Young, weak or unbalanced horses sometimes pick up canter on the incorrect lead. Over time, this has potential to become a habit.

Thankfully, there’s a simple flatwork exercise that requires you to ride a few steps of leg-yield to help your horse pick up the correct canter lead.

Aims

• Correct your horse’s flexion
• Connect the horse into the outside rein
• Improve the canter transition

The setup

You need: a 20x40m or 20x60m arena

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, turn onto the three-quarter line in trot.
• As you pass X, begin to leg-yield to the track. You can sit or rise, depending on what’s best for your horse. Aim to hit the track just after the corner marker.
• Ask for canter as you reach the track going into the corner.

Things to note

1. Avoid over-flexing

When ridden correctly, your horse should show slight flexion away from the direction of travel. Too much flexion often leads to the shoulders leading, and often means the horse drifts rather than crossing the legs.

However, ensure you maintain the flexion, and the connection into the outside rein, into the corner. Alongside balancing him, this is what helps set your horse up to lead with the inside leg in the canter.

2. Ensure your horse’s body is straight

While the shoulders should be slightly in advance of the quarters, they should not be dramatically so. Likewise, the hindquarters should not lead.

3. Maintain the rhythm

Look to maintain the same trot you had while riding large up the three-quarter line and throughout the leg-yield.

Some horses lose their engine in leg-yield, dropping behind the bit, while others might rush forward and away from your inside leg aid.

Ultimately, the contact and rhythm should be consistent. You may need to adjust your aids to help maintain them, or remain in a rising trot to help keep to a regular rhythm.

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Extended canter is all about energy. Dressage judges want to see an increase in stride length and ground cover, not just more speed, with the horse staying straight and connected.

The same applies when jumping: you want lift, airtime and adjustability, maintaining your rhythm – not simply a faster canter that’s flat and hollow.

This very simple flatwork exercise works on boosting the quality of the steps in extended canter – not the quantity.

Aims

• Increase stride length and ground cover
• Develop an uphill, open frame
• Maintain the rhythm while increasing the reach
• Stay straight and connected, both into the extended canter and back out again

The setup

No setup required – simply the space to ride a 20m circle on the flat.

How to ride the exercise

Many riders try to practise their extended canter by firing off down the long side of the arena. However, it’s best taught over short, repeatable efforts where the horse can learn to make a distinction in stride length.

• Warm up in walk, trot and canter on both reins, including plenty of transitions to make sure your horse is listening and responding to your aids.
• Establish an active working canter and go large.
• Now go on to a 20m circle in working canter, and make a transition to five or six bigger strides, before collecting back to working canter. Use your inside leg to push the shoulder up without blocking. The circle should encourage your horse to step under with the hindleg, rather than running flat on the forehand.
• This short effort discourages the horses from becoming flat and running, because they’ll anticipate the re-collection. It also teaches riders to feel a few good steps as the quality is developing and not chase for more.
• Each horse will vary on how much you need to push and how much to hold. By practising, you’ll find your own horse’s sweet spot.
• Repeat a few times on each rein.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Running

Keep the increases short, before collecting back. While the horse is developing the extended canter, he may only be able to manage a few good strides, then unravel, losing balance and energy. It is better to make the transition back before that happens. Prioritise quality over quantity.

2. Flattening

To extend properly, your horse needs to lift. Think shoulder-fore going into the circle, so you encourage you horse to keep his inside shoulder up, without establishing a full shoulder-in. The frame needs to be open to be able to extend, not overly flexed.

3. Too much hand

Some riders hang on to the reins to try to control the canter, so you need to work on your hands being independent. Work on giving and retaking the rein on a circle. And when you come back to a more collected canter from the increased strides, don’t just pull! Use a half-halt and soften.

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Lengthened or extended trot strides are often seen in a dressage test across the diagonal. The consequence is that many of us practise them by speeding across the longest straight in the arena, inadvertently encouraging our horses to become flat, hollow and rushed. The trot strides don’t so much lengthen as simply speed up.

Instead, we want to encourage our horse to push off the hindleg, with the strides getting longer but, crucially, not quicker. To do this successfully, the horse needs to be supple, which will produce longer steps with more airtime thanks to a looser back and more engaged hindleg.

This flatwork exercise works on suppleness alongside lengthening the steps to improve the latter.

Aims

• Longer, but not faster, trot strides
• Increased suppleness

The setup

No setup required. All you need is sufficient space – and an arena is ideal. If you are riding in the field, it’s helpful to lay out arena boards, poles or other markers so that you can be disciplined about where you make transitions.

How to ride the exercise

• Warm up in all paces, incorporating plenty of upward and downward transitions to ensure your horse is responding to your aids or cues.
• Establish an active working trot and go large, riding around the edge of the arena.
• As you come round the short side, turn up the quarter-line in the same trot, and leg-yield to the track.
• When you reach the track, ask for a few lengthened strides, thinking “bigger, but slower” to prevent rushing. The leg-yield should help loosen your horse’s back, while engaging the inside hindleg so that it can push off more for bigger, longer strides. This is particularly helpful if your horse has a choppy trot.
• Before you reach the end of the next short side, collect the trot again, keeping the energy but containing the stride length.
• Do this exercise the same number of times in both directions. Because it loads the inside hindleg more, you need to work both sides equally.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Tempo control

If you do this exercise in rising trot, you can use your rising to help control the horse’s tempo. This is useful if your horse tends to go faster, not bigger, when you ask for the extension.

2. Rushing

For horses that rush or hollow, you can practise lengthening on a circle. The curve of the circle will encourage you to ride from inside leg to outside rein to engage the hindleg. You can change between rising and sitting trot to help your horse by allowing the back to swing more in the longer strides.

3. Trouble re-collecting

For horses that struggle to come back into a balanced more collected trot after lengthening, ride a 10m circle at the end of the lengthened strides. This will encourage you to keep your horse in balance so that he is ready to do a small circle, rather than allowing him to rush down the side of the arena.

