Problem with corners!

[Sirin]

Hi all, this is my first post on New Rider

I've been riding for a few months now and am really happy with my progress - my seat always feel secure and my position has improved a lot. However, whenever I canter I always manage to skip corners out completely! I do not lose control of the horse, as I can half halt and steer in the directions I want, but its just my corners frustratingly!

I feel as if I have tried everything e.g shortening of the inside reign etc, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Shireen

 

[eml]

Have you tried riding straight to just past the 6m marker then using your body position to turn the horses shoulder? Is this your horse or school horses (RS horses can learn bad habits when ridden by more novice riders so can be difficult to actually ride accurately) Do not turn on the inside rein ,that will encourage your horse to overbend in its neck and possibly lean in..raise the inside hand if the horse leans in.. assess what happens on each rein and ride each corner as you feel what is happening.


Welcome to NR by the way we all love pictures as well!!

 

[newforest]

My instructor put poles out for me to have a focus. Turn when I reach the pole in my body.

 

[popularfurball]

Sorry what do you mean by skipping corners? You overshoot them eg if you were coming off the track for a circle, or the horse cuts corners off the track?

 

[Sirin]

I mean I cut corners off of the squared school

 

[popularfurball]

I used to do this - there were a few things which helped me...

Making sure my shoulders pointed to the wall ahead so I wasn't leaning in, it might not feel as though you are leaning in but sometimes we do stuff subconsciously

Hands - you need to have a supporting inside rein, sometimes as eml says lifting the inside hand helps. Opening the outside hand can also help - not "technically" correct I guess but some horses it makes it much clearer where you want them to go if the rein is away from the neck a little

And legs - inside leg on to nudge over to the wall.

I suspect you will have to be form about all of this - we used to canter one at a time to the back of the ride... And our RS ponies were pretty smart - they knew all the tricks to save energy and get to the back the fastest!