Charlotte is an interesting horse to ride because she is so sensitive in the mouth and it makes it tricky as a rider to make corrections without making her ‘out of hand,’ or doing corrections that make her not want to regain contact on the bit.
I’ve been working on the straightness of her body by moving the shoulders around, but I’m now working on "Flechi Droit". Flechi Droit is lateral bend with a straight body, which Charlotte finds difficult, when she bends laterally past a certain point she tends to overweight her inside shoulder (particularly on one rein) making it very hard to keep her body straight.
Christine suggested doing counter - fleche droit, or bend with a straight body to the outside, and this helped enormously, as the wall helped stop her from falling out of lateral balance. Once she got her balance, I could change direction and continue in the same bend with a better balance. It’s important to start and finish with a straight neck and body too, developing her capacity to change her balance.
Charlotte also tends to compensate for her difficulty with lateral bending in balance by head tilting. If as a rider I can focus on stabilizing the poll, then we can work to improve her balance both laterally (from one side to the other, in her case the shoulder control) and longitudinally (gradually shifting her balance towards the hindlegs.)
After we achieve flechi droit in a good balance, I then ask for neck extension with action - reaction and repeat the combination of fleche droit then neck extension. These two exercises work well together, as the high neck position in flechi droit helps set her up for being balanced in the neck extension, so she is less likely to come too far onto the forehand, and the bend stretches the outside muscles of the neck, creating a longer neck extension. These exercises helped Charlotte's shoulder control and longitudinal balance which are needed for neck rein turns.
Erica Hosking - Instructor, Blinkbonnie Equestrian Centre
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