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In this exercise to improve medium trot, we are using lateral work – specifically the half-pass – to improve the push in the more extended paces. Half-pass should only be attempted once your horse is established in both shoulder-in and haunches-in (travers), being able to bend around the inside leg, maintain a forward rhythm and move sideways in good balance.

The half-pass enhances a horse’s longitudinal and lateral suppleness, enabling the hindleg to step under more and therefore boosting the power and push, to encourage ground cover without your horse losing balance. It also frees up the shoulders, which gives your horse more reach in the medium trot.

Aim

• Improve impulsion and engagement

Setup

No setup required: This flatwork exercise is easiest to do in an arena. If you are riding it in a field, we suggest marking out an arena to help your accuracy.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, establish an active working trot and go large.
• As you come out of the corner, ask for half-pass across the diagonal.
• After six strides or so, straighten the horse and ask for some lengthened or medium trot strides.
• Proceed in medium trot across X. This should improve impulsion and engagement.
• After around six strides of medium trot, half-halt and position your horse in half-pass again.
• Half-pass back to the track.
• Repeat on both reins and from both ends of the arena.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Failing to prepare

Without preparing your horse properly either for the half-pass or the medium trot, he will lack engagement and balance. Try a couple of steps of shoulder-in before the half-pass to engage the hindleg and establish the bend.

When it comes to the medium trot, make sure he is straight before asking him to lengthen.

2. Too much, too soon

Half-pass is a lateral movement for established horses. If your horse is twisting his head or struggling with his balance and bend, go back to basics. He should be well established in shoulder-in before you start attempting some steps of half-pass.

3. Twisting head

This can occur when the inside rein is forcing the bend, with the outside leg pushing the horse, which blocks the inside leg from coming through.

Or, the rider is asking for more sideways movement than the horse is ready for.

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We know straightness is a crucial element of how our horse goes, and one of the scales of training. Canter, being asymmetrical, is the hardest gait to achieve straightness, with many horses falling out at the shoulder and swinging the quarters in.

This flatwork exercise uses shallow loops to straighten the canter, improving engagement and encouraging your horse to accept the outside aids. Straightness still applies when the horse is bending. The horse is straight if their hindlegs are following their front legs travelling on the same two tracks in self-carriage.

Quarters-in is a common fault at lower levels. As the outside hindleg strikes off (and starts each canter stride sequence), it carries the most weight. Horses may try to compensate for this by swinging the quarters in so this weight-bearing leg doesn’t have to step under so far.

Aims

• Straighten the canter
• Teach your horse to accept the outside aids
• Achieve self-carriage

The setup

No setup required: This exercise is easiest to do in a school to help you be disciplined about the size of loop. If you do it in a field, we suggest you mark out an area to work in.

How to ride this exercise

• Once warmed up in walk, trot and canter on both reins, go large in a balanced working canter.
• At the first quarter marker on each side of the area, ride a 10m shallow loop. The bend of the horse’s head and neck should follow the direction of travel.
• Repeat, progressively decreasing the size of loops to 8m, 5m, 2m and 1m.
• Finally, ride the same exercise with barely noticeable loops of 20cm – with the aim that your horse is completely straight.
• Repeat on both reins.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Your horse goes disunited or hollows

Just come back to trot, try to relax, and then try again starting with shallower loops.

2. You lose the quality of canter

Some horses rush as they anticipate cantering across the diagonal. Perform a half-halt in the corner before starting the loop to keep him on the aids.

3. An unintentional flying change

Maintain the existing canter lead (the lead you started the loop on) with your true inside leg and the outside leg slightly behind the girth. While the horse’s body should bend around the loop, their nose should be slightly pointing toward the leading leg to prevent the horse from interpreting the turn as a cue for a flying change.

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This spiral circle exercise can help you avoid getting stuck in a rut of riding aimless 20m circles. With a bit of focus, you can turn those circles into a really productive flatwork exercise.

Aim

• to improve your horse’s suppleness, engagement and focus.

The setup

Setup: No setup required. All you need is enough space to trot a 20m circle.

How to ride the spiral circles exercise

• Once warmed up, pick up an active trot on a 20m circle. Make sure your horse is bending correctly on the line of the circle, with your inside leg on the girth and outside leg just behind.
• Use the outside leg to spiral in to a 15m circle, then 12m then 10m.
• Your horse should not be falling in or out, but maintaining the bend through his body as the circle gets tighter.
• Leg-yield back out to a 20m circle, using your inside leg to outside rein.

You can repeat a few times, working on your horse’s suppleness and response to your aids, and they should soften. Adjust the size of the smaller circle, and how quickly you return to the larger circle, to be appropriate for the horse’s level of training.

Repeat the exercise in canter if you’re both ready for it. When you spiral in, your horse will need to collect the canter strides a little while maintaining their bend and impulsion.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Falling in

All horses will be stiffer on one rein and this spiralling exercise will help. Keep the inside leg on the girth, encouraging your horse to bend through his body, and your weight on the inside seat bone. Support the outside shoulder with the outside rein.

Check you are not pulling the horse’s head round and back with your inside hand, instead opening the inside hand to guide him. Turn your shoulders in the direction of the turn, don’t lean inwards.

2. Falling out

Use your outside leg behind the girth to prevent the quarters swinging out. The outside rein should guide and contain the shoulder.

The inside leg should encourage your horse to lift through his ribcage rather than sinking. Keep your weight on the inside seat bone.

3. Slowing down

This is a sign that your horse is finding this exercise is challenging. Stay in trot and repeat little and often in your schooling schedule as it will gradually improve their suppleness. You should find that he is much softer on a 20m circle after doing this exercise.

In canter, your horse will have to take shorter strides to make the tighter circle. Keep the rhythm and impulsion to enable him to maintain the canter quality throughout the spiral.

4. Flying changes

Sometimes in canter, when riders apply the inside leg to leg yield back out to the 20m circle, the horse does a flying change. Make sure your leg is on the girth and not behind.

