You can't just sit on all horses and get the same results by doing the same thing though. it depends on the horse a good bit, and what level of schooling it has. Some don't have the balance to respond, some don't have the power to really push from behind for more than a few strides. I've three horses there and all are ridden different ways to aim towards but the same result eventually, but all are ridden depending on the level of education they are at. Some horses you only get a few proper strides from and you have to accept where they are at.

One is just being started so I don't aim for an outline and i don't expect her to be powering away from behind as she is going to be weak and unbalanced. I just want a rhythmic, forward, relaxed horse going into a nice contact. No twiddling, no tweaking of reins. I won't be asking for any frame for ages until she is more developed.

The other has to be ridden on a super long contact, with a stretchy tro and then gently gathered up. He has to be relxed and blowing out, swinging into a good trot and then gradually bring his frame up. If someone sat on and took a contact in walk, they'd never get him correctly working.

The other is a bit more established by is just ridden from seat and leg now. No tweaking on the rein, just has to have a load of leg into a waiting contact that never fusses him by pulling one side of the bit.

You also have to look at bitting choices, and saddle fit if its not your horses. There's a load of things to consider.