Shoulder-in is the father of the advanced lateral dressage movements. It does many wonderful things for your horse. Here are just some of them:

Shoulder-in is a suppling exercise because it stretches and loosens the muscles and ligaments of the inside shoulder and forearm. During shoulder-in, your horse passes his inside foreleg in front of his outside foreleg. This motion increases his ability to move his forearm gymnastically in other movements.

It’s also a straightening exercise because you should always straighten your horse by bringing his forehand in front of his hindquarters. Never try to straighten him by leg yielding his hindquarters out behind his shoulders.

Shoulder-in is also a collecting exercise. It increases your horse’s self-carriage because he lowers his inside hip with each step. As a result, his center of gravity shifts back toward his hind legs. His hindquarters carry more weight, and his front end elevates.

What Does Shoulder-In look like?

In shoulder-in, you’ll flex your horse to the inside, and bend him around your inside leg. Then bring his forehand 30 degrees off the wall so he’s on three tracks. At this angle his inside hind leg lines up behind his outside foreleg.

Many people bring their horse’s forehand in more than three tracks. When this is done, all four legs can be seen. This isn’t a problem as long as you can maintain your horse’s bend so that the exercise doesn’t become a leg yield.

Sometimes in competition, the judge likes to see a hoof’s width more than three tracks. But don’t bring the forehand in more than that, or you’ll lose the bend.

What Are the Aids for Shoulder-in?

If you’re doing left shoulder-in, the aids are:

Seat: Put your weight on your left seat bone.

Left leg: Keep your left leg on the girth for bend and to ask for engagement of the inside hind leg.

Right leg: Place your right leg behind the girth to prevent the hindquarters from swinging out.

Left rein:Use your left rein to create a +1 flexion at poll.

Right rein: Keep your right rein steady and supporting to prevent too much bend in the neck.

Both hands:

• Keep both hands low and equidistant from your body as you move them to the left.
• Move them to the left enough to place the outside front leg in front of the inside hind leg. (Or half that distance for shoulder-fore)
• Use your inside rein as an opening rein.
• Bring your outside hand very close to the withers, but never let that hand cross over the withers.

What’s the Sequence of Aids?

• Always ask for bend before you ask for angle.
• The formula for the advanced lateral exercises is:

Bend + Sideways = Engagement. (It’s NOT Sideways + Bend=Engagement.)

• Make a 10-meter circle (or ride a corner with a 10-meter arc) to bend your horse.
• You’ll know your horse is bending easily when you can soften the contact on the inside rein, and he stays bent by himself. He’ll also feel like he’s “giving” in his rib cage. (i.e. If you’re circling to the right, his rib cage feels like it’s bulging to the left.)
• Once he’s bending nicely, start a second 10-meter circle.
• Interrupt that circle during the first step, and continue down the long side.
• To interrupt the circle, look straight down the long side, and give a squeeze with your inside leg.
• Bring both hands to the inside to place the forehand 30 degrees away from the wall.
• Make sure you do shoulder-in with the same amount of bend and angle in both directions. Don’t ride on three tracks in one direction and on three and a half tracks in the other.

How Can You Tell If You’re Doing a High Quality Shoulder-in?

• The quality of the shoulder-in really comes down to BEND.
• You know your horse is bending if his hindquarters are in exactly the same position (i.e.
• parallel to the wall) in shoulder-in as they are when you’re just riding straight down the track.
• If his hindquarters swing out at an angle to the wall, you’re just doing a leg yield in a shoulder-in position.

Click here for more info on shoulder-in lateral dressage movements.

It’s not uncommon for riders to struggle getting their dressage horses to pick up one of their canter leads. The following are some simple exercises to help you pick up the right lead every time!

The first exercise is done completely in the walk. You will practice positioning your dressage horse alternately for the left lead and then switch to the right lead after a few strides.

Let’s say you decided to pick up left lead:

–Put your weight on your left seat bone.
–Flex your horse to the left by turning your left wrist as if you’re unlocking a door. That is, start with your thumb as the highest point of the hand, Turn your thumb to the left, and bring your baby finger very close to the withers but don’t cross over the withers. In this moment, your knuckles or fingernails will be pointing up toward your face. Then put your hand back in the original position with your thumb as the highest point of the hand.
–Support with your right rein so your horse doesn’t over bend his neck to the left. His face should be one inch to the inside of a neutral position. (Neutral means his head and neck are straight in front of his body so that his chin is directly in front of his “cleavage”.)
–Your left leg is on the girth to say, “Go forward to the canter.”
–Your right leg is a couple of inches behind the girth because it will signal his right hind leg to strike off into left lead canter. (He has to start cantering with the outside hind leg in order to end up on the correct lead.)

