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May 2007 • VOLUME 21 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
In this Issue of
Horses For LIFE, Susan discovers the benefits of the corners. Every
corner is an opportunity. An opportunity to train your horse. An
opportunity to train your horse to a better balance when being
ridden. This balance is very different from the balance a horse often
uses when he is on his own. For horses racing through the pasture
think nothing of leaning through the turn, counterbalancing weight of
their body with their neck and head to the outside. Joints locked, he
pounds into the turf bracing against the earth. This is far
different from the balance that we require of our horses when we ride.
For centuries, the first and foremost task that horsemen around the
world have set up as one of their primary training goals is to have a
horse stay upright underneath the rider. Staying upright means it
takes no effort on the rider's part to stay on the horse, making it easy,
especially when going over long distances. The horse staying upright ensures that the rider stays on the horse. But it does far more than this. The horse that stays upright, and especially through the corners, offers us so much more. The horse that leans through the corner appears straight but does not bend. It is a false straightness based on false parameters, but is often presented as a parody of straightness. The horse that stays upright learns to bend through the corner which is after all one quarter of a circle. An additional benefit of staying upright is how it helps the horse develop his sense of balance and the beginnings of collection. Work on corners without a doubt presents the rider with the easiest opportunity to begin teaching the rudiments of collection to the horse. The mere action of going through the corner sets up the required work we need from the horses to place their weight on their hind end if we do not allow them to learn through the corner. How we get our horses to stay upright and in good bend through the corner depends very much on the individual horse.
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