To ride a circle to the left, sit tall in the saddle with your left hip slightly forward to hold the position of the horse’s hips with your weight down through your inside (left) seat bone and your left heel to anchor the bend. Your right leg (outside) is placed behind the girth to control the outside of the horse’s body. Position your shoulders by turning them to the left with your left shoulder just behind your left hip. By keeping your elbows by your sides as you turn, this indicates to the horse to turn his shoulders to the left with yours. Sit tall through your chest to lift the horse’s shoulders encouraging him to keep his weight on his hocks. The inside rein asks the horse to flex his head to the left. The amount of bend is controlled by the outside rein. You should be looking ahead between his ears. By keeping one hand either side of his neck you will be able to keep the horse’s head and neck steady. Keeping your inside heel down, ask with your inside calf for the horse to step under his belly with his inside hind leg. Your outside leg behind the girth asks the horse to bend around your inside seat bone and leg. The reins are used to indicate the position of the forehand as described earlier. The smaller the circle, the more weight that is needed into the left heel and the more turn that is needed to the left with both your and the horse’s shoulders. Remember to sit tall to lift the horse’s shoulders so he keeps his weight on his hocks.

Sizes of Circles

 The first step is to play around with the different sizes. Begin with the biggest, a 20 m circle which fits into half a 20x40m school. A ten metre circle will touch the centre line when ridden from one side of the arena, and a 5 metre will give you the shape of an accurate corner. Within your large circle, try to fit in smaller ones at equal points around it. Work out where the centre point of your 20m circle is. Each 10m circle within it should touch this centre point. When you are happy with this exercise, try riding 5m circles within the big one.

 In each corner of the school, ride both 5 and 10 metre circles. The 10m circles are the easier option, and better to start with if your horse is not as supple as it could be. When these are successful, shrink them down to 5metre and you will find that your corners will improve in accuracy.

Circle patterns

Changes of direction can be extremely useful for co-ordination. Ride a 10m circle in one corner. Head towards the centre of the school, and ride a circle the same size, but in the other direction. Then return to the track just before the next corner and ride a third circle in the same direction as the first one.

The circles can be made smaller as you wish and could be reversed, riding the end ones towards the long side and the one in the centre towards the middle of the school. There are many combinations to try!