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Hey all! Just came back from my second lesson with my new trainer and it's becoming apparent we need to work a LOT on our lateral suppleness. He's starting to look great on straight lines, but as soon as I ask for any bend (corners, loops, serpentines etc) he loses impulsion and his head comes up through the lack of impulsion.

I really want to start focusing on improving his suppleness as it will hold us back from progressing. We are currently Training level, schooling First. Our ride usually consists of warm up (last 3 weeks has been, trot 10 minutes doing a pattern of 20m circle at one end of the arena, then a loop to X down the long side, followed by a 20m circle at the other end of the arena (approx 5 minutes on each rein). Then pick up a canter and do a few 20m circles in different places of the arena).

Then we do some spiralling in to a 10m circle and back out again... do this a few times at trot, occasionally asking for lengthened strides down the long side, across the diagonal etc. Then pick up a canter and do some more circles, or do some 3 or 4 loop serpentines at trot, or some head to wall leg yields (just began this).

Any other things we could be doing? Do you have any exercises that have really helped laterally stiff horses?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!

My horse isn't laterally stiff but very naturally crooked and all over the place with his hips and shoulders. Getting him straight and forward is what I need to focus on the most.

Interestingly, that works best by supplening and mobilizing his shoulders. To do that I use lateral work. I go back and forth from shoulder-in to haunches-in. First through 10m circles then directly back and forth from one to the other, only a few steps each. For example, I do a 10m circle, go around once, then go into the next circle just until my horses forehand is off the track and in the right angle for a shoulder-in. I do just a few steps shoulder-in, then go directly into a 10m circle again and finish that one when my horses front legs reach the track while his haunches are still slightly inside and in a perfect angle for haunches-in, do a few steps of haunches-in, back to the 10m circle, rinse and repeat. A lot of this is also about reactivity. He's a Welsh Cob, he sometimes likes to take his time when things are getting a little more dificult...

Another excercise I'm doing is to ride in a shoulder fore, first on straight lines, then add 10m circles and then go to 3/4 loop serpentines, always going from shoulder fore to shoulder fore at each change of rein. It doesn't have to be a perfect shoulder fore, just the idea of shoulder fore and being in control of his shoulders with every change of bend/rein.

When I do 20m circle in warm-up I also like to play around with bend/counter bend. For example, I do a 20m circle to the left, change at x without changing bend. Do a 20m circle to the right, counter bend, change again at x back to the left. The same when spiralling. While spiralling in I go into a bit of counter bend, bending to the inside while spiralling out. I only do that on 20m circles, never going too small.

The idea is, that once you control the shoulders you can aligne them to the haunches at all times, on the bend or on a straight line.

I like the sound of the shoulder in/haunches in exercise.. but neither me or my horse have ridden haunches in before. When is this usually introduced?

I've only ever ridden shoulder-fore on straight lines, at the end of our lesson yesterday she said I could also continue to do it around the corners, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it on curved lines... currently seems strange to me!

Best to ask your instructor about this, but usually I'd say shoulder fore, shoulder-in and haunches-in should be introduced about the same time, one after the other. We started with shoulder-in and once that was solid (not perfect) introduced haunches-in. My horse had issues with the concept of haunches-in at first, but it actually is the easier of both exercises and once my horse understood what we asked he got solid fast.

I also like this "ridden mandala" exercise from Claudia Kusmanow:



It looks a bit complicated but it actually isn't. You start out on a 20m circle at x and then just follow the pattern from "a" to "j".

Starting point is a 10m circle at B (a), followed by a half 10m circle with return (b), then another 10m circle at B (c) and another half 10m Circle with return to the other side (d). From B you continue on a 20m circle to E interrupted by another 10m circle towards C (e). Then you continue with ther same 10m circle and half 10m Circle with return pattern at E (f through i) finish with another 10m circle (j) towards A. Rinse and repeat (maybe change the direction).

You can start out with just walking the whole thing, then add some shoulder fore or shoulder-in whenever you get out of the 10m circle at B/E. You can add some trot work more lateral work even canter, there's no limit. The idea is to ride as accurately possible and keep your horse on it's "toes" because there is so much going on. I also like to add a lot of walk/trot transitions within that pattern...

I love that! I'll have to try it during my ride today.

My mare is really stiff, and I've been making a lot of progress with her lately using a variety of things. Out of the saddle, can your horse bend both directions? Can he produce flexion at the poll? About a month ago I got serious about doing stretching before and after every ride because she would lock up in the poll and couldn't relax much once I was up there. This has helped a lot. Plenty of people will say not to stretch the neck in isolation, but if you're locked up in the poll or base of neck, good luck bending the body. Try it yourself; hold your neck straight and try bending your ribcage by leaning to the left or right, then try it again with a soft neck going in the direction of the bend. So I do some stretches to loosen her poll and neck. Some days I also do some in-hand work before mounting - just asking for flexion both ways, some LY, TOF, TOH and SI while holding the reins so she isn't just sticking her head wherever - I'll usually start seeing her foam up and chew the bit within a few minutes so I know it's working and she's more responsive and warms up more quickly once I get on.

Another thing is introducing the bend in a lower neck position. It will actually be easier to bend in a lower position where the neck is longer and the muscles are looser. Pay close attention to what your horse's shoulders are doing, and ask for some leg yield if they start to fall in. I find it helpful to tap the whip on the shoulder to make sure she's "standing up" and not giving me a fake bend with the shoulder dropped in. Make sure you're getting this true bend on your spiral-in and abort mission if you lose the bend/relaxation.

As far as exercises, my instructor had me doing serpentines at walk and trot with 4 cones set up at 10m apart. The cones are important because they keep you from cheating and it seemed to help my horse understand the exercise too. Ask for a step or two of LY away from the new direction as you change the bend each time. If you don't get the bend correctly before coming to the next centerline, continue circling until you get the bend before changing onto the other side. Since my mare is stiff right and hollow left, we ended up doing lots of circles on the right, and just the serpentine on the left. Also, don't forget to keep the inside leg active while doing this.

Another exercise is to trot the straight parts of the arena, and then walk the corners to put extra emphasis on the bend. Don't necessarily go deeper into the corner, just walk, take the time to use the corner properly, then trot off again. Eventually start trotting 1/4 corners, and then 1/2 etc. Go back to walk if the corners start getting funky. You can also start doing this with square "figure 8's" changing direction across the middle of the arena. The W/T part of this work is great for getting lots of practice with transitions, too.

I do a lot of lateral work at walk in my warm up which has really helped my mares suppleness - l/y, tof, toh, side pass, s/i, half pass etc and swapping in between.

My instructor has several favs he has us do. Tof & toh at walk and trot on the circle - only 1-2 strides each time. And his other fav is s/i down quarter line into half pass, renver, s/i to half pass to renver to s/in etc. At walk we do several in and outs at trot i'm lucky if i can co-ordinate one

Thank you AmityBee! Think I will try this exercise tonight, looks really interesting

[quote="AmityBee"

...I also like this "ridden mandala" exercise from Claudia Kusmanow:


It looks a bit complicated but it actually isn't. ...[/quote]

Thanks for posting this exercise. At first I WAS intimidated because it looks complicated, but after your description I realized what a neat exercise it really is, even for lower levels.