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hey there today's video is about how to ride the perfect circle in dressage we ride a lot
of circles so starting out at training level you have 20 meter circles and then gradually as
you move up the levels the circles get smaller and smaller until you have eight meter circles
and pirouettes so in today's video we're going to walk through exactly how to get your
body in the correct position so that you can ride the perfect circle with your horse
and we're working with a physical therapist i'm going to demonstrate some of the common faults and
then she's going to talk through exactly how to get your body in the correct position so this is
a really great video give me a thumbs up if you're excited to learn how to ride the perfect circle
also check out in the description below i have a free mini course on confidence so sign up for that
you'll get several emails to help you improve your confidence with your horse thanks for watching i
hope you enjoy this video let me know in the comments which direction you have more trouble
turning your body and your shoulders for me it's definitely the left i broke my left collarbone
and so yeah my shoulders don't turn very well to the left but it's a work in progress thanks
for watching today hey everybody i'm stephanie i am a doctor of physical therapy and work with
equestrians and we're here talking today about how to ride the perfect circle most of us as we know
are not equal on one side versus the other and i know amelia's done a lot of videos on collapsing
one way in the saddle or sitting to one side on a circle is a little bit different so we're talking
about the plane of motion that moves this way or this way so i would say most riders because of an
asymmetry in their body whether it starts at their hips and their pelvis or originates up in their
shoulders will cause somebody to want to rotate one way or the other i see this really frequently
and if a rider um let's say they're like amelia so amelia consistently wants to turn her shoulders
to the right and keep her left shoulder forward so this is going to pose a problem for when she wants
to go on a circle to the left if her shoulders are consistently turning to the right so we're
going to show you how it looks when somebody is sitting only one direction through both circles
so here amelia is riding a circle to the right and this is her easier way her shoulders always want
to turn to the right with her left shoulder being a little bit more forward than her right shoulder
and then this is going to be her easier way to turn because of that so her shoulders are
following the direction of the horse's shoulders now she's going to turn to the left and exaggerate
her right rotation in her shoulders so you see how the horse kind of falls in on his front left and
her shoulders are staying rotated to the right he's also wanting to counter bend to the right
because her shoulders are encouraging him to go right here she goes back onto her easy direction
so now i want to show you the proper way to move your body within a circle so amelia like we said
her shoulders consistently want to stay to the right so when you ride a circle to the right you
should rotate your shoulders to the right now i'm not collapsing to the right i'm just rotating my
circle my shoulders just like this to the right almost like a camera on a tripod it doesn't move
this way in this way it just turns straight on top of the tripod so you kind of want to think of that
now watch what happens to my hand so when you ride a circle you shouldn't have to pull that
inside rain it should naturally occur just because you're turning your shoulders a little bit to the
inside here what that does then with your seat is it allows you to weight that seat bone without
having to think of weighting that seat bone because of where you're turning the shoulders
also what you want to remember if you're tight anywhere it is going to be more difficult one
way versus the other the inside leg should be a little bit at the girth which naturally occurs
if you're evenly balanced the outside leg should just be a little bit back encouraging the horse
to bend and then when you turn left the same thing so here i'm straight and then i'm going
to turn to the left what happens then is that my shoulders are left it brings my hands left but i
haven't changed the angle between my shoulder and my hands and then naturally it's going to weight
that inside leg a little bit the inside legs at the girth the outside legs a little bit behind the
girth encouraging the bend to the left for a left circle and again one way is more difficult for
most riders than the other way so amelia go ahead and turn just from your shoulders to the left good
and then go ahead and turn just with your shoulders to the right which is a little bit
easier easier for you than the other direction so when you turn like when you turn your shoulders
where does where do you do that from so okay so when you turn your shoulders to the left
i'm actually using my transverse abdominal muscles and my obliques to pull me left so
you're gonna feel one side obliques working and one side transverse abdominals working
and then the opposite obliques also so i'm not pulling my shoulder back because then that would
pull that inside rain i'm just rotating here keeping my legs kind of fixed on the ground
this is actually a good exercise people can do standing so you can stand with your feet
planted hands in about the rain position and then practice just rotating one way and then practice
rotating the other way without letting your knee collapse one way or another so emilia is showing
us the correct way to ride a circle now and she's only turning her shoulders as much as she wants
the horse's shoulders to move so her shoulders are rotating a little bit to the left and now
you can see that he's bending correctly to the left and then she'll show us the other direction
and then she's only moving her shoulders as
far as she needs to to get his shoulders where she wants them
i see a lot of riders when they want to turn in a circle each step they turn their shoulders and
it's really important to maintain steady contact to use your abs to hold your body where you want
it to be instead of rotating each step good and here her shoulders are slightly to the left which
then helps you get your inside leg at the girth and your outside leg a little bit behind the girth
hey there i hope that you enjoyed that video on riding the perfect circle
a big thanks to stephanie at ride advanced for talking us through that she's a really wonderful
resource and again let me know in the comments if you're like me and have trouble
turning your shoulders to the left or if you have more trouble turning your body to
the right of course this affects your horse and their ability to make the perfect circle
you