Suppleness: SI > Ren > LY > Tra

Nope, not a mathmatic equation... this was my lessons with Sara this week. We focused a lot on suppleness and we worked a fantastic exercise for this with both Axel and Willough (that Sara learnt from Portuguese trainer Alfredo Hernandez).

On the long side of the arena start in shoulder in until it feels good, change the bend to renvers. swing into leg yield (on the rail) then change the bend to travers. Sara had me stay in the positioning until the responsiveness and positioning felt good and then switch to the next position, The short side is always a break for the horse. Once it felt good on both reins in walk we moved upto trot and worked the same exercise as above.

I absolutely loved this for suppling the horse and getting them quick and responsive to your aids, It also showed up any weird stuff I do with my body to get the lateral work, for example when I am on the left rein in left bending I sit right too much which doesn't help the horse, so this is something I need to be aware of and responsible for in any of my riding. Oh also when I moved from leg yield to travers that I needed to stay soft and playful in the rein to keep the horse soft!

I didn't get any video of this but good old Google helped me out and here is a video showing the exercise. I LOVE riding this and LOVE how supple and on your aids it makes the horses. Super, super feeling.



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