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Sharpen your transitions using this simple exercise on a circle

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • 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 harmony and submission in the horse-rider relationship

    The setup

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

    Exercise to practise trot-canter transitions

    Be disciplined about where you make your transitions.

    How to ride the exercise

    1. Once warmed up, ride a few 20m circles in trot to establish bend and make sure your horse is listening.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Trot round half the circle from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock, where you will make a transition to canter.
    5. Canter three-quarters of the circle from 3 o’clock to 12 o’clock, and so on.
    6. 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.
    7. 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 to miss the next one. To execute each transition bang on the 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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    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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