Stay in this “left lead canter” position for a few strides in the walk, and then switch your aids as if asking for right lead canter (Remember, you’re doing all of this in the walk). That is:

–Weight on the right seat bone.
–Right rein flexes the horse’s head one inch to the right.
–Left rein is like a siderein that prevents too much bend in the neck.
–Right leg on the girth.
–Left leg behind the girth.

When you get ready to ask for the depart, do the following things:

1. Keep the horse positioned to the inside as you did above.
2. When you ask for the canter depart, push your inside seat bone forward toward your horse’s inside ear.
3. Give a little squeeze with your inside leg on the girth to tell your horse to go “forward into the canter”
4. Use your outside leg in a windshield wiper-like action to signal the outside hind to strike-off into the canter.

Check that you’re on the correct lead by:

1, Keeping your head erect, but peak down at his front legs. If you’re on the correct lead, the inside front leg should reach further forward than the outside front leg.
2. Make a circle. If you’re on the correct lead, the canter will feel balanced. If you’re on the wrong lead, the canter will feel unbalanced.

If you end up of the wrong lead, chances are you didn’t keep your horse bent through his body and flexed to the inside at his poll during the transition. Your horse will pick up whatever lead he’s bent and flexed toward.

Here are 2 things you can do to help with the bend:

1. Walk on a small circle to bend your horse. Just before you finish the small circle, keep the bend and apply the aids for the canter. Once he canters, arc out onto a larger circle.

2. Walk or trot your dressage horse on a small circle. Leg yield (That is, push your horse sideways.) out to the larger circle. Keep your inside leg on the girth as you leg yield to help with the bend. If you’re circling to the right, imagine you’re pushing his rib cage to the left while his neck and hindquarters stay to the right.

Click here for more tips on how to canter your horse. ]]> http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/canter-your-dressage-horse-on-the-correct-lead-every-time/feed/ 0 http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/do-you-make-these-mistakes-when-your-dressage-horse-shies/ http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/do-you-make-these-mistakes-when-your-dressage-horse-shies/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:22:05 +0000 admin http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/?p=46 I’ve dealt with a lot of spooky dressage horses, and I find that often shying gets worse because riders do one or all of the following things.

1.    Hit or kick him to make him obedient.
2.    Make him walk straight up to scary object and face it straight on.
3.    Forget to go around your ring in both directions.
4.    Force him to go close to the scary object.
5.    Patting and soothing him while he’s shying.

Let’s understand the nature of horses:
1.    Horses shy because they’re afraid.
2.    A horse shies because his natural instinct is to keep himself safe by fleeing.
3.    His eyes are set on the side of his head so he can see with binocular vision (like us) as well as monocular vision.
4.    Many horses are claustrophobic.

So looking back at the first list of rider coping strategies, you can probably see why they don’t work very well.
1.    If your horse is afraid, punishing him convinces him there is something to be afraid of.
2.    Asking your dressage horse to walk straight up to a scary object is one of the most frightening things you can do. In his mind, it’s like asking him to meet a cougar head on.
3.    Like people, horses have a dominant eye. When the dominant eye is on the outside, your horse is less apt to spook because he can survey the environment for possible danger. When the dominant eye is on the inside, he’s more anxious. He’ll want to whip his head around and check out his surroundings with his dominant eye. And while he’s doing that, he’ll be shying from potential danger.
4.    If you try to go by the scary object as close as possible your first time around the ring, you’ll add to your horse’s anxiety.
5.     If you pat him, you’re rewarding him for being spooky. In his mind, you’re praising him for keeping you safe, and he’s more apt to repeat the behavior.

Taking all of the above into consideration, here’s what I do:
1. I never punish a horse that shies.
2. I don’t reward the horse while he’s shying.
3. I walk around a new environment (ring, field, arena) in both directions so he can see everything slowly the first time with both eyes.
4. If the scary object is at A (a flower pot, for example), I won’t go all the way to the short side my first time around the arena. I might turn across the school between V and P. Then each time around I get gradually closer to the short side so when I finally go by the flowers, it’s no big deal.
5. Once I’m working I add the following 2 tools. Well before the flowerpot, I bend my horse’s neck so much to the inside so he can’t see it with either eye.
6. When I’m beside the flower pot, I soften my inside hand forward so my claustrophobic dressage horse doesn’t feel pinned against whatever he’s afraid of.

Click here for more tools to deal with the spooky horse.