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Is your horse tense, nervous, or distracted? Do you ever find yourself riding circle after circle and you just don’t know what to do to get your horse to listen? I have the perfect exercise for you!
In this week’s video, I will be demonstrating the 6-Circle Exercise, which is a great pattern to help get your horse relaxed, supple, and on your aids! Before we get into the exercise, I also have a new Free PDF on Patterns and Figures, with five of my favorite patterns inside that you might enjoy! Patterns and figures give you a plan and purpose for your ride and are a great way to help you train your horse and get them to listen to you.
Now, back to the exercise. One of the best exercises to manage speed, and to help your horse become supple and relaxed are circles. With the 6-Circle Exercise, you will be riding a shallow loop serpentine with 10-meter circles at each point of the serpentine - one at the beginning, one at X, and one at the end of the serpentine. This is a great pattern because involves lots of bending and changes of direction, so your horse doesn’t have time to think about being tense or nervous. Plus, it gives you as the rider a purpose and helps you become clearer with your aids.
As you are riding this exercise, pay attention to the bend in your horse’s body. Remember, the aids for bend are inside leg at the girth moving the horse into your outside aids, outside leg behind the girth and outside rein for turning, and inside rein for flexion. The bend should always start from your inside leg. If you have a good bend, you should be able to see your horse’s inside eye and a nice curve in their neck, with your inside hand away from the neck and your outside hand by the withers.
Watch the video where I demonstrate the 6-Circle Exercise and talk more about getting your horse bending, and how patterns and figures can help you and your horse! Please share this video with your friends if you find it helpful - it really helps me out!
Happy riding!
Amelia
0:00 Intro
1:00 Riding the Pattern
1:40 Bending
3:11 Changing Directions
4:28 End of Video