Tips for helping lateral work

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LizzieRC1313

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Just a disclaimer, obviously I know my best option is to get a good trainer - I'm currently a broke student studying for medical school finals so don't have the time, money or inclination to be having lessons like I usually would.

I'm just trying to get my 10 year old ISH to take a little bit more weight behind & just playing with a little bit of lateral of work to encourage this.

Which exercises would you do and what would you expect from them in order to help this? Would you do them in walk or trot? How much in a session? Which exercises are most effective?
I often struggle with ending up with neck bend & shoulder out instead of sideways, so just looking for some tips and inspiration.

Thank you.
 
I'd start with getting a reaction from your leg so you know you can move him sideways. Some leg yield is good for this, or if you are struggling to get a sideways step then the often-overlooked turn on the forehand can help to set up the basic reaction to your aid. I would begin by riding that close to a fence, but not so close that he doesn't believe his head will fit as he turns around. Try to keep it thinking forward rather than sticking and just pivoting around the front legs.

When you've got a sideways reaction, then look at leg yield. I find if you LY a green horse towards the track, the track can be such a magnet that they fall to the outside, so why not try moving away from the track. Again, thinking forwards-sideways so you control the degree of sideways you ask for. You don't need a neck bend in LY, a slight flexion at the jaw is enough, or if even that caused you to lose control of the neck then ride it poker straight.
Quality of steps is more important than how sideways you can go, and always check you can ride straight if you need to, so perhaps LY half the length of the school, ride 4 or 5 straight steps, and then LY some more.

LY out of a smaller circle onto a bigger circle is also helpful and can help you to introduce bend to the LY while still controlling the speed that you spiral out & controlling the shoulder.

When this is established, I'd move towards some shoulder-in. Again, quality and control more important than angle and degree of sideways, so I'd start by riding a 10m circle in a corner at the start of a long side, ride 1-2 steps further around the circle so you have the shoulders off the track and then begin your shoulder in. To start with, you'll probably need to go back to very minimal bend in order to stop the outside shoulder falling away. A tiny bit of flexion will do,make sure you are sitting on your inside seatbone and you haven't drawn your inside leg back - you are riding the inside hind leg into your outside hand. Look down the track in the direction you are travelling, pick a point in the distance and feel that it is pulling you towards it - this helps you keep travelling forwards-sideways rather than getting stuck. a small angle that is controlled is better than an over ambitious angle that you can't control.

if the horse falls back to the track, either ride your circle again to refresh the containing outside rein and restart or if more established, simply ride straight to a point at the opposite side of the school for 2 strides to get the horse thinking forward with shoulders off the track again. e.g. if you're at K on the right rein, ride 2 steps towards M and then re-start your S-I.

with all of the exercises I'd start in walk until you have control of the outside of the horse, and then progress to trot when it feels easy. You can do all this in canter too :)
 
I can struggle with LY and I tend to confuse my horse so as a warm-up exercise my trainer starts us off turning down the CL and going across to the corner (for instance on left rein, turn at C then continue on same rein to K, basically just cut off the corner and long side).

First just riding straight, then with each repetition asking a little more sideways. If we're struggling, then we add in a 10m circle in the corner before turning up the CL. It's more for me to work my aids out as I tend to block him at the same time asking for too much sideways so have ended up crab-walking many times!

This very simple exercise really helps me.

Amazing and comprehensive advice from Milliepops :)
 
The only thing I would add is never try to do too much at once. Ask for some sideways then straight and then back into sideways. My baby horse gets very carried away with the sideways, but asking for only a couple of steps and then straight has really got the message across that she does it when asked :).

In leg yield this is especially useful for stopping too much bend as asking them to go straight and then back sideways stops them taking over.

I'd also be looking at your inside leg to outside hand connection if you find you're getting too much bend and loss of control of the shoulders. Riding circles with no inside rein contact will show up any weakness in this ;).

Another exercise which might help get him on his hind quarters without inducing too much neck bend is riding walk squares, so essentially quarter pirouettes.
 
Yup, also to add, when they get the hang of LY you can sometimes end up with quarters trying to go first which gets the legs into a tangle, losing forwardness and connection.
In that instance it can help to start riding straight on the line you want to LY, and then ride the quarters across. So if riding from centre line A to H LY-ing to the left, turn at A and point the front of the horse *at* H, so at a slight angle to the centre line. Ride straight towards H for a step or 2 to get the shoulders to go, and then ride the LY. You can either continue with the shoulders slightly leading, or make it more parallel as you get going.
 
milliepops said:
Yup, also to add, when they get the hang of LY you can sometimes end up with quarters trying to go first which gets the legs into a tangle, losing forwardness and connection.
In that instance it can help to start riding straight on the line you want to LY, and then ride the quarters across. So if riding from centre line A to H LY-ing to the left, turn at A and point the front of the horse *at* H, so at a slight angle to the centre line. Ride straight towards H for a step or 2 to get the shoulders to go, and then ride the LY. You can either continue with the shoulders slightly leading, or make it more parallel as you get going.
Click to expand...

Oh, and I was doing so well. Managed to follow all of the above until this one :-) But I am basking in a wee bit of smugness that I could in fact follow all but this bit of the thread hee.
 
Bernster said:
Oh, and I was doing so well. Managed to follow all of the above until this one :-) But I am basking in a wee bit of smugness that I could in fact follow all but this bit of the thread hee.
Click to expand...

:lol: I get myself in a right muddle sometimes (the last CC exercise my trainer had me doing was hysterical, no idea about left/right/where I needed to go :)).

However the above is fairly simple in practise, so instead of starting the leg yield off parallel to the long side start it like you're changing the rein in a straight line. Once you have started on your line, then ask for the sideways, not sure if that helps or not?

Another thing to watch is that you are actually asking for the leg yield with the rein in the direction you going and not overusing the rein where the horses flexion is. Again that goes back to inside leg to outside hand.
 
Thank you for great advice & comprehensive replies!! I think I've identified a few areas to work - think I'm thinking I need too much neck bend then getting in a muddle when I lose the shoulder so will try it straighter - thanks Millie. Also think I'm losing sight of forwards in my quest for sideways so will concentrate on keeping forwards. He's not very forwards usually so asking for two things at once can be a challenge!
 
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