The Hexagon Leg Yield.

After owning Paloma for so long and with her constant need for changes in routine I found myself in search of new, fun and revolutionary dressage exercises the other day.
With Solo's sensitivity I had kind of fallen into a rut of sorts, repeating the same exercises, in the same way, every few days, in constant rotation, hoping that he can keep his nerves in check. Day one of this week, do that.... day two of this week, do this...

At this point in his training, however not yet far but I feel I can ask him to expand his thinking to a point where I can have a dose of change and he can contain himself, (he is a man afterall), so off I went in the interconnected world.


What I found reminded me how one movement can be so diverse yet, executed in the same fashion and granting so much improvement. Amazing!

The Leg Yield Hexagon.... as found on Dressage Fundamentals.
The reason I chose this was because Solo is so reactive to my leg aids, he readily moves away from my leg, but tends to lose his shoulder and doesn't quite know what to do about my outside aids yet. This exercise proved exceptional for teaching what outside aids mean and therefore giving me control of the shoulder.

I won't re-explain the exercise entirely but I did begin at the walk, ask for a bit of leg yield over (three or four steps), then halt, execute turn on the haunches for just a couple steps, then back to a few steps of leg yield and so on. However, I did preface the exercise with turn on the haunches at each corner from a walk to refresh the idea.

The walk proved simple and amazing!

The trot went very well too. Though, with the bi lateral swing you don't get the instant satisfaction of progress because the change isn't so drastic, however, I did instantly notice that Solo respected my outside rein which he usually isn't sure what to do with.
The moment I felt him begin to fall through his shoulder on the leg yeild, I took a bit more outside rein, instant correction on his part.
So there lies the proof that this exercise works and I will be utilizing this for many years to come!