One of my students recently asked me to explain the aids for shoulder-in. She especially was concerned about where she should keep her weight to help her horse balance.
The shoulder-in is one of the most useful and important exercises in classical training. It helps the rider teach the horse how to bend the joints in his inside hind leg and step under his center of gravity. It is an indispensable exercise in teaching the horse to carry more weight on his haunches.
When I am thinking about shoulder-in for a horse, I like to make sure the horse has the preliminary understandings in place for performing shoulder-in: the forward-down stretch that ensures the horse will reach to the bit and raise his back when asked by the rider, the lateral flexion in the poll and release in the jaw that is preliminary to proper bending, and the ability to displace the rib cage slightly to the outside and create a steady bend to the inside when cued by the rider. Then, I want to be sure I can leg yield my horse's hind leg toward my outside rein while maintaining a stretch to the bit and enough bend to feel the connection between the inside hind leg and the outside rein. The last piece you need is a decent half-halt. Your horse should understand how to come back a bit in response to your upper body stretching up and holding for a split second while your hands stabilize. Once you have these pieces in place, you are ready for the shoulder-in.
When performing the shoulder-in, the inside hind leg and the outside foreleg align on one track. This alignment is established by placing the forehand of the horse to the inside of the track. One good way to teach this is to use a ten-meter circle. The bend and balance on the ten meter circle is what you need for the shoulder-in, so it is a good check to ride your horse in walk or trot around the arena and ride a ten meter circle at R, S, V, and P. Make sure you can keep a consistent bend all the way around each circle and maintain a good balance.
When you are sure you have the balance in your ten meter circles well established, try a few steps of shoulder-in as you return to the track from one of your circles. Allow your horse to take a step onto the ten meter circle line as if you were going to ride the circle again. Then look down the track, use your inside leg to swing the horse in rhythm with his gait, and go straight down the track but with his forehand one step to the inside of the track and maintaining the bend of your ten meter circle. Sit in the middle of your horse in order to help maintain the bend and also to support his movement down the track. In the French school one sits in the direction of movement, and in the German school one sits over the inside seat bone to establish the bend. Thank goodness Arthur Kottas of the Spanish Riding School strikes a happy medium by advising us to sit in the middle of the horse's back in the shoulder-in. I have found this to be an efficient place from which to influence the horse's movement, bend, and balance.
What you would like to feel is that you have your horse connected from your swinging inside leg to your outside elastic elbow and hand. Help your horse balance and find the right amount of bend with your elastic outside connection back into your soft, heavy elbow. Orient your sternum in the direction you want the shoulders of your horse to turn (to the inside of the line you are riding on). Allow your hips to stay straight to the line of travel (straight down the track). Keep your inside leg close to the girth to help your horse bend, and pulse energy through your horse's rib cage in the direction of the outside bit ring in time with his swinging inside hind leg. Your outside leg will be more or less passive depending on whether your horse needs support to keep his haunches from swinging to the outside. If he wants to lose his bend by pushing his haunches out, you will need to use your outside leg behind the girth to remind him to stay curved around your inside seat bone and leg.
A horse must "sit" a bit in his hind leg joints in order to perform shoulder-in. This is a lot of strain on a horse that is new to this type of movement, so be judicious in your requests early on. Refresh your horse by riding out of the shoulder-in into a forward trot on a straight line or stretch on a circle line. The engagement required for a line of shoulder-in will develop best when done a few steps at a time.
The shoulder-in is the classical exercise for teaching a horse to bend his hind legs in preparation for collection. Remember to use your half halt by closing your thighs, flexing your collar bone up and steadying your hands momentarily, then releasing to allow your horse to find his balance in a more upright posture in which he carries more weight on his haunches. By bending the joints of one leg at a time (the inside hind), the shoulder-in prepares the horse's musculature for the work of collection and helps the rider establish the aids for creating engagement or carrying power (the flexion of the hind leg joints that is the prerequisite for impulsion). Each horse is different in what he requires to learn this skill, but in general, make sure you keep sufficient energy so that the horse's back can swing, and keep the poll at or near the highest point.
Happy riding, and enjoy training this wonderful exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment