Downward transitions are on many horses even more difficult than upward transitions. Even though your are slowing down, you want the horse to stay forward feeling in the downward transition and to stay engaged and in self carriage.
Many riders lean forward and pull in the downward transition and the horse falls on the forehand and collapses!
Here are some tips to help you with your downward transitions:
- Think about adding inside leg and pushing the horse into the outside rein BEFORE asking for the downward transition so that the horse is connected from inside leg to outside rein.
- Prepare your body position my sitting just a little back BEFORE you ask for the downward transition so that you don’t end up getting tipped forward.
- The quality of the transition is directly related to the quality of the gait directly before you do the transition – so be sure that you have an uphill and well connected horse BEFORE you ask for the downward transition
- Riding shoulder-fore or even shoulder-in in the downward transition will help to keep the horse engaged and keep the inside hind leg stepping forward and through in the downward transition.
I always tell my students to visualize an airplane landing for the downward transitions. You want the horse to land with the hind wheels first so that you don’t crash and burn!
What is your horses’ biggest issues in the downward transitions?
Hopefully this is helpful! Get to work on those transitions!
Happy Riding,
Amelia
P.S. Need more help with your transitions? Check out my Transitions Workshop! Inside this workshop, I go over step-by-step how to improve your transitions – upward and downward.
