In my last email I told you I’d know what I’m clicking.
I found out — but the path went back before it went forward.
Going into this session I had a plan. Continue the shoulder-in work. Build the bend. Work toward those left turns.
But something had been sitting with me from the previous ride.
When I asked Blondie to turn left, she stiffened on the inside rein. Instead of softening into the bend, she braced.
During my last ride I’d been experimenting, using less inside rein and guiding the shoulders with the outside rein while turning my own body to support her. The turns got better, but they were not balanced.
Without the softening, there’s no bend. Without the bend, her inside hind leg can’t step under and support the turn.
So before anything else, I needed to rebuild that softening.
I went back to Single Rein Riding — a key lesson in Alex Kurland’s work that connects the groundwork to riding — one we’d worked on some time ago.
You make contact on the inside rein and wait for the horse to soften. Then the rider turns her body, supporting the horse through the turn. The horse pivots by yielding the hip and crossing the hind legs.
At first Blondie gave me only the neck. She continued straight, falling over her outside shoulder, which feels like “a canoe without a paddle” – as Alex likes to call it.
After few repetitions, Blondie found her hips.
Once I had the softening and the hind legs connected to the rein, I went back to the trot work. But I changed how I approached the turn.
Instead of asking for the left turn away from the fence, I asked her to turn toward it — and the exercise that allowed me to do that was a half turn in reverse. Instead of a straight line, I use a leg yield to move away from the track — the leg yield creates the left bend and prepares the turn into the corner as we reach the short side.
The turn was easier — Blondie softened into it, the movement felt fluid, and I didn’t feel the bracing against the inside rein.
The bend was created before the turn, not during it.
The turn into the corner is working now.
But the turn away from the fence still needs building. That’s a different question — one I don’t have an answer to yet.
I’ll be looking for it.
Michaela
Happy horses make happy people.
P.S.: The following ride I repeated the Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder lesson from Alexandra Kurland, as it proved very helpful for improving Blondie’s left turn.