In my various courses, I review a lot of students videos and I know that many of you don’t have a Dressage court – you ride in a big open field. In this week’s video, we use cones to help you get organized and to improve your transition to canter!
In this video, my husband, German, is helping my assistant Caine with canter transitions. We set out cones to help stay organized, ride a perfect circle, and to get the horse on the aids. This will really help those of you who may not have a formal arena, or court, set up where you ride. To help with you circle geometry, think of aiming your outside leg for each touch point and bending the horse around your inside leg between them!
Caine is working on spiraling in and out before and after transitions between trot and canter. Sounds easy enough, right? Nope! Because German is also helping her with straightness! In the beginning, you will see that she’s overbending her horse with the inside rein, so watch to see the correction as they work on straightening the horse’s body WHILE bending him around the circle!
That is all, right? Wrong! They’re also working on impulsion and keeping the horse moving forward, which actually helps the straightness! Then, the spiraling element is putting the horse’s back legs into engagement, and helping with the suppleness of the horse before and after the transitions as well.
I hope you enjoy this video!
P.S. Be sure to download my FREE PDF on the Canter!
P.P.S. Want to see more of German and Caine? Check out this other video.
