Going round the bend

[Mark]

Hi

Here's a couple of basic questions for your from an absolute beginner. My first question is how do you trot round corners? In my lessons we only use part of the arena as the school has more than one lesson on the go at the same time. The difficulty I'm finding is that as soon as we have got into a trot (that's me and the horse, obviously) I immediately have to think about the turn as the end of the arena looms. As I am concentrating on this I find it difficult to keep the leg aids going and the horse, who needs a lot of encouragement, starts losing momentum as a result. I find that I cannot apply leg aids, steer and trot at the same time. Reminds me of the expression, 'can't chew gum and walk at the same time'. Any tips? My book doesn't seem to deal with this specific problem (author probably didn't envisage that anyone so lacking in coordination would consider taking up riding).

My second question is, are there any exercises you can do to strengthen leg muscles between lessons? I cycle to work everyday, which is a healthy activity apart from the lungfuls of exhaust fumes which you inhale and near misses with buses, problem is that this exercises the completely wrong group of muscles to be of any benefit.

Many thanks

Mark

PS, I am being lunged this week to correct my posture, sounds painful. Apparently I have a tendency to lean into corners as though I am on a motorbike! I have never ridden a motorbike and would never consider doing so - I could fall off and hurt myself!

[Sharon H]

The only difference in going around corners should be a 'squeezing' of the inside rein and a slight adjustment of your leg position, inside one on the girth and outside one slightly behind. To be honest (and I don't mean this to sound rude!) at your level, the leg position isn't really that critical. The type of school horse you'll be riding, should know how to go around the corners by it'self, after all, it's not stupid enough to run straight into a wall! It sounds to me that the fault is with you general position and hopefully your lunge lesson will help with this. If you do have a tendency to lean inwards, this will have the effect of slowing the horse down and I expect when you come to a corner, you're so busy thinking about all the things you have to do to get around it, it makes you more tense and less able to sit up and ride. I suppose my advise would be to concentrate on staying upright and keeping the forward movement and have more faith in your horse:) It may also help if you could ride a more forward going horse. Your instuctor sounds pretty good though, they've obviously spotted a problem and are doing something about it, let us know how you get on. Sorry, but I've no idea about exercises, I'm allergic to exercise!

[katyptaty]

Hi

I don't think your problem comes from being un-coordinated, but more from lack of balance, experience and specific muscle groups which you seem to be tackling. i disagree that the leg position is not vital at any stage of riding. If the leg doesn't 'learn' at the beginning to go to the correct part of the horse for a specific movement then it will be very hard to correct this later on once new muscle groups have formed.

i have learned this from experience having started riding at about 12 on riding school ponies of the typical riding school pony ilk i.e. stiff as boards, slow as snails or mad as hatters. I carried on to about 24 riding at schools etc therefore having a lot of experience yet unable to properly perform the aids correctly (i had lessons and hacking but had a gap of about 4 years) due to poor schooling when young. 2 years ago, before buying my horse, i started going to a fantastic school where the horses reacted to change in weight distribution, the slightest touch and even a thought!! (which is a bit mad!). I started from scratch again - re-learning, teaching my legs where to go correctly - lunging (bleugh), etc. I still have a few problems now as i have to be so accurate with my aids due to my horse being very green..... i am highly jealous of my boyfriend, who started to ride at the last school and after a few lessons has a lovely seat and a good perception of what needs to be done and where!!!!

One way that i stopped leaning is to be able to sit straighter with no real weight on the stirrups (see strengthening exercises below)and to consciously make sure the outside shoulder is mirroring the action of the horse's i.e. facing inwards a little. This will put the weightin the correct place in the saddle. A visual aid for not leaning that i found very useful when relearning was to imagine a caravan going round a corner. If you were turning right, your caravan would overturn if all the weight was on the right hand side. The 'baggage' should be evenly stacked within the caravan to prevent a lean and potential overturning (very simplistic i know, but i am a 'visual learner' and the image helped me). Therefore you need to make a more conscious effort to sit squarely in the saddle. If the instructor took your stirrups away, you would topple to the inside.

anyways, exercises would mostly be for the inner thighs and the bottom. Try sitting on the floor with your arms and legs out front and inching forward from one buttock to the other for about 10 moves, then go back. For the thighs a good one is to stretch before getting on (especially if you have cyclists thighs - which i have also had to combat), face forwards legs apart, bend one leg leaving one straight and squat down on this leg stretching the inner thigh of the other. Or standing, lift one bent leg, rotate to the side then down. this is hard but helps to 'open' your pelvis, allowing you to sit more relaxed with your legs hanging down in the correct position. Another is to sit on the floor with your legs out. Put your legs either side of a chair on the group at about calf level, then squeeze for 5 seconds. Increase this as you get better.

