( schooling q&A) )
Mountain Horse and Imogen Gloag team up to answer your schooling questions
International event rider Imogen Gloag, 23, is based in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
In 2016, Imogen was the youngest competitor at that year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials riding Brendonhill Doublet and the pair a re former Pony Club Champions and British Junior team members.
In 2018 she made her first appearance at the Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials on the same horse completing with just one unlucky run out.
Imogen’s ultimate goal is to be selected on to the British teams and to ride at the Olympic Games.
Imogen is sponsored by Mountain Horse which makes stylish, elegant and durable riding gear. Visit
www.mountainhorse.se.
I’m a novice rider , and I’ve just bought my
first horse. I’ve been having lots of training and guidance, but I don’t really understand the point of leg yielding, and what it really is. Could you explain it please? Leg yielding is the basic lateral movement that we teach young horses. It teaches the horse that he can go forward and sideways at the same time in response to leg pressure. It is a useful exercise for getting your horse to become more supple, straight and balanced. The horse will show a slight flexion from the poll away from the direction and the inside legs cross in front of the outside legs.
So, how do you ride a leg yield? Practise in walk at first, so that you fully understand the basic aids. Then on the leſt rein establish a good active and balanced
working trot. Half halt as you approach the three quarter line of the long side of the arena. Ride onto the line, with your weight slightly more on your leſt seat bone. Put your leſt leg behind the girth and ask the horse to move sideways from your leg towards the edge of the arena. Use your right rein to guide your horse in the direction of travel and to prevent your horse from falling out onto his right side. Use your leſt rein to ask for a small amount of flexion, but make sure your horse is balanced between both reins. When you get to the arena, straighten
your horse and ride him forward out of the leg yield.
How do I ride a perfect halt? I either miss the centre line, or come to a stop with a splat, with the quarters swinging one way or the other
.
Practice, more practice and even more practise makes perfect. Use mirrors or ask someone on the ground to help because sometimes by the time you’ve leant over to check, you’ve put your horse off balance. Make sure you are sitting in the middle of the saddle, because the more even your weight and your contact on the horse, the more likely you are to get a square halt. Your horse needs to be collected and
active, sensitive to your aids and in self carriage.
He also needs to be going into the contact
so you need to have a nice light contact, and your legs should be the channels straight into the halt. The move off from the halt should be quick and immediate and into a nice clean trot. Your horse has to be straight too so that when you finish the centre line he can be really ridden again. If you collect for the halt and your horse starts to slow down, you’ll have a messy
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halt. If your horse gets really strong in your transition down, you’ll also get a messy halt! Your horse needs to be in self-carriage and with a light contact for him to stand with his head in the right frame and his legs under.
Never ever punish your horse if it isn’t
perfect as he will then start to anticipate the punishment, and if he doesn't quite perform it perfectly, he’ll think uh oh, here comes the bang in the teeth or the kick in the gut. A really good place to start is to ensure that whenever you halt, always make it a square one, whether it’s doing up the girth, stopping to open a gate or halting to jump off.
How do I ride a perfect halt? I either miss the centre line, or come to a stop with a splat, with the quarters swinging one way or the other
.
Trotting poles can be very useful. Start by placing three poles on a 20 metre circle in your arena with the centre of the poles on the track where you’d ride. When your horse is comfortable trotting
over these in both directions, maintaining an even rhythm and bend, you can increase to five. Make sure you always ride in the middle of the poles. Your horse will be learning to adjust his
stride while maintaining the bend. Your horse may try to fall in through a shoulder or out through his quarters on a circle. Always be sure that your shoulders are following his shoulders on the arc of the circle, and if your horse is particularly stiff in one direction, put some additional work into that rein to help him become as supple in the direction as he is in the other.
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