Straightness and Suppleness

[Chloeap]

Hello I've been taking my rather green eventer out recently and he's been doing really well in the dressage phase and now getting lots of 7s!
I'm super proud of this as not long ago he had his head in the air all the time and couldn't canter nicely at all, he just felt unbalanced. Transitions were also a mess. It seems to have taken him a while to work out how to use his big body!
He works really nicely now but the comments that keep cropping up are about suppleness (one commented about bending around the ribcage) and straightness.

If anyone knows of any exercises I could try to help this please let me know!
I can send a video of our latest DR test to anyone of interest!

Note: we are having regular lessons but I'd like some exercises/tips I could try in the meantime, also nice to have other opinions too!

Thank you in advance

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

There's no need to do anything special, it's just performing the basics correctly.

Sounds as though they're saying he's crooked on a circle and not actually bending properly, with one or other end falling out/in. They're referring to straightness on a circle, I think. It sounds like a contradiction to be straight on a circle but it just means the front end going where it should and the back end following it properly, then you're "straight" whilst on the circle. If he's literally physically straight (ie not bending) whilst on a circle, that's incorrect

How do you do when riding in a field, picking a focal point and trying to ride a straight line towards it? My guess is the horse would be all over the place and unable to hold the straight line, you'd be constantly correcting him. It shows up more in a field because riding up the centre line in an arena is really only a few strides.

Straightness comes with time, practice and insisting on correct movement. If you're tired of riding the usual circles/serpentines/corners there are plenty of books out there with schooling exercises in. Use your hacks too, make the horse bend round corners/curves correctly.

 

[Chloeap]

There's no need to do anything special, it's just performing the basics correctly.

Sounds as though they're saying he's crooked on a circle and not actually bending properly, with one or other end falling out/in. They're referring to straightness on a circle, I think. It sounds like a contradiction to be straight on a circle but it just means the front end going where it should and the back end following it properly, then you're "straight" whilst on the circle. If he's literally physically straight (ie not bending) whilst on a circle, that's incorrect

How do you do when riding in a field, picking a focal point and trying to ride a straight line towards it? My guess is the horse would be all over the place and unable to hold the straight line, you'd be constantly correcting him. It shows up more in a field because riding up the centre line in an arena is really only a few strides.

Straightness comes with time, practice and insisting on correct movement. If you're tired of riding the usual circles/serpentines/corners there are plenty of books out there with schooling exercises in. Use your hacks too, make the horse bend round corners/curves correctly.

Thanks for your reply! Actually we seem to get good marks for circles and he does these really nicely, it's the straight parts where we get the comments - such as going down the centre line etc. Circles are his best bits of the test!

 

[be positive]

Thanks for your reply! Actually we seem to get good marks for circles and he does these really nicely, it's the straight parts where we get the comments - such as going down the centre line etc. Circles are his best bits of the test!

I suspect when you are riding on the track at home you are just using the straight bits to get from a to b rather than working on the straight lines, I do a lot of work on an inside track, change flexions while on a straight line, do loads of transitions on the inside track and also do a fair bit of work on riding centre lines properly, my aim is to at least start and finish every test without throwing away marks by not being able to enter straight, it takes time but once you can really keep the horse straight underneath you everything else improves because they start to carry themselves pushing from behind rather than being held by the riders hands.
Some counter flexions on the circles would be useful for seeing how genuinely he is going, often they drift as you ask for the change which shows how much they are relying on the hand to keep them straight.

 

[Chloeap]

I suspect when you are riding on the track at home you are just using the straight bits to get from a to b rather than working on the straight lines, I do a lot of work on an inside track, change flexions while on a straight line, do loads of transitions on the inside track and also do a fair bit of work on riding centre lines properly, my aim is to at least start and finish every test without throwing away marks by not being able to enter straight, it takes time but once you can really keep the horse straight underneath you everything else improves because they start to carry themselves pushing from behind rather than being held by the riders hands.
Some counter flexions on the circles would be useful for seeing how genuinely he is going, often they drift as you ask for the change which shows how much they are relying on the hand to keep them straight.

Brilliant, thank you so much for your advice. I am going to keep away from the track when I ride now to practice. Will also practice some counter flexion too.

He is quite wobbly, just getting used the whole dressage thing but we did our first BE100 test at the weekend and he actually went better than in the 90s/prelim ones we've done before so think a busier test with more to focus on may suit him? We had to canter across the diagonal then trot at X which when we first practiced it was a mess but managed to get a 7 in our test for that movement!

 

[eventer and proud]

If you get the scales of training book of which straightness and suppelness are both they have exercises in there

 

[Tnavas]

Circles, loops and serpentines, leg yielding and shoulder in.

The most important though is the circles, loops and serpentines, as they stretch him left and right and eventually he will be supple throughout his body.


Transitions between and within the paces will supple him longitudinally and improve everything.

A coach ones told me - NEVER go around the arena more than once without doing something different.

Eg - in a 60m long arena when you do a serpentine, put in a circle of varying sizes in each loop. Change the rein by doing teardrops back to the track, then as you reach the track rise a 10m dia circle. You are only limited by your imagination