I hope this helps! aids always looks so easy but faced with the reality of weight distribution, leg coordination, position of head/shoulders etc going round a corner, it suddenly becomes a litany of things to remember! sometimes too much!

Buy Horse and Rider this month (June) and on page 14 there is an article on 'The Weight Aids Demystified' which will help....

Good luck. Sorry it's so long winded but 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt'! i hope it helps!

[Mark]

To Sharon H and katyptaty

Many thanks for your helpful advice and suggestions. It was very kind of you to provide such detailed answers so quickly.

Had a lunge lesson after work this evening and it was very useful. Managed to get a proper trot going although it was a bit wobbly. Now I think I've got it fixed in my head and know what its supposed to feel like, everything suddenly goes smooth - like breaking the sound barrier! I think I now know what I'm supposed to do and why I'm supposed to be doing it. Hope I can call upon your advice again.

Take care

Mark

[katyptaty]

Hi Mark

that's fine, hope we've helped. After writing to you, i read the article i mentioned and I really do feel it will be beneficial to you. I have had to rethink certain aids that i give because of it as well as look at my 'caravan' analagy which worked at the beginning to stop me leaning and being stiff in the shoulders, but weightwise is actually incorrect. Sylvia gives a great explanation of how to distribute weight effectively and also a few exercises to help you get the 'feel'. She says that weight should 'drop' slightly in the inner seat bone to make the inside leg longer and to give something for the horse to bend around - but this is not leaning.

Take a look. it can only help!

happy corner riding!

[Dizzy]

Hi Mark, keep your shoulders above your hips, that way you won't lean your upper body over and lose balance. Keep your shoulders open and look where you're going. Pretend your eyes are in your chest and turn your 'eyes' in the direction you are going, your upper body turn affects your bum, try turning your torso as described as your sitting at your computer and feel how your bum changes on your chair, the horse feels this and turns. Try to remain relaxed, as signals like this are lost through tension, as all the horse can feel is your tension, which to them is hard and ungiving, so sit up straight, nice even breathing, relax and turn your upper body in the direction you want to go.

Just this action alone is usually enough to get a horse to turn, though with your legs and hands your instructor is the best person to help you, she'll beable to talk you through the corner and help you with the timing.

Hope this helps you,

Lesley

Lesley

[Maria]

Hi Mark

If you haven't already done so read Heather's excellent introduction to a Kinder Way to Ride on this website. I first learnt to use the aids she teaches for turning about eight years ago - and they work with any horse and work so much better than the BHS aids I was taught before.

Rather than try to explain the aids for turning myself - which apply to turning corners, here is Heather's explanation:

"The Weight Aids:

These are used for turning. They consist of nothing more than advancing your inside hipbone, i.e., tipping the top of the hipbone a little forward, as if pointing it in that direction so that it is slightly further forward than the left.

You can again practise this, sitting on a stool. Tip the top of the right hipbone slightly forward. You should also feel the right seatbone tip onto it's front edge to turn right, advance the right hipbone, feeling a little more weight emphasised on the right seatbone under you. By advancing the inside hip in this way, it also brings your left hip back so that your outside leg is positioned ready for use behind the girth to assist in the turn.

Movement of seat bones to turn the horse:

If you try these aids out on a real horse just on a loose rein, you will find that you can turn the horse without any reins at all. The horse does not have to be trained to do this - it is just a natural response to the slight shift in your weight. Of course, this is a very simplified way to turn, and only part of the whole. The hands and legs of course also play an important part in achieving the correct bend when turning the horse. Bending the horse correctly helps to supple his body, making him more manoeuvrable, and therefore safer and more pleasant to ride. We will be looking at the role played by the hands and legs in turning in later pages."

