Many riders struggle with ROUNDNESS and getting the horse supple in the neck and correctly using their back and top line. In today’s video, we are offering suggestions to Jennifer. She writes “As you can see, my horse is not going around like a giraffe, but he’s also not very round either is he? Any shorter rein length than this and he pokes his nose and braces heavily. I have a great instructor, we are currently working on small circles, leg yield and shoulder in to focus on inside flexion and stepping under.”
“Any tips you have to help with roundness would be amazing, as we’ve kinda hit a wall.”
Here are some tips to get him rounder and hopefully softer!:
- Start from the ground to work on the horse’s neck flexibility. You can do carrot stretches or just ask the horse to bend their neck around to the side using the halter or the bit. This will help to stretch the horses’ neck before riding.
- Bending with one rein – once you are in the saddle, work on getting the horse to bend with the inside rein. You will slide down the inside rein, tip the nose to the inside, and the body follows in a small circle. This lateral suppleness (getting the horse to bend to the side) will help to get the horse rounder (longitudinal suppleness).
- Walk-halt-walk transitions – If the horse is stiff at the trot and canter, start at the walk. Get the horse really round at the walk, then do some walk – halt -walk transitions and make sure that the horse stays round enough. It is not a bad thing to sometimes ride your horse a little extra round. You need the horse to be supple – elastic and moveable.
- Wide hands – don’t be afraid to take your hands a little wide for a few strides to help get the horse round. Once the horse goes on the bit, then put your hands back together again. If the horse is really locked up, you may need to take your hands out of the “perfect position” and get to where you can move the horses’ neck around. Be sure that when you take your hands wide, you still have a bend the elbows!
- Turn on the forehand at the walk– this exercise gets into the ribcage and really gets the horse moving from inside let to outside rein. It helps to loosen the horse’s back and gets the inside hind leg stepping more under and through.
- Serpentines at the trot – really focus on getting the horse moving off of the inside leg and into the outside rein.This will help with the suppleness and the roundness.
I hope these tips are helpful and be sure to watch the video to get more clarity on these exercises! In Europe they use a term that a stiff horse “swallowed a broomstick!” Did your horse swallow a broomstick? I hope not!
