Mounted Relaxation and Suppleness exercise examples

In riding and ground training, the best exercises allow for minimal interference from the rider and allow the horse to fully understand, participate offer his interpretation of what you have requested. You then can fine tune the pattern as the horse understands and raise the level of difficulty when it is appropriate. This would be when the horse is pretty consistent and relaxed in the exercise. You can then add the next element of difficulty which could be speed (change of gait), smaller circles, more impulsion etc.

Here are a couple of basic super simple Rhythm, relaxation and suppling patterns to try:

1. A simple Circle of 20 meters (aprox 65 ft): A circle ridden in a reasonably correct shape will naturally encourage the horse to settle into a relaxed, Balanced, and Rhythmic gait. For faster horses trying going 1-5 meters smaller. For less energetic horses, work with a large circle to encourage forwardness (energy). Change directions once you start to feel some consistency or if you have a greener horse who is taking a longer time.

2. When the above exercise is easy, you can add 6 strides straight ahead then circle, then 6 strides straight ahead, then circle and repeat until the whole pattern is as consistent as possible on the horses easy side first. Now go to the harder direction. Again here if you have a forward going horse you can reduce the circle 1-5 meters, And keep it nice and larger for the lower energy guys and even increase the number of straight ahead strides to 8-12. You can also keep switching directions back and forth.

As always, I would like to hear feedback on what you discovered with these exercises, any problems or successes in the comments section.