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One of the easiest ways to impress a dressage judge is by riding accurate corners. But it’s not just about scoring high marks; improving how you ride corners encourages the correct bend, suppleness, straightness and balance from the horse with the rider prioritising using their seat and leg, over their hands. This is the foundation for all lateral movements and more advanced work.

Here’s how to work on your discipline and accuracy round the bends with the help of a simple flatwork exercise.

Aims

• to ride into the corners of the arena
• achieving bend through the horse’s whole body, without drifting in or out
• to encourage straightness and suppleness
• improve your transitions

The setup

Setup: No setup required, but you do need an arena – whether permanent or marked out in a field – so that you have corners to ride into.

How to ride the exercise

• Once you’re warmed up, ride a 20m square in trot, turning across the school from E to B (or B to E, depending on the rein).
• Two strides before each corner, ask your horse to walk. Imagine your horse’s whiskers touching edge of school so that you ride deep into the corner, then turn and trot out. The downward transition should help rebalance your horse.
• As you approach each corner your horse should begin to naturally take their balance back on to the hindleg as they anticipate the downward transition. When you feel this, you can continue around the corner in trot without walking.
• Build up to a consistent trot rhythm on the whole square, without changing tempo or cutting any corners, then repeat on the other rein.
• If you feel the horse fall in or try to cut a corner, do the next one in walk.

Tips

1. Stop the drift

If your horse tries to cut the corner, half halt and check your inside leg is there to encourage them to bend their body around your leg through the corner.

2. Building up

Once your horse is becomes more consistent, instead of walking in the corners, just half-halt to rebalance the trot before the turn.

3. Progress

As the balance of both horse and rider develops, you will be able to ride a consistent trot rhythm through the whole square without cutting any corners. If you lapse at any stage, go back to walk and establish correct corners again so the horse understands what you are asking him to do.

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Improving your horse’s way of going doesn’t require a perfect arena or a strenuous workout – this halting exercise is an excellent example. You can make significant gains using simple transitions without ever moving faster than a walk. You can ride this flatwork exercise out hacking, in the field or in an arena.

Aims

• to improve your horse’s responsiveness
• hone your horse’s walk-halt transitions, so you can perform them on demand with light aids
• for the horse to understand that go means go, and stop means stop

Setup

No setup needed: You can practise this exercise in an arena, field or out hacking.

How to ride this exercise

• Once warmed up, establish an active walk. Choose a marker, whether it’s a letter in the school or a bush on a hack, where you will aim to halt.
• Sit up tall and reduce the amount your core and hips are following your horse’s back, then gently close your fingers around the rein to ask for halt.
• If the horse doesn’t stop within two strides, check your aids. Were they clear? Repeat and be black and white. As soon as your horse halts, release the rein and praise, with the voice or a stroke on the neck. How long it took to achieve the halt will give you feedback on how early you need to prepare next time, but your horse should become more responsive as you practise.
• Take a moment to assess the halt. Is it balanced? Is your horse square? Does your horse stand still when you release the reins?
• Ask your horse to move off in walk by giving a light leg aid. If he doesn’t react positively from first touch, immediately reapply the leg clearly. If he still doesn’t react, don’t nag, but give a stronger leg aid – it doesn’t matter if the horse trots off as long as he goes forwards. More refined seat and back aids can come later, but the horse can only interpret a limited amount of information, so start with the basics.
• Practise this exercise at regular intervals until your horse is responsive while remaining soft and in a good balance through both the upward and downward transitions. You can do it after four strides or after 40 – what matters is that the horse is listening and responding to your aids.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. It’s a conversation

Give your horse a chance to understand what you’re asking him and try to make it enjoyable. When he tries, show him you appreciate his effort.

2. Don’t fidget with your hand and leg

Many riders never stop twittering with their hand and leg, so the horse learns to ignore them as he doesn’t understand what’s being asked. Ride with clear intent. Ask for a reaction and then leave your horse alone as a reward. Be decisive and have clear boundaries.

3. Let your horse find his balance

If your horse needs to put his head up initially to find his balance, let him. To start with, it’s about the legs: do they go, do they whoa?

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You can practise this simple flatwork exercise in just five minutes, or use it every now and then in a regular schooling session to encourage engagement. All you need is to establish shoulder-in in trot, and you’re away.

Aims

• to improve your horse’s engagement in canter
• to use shoulder-in to encourage your horse to engage his hindleg in the upward transition from trot

The setup

No setup required: you can do this in the arena or even out hacking, but the arena fence is handy to help you judge the alignment of your shoulder-in.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, trot down the long side of the arena in shoulder-in, showing the appropriate amount of bend.
• Your horse’s footfalls should be on three tracks: the outside hind, the diagonal pair (inside hind and outside fore) and the inside fore, with your horse bending uniformly around the inside leg from poll to tail.
• Ask for a canter transition as you move on to a circle. As your horse should be nicely engaged from the shoulder-in, this should encourage an engaged uphill canter with the hindquarters working well.
• Maintain the quality of canter as you continue around the circle.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. The correct bend

In the shoulder-in, as a rider you should be able to see your horse’s inside eye if you glance down. If you use too much inside bend, the outside shoulder will fall out, which will compromise your canter transition.

If the hindquarters drift out, your outside leg needs to support your horse more strongly behind the girth.

2. No crossing the hand

A common problem is to cross the inside hand over the neck as you try to flex the horse to the inside. This encourages the shoulder to fall out, so keep each hand on its own side of the neck with the outside rein to support the shoulders.

3. Starting collection

This exercise will be even more beneficial if the horse is able to collect a little in the trot, as this lightens the forehand for an uphill, balanced transition.

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Perfect your trot-canter transitions in this straightforward flatwork exercise, which you can do in the field or an arena.

Aims

• to improve your accuracy in making canter-trot-canter transitions exactly on the marker
• learn how far in advance you need to prepare your horse for accurate transitions
• build communication and harmony in the horse-rider relationship

The setup

There is no setup required. All you need is space to ride a 20m circle.

