all right hello everyone i'm amelia if you didn't know that and i post a lot of dressage videos
on my channel so be sure to give us a thumbs up subscribe and click the bell if you want to get
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there's a bunch of links in the description so today's video is a nice little mantra that i
actually learned from one of my students and it's the idea of turn the saddle and not the
bridle so i'll say that again turn the saddle not the bridle and i thought this was really
a helpful image to have in my mind so if you're struggling with turning or circles this can be
really helpful a lot of times what happens when we're riding our horses we all do this is that
you want to turn your horse and so basically if i want to turn left most people just kind of pull
their horse to the left and to get the horse to turn to the left so obviously i mean he he
does like if i just pull on the left rein okay my horse turns but you also notice how when i do that
it's like his whole body falls to the outside so it's not really a useful turn if i'm trotting or
cantering or if i want to keep my horse balanced or engaged like we want in dressage so i'll just
demonstrate again if you're turning the bridle basically you're just pulling on your inside ring
and like you see okay that was the perfect demonstration thank you mercurio because when you
just pull on the bridle it throws your horse off balance so because i wasn't balancing him and i
took away his neck they use their necks to balance so if you just pull on the inside rain to get your
horse to turn they might trip they might fall down but either way you're not going to have a good
turn so instead this idea of turning the saddle if if i'm riding my horse and i have contact
turning the saddle i'm going to push in with my outside upper thigh i'm going to put my outside
leg a little back and i'm going to think about basically pushing his pushing the saddle around
the turn so let me walk forward straight i'm going to turn left so i'm going to squeeze my right knee
you see i'm going to put right leg right leg right leg and there he turned and then i'm going to ride
straight out so again turn the saddle right knee right leg turn and then right out and then if i
want to turn to the right now it's my left leg my left knee i'm turning turning and then riding out
and then again left leg left knee turning turning and then riding straight forward out
so again it's left knee left leg turn turn and then ride straight forward out
let me show you again what happens if i just turn the bridle so if i want to turn and i just
pull on the inside rain you see what happens how his haunches go swinging to the outside
and that's kind of partially because i've taught him to do a one range stop but if i just
turn the bridle that's what happens and that's never going to work at the trot
or the canner because there's no way he can keep going in the trot or the canner
and maintain his balance so i'm going to give you guys an exercise to help you with turning
a lot of times what happens is let's say that i have trouble turning to the left i'm going
to go to the left because i think this is most people have trouble turning to the left
so what i see happening a lot is that people have trouble turning to the left and so they're trying
to make a circle let me get him going a little more and they're basically just going like turn
turn turn turn turn turn turn they're trying so hard to turn and the horse is just drifting
turning drifting turning the horse wants to drift right and you want to turn left and it never ends
like you're just trying to go around and around on the circle and your horse is never turning
and your horse is always drifting to the outside so what you're going to do in this situation
is you're going to think of riding a pentagon so you're going to turn and go straight and then turn
and then go straight so instead of riding a circle you're gonna ride like a hexagon or a
pentagon where you turn release turn release and i'm thinking about turning the saddle outside leg
outside rain turn release outside leg outside rain turn release outside leg outside rain turn
release you can do the same thing at the canner so turn straight turn straight
turn straight
and if your horse really isn't turning turn release turn release good boy
good boy but it's really really important to get out of that drift so
if you feel like your horse is just constantly like drifting drifting drifting to the right
you can't get them to turn left you really want to like turn and then release
so there is like yes turning the saddle closing your outside leg that should be your main turning
aid but your reins do support the turning a little bit so your outside hand should never go across
your horse's neck to turn so like when your rain goes across their neck it's considered an indirect
rain and this should never be a turning aid this is like neck raining we don't do that in dressage
so your outside hand should always stay on the outside of the horse's neck but you can keep
it right here at the withers and kind of think about turning the withers and then with the inside
rain you can have a little bit of an opening rain aid so an opening rain aid is where your
hand goes a little away from the neck and kind of opens the door so i'm not doing this i'm not like
pulling his head in the turn i'm keeping him pretty straight with my outside rein but i'm
i'm a little bit opening the door for him to turn to the inside so let me show you that again
so if i'm walking along here and i'm going to turn to the left i'm going to close my right
knee and my right ring and open a little my left rein so that he can come around the turn
so again i'm going to close my right knee open the left rein and there he turns and then same thing
if i want to turn to the right now i'm going to put my left hand by the withers and open my
right rein and then there he turned for me so my left knee it's always the outside leg that starts
the turn my right ring opens and there we go let me show you the the pentagon or the hexagon in
this direction so same thing if you feel like your horse is always drifting on the circle
turn right straight and then turn right straight and then over time like once you feel
like you and your horse have a little better communication about your steering then of course
you want to go back to making a perfect circle but even like if i'm riding a perfect circle
i'm always thinking a little bit like turn release turn release turn release every step
i'm thinking of turning and releasing turning and releasing i'm never just like constantly
having my turning aids on him because then he's just gonna ignore it oh boy good boy so
i hope this video is helpful let me know in the comments which direction you have trouble turning
and if this image of turn the saddle and not the bridle is helpful to you
bye