Sunday 20 April 2014

The perfect bend

Bending your horses neck and head to the inside of the arena is vital in dressage. It may be difficult to achieve this, and it may need a professional horse trainer, but to help and get the results you want, I will share with you this 'must need' dressage training.

1- start to do a 20 meter circle on your (example) left rein. Some horses won't bend their necks is their not relaxed or warmed up so you will have to give them a forward trot and a canter on both reins.
2- To do a bend, you have to see the horses eye and muzzle, so you will need to pull back on the inside rein and keep the outside rein tight. If your horse pulls his head up, release your reins and try again. Remember to not get frustrated too soon, this takes practice.
3- If you are having trouble, do a tiny (and I mean tiny) circle in your 20 meter circle, your horse will bend their neck nicely, they can bend their neck to your knee is you wanted to do that. So try what you did in the small circle and do it on the big one.
4-Once your horse finally does the head bend for at least one circle, try it in trot, remember to keep the trot lively and big.

I hope this helped,
I didn't post the breed of the week last week because I had my cousin visiting and it was also Easter.

Stay horsey,
~Livinia :)

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