How to ride the exercise

• Once warmed up, ride a few 20m circles in trot to establish bend and check your horse is listening.
• Pick up canter and ride a continuous 20m circle, noting four markers where you will make your transitions, at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock.
• When you’re ready, canter round three-quarters of the circle from 12 o’clock to 9 o’clock, where you will ride a downwards transition to trot.
• Trot round half the circle from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock, where you will make a transition to canter.
• Canter three-quarters of the circle from 3 o’clock to 12 o’clock, and so on.
• Eight transitions will bring you back to where you started – however if you are late on your transitions it may take time to perfect the sequence.
• Give your horse a break at walk before repeating on the other rein.

Tips and troubleshooting

1. Work on an incline

If you have access to a sloping field, and have mastered this exercise on the flat, performing these transitions on a hill is a great way to improve your horse’s balance, outline and core.

2. Accuracy

It’s all too easy to get late on a transition, and then miss the next one. To execute each transition bang on the correct point of the circle, you have to refine how far in advance to ask for the aids on a particular horse on particular terrain (the hillier, the more testing).

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Going for a hack needn’t be a lob-about on a long rein – it’s a great time to work on your own position and fitness. Try this exercise in trot to boost your own strength – and see how much you improve each time you do it. If you prefer, you can also try this exercise in an arena or field.

Aims

• to improve your balance in the saddle
• to put your lower leg in the correct position with the weight in the heels
• to make your seat more secure
• to stretch and build up the necessary muscles

The setup

No setup required: you can do this in an arena or out hacking. Using a neck strap will help you balance without pulling the reins.

How to ride this exercise

• Put your stirrups at cross-country or galloping length.
• Go into an active trot, and slip two fingers under the neck strap in case you need to balance. Adopt a racing position (pictured above, left), tucked up with your bum out and your hands low. Push your weight through your heels, allowing the ankles and knees to absorb the horse’s movement. Do not rise to the trot. You should feel the burn!
• Sit up slightly as you move into a light seat as though you were preparing to jump a fence (pictured above, centre), with your bum lightly brushing the saddle but not full rising trot.
• If you can balance well in these two positions, try the extreme version which is to stand upright in the saddle (pictured above, right), with your legs straight (still no rising), absorbing the movement through your ankles, knees and core. Do not rely on your hands. Keep the weight in the heels, using the neck strap if you need to balance.

The more you practise these three positions, the more you will hone your balance, strengthen your muscles and develop a correct lower leg position.

Start with short intervals to avoid fatigue, gradually building up your stamina over several weeks.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Leaning too far forward

This puts weight on your horse’s neck and forces your lower leg back. Instead, push your weight through the heels and slide your bum back to redress the centre of balance.

2. Gripping with knees

This causes the lower leg to slip backward and destabilises you. Keep the weight through the heels, using your calves to keep you in place.

3. Swinging legs

Try shortening the stirrups, so that you can hover more efficiently above the saddle allowing your horse to move underneath you without you interfering.

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Add this 10m loop exercise to your next schooling session – no equipment required

An oft-forgotten exercise, the 10m loop benefits every horse’s strength, balance and suppleness. They can also work as a gentle introduction to counter-canter. Plus, it’ll sharpen up a rider’s use of aids.

If you’ve never ridden one before, it’ll be handy to look up how to ride a 10m loop before trying this flatwork exercise. This will help you get to grips with the aids.

Aims

• to improve rider accuracy
• enhancing the horse’s balance and suppleness
• to introduce counter-canter

The setup

You need: a 20x40m or 20x60m arena

How to ride the exercise

• Warm up and establish an active, rhythmic trot.
• Execute the loop, ensuring you ride a quality corner and don’t linger on the centre line – you should just brush it at X.
• Return to the track, using the corner to rebalance.

To dial up the difficulty, do the exercise in canter.

The challenge is to maintain the horse’s rhythm, energy and your line without drifting or the horse coming up and against the hand.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Know your arena

10m loops follow different gradients depending on the length of the arena. In a 20x60m, the curve is fairly gradual, but in a 20x40m, the line is much steeper. Make sure you plan ahead for shape and symmetry, remembering that briefly touching the centre line at X is correct.

2. Prepare and support

This exercise serves to make you very aware of your corner riding. It takes discipline to ride deep into the corner and balance your horse to set him up well to curve away from the track. Look where you are going, be really clear with your inside and outside leg aids and use them to help your horse maintain his shape and rhythm, especially in canter, where outside rein connection is vital. It should feel like you’re using your outside aids to steer him out of the corner and away from the arena wall, and not the inside rein.

3. Not too much bend

Your horse should stay on two tracks throughout the movement; the body should stay straight with no drifting through the shoulder or quarters. If he doesn’t, it’s likely you have asked for too much bend when all you require is slight flexion.

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It has been said that typically beginners want to work on intermediate tasks, intermediates want to perfect advanced skills, while advanced athletes are always working on the basics, as that’s the key to real improvement. In this training session with Mary King, the eventing legend provides three straightforward ways you can use simple schooling routines to make big progress, regardless of your level of experience – and you can do it all on a 20m circle, whether in a field or an arena.

If you tend to head into the school without a plan of what to do, spend half an hour trotting absent-mindedly in straight lines and circles and put your horse away without a great deal of satisfaction or sense of improvement, you’re not alone. Many of us don’t have much of a structure to our schooling sessions.

While large arenas, fancy jumps and poles are the dream, most riders make do with a 20x40m school – or a field – for our flatwork. However, such limitations shouldn’t hamper our progress. In these super-simple training exercises with Mary King, she shows us how all you need is room to ride a 20m circle and a bit of self-discipline.

Rather than following intricate patterns and complicated exercises, these work on doing the basics really well.

Training with Mary King

1. Rider position

Aim: to have a better seat and be more balanced for all disciplines.

When you ride a 20m circle, it’s a chance to evaluate your position and improve it. We naturally focus on our horse and its way of going, but we are a major part of the equation. Mary suggests riding on a circle in trot, analysing each part of your body to assess whether you are in the correct position. Then make a transition to walk, while maintaining the same good position.

