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Develop your horse’s engagement in canter with this quick transition exercise

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • 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 keep disciplined in your direction in the shoulder-in.

    Exercise showing canter transition for horse

    Making the canter transition out of shoulder-in will encourage hindleg engagement

    How to ride the exercise

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

    diagram showing horse’s position in shoulder-in

    When riding shoulder-in, your horse’s footfalls should be on three tracks.

    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

    A common problem is to cross the outside hand over the neck as you try to flex the horse to the inside. This causes the shoulder to fall out, so keep a correct contact on 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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    What is shoulder-in, and how can it help my horse?

    Shoulder-in is a useful exercise to increase suppleness in the horse. Here we look at the aids, common problems and

    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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