Name/Age/Experience esp development stage - initiation/acquisition/consolidation:
Open and Continuous skill
Arena Set Up/Equipment:
[ ] Instructor will have helmet, in case a mounted demonstration is deemed appropriate
[ ] Diagram can be drawn on a chalkboard (or enlarged and posted).
[ ] Instructor will be positioned in corner, with exception of tack check, and demo
Introduction:
It's important to accurately ride figures in order to get good scores in shows, but it's even more important to ride figures accurately in order to get the most correct work from the horse! A horse who drifts "cheats" and does not use himself as symmetrically and athletically as he should. Dressage begins and ends with the 20m circle. It is the easiest and most the difficult figure to ride correctly!
Warm Up:
15 min
Walk around the area once each direction, with several transitions to halt. Then riders will move into a posting trot around the area, both directions while positional corrections are offerred and explanation provided.
Explanation:
Circles are supposed to be round, which means the horse turns the same amount at each stride. This is harder than it sounds, especially if your horse doesn't want to come off the rail! There should be no straight lines or corners involved in riding circles. At those points of the circle, which are tangent to the rail, the horse should take only one or two steps on the rail before leaving it to follow the track of the circle.
Demonstration:
Riders will halt or walk to accurately see instructor walk a circle, and show diagram. For activity progression #2, masking tape can be used for tangent points on the wall. Another idea is to measure 10m from a centre point pilon and make a shaving trail in the arena dirt. Another idea is to lay poles as shown as dotted lines in diagram.
Activity/Progression #1:
15 min
When riding a circle, which begins at B or E, your horse's shoulders should leave the track as they pass the letter. Remember to warn your horse ahead of time that you're planning to turn.
You'll cross the centerline 10 meters on either side of X. You can eyeball a spot halfway between X and A, and halfway between X and C, to find that spot. Or, look for that magic 4-meters-beyond-the-corner-letters spot, and cross the centerline opposite that. (The corner letters are 6 meters from the end of the ring.
Add another 4 meters to find the ten-meter mark. From that mark, it's another 10 meters to E or B.)
How to Turn a Circle
Turning a circle requires reins and legs to be used at the same time. To turn right, you need to pull on the right rein and use your legs to encourage the horse to move. The opposite is true to turn left. If turning a circle, whether in dressage competitions or otherwise, you will need to make the horse appear smart and collected rather than just spinning him around. He needs his body to be kept bent around the circle while turning. To do this, put the opposite leg back to the way you are turning – so left leg back when going right and right leg back when going left.
Riders will trot around the rail, riding a circle one at a time.
Activity Progression #2
Circles at A and C: In the small arena, the corner letters (H, K, M, F) are six meters from the end of the arena. Therefore, your 20-meter circles at A and C touch the long sides of the arena 4 meters beyond the corner letters and you cross the centerline exactly at X.
"how do you find this exercise?"
"so, what happened there?"
Cool Down:
10 min
Depending on rider level, it is often nice to walk without stirrups as part of cool down.
Conclusion:
interesting related resource or next lesson progression?
