Lesson 4 Reverse Arc

Forward Reverse Arc. (Same side hand and same side leg.) All horses have a tendency to drop their shoulders and this is one of the most misunderstood problems riders have to deal with. Ever notice that your horse seems to make his circles smaller and smaller in a lope? Or cutting corners? How about diving off in the direction of a lead change? Or having trouble going in a straight line loping down the arena? Then you need to understand how to pick up a shoulder and put him back where he should be. Go back to your 20’ circle and instead of using outside pressure we will slip our inside hip and leg around him and take our outside leg off. Now take your inside rein and pick it up and back a little to bend his neck and head towards your inside leg. You might need to bring your rein up almost to touch his neck. At this point I must remind you that going forward you must always extend your arm not bring it back when asking for directional changes. Your outside hand is pretty much left alone at this point. The horse should hold his bend but move out of his circle thus making his circle more egg shaped. In other words his movement should be out his outside shoulder. Let’s think about this! You are going in a circle to the right and you bend his head towards your right knee and then turn your palm up and rise your arm upwards. Now slide your hip to the right and rap your right leg around him a little more while taking off the left leg. His is bent in an arc to the right but now his actual travel is to the left. Don’t hold it too long. Here you must start to feel what is happening under you. You should feel like a car on ice that he is slipping out of his circle no matter how you turn the steering wheel. As soon as you feel that shoulder slipping you must return your outside leg and center yourself in the saddle again and resume your circle. (Hint!!! If you were to place your cheek on your inside shoulder and look down your arm to your hand you should be pointing or aiming where you want that horse’s shoulder should go.) The proper position for the horses head is bent down and he should be looking up at you with his inside eye. If his head is up in the air his shoulder is not up and maybe you need to go back to that very first bending exercise. Do several of these in one direction before going to the other direction. Get it working at a walk and then later try it at a trot. Eventually you can do it at a lope to straighten him out. Picking up the horse’s shoulder really aids in crossing over for lead changes, canter departures, spins, and role backs. If your horse over bends to the inside just apply a little outside rein pressure. In time I want my horse to do a complete circle before I let go of his shoulder. In other words if you are using right rein to pick up his shoulder then you should eventually be able to move him in a complete circle to the left. (Head facing your pressure leg and rein hand). So now when your horse cuts that corner, or veers off a straight line, or falls into his lead changes all you half to do is apply a little leg pressure and pick up his shoulder with your hand and he will move back into the position you intended in the first place. Most horses drop their shoulders no matter how many times you might do this exercise. I have had horses that always dropped their shoulders in a circle and so I had to do this every time we did that circle to correct it. Eventually you may only have to shift your weight and he will respond. But for now exaggerate the cues to teach him what you want.