Training Level Tips--First Show!

A student wrote to me recently saying:

I hope you don't mind if I bounce a few questions  off of you.  I will be showing Blue in training level next weekend.  I feel we have really made some improvements in our walk and trot.  Well, you've seen us, I feel pretty comfortable with that.  

Question 1.  Bend- I struggle with this.  What should my seat, legs and hands be doing to create the correct bend?  I think I have it, but I'm worried I'm asking more with my hands than my seat.  I know that's a tough question, but it seems to be a pivotal point in the training level.

Question 2.  Canter!  We do not have the canter nailed down, we're getting better.  I know he will be hollow and slightly off balance.  What can I do to at least make it decent?  What do you expect for a training level horse?  I know that's a tough question.

Good questions!  And I love it that she is thinking so much and preparing so thoroughly for her tests.  Here are my answers:

Hey!  What fun! So, for bend: first sit straight and square with your seat bones centered on each side of his spine.  As you start your curved line, turn your shoulders, without leaning, in the direction of travel.  Keep both seat bones down on the horse and let your body twist through your torso like a barber pole turning.  Your shoulders should be on the angle you want his shoulders to be on and your hips the same angle you want his hips on.  

Be careful not to let your seat slide to the outside, as that is the natural tendency when turning on a circle.  Stay over your inside seat bone and leg by imagining you are about to dismount on that side.  Use your inside calf to give him a post to bend around.  Use your outside thigh to help his outside shoulder come around the turn.  Use your outside calf to make sure his haunches don't swing out.  Rotate your inside hand so that the fingernails are skyward and open it towards your knee to the degree you need to to create a hollow along the inside of his neck, but without disconnecting his neck where it joins his shoulders.  In other words bend, don't break!  Stay supple and keep a bend in your elbows.  The elastic outside rein allows the bend but supports his frame so that he doesn't pop his outside shoulder.  When you have his body so that it matches the line he is traveling on, he will feel light and balanced.

For the canter, your seat should stay in the asymmetrical position that slightly lightens and turns out your inside knee.  Let both legs breathe in rhythm with the canter motion--no clamping, but the inside leg is a little in front of the outside leg.  Keep suppling the inside rein so he doesn't get stiff.  Imagine that you are riding him in leg yield to the outside of the circle, i.e., inside leg to elastic outside rein.  And remember that the canter strides begin with the outside hind leg stepping down and supporting the horse all on its own, so make sure you give a little nudge-hold-and-release behind the girth each stride if he feels hesitant.  Sit tall and allow the canter motion to come through his body.

A good exercise to improve suppleness and jump at the canter is to pick up the canter approaching the short end, then turn down the second quarter line and, as you ride with his nose pointed straight down the arena, leg yield him to the track.  You are leg yielding away from the lead he is on.  Keep him flexed slightly toward the lead, and ask him to jump forward and away from your inside leg until he is at the track.  Keep the forward as well as the sideways movement by using your outside leg when needed.

At training level, we are looking for a horse flowing freely forward in a level balance and accepting a quiet contact with the bit.  Suppleness and responsiveness to the rider's aids are developing, and it's nice to see the horse fairly straight to the line he is traveling on, bent in turns and on circles and straight on straight lines.  

What we do not want to see is a horse badly out of balance and/or not moving forward with commitment.  Nor should he be running.  The rider should not be stopping the forward flow by trying to collect the horse (or keeping her balance on the reins).  I want to see a harmonious picture of the horse and rider, in balance, connected, and flowing throughout the test.  That tells me that the basics skills are developing nicely and the training is correct.

Have fun and good luck!