Mary says: “Think of a rider whose position you really admire, and try to channel them as you ride around the circle.

“Carl Hester’s tip is to make the front of your body longer, rather than just sitting up tall.”

Head: Mary advises keeping your head straight, and looking directly ahead, not down towards the ground.

“Don’t look to the inside, look between the ears, forward and in front of you, not turning too much.

Hands: “Your hands should not be going up and down with your body as you rise to the trot,” says Mary. “You should be able to hold your hands so they are not resting on the withers, and they should stay still. Glance down at them as you are trotting along to see if you are keeping them still.”

Mary’s tip is to keep a “nice bend in the elbow to help soften your hands”.

Lower leg: Mary rides dressage with her stirrups 10 holes lower than for cross-country. Whatever length your stirrups, keep your ankles relaxed so your heels are softly down, and use your calf to give leg aids clearly rather than nagging with your heels.

“If your horse is lazy, don’t just keep pressing or your heels will rise,” she advises. “Give more of a slap with your lower leg, then keep the leg still.”

2. Transitions

Aim: to make your horse more responsive, enabling you to make transitions at exact markers.

Mary regularly uses this exercise when riding in the school, practising 15 minutes of walk-trot, trot-walk and halt-walk-halt transitions.

She advises using markers – which can be a certain tree or fence post if you don’t have arena letters – so that you can prepare in advance where you want your horse to make a transition, and be accurate.

“When going from walk to trot, make sure the walk is energetic enough so that when you ask for trot with your leg, they go on straight away,” she says. “The horse should stay in a good position in their head and neck, not lifting up.

“If it takes a while until they make the transition, you need to work at getting it sharper. Keep your lower leg down, not swinging back.”

The downward transition also requires preparation to ensure it happens on the marker and not a few strides after.

“You should always think of riding forward into walk or any downward transition,” says Mary. “Prepare, not being in strong with your hand, so that the horse is light and up in front. You don’t want him pulling down into walk, but coming forward so push a little with your leg to keep their hindlegs active.”

3. Making transitions within the canter

Aim: to encourage the horse to listen and react.

This training with Mary King exercise works in canter on a 20m circle, going from working to medium canter and back again. They key is not to break into trot.

“It’s especially good for horses that are a bit behind the leg,” says Mary. “It’s a difficult exercise on a quiet horse.”

Start on a 20m circle in a working canter, making sure you have plenty of energy. Then go forward to medium canter for half a circle, and back to working canter. Do another circle, and then again into medium. The horse should go forward when you ask and “show a real difference in their stride”.

“You want the horse to accelerate, not just going faster but to open up their stride so they are covering more ground.”

Mary suggests how your mindset should be to open up the stride on a lazier type.

“Think, ‘let’s go for a gallop’, to show a change in stride,” she says.

She explains the aids for condensing the stride again.

“Then prepare to come back to working canter,” she says. “Bring your upper body back a bit, shoulders back, to indicate something is going to happen.

“Close your fingers on the reins, but keep your leg on as you don’t want the horse to trot. Don’t just pull the reins or they will slow up on their forehand.

“Keep the canter short but energetic.”

Mary’s tip for horses that break into trot or find it hard to collect is to “make the circle slightly smaller – 15m – which will help them to collect as it encourages the hindlegs to engage”.

Next time you’re short of inspiration as you trot aimlessly round the school, imagine you’re training with Mary King and your session should bring you greater satisfaction – and progress.

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Teaching your horse to work long and low in a stretched outline is a particularly useful day-to-day training tool. It is also a movement in some dressage tests, so is a skill worth learning and perfecting.

The aim is that you want to feel your horse’s back rise and for him to seek the contact forwards without falling on to the forehand. Here’s how to achieve it:

• You can’t just throw reins at your horse and expect him to understand. Start in working, rising trot on a 20m circle in the frame and outline you would usually school in.

• Think of pushing your horse forward into the contact by squeezing with your legs.
• Take your hands a little wider to encourage your horse to take his nose down and forwards and play on the contact until your horse softens — note that playing on the rein only needs to be subtle movement with your fingers — your hands should remain steady. As soon as your horse softens and takes the contact down and forwards give him a quick little pat with your inside rein and then start again.
• Push your horse out with your inside leg using lateral bend if you need to so that you can allow your horse to stretch. Ensure that while you are riding this exercise you don’t forget to support your horse with your outside leg.
• If you lose continuity in the rein go onto smaller circle and retake some contact until your horse is re-balanced and then try the exercise again.
• Timing is everything with this exercise. You have to have feel for when the horse is seeking the contact and softening. It is the rider’s job to then realise this instantly, follow it and praise your horse.
• Don’t nag your horse in a negative way as you will only dig yourself a hole of resistance between you and your horse.
• When introducing your horse to this exercise, think baby steps. Don’t try or expect to achieve everything that you want in just a handful of sessions.

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The ultimate aim of this exercise is to create a regular, four time, purposeful free walk, where your horse is relaxed and soft through his back, poll, jaw and mouth.

Getting your walk right in a dressage test can help you to score the higher marks, even when your horse doesn’t have a good natural walk. On the other hand a poor walk, or breaking in the walk, can really decrease your final score.

Here are three tips to help perfect your free walk. The exercise doesn’t take a lot of time and can be done out hacking, as well as schooling.

1. Getting a longer stride

Use a shallow angle of leg yield on a circle or straight line. Encourage an inside bend by feeling down the inside rein and asking the horse to move away from the inside leg until he accepts the aids. The pace will become more relaxed, so the over-track will improve.

2. Riding the free walk

Ride the free walk as it appears in your test. Sit centrally with loose hips and soft hands and elbows. Slowly let your arms move forward while maintaining a slight inside bend. Push the walk forward gently with alternate legs until your horse is reaching for the bit.

3. Back to medium walk

Some horses predict the upward transition and jog. Make a series of halt transitions during training, then remind your horse in the test with a half-halt. Keep a soft leg contact on your horse’s side to reassure him. Gather the reins carefully, keeping a slight inside bend.

