QUESTION: When I do a circle, my horse drops his shoulder, how can I keep him more upright?
Answer submitted by Kerry Petty:
This is a great question but a complicated one. There can be many reasons a horse drops his shoulder but the best way to look at it is from a balance issue. Think 'My horse is out of balance so how can I help him get more in balance?' If you look at it this way it becomes a positive issue knowing the horse wants to be in balance.
Most of the time the opposite hind leg is weak and not taking a full stride underneath so the horse to catch his balance throws the opposite front leg out to the side. The rider HOWEVER feels the shoulder bulge and drop out to the side though the horse is really just throwing his leg to the side to help with his balance. Most of the time this is the RIGHT hind not stepping though and the LEFT shoulder drops.
The cure is two fold. Help the horse work off the weaker hind leg so he has better balance. As well as you the rider MUST stay firmly in the correct center of the horse so that your aids correctly help the shoulder from bulging or dropping away. I say this because many times the rider gets dragged to one side of the saddle with the shoulder that drops or bulges away. You must use seatbone with a firm core above it to keep yourself centered then you can deliver the aids of weight from the seatbone and weight from the leg.
For exercises to feel this and work on it I would use quarterline loops as well as full serpentines as you are off the track and working both sides of the horse. Also riding figure eights with the circle where the horse normally drops/throws his shoulder is ridden in counter flexion. The book Dressage in Harmony also addresses this problem particularly well.
Answer submitted by Margaret Spencer:
When a horse falls on a shoulder in a turn, the main issue is lack of engagement of the inside hind leg. This can be caused be so many things. Is the rider doing one of the following? Pulling on the inside rein (which will block the engagement of the inside hind leg). Sitting or leaning too much to the inside. Sitting on the outside seat bone more than the inside. Clamping with the outside leg which pushes the horse more to the inside. Allowing the horse to lose energy in the turn.
After checking for the possible causes and correcting any you may find, I would focus on creating better turns. Ride from the inside leg to the outside rein. We have all heard that many times, the question is how do you turn when you are using the outside rein. The inside leg should create more bend for the turn and the outside rein blocks the shoulders from moving straight forward creating a new direction. Sometimes it helps to think of the outside rein as a slight neck rein as in western. The outside rein has many uses. One is to control the amount of bend , another is to control direction, also it controls the length of stride, and it controls the balance. If you use the inside rein to only control the bend (not to actually create the turn) and the outside rein to control the amount of bent as well as direction you wish to go, the horse will turn. It is the job of the legs to keep the energy and to position the body for the turn.
To shorten the answer, correct the rider position, lighten the inside rein and keep or increase the energy and the horse will turn with balance. Remember each step will have to be recreated. Horses were not equipped with cruse control