ARgh! Just lost my post! Have to start again..
I completely agree with Josepha's description on the turn! Yesyesyes! Everything! From the pelvis to the pinky! Great description Josepha.
Almost everyone I see is pulling out and down to turn too, and you'll often see their wrist rotating to the inside to do it as well, creating complete brace from their wrist, elbow, up into their shoulder right into their neck... because it's hard to be strong with your thumbs up and opening out, and you're going to need strength to pull your horse into a turn like that. (And the less experienced are usually looking at their horses head at the same time too.) And then funnily enough, they insist that their horse is bracing.. and they have to use the inside leg pushing in the barrel to get them to bend, and then the outside leg to hold the haunches in on and track, and then squeeze the end of the toothpaste tube more to keep them moving forward, and more rein to stop them going too forward....
Yes, a horse can (and often has to) learn to turn, perhaps even gracefully once they're athletic enough, by having their nose levered down over the direction of their inside shoulder.. but it doesn't come easily to them or the rider.
It's very strange logic to me.. because a horse can move beautifully in a perfectly straight and balanced turn without us on their backs hauling them round and down, and pushing them out and holding them in, and holding them back and pushing them on.. So why do they need all this when we ride them? I would say two reasons.. The greatest being that they're having to fight against the loss of balance that their rider is creating with less than optimum cueing... and only secondly because they lack the motivation.
So if a horse can do it unridden, then all we should have to do as a rider, is be balanced in self-carriage on them, and cue them in a way that they can understand and doesn't interfere, and continue to move with them in balance as they carry out our request. It really is so simple!
Getting down on hands and knees and experimenting with how a four legged creature turns is very useful. Get someone to push down on your shoulders slightly, then ask them to lean to the inside, and try to turn. Almost impossible, unless you're going to do it by losing your balance and then crossing your outside leg over. A horse has to be able to have his inside shoulder free to pick up that inside foot and move it over slightly inside it's track, then the outside leg follows.
Getting off track..
Back to how.. We all know that horses are absolute masters at harmonic movement..mirroring. We do it in ground work. We can do it in riding as well.
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I always get a bit confused when I turn my pelvis... where to keep my shoulders and where to have my feet.
So I sort of get lost where to keep my feet, when to move what one to keep long and how to drive and... I should just go sitting on her and feel what she does when she makes a turn but how to get that turn to feel it?
I wouldn't worry at all about where to put your feet and legs at the moment for simple turns. If you are sitting upright, with heels in line with hips, balanced and your core gently activated.. breathing!.. and you turn your body as Josepha has described, into the turn, with your hands level and thumbs up, so that your hips softly turn in the direction of the turn, your legs will naturally fall where they should be, if you keep your body loose from the hips down. Then just follow the motion of your horses body as she walks or trots through the turn. When you want to go straight again, look straight and straighten your hips.
You won't need to drive, you won't need to worry about which leg to lengthen, where to push. Just make sure that your horse is moving freely forward first and just flow.
I've had the privilege of experimenting on a few people lately who've been trained here in the way that you describe Leigh. When I've taught them this, they've been amazed at how easy and graceful a turn instantly becomes when they get it right, and at how little effort it takes to sustain the horses action. Of course, that's on my horses who are used to being ridden that way. But the interesting thing is, when they go back to their regular riding stables, they find that there is an amazing difference in their school horse. Two things. The first is that the horse no longer feels like it's bracing and fighting and turns just as nicely with this method (or more so as they are far more schooled!) as my horses do, and the second is that the horse suddenly seems to come alive and notice them for the first time.. actually LIKE them even.
Some of my students have quite a lot of trouble getting this hip movement though.. They THINK they're turning their hips, but they're often DROPPING a hip, or leaning, or just turning their head and their arms in a swivel movement but leaving their pelvis behind. (This has the effect of shortening the outside rein and lengthening the inside rein, so that's when they HAVE to pull out and down and to effect the horses head.) It's one thing to TELL someone to turn their hips.. it's quite another for them to actually do it correctly.
So, a couple of visualizations that I have found helpful:
One is, imagine that you are carrying a breakfast tray, with a tall glass of orange juice, a big cup of coffee and a couple of croissants..
Your upper arms will come straight down your sides, with shoulders dropped, back and soft.
Your hands will hold the side of the tray, with your thumbs on top.
Your forearms will be parallel to each other, and horizontal, forming a ninety degree angle from your body.
You will need to lift yourself up straight from the crown of your head, so that your chin is slightly tucked, and your abdominals are engaged softly.
When you want to turn, you must KEEP THAT JUICE AND COFFEE in their cup and glass!!!!
That means that your forearms must remain parallel and level, with the thumbs on top. If you let a shoulder drop, or a hip drop, or a hand drop, the whole lot will spill!
