rein aids for circles?????

[Hugo10]

My hands are finally getting better . . . . .apart from when I want to circle I have starting to get the contact much better (it's light but constant) but when I circle my outside rein gets a bit loose and I get a bit confused about what to do with my inside hand (should I raise it, open it or something else???). If I hold the contact a bit more with the outside hand I lose the bend

Any advice would be great

 

[xJenniferx]

Have to think about this so I dont get confused.

You maintain the contact with the outside rein and indeally want the horss nose turned slightly to the outside - just a bit though. The inside rein should have some contact but you dont want to pull the horse round the circle.

When I first started doing circles I remember I was told to exagerrate the inside hand movement, so I would open the rein up quite a bit. The main thing that was always conveyed to me was the legs do mos of the work and get the bend in the horse.

Hope that comes across OK. Will probably be thinking about it during the day and suddenly realise I have forgotten something lol

 

[Nookster]

I personally think outside aids should be your main focus for circles. Inside rein isn't for creating a circle. If you pull on the inside rein it will create a bend of the head a neck but the shoulder will be out of sync in my opinion.

Try keep you outside contact the same throughout no change - a happy contact. Your inside for me would be same and equal to you outside no movement no higher or lower. I would be giveing away my inside every now and again to know the horse was carrying itself.

Maybe try some square circles in walk at first? will hopefully help you think less of using inside aids and more outside. You will find you bend will come more from your seat and legs.

 

[Fanshawe]

Depends on how much bend your horse does on the circle with it's body at the moment. If it bends easily round your leg then just keep a constant contact on both reins. If they are struggling then give a small half halt on the inside rein at the same time as using the inside leg (unless you are using the inside leg every stride of course which hopefully you aren't!). It shouldn't take long before they bend around your leg and the inside rein aid gets finer and finer until you no longer need it!