Lateral movements?

[jumpingkatey]

Well today I was schooling Katey and we had a go at rein back and she did it really well!!By the end of our schooling session,she knew that if I
1/ lightened my seat a bit
2/resisted my hands following her head
3/squeeze her
then she knew how to rein back!!

Anyway she really enjoyed doing something abit more difficult than our average circles,serpentines,etc so does anyone know what other excercises we could do?
We also did abit of a turn on the forehand and haunches in.

[Vez]

Have you do moves such as half pass, leg yield and shoulder in. Willow isn't very well schooled but she got the hang of leg yield quickly ( and thats a shock becase normally she doesn't understand much and it takes ages to train her!) Well done for achieving rien back! :)

[jumpingkatey]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention I'm not very hot in the lateral movements department so can you explain how to do them please?
Thanks!

[Vez]

I am the same so probally not the best person to answer. To make Willow leg yield (say left) I make her walk forward, then put my wieght into my leg stirrup. I keep right leg on and pull slightly on left rein. Make sure she doesn't turn and also that shes not just walking as if on a diagonal. However I might be totally wrong as Willow only sometimes does it!. Hope this is of some help :)

[Vez]

Maybe this link might help?

http://www.naturalhorsesupply.com/lateral.shtml

:) :)

[NZdressage]

Lateral movements should be taught in order as one movement leads on to another, leg yield should be taught first, then shoulder in, travere, half pass and piroette. I think you should try to talk to someone in person about it, maybe your trainer? As it is hard to write what you mean over the net and have someone understand it the way you wanted it to be understood. You shouldnt teach these movements, esp if you compete, without supervision from a person with experience in this field otherwise you are more likely to get it wrong and you think its right.

[FreedomStar]

Leg yielding is the easiest lateral movement to work with. In the leg yield the horse will step forward and to the side. The difference between a leg yield and a half pass is that in the leg yield the horse is bent away from the direction your moving (i.e. if you're leg yielding left off of your right leg, the horse is bent slightly to the right). First, make sure you've got complete control over your horses forehand and hindquarters. Do lots of turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches. Carry a long whip when trying thi, if your horse doesn't mind one, to help you control the hindquarters. a lot of times when the rider is learning the lateral movement, the horse will cheat and step over only with the front legs and shuffle the back ones.

When properly done the legs move in the same way as with trotting; that is, the horse moves on the diagonals. so if you were moving left off of your right leg then the horses front right and back left would travel together, and the front left and back right would travel together, just like when you're trotting. Start from a halt. Let's say you're going to go left, off of your right leg. What you would do is keep contact with your left rein and slightly with your left leg (to prevent the horse from swinging the hindquarters around into a turn on the forehand) and turn the horses head slightly to the right so you have a gentle right bend. Turn your eyes so that you're looking to the right, and turn your belly button to the right so that you're putting a right bend in your body. Then nudge with your right leg. Don't squeeze like you would when asking for a transition. You want to tap tap tap, and continue tapping with your leg until the horse moves, and immediately release. Try for only one step at a time until you get the hand of the proper aids.

It might be eaiser to have a trainer or instructor to help you with this, as words on a page can only do so much.