Maria

[FRED]

Hi Mark,its all seems like hard work in the beginning,
so much to try and take in, and to stay on the saddle.One of the 1st things for me, was to develop my seat,I had been on the horses about 5 times before I properly understood what this means,soon you will understand this,its a big help.
Often we blame a horse for not going,I think in many cases, certainly mine, the horse was confused, and behaved corectly
by not trotting, because I was stuggling and my aids were not clear,patience in your early lessons not to try too much, helps, but is frustrating.The trainer plays a key part at these times, hopefully.
I did a little trotting without stirrups, this was a great confidence booster.
Let us know how you go on with the lunge,Ive never tried it.
The great thing about NR is how helpfull participants are.
Good Luck,there are lots of ways to keep a horse going, the best way is through learning to be a rider and learning to understand the horse,horses respect this and will let you know.
Good luck from Fred.

[Mark]

Thank you all very much for your further very useful advice. This has all been printed off so that I can study it at leisure. It has all helped give me a feel for what I am aiming for. Simply looking where you want to go makes an enormous difference! I also read the article suggested by katyptaty which was also a great help.

After a couple of lunge lessons I was let loose again tonight and managed to keep going round and round without losing the plot, I mean trot - well maybe once or twice. Not much to boast about I know, nevertheless it feels like a major achievement for me :cool:. Until last month I'd hardly been near a horse let alone ridden one!

Fred, I found the lunge lessons very useful, from a beginners perspective, in building up confidence and learning to relax. It proves to yourself that you can stay on without stirrups or reins while going round and round in circles while being bounced about at a trot! My instructor is excellent and she has lots of confidence building tricks which she uses in the lunge. I think that has been the key to making progress for me.

I think I can say that I've now gone round the bend.

Cheers

Mark

[Edited by Mark on 6th Jun 2001 at 11:10 PM]

[FRED]

Hi Mark, great to see you are going forward.I do things a little different, but a good seat means a lot.
Today I thought of your comments about riding motor bikes
while having my lesson,leaning,you should of seen this guy, he looked like Barry Sheen going round the circles he leaned so much,we did have to laugh.Like me he rides bikes it seems.Any way good luck.
Fred.

[floppy]

hehe sorry but i found your first post (mark) very humerous!
so are you enjoying riding? how are your corners going?
i would offer advice too but everyone seems to have said all that i would say!:)

[Mark]

Glad my post made you chuckle floppy:).

Yes I am loving every minute of my lessons and only regret that I didn't try it ages ago. I am looking forward to when I can leave the confines of the school and go on one of the hacks which they lead.

Towards the end of my lesson yesterday the instructor briefly got me into a canter which I certainly wasn't expecting. It was an amazing sensation though and I can't wait to get back and have another go. Come to think of it the horse seemed to negotiate the corners himself without me doing anything - I was too busy being surprised!

It's certainly hard work on the legs though - I'm walking about like an old man at the moment.

I think we have the cornering problem just about under control for the moment (though much refinement is no doubt needed) although I have no doubt that I will have plenty more silly questions to ask in future!

Mark

[floppy]

so was that the first time you had cantered?
the owner of my horse started riding 2 years ago and was telling me yesterday how hard it was to learn and that she wished she had learnt when she was a child /teenager.

[Mark]

That was the first time yes. I'm not sure how long it usually takes to get to each stage - I think that was my 7th lesson. Of course we only cantered briefly - I might not be able to do it again next week, who knows? Yes it is harder to learn anything as an adult because you break everything down and analyse it rather than just doing it! Personally I am also finding it very hard work although I think I am very lucky with my instructor because she can build up some momentum in the lesson and move you on to the next stage almost without you realising it. Anyway, having looked at some of the posts on these boards, I've no doubt there are plenty of frustrations and setbacks to come! I'm sure its all worth it though.

Mark

[Mark]

I know this thread's gone cold now, but, in case there's still anyone out there who might be interested I thought I would just mention that I found a great book which deals with most of these basic errors. It's called 'The Less than Perfect Rider' by Lesley Bayley and Caroline Davis. It seems that 'motorbiking' as they call is a recognized condition! They have some very good suggestions and don't make it sound like rocket science!

Mark

[FRED]

I suspect I may be getting this book.
Thanks Mark and good luck with your next lesson
Fred