Riding exercise of the month: transitions in lateral movements

I recently saw this floating about on Facebook again and this picture really caught my eye and inspired me for this month's riding exercise! ⤵️ I use most of these movements in my every day riding, just because it really helps to achieve a much straighter horse in comparison to just riding around aimlessly and adding in a few oddly shaped circles here and there. 

I often warm up in walk using shoulder in, travers, leg yield and half pass on all of my horses. It's a super easy way of suppling them and getting them to actually pay attention to me, which I've found to really help to achieve a better schooling session. Once I've warmed up in walk, I've been adding in trot-walk-trot transitions down the long sides whilst doing any of the lateral movements. It really is not as easy as it sounds! 😬 It's a big brain work out for both you and the horse, but it also helps with all of the other work. With Erik, the biggest difference that I've noticed has been that a straighter and more supple horse is not only an easier horse to ride (obvious much!) but also that we get much better flying changes! For a horse that is long and a bit slow, trot-walk-trot transitions down the long side whilst doing shoulder in and travers has been the best idea ever 💡

Riding these lateral movements down the long side rather than across the diagonal also means that you get better at not drifting around the corner but instead you end up having to actually ride into the corner, because you need those extra few precious steps to prep for the next long side. Which also consequently means that at competitions the judge will be impressed that you are one of the few that actually rides into their corners! Just remember that the horse always needs to be going forwards, don't fall in to the trap of slowing down just because your going sideways (here's looking at you Basse who makes me work extra hard to get him going forwards and sideways at the same time!!)