Ken McNabb: Hindquarter Control (Part 2)

We are going to continue to talk about hip control in this video. Exercise #1: Riding Perfect Circles To achieve more body control, we will work on making perfect 20-ft circles. Imagine your horse's hindquarters driving up underneath him. Keep his face soft, and his body in an arc. If the shoulders fade out and in, drive the hindquarters underneath even more. The inside rein controls direction, and the outside rein controls depth of flexion and leg speed. To stop, just quit driving the hindquarters underneath. Use the reins only as a reinforcer. Next, pick the exercise up to a trot. Exercise #2: Pivot Ride in a 20-ft circle again. Push the hip into the circle as you are walking. Then, stop and take the shoulders to the inside of the circle to make a turn-around. Exercise #3: Haunches In Ride your horse up the fenceline. Ask him to bump his hip to the inside. If he does, release him. If he doesn't, take his nose toward the fence to get that hip over to inside, then release. Eventually, you want the hip to continue on the inside while working at a walk, trot, and lope. I hope you enjoyed this series on hindquarter control. Until next time, may God bless the trails you ride! Ken McNabb