Hi,
Your horse turns just fine? Why spending so much on time on turns?
Being able to get and, in fact, recognise a good turn, is an important skill for beneficial gymnastics later on.
A good turn sets you up for good lateral work.
A good turn helps you to create the bend, which brings the inside hind leg under the centre of gravity. At this position, the hind leg can carry more of the horse’s weight, taking weight off the shoulders.
The tighter the turn, the more weight the inside leg has to carry, but only for 3-4 steps.
Remember that I said that with the Feldenkrais-inspired flexion, we focus on a small give at the jawline. It’s not about flexing the neck.
In a turn, we start out with a give at the jawline and aim to continue this softness through the entire spine from the neck to the tail.
Let me bring back this image from ​Anja Beran’s marvellous online course​ material.
“Stellung” (give at the jawline) and “Biegung” (bend through the horse’s body) could be seen as a continuum. “Stellung” is the beginning of “Biegung”, i.e. “Biegung” includes “Stellung”. You can stop after getting “Stellung” (a give), if that’s what you need, but if you want the entire horse to bend, you must start with a give. You cannot leave it out.
This is less obvious than you might think. Horses can remain stiff in their poll and jawline and still bend somehow. It is a false bend, though. It feels like the neck breaks off at its base. Sometimes the horses look to the outside eventhough their head is pulled to the inside. They stick out their shoulders and are out of balance.
You can recognise it if the base of the neck is hanging low, the joints of the hind legs are stiff and the back is hollow.
A good bend, on the other hand, lifts the horse’s withers and back. As the inside hind leg carries more weight, the horse appears taller and lighter in the front. You can literally see this effect in e.g., a good shoulder-in.
Let’s look at turns
A good turn is fluid, with enough forward movement. I like to add a mat on the straight line when coming out of a turn to encourage that forward movement. Otherwise it’s easy to “kill the engine” as the turns can be tiring.
In a good turn, your horse does not fall on the inside shoulder. That happens quite easily on your horse’s stiff side, especially in a tight turn. In that case it helps to use the flexion and your arm to shift the shoulders away from the inside of the turn. And you may want to make the turn a little bigger at first.
Let’s look at a green horse’s turn. She is a good girl but a little sluggish. We could use a little more forward. The mat behaviour was not strong enough to harness its “tractor-beam effect”.
The next video is Blondie early on in her training. She had enough forward, slowing down improved the turn.
Three tight turns
The next three short clips show a tight turn around a cone in both directions done by Blondie, Graya and Asfaloth for comparison.
Watch the three horses.
And blame me for any imbalances because my horses can only turn as well as I guide them.
Blondie’s turn has improved compared to the previous video (she looks quite different, doesn’t she?). She still falls a little on her inside shoulder but her hind end tracks well.
Graya can do a very tight turn (she is a PRE after all) but she is also a bit on her shoulders.
Asfaloth does a beautiful turn to the right. To the left he struggles a little (tiny head shake) and needs more space but it’s still a nice turn. Also notice the pull to the mat. He’s a super star đź’«
A good turn is important but not easy once you start looking at the balance details. And having it once doesn’t mean you’ll have it always.
It may be good to point out how relevant this is for riding. This year (2024), I worked a lot with Graya on turns and changes of direction under saddle, mostly in trot. This proved to be challenging but so valuable. Getting good turns resulted in great balance and true riding on the outside rein. It is so much fun having your horse on the outside rein. And it improved the canter departs immensely.
Take a video of your own horse doing turns. What do you observe in your horse and in yourself?
Have fun,
Michaela