What can go wrong?

Creating leg-to-hand pressure by using too much leg and a fixed contact will cause tension. Keep an influence over your horse’s mouth, but avoid sudden changes with the contact — make changes in the length of reins progressive.

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In canter, many horses fall out through their shoulder while their hindquarters swing inward. This exercise uses shallow loops to straighten the canter. The exercise should help straighten the horse, so that he travels on two tracks and achieves self-carriage. It also improves engagement and helps teach your horse to accept your outside aids.

The problem

At lower level dressage this is one of the most common faults in canter because the outside hindleg is the strike-off leg and it carries the most weight. It is therefore easier for your horse to drop his shoulders out and swing his quarters in, therefore reducing the distance the weight-bearing hindleg has to travel.

The exercise

• If your horse’s quarters come in on a straight line, it is often a sign that he is on the forehand
• Ride a 10m shallow loop. The bend of his head and neck should follow the direction of travel
• As you come back to the track, your horse will naturally steady and balance himself, ready for the corner
• Progressively reduce the size of the loop down to 8m, 5m, 2m and 1m
• Once you’re barely off the track your horse should be completely straight

Riding the shallow loops

Start with a balanced working canter, going large around the arena. As you reach the quarter marker, ride a 10m shallow loop on each of the long sides. Repeat again, decreasing the size of the loops to 8m, 5m, 2m and 1m. Finally, ride the same exercise with barely noticeable loops of about 20cm. Repeat on both reins.

The result

This exercise should improve straightness and can also be used as a “corrective” device — if you feel that you are losing straightness on the long sides, you could ride several tiny loops, only a few centimetres off the track, to straighten the canter.

What can go wrong?

The horse might become disunited or even attempt a flying change. He may also become hollow. If so, come back to trot, relax, and then try again with shallower loops.

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We can’t get away from them. Even moving from halt to walk with your horse counts as a transition. Whether you’re under the watchful eye of a dressage judge, or you just want to be able to establish your horse’s work on a day-to-day basis, nailing transitions is something you’re going to need to get right every time.

Here are some useful tips on how to perfect transitions:

• Transitions are the ultimate exercise for training your horse better balance and collection. Your horse is naturally balanced on the forehand, so if you sit on your horse and let him move on long reins, 60 percent of his total weight is on the forehand. If you go forwards to trot or canter, the horse goes more on the forehand, and you want to avoid that. Essentially you want your horse to take most of his weight behind, but this takes time and patience.
• The last stride of the previous pace should be active forwards and the first stride of the next pace the same energy and stride length as the following strides as opposed to a gradual energy pick up.
• If your horse doesn’t respond to your leg within one stride of you asking for an upwards transition, make a more deliberate aid, making sure the horse reacts positively and you allow him to move forwards without you nagging him with your leg. Always remember that when you ask you horse to go forwards and he responds, that you are soft with your hands — do not restrict him down the rein as this gives a mixed message to your horse.
• Don’t think backwards when riding a downward transition. Instead push your horse forwards so that his hind-leg comes underneath him. This also helps to prevent your horse dropping through the transition and coming behind your leg. You shouldn’t need to be strong in your rein — use your bodyweight to make the transition.

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In today’s 20 minute workout you’re going to teach your horse — and yourself — not to cut corners.

The exercise

First ride a square in trot at one end of the arena, turning across the middle of the school at E or B. Then two strides before each corner, ask your horse to walk. Imagine the horse’s whiskers touching the wall so that you ride well into the corner, before trotting out of it. This is a good way of teaching horses to use the corners. It will also help build your horse’s balance and improve your transitions.

Keep in mind

Think about pushing the horse sideways a little with your inside leg so that he bends his body through the corner – think about pushing the quarters towards the outside of the arena. As the horse becomes confident and consistent, instead of walking in the corners simply slow the trot instead.

Progress

And as both your balance builds, build up to riding a consistent trot rhythm on the whole square, making sure you don’t cut a single corner. And if you do, enter the next one at walk.

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find out more about getting the magazine delivered to your door every week

Welcome to the first Horse & Hound eTraining elesson with grand prix dressage rider Keith Robertson. This week, Keith focuses on riding accurate circles, with a view to pushing up your percentages when riding prelim 1

This guide is broken into two sessions, giving you plenty to work on in the school this week. The first focuses entirely on how to ride circles, and the second gives further advice specific to riding British Dressage prelim 1. Once you’ve tried out Keith’s suggestions, let us know how you got on.

Session 1: Using markers to achieve well-shaped circles 

In prelim 1, you ride a 20m circle on each rein right in front of the judge at C, so it’s important that you perfect these.

Tip one: Whenever you’re asked to ride a circle, remember to produce a circle, not a corner or series of corners — it seems obvious, but circles should always be round. Ensure you know where the markers are and where to position your circle between them. A 20m circle at C should touch X, but only touch the arena at three points including C – the judge wants to see that you’ve positioned your circle well.

Tip two: You also ride half 20m circles in prelim 1. When practicing these, aim to achieve a maximum of one or two strides of straightness over X — you’ll need to illustrate that you’re straight for this moment before changing the bend and beginning the next half circle. 

Tip three: If you’re struggling with accuracy, break the movement down and ride it as four quarters, rather than attempting the circle as a whole. Put markers down and aim for the quarter marker each time.

Riding 20m circles in canter 

Tip four: When practicing circles in canter, ensure you keep the rhythm, maintain a bold canter and think about keeping the horse straight when you come out of the circle and go large – it’s tempting to ride too much off the inside rein and end up with too much inside bend, especially with a greener horse.

Tip five: In canter, judges commonly see the horse’s quarters coming in on a circle and his weight going onto the outside shoulder. If you have a horse that’s quarters have a tendency to come in, he may need a little bit of outside rein to help stay straight. This will also help make a smoother transition to trot. Try using counter-canter in your training to help improve the evenness of the true canter.

