Inside bend and some manning up help required please.

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undergroundoli

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Hay guys. I’ve hit a bit of a wall with my lessons, which are private. We’re focusing on getting the horse to bend and it is just is not happening. To help me figure out how to ask the horse for it I’m also theoretically learning leg yield, which again isn’t happening. We do 10 meter circles (a word I’m using in its secondary meaning of ‘pear shaped’) with his nose resolutely to the outside, and today he felt the lest supple or bendy thing I’ve ever sat on. I also seem to have lost the ability to sit the trot and my toes seem to have fallen in love with the manege surface, they certainly want to stare down at it all lesson long. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
My understanding is that to tell the horse I want him to bend I need to have a firm contact on the outside rein, move inside hand further inside and push him out with my inside leg, all the while sitting properly. Does anyone have a video? Tips? Exercises to do at home? A way of rephrasing or revisualising what to do that works for them? Anything?

I need more frequent lessons really but as my boss has just said they messed up my details on the system and I wont get April or Mays wages (which are not exactly fat) till the end of June biweekly lessons will have to weight till then, which feels a long time a way.
I want to go to bed with a book and a bottle of wine, but actually I’m going to draft a ‘share wanted’ add for the local tack shop, preloved and freecycle and ask if any of the local livery yards want help on the grounds I’d learn a lot and might find a share. My work hours are random, changeable and pretty poo, tell me that’s not necessarily a deal breaker. I work with people with learning difficulties and I don’t think I could do it as well as I do if I did any more hours with people who have special needs so no RDA for me.

No cups of tea or anything, but I’ll figure out how to put up a pic of the horse I ride cus he is one good looking dude.
 
Hi, am I right in thinking that this is at a riding school that you are having lessons ? if so maybe that horse is not schooled enough to respond to your aids ? the instructor should be able to talk you through the aids, so if you are unsure ask until you understand.
 
You will find it hard to bend an uneducated horse with a firm outside contact. In fact, the contact on the outside should be elastic on any horse, i'm not a great believer in inside leg to outside hand as it encourages people to hold on to it too tight.
Most important to do is to turn your own body to the inside, then open the inside hand, support with the outside rein, outside leg slightly back to prevent drift and inside leg more forwards as a pillar to bend around
 
I put my inside leg back slightly on circles to encourage a bend around my leg and at the same time just play very gently with the inside rein with my ring finger until I can see the horses eye lashes.

Ride in flexi stirrups for the toe thing and forget that until you have the rest sorted also knee gripping can make toes go down and heels up so watch that too.

You will get there and then there will be something else to master that's riding for you!
 
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Thanks guys. When you say I need to turn my body, do you mean from the hips?

He is a riding school horse, but they do get schooled regularly by people who know what they're doing and I've found a video of the horse being ridden far better than I can online, and he does bend in that.

TheMule said:
You will find it hard to bend an uneducated horse with a firm outside contact. In fact, the contact on the outside should be elastic on any horse, i'm not a great believer in inside leg to outside hand as it encourages people to hold on to it too tight.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. When you say I need to turn my body, do you mean from the hips?

He is a riding school horse, but they do get schooled regularly by people who know what they're doing and I've found a video of the horse being ridden far better than I can online, and he does bend in that.

When you say 'elastic' what does that actually meen?
 
your hips bend to the inside and your weight goes on to your inside seat bone (do not collapse your hip!) you might find it easier with your inside knee bent a little bit. your shoulders bend to the inside. If you do it on your chair now (with your hands in front of you) you will see your outside hand automatically moves forwards and your inside hand moves back- this is the elastic movement you need to maintain because your reins should be like iron rods (completely straight) the feel of the mouth and the action to the head should be at your hands.

the contact should be like holding a tray of drinks- you want to offer the horse a drink, not let him take the whole tray!

Also- If the saddle is particularly deep seated you will not find it very easy to keep your heels down.
 
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Tinsel Trouble said:
your hips bend to the inside and your weight goes on to your inside seat bone (do not collapse your hip!) you might find it easier with your inside knee bent a little bit. your shoulders bend to the inside. If you do it on your chair now (with your hands in front of you) you will see your outside hand automatically moves forwards and your inside hand moves back- this is the elastic movement you need to maintain because your reins should be like iron rods (completely straight) the feel of the mouth and the action to the head should be at your hands.

the contact should be like holding a tray of drinks- you want to offer the horse a drink, not let him take the whole tray!

Also- If the saddle is particularly deep seated you will not find it very easy to keep your heels down.
Click to expand...

Amazing. Thanks so much.
I can usually keep my heals pretty much down, and sitting trots usually OK I just had a lesson working on something hard for me, where nothing else went right either SO OBVIOUSLY THE WORLD IS OVER. DESPAIR! DESPAIR!
 
This can be one of the hardest things for a rider to learn and often I have riders with horses looking determinedly to the outside.

I first start with getting the rider to just keep the horses head straight at the end of the body. Once we have this we then start learning 'riding in position'

The rider has to maintain the shape of the horse as it came out of the short side corner while travelling down the long side. This starts the rider understanding and developing the use of the inside leg.

Position of the riders body, the rider MUST keep her weight centrally over the horses back so no leaning in or collapsing at the waist. Hips always stay parallel to the horses hips, riders shoulders to the horses shoulders. There is very little bend in a 20m circle so the rider really only needs to look between the horses ears. Rider leaning in is the prime reason horses fall in on a circle or bend - as the horse tries to keep the rider centrally over its back.

Aids for a circle- Inside leg AT the girth sending horse forwards and preventing the horse from stepping inwards - outside leg behind the girth keeping the quarters in line with the rest of the body.
 
These are good replies so I probably have nothing to add other than don't over think it! When you turn when your walking about on your own two feet think about what your body is doing. You turn your body in the direction your going right? And you usually look the way you are going. Do the same when you're riding. Think about having eyes on your shoulders, hips and toes when you're riding and turn all your "eyes" to look in the direction you're going. This is what I teach my students. I try to get them to think of swinging the whole horse round with their own bodies, maintaining engagement of their core muscles to prevent their inside hip collapsing. Don't be too obsessed with inside leg to outside hand, try and think of it more as sweeping your horse round your inside leg with your hands. This will automatically close your inside leg, keep the contact on the outside rein and give a soft, inviting contact on the inside rein. If your whole body is pointing in the direction you want to go, it's actually physically difficult for your horse not to bend in the direction you want. I hope this makes sense!
 
The thing that really cracked it for me was my instructor telling me to imagine that my eyes are on my collarbone, and to look round the circle with those eyes (as well as my actual eyes of course!). The imagery really help me get my shoulders and upper body in the right place.
 
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