All about horses

In order to be confident the riding horse needs to be balanced.

We talked about the horses traveling on two tracks meaning that the left hind leg must follow the left foreleg and the right hind leg must follow the right fore leg.

This is called going straight in “the horseman’s dictionary”.

When you are riding on a bending line or turning it’s important that you keep your horse straight.

In other words a horse that is bending in a turn and keeping the hind legs in line with the front legs is considered straight ,

only in this way can your horse stay balanced.

You achieve this by placing your inside leg at the girth and your outside leg slightly behind the girth .Sit straight in the saddle and you turn your body in the direction that you’re going without dropping a shoulder or a hip. This turns the horse because he feels you using your legs ,seat and back .

This is why it’s important to look straight between the horses ears and then position his head slightly by using the inside rein, so then he looks in the direction that he’s going.

There are several turns that you can use to ride balanced and straight .

20 and 10 and 15 meter bending lines ,10 being the tightest are good to practice .

Think of the bending lines as being one quarter of a circle .

Ride your horse through a corner starting with a 20 meter bending line .

On a 20 m bending line you should only be able to see the inside eyelash. On a 15 m bending line you should see slightly more than the eyelash. And on a 10 m bending line that’s deep into the corner you should be able to see the whole inside eye .

Half halt so that your horse does not run away from the leg aids instead of turning.

Sit tall and brace your seat and back if he does try to run forward

Remember that your outside leg keeps the circle small and you’re inside leg increases the size of the circle