Tip six: If your horse is stiff on one rein, you’ll often find it’s the one on which he looks straight in canter, while on the softer rein he may be too bent to the inside, even though you think the canter feels nicer. Make sure you work your horse evenly on both reins.

Let others know if you found this session useful by sharing your progress and pictures with the rest of our e-Community.

Session 2: Practise the whole test

It’s now time to practise riding the test, remembering what you learned in session one, but first, watch this week’s test riding video with Isobel Wessels.

If you can not see the video player above please click here to view

We will focus on other movements throughout the series that will also help improve your prelim 1 marks, but taking things one step at the time for now ensure that you are comfortable with the following given Keith and Isobel’s advice:

• Riding half circles — both 20m and 10m diameter
• Riding accurate 20m diameter circles
• Changing the rein in free walk and staying straight

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find out more about getting the magazine delivered to your door every week. 

Welcome to your final e-Training lesson with Keith Robertson. This week Keith explains how to ride super serpentines with a view to improving your prelim test riding — and we focus on prelim 18. Enjoy your schooling and remember to let us know how you got on!

Session 1: serpentines 

In prelim 18 you’re required to ride serpentines for the first time, so it’s essential that you practise these at home this week.

Your horse should show a consistent bend – not big variations or massive turns – and look like no change is occurring through his body. Serpentines are a great way to display a horse with a good rhythm and an easy change of bend from left to right, and vice versa, so mastering these will really put you at an advantage.

To try at home…

View the tops of your serpentines as half circles – don’t ride them as squared off edges – remain smooth and consistent.

Remember that when crossing the centre line your horse should be completely straight for a few strides. 

First, you need to know your arena and think about where you should be in the arena within your turn. Put markers down to help you if need be. Start on the left rein and ride a three-loop serpentine, ensuring that all of your loops are the same size.

If you are struggling, break the serpentine down and focus on the flow and regularity of the trot. 

All horses will have a stronger side, so be sure to practise these serpentines starting on both reins at home – some horses will have an easier change from one direction to the other, but you want to orchestrate them to be as equal as possible. Return to focus on the straightness of your horse now you’ve bent on both reins.

Let others know if you found this effective in our Facebook group. 

Session 2: balancing a big horse 

It’s important that your horse is balanced when riding a serpentine, and this can be trickier if you have a big horse.

A big horse and will take longer to mature than a smaller one. Try to help him develop strength and balance in canter by riding smaller circles, at first just down to 18m, and then as he finds that easier reduce them to 15m.

As long as he remains upright (i.e. not leaning over) with a genuine bend, he will bring his inside hindleg further underneath himself, which will improve both his balance and the weight carrying capacity of his hindquarters.

Session 3: practise the whole test

It’s now time to practise riding the test as a whole, but first watch this week’s test riding video with Isobel Wessels:

If you can not view the video player above, please click here

Avoid motorbiking in the show ring with these 10-metre circle and loop exercises, as recommended by top show rider and judge, Justine Armstrong-Small

Aim

One of my favourite exercises in training is riding 10-metre circles in each corner of the school and five-metre loops down each long side.

The purpose of this exercise is to teach both the horse and rider balance and control. In order to ride the circles correctly the horse has to be engaged through his hind legs and supple through his shoulders and neck.

He has to go from a straight line to a small circle without losing rhythm and balance. It teaches the rider to use inside leg to outside rein, which so many riders struggle to achieve.

The loops ask the horse to change the inside bend to outside bend — putting more pressure and control into the inside rein and making him soften through to the outside rein. This helps him to be more supple across the wither and will help loosen the shoulder to create more movement and elevation.

The exercise

1. This exercise can be done in both walk and trot. Start by riding your horse into an even contact and pace around the arena. For a novice horse it’s better to start in walk as this gives time to achieve the correct lines you’re trying to follow.

2. As you approach each corner, steady your speed by half-halting and keeping your leg on to collect the gait. Think about the size of your circle, while being careful not to overshoot the centre line.

3. Encourage the horse to soften down his inside shoulder by creating bend with the inside rein, while also taking more pressure onto the outside rein. Sitting trot helps the rider use their leg more effectively and keep better control of the horse and his direction.

4. Maintain balance coming out of the circle and ride straight into the next corner, repeating the exercise with another circle. As you come out of the second corner approaching the long side, ride a five-metre loop off the track onto the three- quarter line of the arena and then back to the next corner.

5. On returning to the corner, change the bend again to go into your next 10-metre circle. Repeat this exercise around the arena three or four times on one rein. Then do the same on the other rein.

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Tips and pitfalls

• Many riders use the inside rein to steer, which can create head flicks or motorbiking, and falling in on the circles.
• The horse can lose balance and take uneven steps, hop into canter or trip up when not pushing from behind.
• The horse can fall out of the circle through his outside shoulder if you don’t have enough outside rein controlling the amount of bend required.
• If the rider uses more inside rein and no outside leg, it will allow the horse to banana and fall out of the circle.
• If a horse is constantly ridden with one rein shorter than the other it will ultimately lead to the horse compensating by either lifting its head, or going on two tracks of the arena with the quarters coming in off the track rather than being in line with the front. This can make the horse appear lame.
• Rushing the trot can accentuate the problems above.

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Having your horse working correctly in an outline, by engaging their core while stretching softly forwards into the rider’s hand to produce a good topline, is a common goal when schooling. To achieve this the horse must be working forward into a consistent contact, with their core muscles engaged and the hind legs stepping under, so the horse is able to carry their own weight and that of their rider without falling on to the forehand.

If you are looking for further training and schooling ideas, why not sign up to Horse & Hound’s eight-week e-training plan to give your training focus and perfect your flatwork basics? Find out what is involved here.

4 simple exercises to help your horse work in an outline

Gary Parsonage, event rider

1. Spiral in and out

Why: This is a simple exercise designed to get a horse working in a basic outline while working freely forward in a happy frame of mind. The exercise engages the hind leg whilst keeping the horse forward to the contact, resulting in self carriage and showing the horse a more comfortable outline in which to carry himself and his rider.

