Fancy Footwork.

I am not sure how I forgot but last week Mish-mosh and I discovered a great new exercise, of which I sort of hijacked from an old clinic blog recap. BUT I did make it my own by changing a couple elements due to the arena size constraints and current training goals so it is not technically plagiarism, right?...

I have noticed Pal and I need some work over canter poles, especially on the curve.
Pal needs to improve adjusting and positioning herself correctly without me micromanaging for her and I need to improve and stabilize my position over the poles so I don't interfere even if she takes a flyer or stumbles.
The outside sweep of lines are poles. First pole placed at about 'B' or 'E', depending on how you want to set it up. It is a pole, compressed two stride, 21ft to two bounce poles or cavaletti if you wish, (cavelleti will be the next step for us), then it is another 21ft to the last canter pole.

We worked over this in trot and canter coming from both directions but it is noticeable harder tracking right. Tracking left, the up coming corner of the arena seemed to naturally create the track and compress the stride, tracking right, the horses both wanted to drift out. So tip, as we learned, lots of guarding outside rein and leg.
While this exercise seems pretty simple, it really isn't. The combination of the two stride-bounce-two stride and the curve force both you and your equine partner to be accurate. Drift out or in and the striding is off, so make sure you prep accordingly.


Then the final element, the fat dark line with all the arrows, was a small 2'6 gate. This was to be jumped at an angle to get both of the horses and us used to jumping outside the comfort zone.
I found this especially useful for Pal since she seems to want the perfect spot or she gets a little nervous and doesn't quite know what to do with her body. Despite this only being a small 'vertical' the take off and landing spots, having to be wider to depart/arrive safely, made her stretch out through her back and neck and gave me more practice staying with her over wider elements. (Pal's jump is a total 180* when going from basic verticals, comfy and flat, to having to jump wider elements, much more push from behind and more round).
Funny how all the more difficult things are pushing me away from my 'hunter-esque' preferred methods and forcing me to think about how I am riding. It is like learning to post the trot for the first time.
Now, it is second nature, then, you had to think.