hi it's josie and today i want to talk to you about how to turn your horse onto a circle and
off of a circle these are aids that you build for bend so obviously your horse needs to be bent on
a circle or even in a corner so i have done videos on bend i will link one up here and i'll pop it in
the description as well so you need to understand your aids for bend but i'm going to run through
very quickly again what bend is bend basically starts with flexion so you can have flexion and
no bend but you can't have bend without flexion and bend is to do with the horse's head the end
of it on his neck there so that's flexion to the left oops i don't know right from my left hang on
spider that's flexion to the right that's flexion to the left that's flexion to the right i've done
a video on that to show you how to do that i'll link that up here and in the description as well
so you have that you have a little bit of neck bend and then the amount of neck bend depends on
the diameter of the circle horses can bend their neck a lot so usually you're using your outside
rein to limit the amount of bend because a horse will often try and bend his neck rather than bend
through the body and that's when he falls out on a circle he will bend from the end of his neck to
his sacrum a little bit through the center can't bend a lot through there but he can bend a little
bit and and his sacrum itself is actually um fused so he doesn't bend that very well but you would
use your outside leg to ensure that when he's going around the circle he doesn't go straight
that he actually so your outside leg would go to make sure that he bends a little bit that way
so let's get on with it so all the aids to help turn the horse onto the circle line
happen so fast that i can't tell you them all as i do them i couldn't even voice over it somebody
did suggest that i voice over but i couldn't say them as fast as they happen because they
all happen within about two seconds and i can't get uh flexion inside rein look where you're
going inside leg outside leg i just can't say all of them in the time that they happen
so what i'm going to do is i'm going to tell you what i do then i'm going to run through them and
just tell you when i do each one but you have to realize that within three strides i've done
about five different things so what i will do is i'm going to choose b and e sorry e is on the
ground here it needs to get put back up but that's going to be my circle so i'm going to come around
about i know spider well enough about two strides out i'm going to warn him that we're going to do
something that's just a little half halt with my outside rein if it was a greener horse i might
be warning him way back at the corner and i might have to warn him ten times that something's coming
but with spider i can probably do it two strides out so i'll warn him that something's coming
then i will make sure that i've got flexion to the inside of the circle just flexion with a
tiny little bit of neck bend because we're doing a 20 meter circle which is hardly any neck bend at
all then i am going to because i'm going down the straight line i will be balanced in both stirrups
with equal weight then i am going to weight my inside stirrup a tiny bit more and this is just
a tiny bit more guys it's like stand on a canoe and think about you want the canoes going and
you want to or even a sailboard and you want it to go to the left you only use a tiny bit of weight
sometimes just turning your head because you should also look in the direction you want to go
is enough to actually put more weight down through that stirrup and you don't actually have to step
then i am going to make sure my inside rein ah leg pardon me stays on him and my outside leg will go
back to guard if he tries to go around the circle straight like like that because i
can't bend my hand backwards let's do it this way sorry and so my outside leg will go back
to make sure he doesn't go around the circle like that that he bends i may or may not need to use it
and my inside rein will be squeeze release saying come this way come this way come this way that's
a lot that all happens in three strides mate probably happens in less than so i'm going to
go and what i'm going to do is i'm going to say warn when i warn him flex when i flex him inside
leg when i use my inside weight and you see me turn my head at the same time and then indicate
so that's all going to happen pretty fast so let's see how we go
so we're going to do it in walk just because it's easier for me to show you so here we go
i'm going to warn flexion inside leg looking where i'm going inside leg indicating indicate
indicate indicate indicate indicate indicate indicate now each time i indicated for him to come
around i actually very slightly closed my outside ring finger as well because if i didn't watch what
happens to his head and neck see i didn't want that so my outside ring finger just gently shut
wasn't like a vice there was elasticity in it but it stopped him bending his neck there's a
lot involved in riding a circle correctly let's do that again we'll do it in trot this time
okay warning flexion inside leg inside rein listen come around inside leg indicate indicate
indicate indicate indicate indicate indicate indicate going straight weight and both stirrups
and i've straightened him up so those come for the corner as well listening flexion inside leg
straighten him up warn him whoop flexion inside leg let's do it this way see if you can see
okay warn him flexion inside leg looking where i'm going a bit of weight down the inside stirrup
indicate indicate
indicate indicate indicate indicate indicate
when i first started this i used to indicate at least at every quarter on the circle so 6
12 9 and 3 o'clock marks i would indicate whether i needed it or not and that's what i would suggest
you do but then what happens is as you start doing that you get a feel for when the horse is actually
falling out of the circle or not coming around or about to straighten up and then you don't need to
you don't need to do it on every quarter you do it when it's required but in the beginning i would go
and i would work with that go out and ride a circle
think about how you're going to do it do it slowly break it right down you break it right down for
you and if you're teaching your horse you break it right down for him i hope you enjoyed that i
hope you realize how much there is to riding a circle please don't forget give us a thumbs up
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