Oh.. and you'll need to look where you're going too!!!
This is just a base.. once you can do this well, you can play around with it, and see how which variation influences what.
Sometimes that visualisation results in correct posture, but still not correct swivelling of hips....
The rider will turn with chin and then pivot arms as if on a hinge from the hips..
That's when you'll see the tightened outside rein actually preventing the horse from turning .. and the rider says.. "See! The horse just resists like this",
So then I use the second visualisation.
(This is one I stole from my snow boarding instructor many years ago and adapted.hehe)
TWo... Hold your arms in former position, thumbs up, upper arms at side with dropped shoulders, forearms parallel and level..
Then imagine you're a thalidomide kid.. You have no upper arm. Your forearms are attached directly to your hips.. and fused there, like a robot. This means that your hands cannot swing in any direction, up or down, or from side to side.
Your forearms form one solid unit with your pelvis.
Your arms and your tummy will form three sides of a square, that is going to remain square, whatever the rest of your body does.
Soo.. when you want to turn,
First, on the count of "tuuuuuuuurn", turn your head to the left..
And on the count of "Left" turn your "Sqaure Unit" of hips/forearms to the left.
When you do this correctly, holding the square shape, you'll see that it has the effect of pushing your outside hand slightly forwards and towards the horses neck, so lengthening the outside rein and giving the horse room to bend. And our inside hand will move slightly back and away from the horses neck, without altering their relative position to your pelvis.
(I teach it in two stages, turn.. left! so that the horse doesn't receive a sudden jolt from that very stiff box shape. lol. I also warn people that this will probably make them artificially stiff momentarily, and that they need to remember that this is an exercise to teach hip/hand co-ordination, not rigidity, so once they've got it, they'll have to remember to soften up and let their hands and arms move gently with their horse again, while still maintaining this base position.)
This is often a litebulb moment for people who've been a bit mentally stuck in the hips.
You should feel a nice elastic pull from your chin, (which is slightly tucked, not lifted - rounded back/engaged psoas, just like you want your horse to be) across the front of your chest from left shoulder, down through belly button and to the right hip.
If the horse doesn't respond to this cue, then I allow them to gently lift the inside rein slightly by squeezing with fingers and rotating wrist slightly out and that's usually enough to let the horse in on what's going on, and isn't needed more than a couple of times.
All of this works just the same in cordeo. I find it easier for people to learn with two hands first, because that gives them some reference for keeping straight and level. So I make the cordeo a little longer and let them hold it like reins.
Then progress to holding cordeo in two hands in the center, and only go to one handed once they are consistently able to stay level.
It also works brilliantly with "Air Reins".
Piece of Cake!
However..
All this only happens if you're already balanced and moving with the horses body, in such a way that you do not lock up in the hips and thighs as you turn them and inadvertantly block your horses movement..
So usually, before working on these visualisations for turning, I would work on moving the hips and legs in time with the gait.
For this, I use the visualisation of sitting on a slippery log in the water park.
Your legs will be wrapped softly around it, with lower leg very gently hugging the underside. As the log rolls slightly down to the left, your left hip will go down, your thigh will drop down with it, and left foot will swing further under, as your right hip and thigh lift. Then it rolls the opposite way, and your right calf muscle gently hugging the underside of the log, will be drawn down underneath.
So we'll walk along, feeling "under, under, under, under, under" as the other thigh begins to lift... so it's underrup.. underrup... underrup.
Now.. when we get to the turn.. if we stay loose and continue with this movement, we'll feel that the our outside leg seems to swing under slightly more, and our inside thigh lift and move out slightly more.. so we keep our hips swinging with this movement.
(Once again, I present this as an exaggeration which will be later refined.)
Now.. when we get around to the first visualisations I talked about, for turning..
We'll be able to keep this rocking and rolling motion going without locking our hips as we turn our hip together with upper body in the direction we want to go.
And the legs will support the turn, by just following, or even slightly leading if we're asking for a tighter turn.. but in this same rhythm, and in the natural position that they fall. So our outside leg will swing softly under more, asking our horses inside front foot at the moment of lift off to place further to the inside, and our inside thigh will be ready to lift with our horses inside shoulder as they make this movement.
But in the beginning, its' enough to just feel this and follow it, as we use our hips to allow the horse to co-ordinate with us into the turn.
Now I went and wrote even more than the first time around. Whew.. why do I do this when I'm supposed to be horrifically busy.. A bit of escapism I suppose!
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There is no correct seat in movement, there is only correct movement and that is not static and changes with every pace, horse, rider and time frame within the education of both.
What is right depends on the laws of physics for that particular moment.
Love this!!
Sue