Training


turning incorrectly on its outside hind leg. So, core weight to the inside of the intended spin, and don't twist or drop your shoulders – stay level.


Now if that doesn't give you the feel, watch someone or, better still, do it yourself on a revolving stage (like the roundabout in a kids playground). They still face outwards and they shift their core weight in varying degrees as to whether they are standing closer or further away from the pivot point. I can see the newspaper headlines now, 'Western riders taking over children's playground!' Therefore imagine your horse is your revolving stage in a turnaround and the centre pivot of this stage is the inside hind leg. Now we should have you sitting correctly and all we have to worry about is how we are going to teach our horse.


TEACHING


THE SPIN When we start off teaching, all that we are asking is that the horse learns to move its front end over. As the turnaround is basically forward motion, where better to start off than with that. Get your horse to walk three metres away from a wall, fence, or hedge and after a few steps tip the horse’s nose towards the fence then, without pulling on the reins any more, put your core weight to the inside of the turn, opening the door with your inside leg and closing it with your outside one. Then walk down the wall in the opposite direction, side pass until you get three metres away again and repeat the process the other way.


Ideally the rhythm of your walk should stay at the same tempo through the turn. If it doesn't (i.e. the horse stops the front end turning and swings the back end out) come away from the wall a little more until you get the same tempo and then go back to getting closer to the wall. You may want to use your outside leg on your horse’s flank a little more to create the impulsion. After doing this exercise a few times, walk off somewhere in order to give your horse some 'think time' as to what he has just done. Once he has mastered this turn, move out into an open space and try riding squares at the walk. Don't pull into the turn but push with your outside leg. Remember you are trying to get the shoulder and the outside ribcage to move over in unison. By just tipping the nose of the horse into the direction of the turn (by lifting your inside rein and not pulling) you will encourage the body parts of the horse to follow. The outside rein should rest softly against the neck with little or no back pressure at this time. Too much back pressure on the reins


will cause the shoulders to lock up and the turn will lose the all important cadence that we seek.


When that exercise is going smoothly try walking a small circle. Make it as small as possible by bumping with your outside leg then, when the horse feels soft and not pushing against you, move your inside leg away from his side and move your core weight to the inside and see if the horse can step across into the 'open door.' When you feel the horse’s inside leg step in, allow its outside leg to move forward and cross over and then walk out onto your original sized circle. In doing this there will be a slight back pressure on the reins but it is important that this is a ‘feel and give’ pressure and not a constant one. Feel as the horse’s inside leg leaves the ground and give as its outside leg leaves the ground, otherwise you may cause the horse to step its outside front leg behind the inside one. Keep practising this, slowly increasing the number of steps around before going back out onto the original circle as your horse becomes more comfortable with the manoeuvre.


HEAD POSITION


So far we have covered the legs, body, and rear of the horse, but I often get asked about where the head should be. My usual reply is 'on the end of his neck' as the position of the head is not a pre requisite. Ideally it has to be soft, and slightly tipped in the direction of the turn. Any other position will interfere with the turnaround. It certainly doesn't want to be way to the outside as that will cause the shoulder to drop, and too far to the inside will cause the shoulder to lift too much and the ribcage bow outwards. Some horses turn with heads higher than others and, again, this is not a prerequisite. Remember it has to be correct to be a zero manoeuvre evaluation and, after that, controlled speed and ease of which the horse does all of the parts of the manoeuvre are the only ways we are going to take the horse into the plus scores.


30


May/June 2012


NRH PHOTOGRAPHY


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