What are the rider aids for turn on the hindquarters please?

To perform a correct turn on the haunches aka pirouette the horse must first be able to 'sit' behind. If not the horse will have its weight on its forehand and therefore tun about the forhand instead of he haunches.

Before attempting a turn on the haunhes you should have both shoulder in and travers established as these can both be used in establishing a pirouette.

I'm guessing you haven't established either travers or shoulder in yet? If not these need to be your starting point. Once established you can ask for a pirouette out of either depending on your school of thought most will go out of shoulder in though.

I would suggest a good instructor to help you on your way as how ever easy it is to say over the Internet if you haven't been taught the aids previously it's best to have someone on the ground to show you!
 
Thankyou for that. Travers and shoulder in are well established and boy sits beautifully behind.


To clarify my thinking and problem:
My understanding is that my outside leg prevents his hind from swinging out, while my outside rein maintains a bend to the inside, telling my lad to turn rather than walk on. My inside leg asks for bend to the inside, pushing energy to my outside aids, with my inside seatbone engaged, again to ask for bend in the direction we are turning. Thus my inside rein should help lead his forehand around and also remind hm to bend in the direction of the turn.

My problem is that lad tilts his head and hindquarters are still swinging out. Why is it going wrong? Should I be using more inside or outside leg? I really did get oddly tearful when this kept going wrong yesterday.
 
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Ok now I would e asking for shoulder in shortening the walk back and then you actually need to change your weight aids (hence why some prefer to go from travers) so that it the outside seatbone with weight in the inside leg. The outside leg will initiate the sideways movement but you need the walk short

Alternatively if you go from the travers the front end has to move further to he round but you will already be applying the correct weight aids. ultimately both will have the bend correct in direction of travel.

Start with riding a square so just requiring a few steps at each corner. If he is tilting his head he is not soft over his back and correctly engaging his hind quarters hence they are swinging out. Try lifting your outside hand to counteract the tilting and using outside/counter flexion to bring him straight. Lots of collected to medium walk and back again as prep before attempting small pirouettes as well. At first they will be very wide in nature as only once very advanced can a true pirouette be performed. Hell a lot of GP horses still struggle!
 
Brilliant!! Thankyou. I will try this with someone on the ground watching me in case I am overcompensating somewhere.;) I have something to work on now. Fabulous!

So many rider aids to coordinate together, I'm sure that flying a war hurricane while directing a light opera may be an easier task than this one - lol:D
 
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