How

1. Place a cone in the centre of an area large enough to comfortably circle around on the horse. Begin in walk and circle around the cone, working to stay equidistant at all points. Start at around 20m from the cone.

2. Once in a happy, balanced shape, start to spiral in towards the cone. Aim to find the optimum minimum size circle the horse is comfortable with (this could be anything from 3-15m from the cone) — stay on this circle for a couple of rotations.

3. Using an on-off pressure with the inside leg, in time with the rhythm of the pace, ask the horse to begin spiralling back out to 20m again. This exercise can be repeated in trot and canter as the horse develops physically and mentally.

2. Transitions within a pace

Why: To develop and test the subtle connection between leg and hand and control of impulsion, a great ‘go to’ exercise for absolutely any level of training is transitions within a pace. Lightness of aid, both in leg and hand, is a goal to be aimed for as an end result of each training session.

How

1. In trot, slow the pace down for a few strides (outline and contact should remain consistent) then ask the horse to step forward to a bigger trot again, maintaining the same outline and contact.

2. As the horse gains confidence with the exercise the amount of slower and bigger steps can be increased to show a greater contrast and expression. This can also be thought of as turning the volume up and down within the pace.

3. The horse should remain in front of the leg at all stages of the exercise, as speed of pace is too easily, and often confused with, being in front of the leg. To help the horse focus less on the hand, the rider should always try to use their position and upper body to give a hint that a transition is about to happen. In doing so the horse is calm and prepared in himself for the next phase. Core strength here is a big advantage for the rider.

Katie Jerram, showing producer (pictured top)

3. Lateral work

Why: This is one I use quite a lot both when teaching and when riding myself; it gets the horse around your hand and leg and it teaches him to accept the aids — both essential if you are to achieve the correct outline. It also gives the rider the necessary control; I often use two schooling whips for this exercise — I don’t tend to use spurs as I am preparing horses to be ridden by a judge who won’t be wearing them, and two whips help back the leg aids up. If the horse doesn’t respond to the leg aid, use a touch from the whip on the quarters to reinforce the aid.

How

1. Start in walk and, using the hand and leg individually to give the aid, ask the horse to come off the track 5m; he should be stepping across in front and behind.

2. Once he completes the lateral movement, ask him forward on the new line for four steps, before asking him to move back laterally to the original track. This can be repeated until the horse learns to engage the hind leg correctly and carry himself in the desired outline.

3. Once ready, move the horse on to doing the exercise in a controlled working trot.

Continued below…

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4. Trot poles

Why: I use quite a lot of trot poles when exercising; these give your horse a bit more variety in its training and a break from flatwork. Polework exercises encourag more length of stride, elastic steps and connection from behind to help the horse come into the correct outline.

How

1. Start with one pole in walk, moving up to two poles, five ‘heel to toe’ steps apart. Move the horse up into trot then increase the number of poles up to six or seven. You can then increase the distance between the third to last poles to encourage your horse to start to open his stride out.

2. Always ride for the centre of the pole; I like to sit to the trot to balance over the first pole then, through my leg and seat, put the pressure on a bit harder to open him out. Make sure when you ask for this that your horse doesn’t run on the forehand; if he does, check him back and keep doing this until he sits up into his work.

3. To improve cadence and hock action, you can move onto raised trot poles, but ensure you reduce the distance between each pole back to five ‘heel to toe’ steps apart.

As when starting any training, make sure the horse’s teeth, back and tack are not impeding progress.

Now you have some techniques to help improve your horse’s outline, why not sign up to Horse & Hound’s eight-week e-training plan to give your training focus and perfect your flatwork basics?

Dressage rider and trainer Keith Robertson explains how to perfect your halt, which can be an easy way to gather important marks.

Session 1: Achieving a straight, square halt

In prelim 7, for example, you are asked to halt at G from trot. Many riders stop too early — either because they’re unsure of the position of G or their horse predicts halting at X — or they perform a poor halt. The halt happens just before the judge fills in your collective marks, which are usually worth double, so this is an influential moment. Success in this test depends on nailing this movement.

Remember you want your body — not the horse’s nose — in line with the marker. A good judge will reward quality of the halt over accuracy of the positioning, but they’d prefer to see both. Once halted, the horse has to stay still and balanced.

A lot of halts are ruined because the rider keeps on at the horse to square up. Judges don’t want to see you pulling and kicking. If the halt isn’t square, leave it — it’s preferable to be immobile than fidgeting. If no immobility is shown, you’re likely to get a low mark.

To try at home…

Practise halting on the track so you can use the fence line to teach the horse to stay straight. Begin riding a progressive transition, through a few steps of walk, so the horse is less likely to swing his quarters out.

Then practise riding this evenly on the centre line — avoid twisting and ensure equal pressure through your legs, seat bones and hands. It’s important to keep straight, even if the halt doesn’t end up square.

With a fidgety horse that is reluctant to stand, avoid riding abruptly to halt — instead practise asking for trot to walk to trot on the centre line. This will give the horse confidence and help develop softness in his back and neck.

As your horse gets straighter, think about making him square. One of the most important ingredients for a square halt is control over the horse’s steps.

From trot, ride a downward transition to halt, but then ask the horse to creep forward with tiny walk steps, controlling each one with your seat and leg. The horse mustn’t feel trapped, so keep your hands soft and forward.

Once you can influence his steps with your seat and leg aids, keep asking for subtle adjustments until his hindlegs come under him and he is square. Repetition is key — if you always insist on this it will become the norm.

If this isn’t working, try going back to basics. Take the problem out of the arena and spend time halting anywhere and everywhere, making sure that every single time your horse stands still, it is on your terms. Pretty soon, he’ll get the idea. You will get there eventually, but it is a case of quiet perseverance and practice.

Session 2: Practise the whole test

It’s now time to practise riding the test as a whole, but first watch this test riding video with top judge Isobel Wessels.

If you can not see the video player above, please click here

At this stage, focus on ensuring you are comfortable with the following:

• Transitions on a 20m circle
• Medium walk (double score)
• Halting from trot

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