The turn on the haunches, hindquarters, or spin which are all essentially the same movement at different speeds, bend, and degrees on a circle. For clarity, I’ll refer to the movement for this article as a turn on the haunches. Training the horse to turn on the haunches benefits all riders and horses. Reining is all about body control, as is dressage, therefore any maneuver featured in these two disciplines will be helpful to all riders.
Why
Have you ever wanted to try the fast footwork of the reining horses, but just didn’t know where to start? I had the same problem and as being mostly an english rider felt that there were few reasons why I would teach my hunter how to spin. Then I saw a video of a reining horse and a dressage horse preforming together, and remembered that they are practically doing the same thing only in different equipment. The spin is very similar to a turn on the haunches in dressage, and can prepare you for rollback turns in jumper classes. Both disciplines still focus on body control and that I believe is the focus of any discipline.
How
Before teaching the turn on the haunches, you must be able to ride your horse at all three gaits, turn both ways, stop, and back quite confidently.
- Walk your horse parallel to the rail. For this exercise we will be tracking left. It is helpful if your arena fence is tall enough that your horse can’t get his head over it, or at least at a height that makes it difficult for him to do so.
- Stop your horse.
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Body control is immensely important. If you don’t have control then you’re not riding, you’re merely along for the ride. More control = more fun. Turn him into the fence by looking where you want to go, pressing your inside left leg (the one closest to the middle of the arena) at the girth and bringing both hands to the right. Be careful not to cross your left hand over the horse’s neck, as your left rein will be too tight and won’t be effective. You want the horse to respond more to your legs so you don’t have to use rein cues as much.
- Your horse should move his shoulders over and cross his inside front leg over his outside front leg.
- Let your horse walk forward for a few steps out of the turn, then ask him to stop and turn into the fence again this time turning to the left.
- Continue practicing until your horse gives you a few good cross over steps in both directions.
Reward and Refine
Once your horse has given you a couple good steps let him rest and end that lesson for the day. It is best to end on a good note and practice more tomorrow, instead of drilling your horse until he no longer wants to try.
As your horse progresses, start using one hand once your horse knows how to neck rein to refine your cues. When you both can preform this exercise easily, you can then move on to turning without the help of the fence which will be explained in detail in part two.