More into the outside rein

[Sprat]

Looking for exercises that gets my mare more up and into the outside rein, with more power from behind.

We are cracking on nicely with our schooling, but whenever I see videos I always think she needs to be pushing through into the contact a lot more.

It seems to be a fine balance between having her ‘there’ and getting short through the next and not really through the back.

I seem to crack it fine at home but it tends to go to pot when competing.

Only working at prelim / novice level so both fairly green still. I’m having lessons with a decent instructor which is helping, but any other tips and tricks would be appreciated!

 

[Cortez]

What's with the "tips & tricks" thing? There are no tricks in training, and training is a bit more than "tips" I'm afraid. Try shoulder-in: that'll do it (but you must do it right).

 

[Sprat]

What's with the "tips & tricks" thing? There are no tricks in training, and training is a bit more than "tips" I'm afraid. Try shoulder-in: that'll do it (but you must do it right).

It’s a turn of phrase. I’m not actually looking for ‘tricks’ to get her working correctly.

Currently using shoulder in, but she is still green with it, I was just looking for further advice.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Make sure you ride into the outside rein from the inside leg.

 

[Mule]

I find leg yield a sure fire way to get the beast in to my outside rein. I'm no expert (at all) so I don't know if this is the right answer but the leg yield seems to supple him and he just moves very nicely afterwards. His top line arches and once I keep up the tempo it seems to work to unstick him.

 

[milliepops]

yes anything where you can get your diagonal inside leg to outside hand aids on will help.
An effective exercise is leg yield on a circle, so starting on a smaller circle, gradually leg yielding onto a bigger circle should nicely deliver the horse into your outside rein. Take your time as you make the circle bigger, otherwise the horse might run through the outside rein. I sometimes ask them to step out one metre at a time, to make sure I'm really in control of how quickly the circle increases in side. So LY out 1m, then continue around the circle keeping the size consistent, then LY out 1m further, and so on.

The advantage of working on a circle rather than LY in straight lines is you never run out of space. if you need a few more steps, you can just carry on. I also use shoulder in on a circle, that can be a bit harder for the rider to visualise and control but if you imagine riding shoulder in on the straight sides of an octagon first, it can help you get the feeling you need.

Also make sure you aren't bending the horse to the inside unnecessarily. Sometimes esp when nervous or anxious about new surroundings, we can find ourselves doing odd things. if you have the horse's neck bent to the inside it can be much harder to get a true contact into both reins. I find when I make a conscious effort to hold the neck straight, it really makes the contact a lot more secure!