Here’s a funny story about geometry- when I first moved to California, the barn where I was training had a large jump arena and no Dressage court. At that time, I had all young, green horses and would ride random circles and lines in the big jump arena.
The other trainer at the barn (now my husband) would come and he would ride as if there were an imaginary Dressage court set up inside the jump arena. His footprints would be perfect circles and straight lines!
To this day, I give him a hard time about this, BUT I will say that riding accurately is a big part of Dressage and a big part of getting the horse “on the aids.”
Here are some benefits to riding accurately:
- Makes the horse straight and symmetric
- Gives the horse confidence that the rider is in charge
- Greatly improves your scores at the horse show!
In today’s video, we go over finding the correct touch points to ride an accurate 20 meter circle. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you know exactly where to cross the centerline when you are riding a 20 meter circle and that you focus on riding the circle accurately!
I highly recommend setting out cones and practice riding accurately. For Training level, you can set cones for the 20 meter circles. For first level, you can set cones for the centerline. It is also very helpful to set cones up for pirouette work and to set cones in the corners to practice riding deep corners!
I recommend getting a set of soccer cones – you can get them on amazon and they are great to set up and practice riding accurately!
Happy Riding!
Amelia
