Hello everyone! I’m a researcher conducting a brief study to better understand the challenges riders face when executing precise circles and geometric patterns for dressage. If you have ever struggled with self-assessing your performance, managing the pressure of real-time riding, or dealing with inconsistent training environments, we would love to hear about your experiences!
If you’re willing to share your insights over a brief 30-minute chat, please comment below. Your feedback will directly help improve training methods and support the equestrian community.
No challenges. Drag your arena and ride and look at your figures. Then put yourself on a 20m or 15 or 10m circle and close your eyes and feel what the correct degree of bend feels like. Circles should become second nature and part of muscle memory.
Or have your trainer or friend lunge you on a correct sized circle and do the same.
As far as challenges facing a perfect circle:
-timing, if your horse starts to drift out or drift in, you have to be more precise in your timing to keep that circle perfect.
-abilities in geometry, in other words, being able to visualize the circle is very helpful
-balance/athleticism of the horse. If you have a young horse that is unbalanced or a horse with some physical ailment, it may find staying straight on a full circle difficult, which will be an added challenge for you
-obedience of the horse - if the horse pops it’s shoulders out or drags you to the gate halfway around the circle, that’s going to be an issue
-Distractions/spookiness (I consider this separate than obedience because some horses try really hard to be good but the world is just SCARY) - reacting to distractions outside the area can cause issues with the circle.
That’s all I can think of for now…the solutions:
-Timing- obviously work on it and if you have trouble feeling it, have someone (trainer/coach) assist.
-Geometry issues - use visuals such as cones to develop an eye and then feel for the circle
-balance/athleticism. For young horses, just work on correct riding. For older horses, asses for lameness issues
obedience, work on horse’s listening skills
-Spookiness - work on desensitizing and ways to refocus horse, as well as understanding what “triggers” there are to focus horse before encounter with trigger.
There is no formula to riding a perfect circle because horses are not bicycles. They are thinking alert creatures that you manage. Their bend. Their shoulders. Their hips. Around the coveted circle. Dealing with the drift. The distraction. Whatever body issue they have to shape them. It’s seat and rein and legs while maintaining impulsion at whatever gait to keep them light and listening and seeking forward into the path. It’s like asking how high is up
Thank you all for your thoughts! Like I mentioned, I would love to dive deeper into the points being made here with any trainers / riders open to a 30-minute conversation. There are assumptions we’d like to either validate or disprove for our study with anyone willing to share their insights.
I greatly appreciate the feedback being shared here regardless though!
The perfect circle relies on the right amount of bend with the inside leg, the right amount of outside leg t control the hind–quarters, the right amount of giving with the outside rein and taking with the inside rein to keep the bend, and the correct amount of forwardness to keep the horse forward on the circle. Circles are such great tools in dressage.
Circles, roundish ones that aren’t perfect, are one of the biggest challenges to beginner riders, and to some learning riders.
First, there is the rider knowing the shape of a circle as it is being traveled by the horse, which many riders seem to struggle with. I can only surmise that we have new generations of riders who didn’t spend a part of every kindergarten day doing circle dances like ring-around-the-rosie. They don’t seem to know what they are going for, re circle shape.
For learners, it is often rider error that leads to circles the shape of eggs, or circles the shape of jigsaw pieces. Or circles that are never completed because the rider forgot about it after the first half or so, and allowed the horse to wander off somewhere else. (See kindergarten circle shape above.)
Then there is the rider’s control of keeping the horse’s shoulder from dropping in or out, which horses will certainly do on purpose if there is an opening. Which leads to circles that are flat on one side, or circles that are expanding rapidly on one side.
And of course the rider’s control of the horse’s head. Which needs to be pointed inward just a bit, toward the next point of the circle. Not at the open gate at the end of the arena.
And ultimately, the rider understanding that they control the success or failure of a circle. That the horse has done a thousand circles but has no idea what a circle is. Suggesting ‘circle’ to a horse, much like suggesting ‘do a perfect circle’ to a toddler, will not get a ‘perfect circle’. The circle has to be managed by the rider.
And so on. Just a regular slightly irregular circle can be a challenge. Much less a ‘perfect’ circle.
The biggest challenge for a new to dressage rider or a beginner is understanding the stiff/hollow side of the horse. Maintaining bend in both directions rides differently and I find that people have trouble with the horse falling in or out and try to fix it with the wrong rein.
Part of the problem is some riders not recognizing that too much contact on the inside rein results in the shoulders falling out. Then, the rider tries to correct that with outside rein and get counter flexion and the horse falls in. Always fighting a correction and reaction battle.
The inside rein should only have the job of hinting correct flexion to the horse. The outside rein defines the size. Inside leg supports and outside leg controls hindquarter deflection.
You see it all the time - rider uses too much inside rein to start the circle, horses shoulder falls out, rider pulls more on inside rein because they think the horse isn’t getting the ‘hey, steer’ aid they think they are giving.
By study, what do you mean? Who/what is studio B ventures? What is the goal of this study? What are the parameters for inclusion? How are you defining a dressage rider?
I’m always interested in supporting science and the pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of horses and humans. Donating 30 minutes of my time for the development of a product or service for someone to make a profit, less so.
Typically a study requiring thirty minutes of participants time would both have associated compensation and at a minimum a landing page around what the study entails, consent, etc. rather than just a Calendly link.
Very true, and IMO is expanded on further with this …
This is huge. Too much inside rein, and not enough (or no) outside rein. A fundamental problem for many bad circles and turns.
Some riders fix their attention on the inside rein and seem to try to ride only with the inside. To the point of forgetting that there is also an outside rein. They are doing nothing with the outside rein, except allowing the horse to drop the outside shoulder or even drift away to some non-circle destination on the outside. (And open the door to run-outs at jumps.)
Because the rider does not understand how the reins are supposed to work – and often that is because they don’t understand how to sit on a horse. The two problems tend to function together when there are struggles with repeated bad circles and bad turns.
When this is happening, a rider who feels less balanced and secure in the seat (even inconsistently secure / not secure) can end up instinctively hand-checking with the reins, to keep the rider’s own balance.
A long way of saying that they are hanging on by the reins. Even if only slightly. Because they don’t feel fully secure on the horse. And some riders think this is normal.
Also – I’m not sure if many riders are being taught the dynamics of keeping the horse between the reins and forward to the bit. If the horse’s movement is backing out of contact, they are also evading the circle aids
Without those dynamics being in place – using both reins correctly and keep the horse moving into the bridle – any degree of precision control, from somewhat relaxed, to precise, just isn’t really possible.
But, a rider may think that a sloppy circle is a good enough circle, and never really go beyond that.
These are valid concerns, allow me to answer these questions for you!
Studio B Ventures is a startup incubator that takes ideas from concept to creation, with a focus on sports training solutions. The research we are doing is for Hidalgo Sporthorse, more on us here: https://seriouslywheresthecircle.com/. Danielle Hildalgo is a founder within Studio B. Ventures network and is interested in learning about other riders’ experiences and perspectives.
By study, we are referring to discovery research through qualitative interviews in the form of 30-minute conversations
Our goal is to understand the challenges riders face when executing precise circles and geometric patterns during training sessions in hopes of better informing the creation of future equestrian training technology.
By parameters of inclusion, are you referring to who we are looking to speak with? If so, we are seeking insights from beginner-advanced level riders who have done dressage, as well as equestrian trainers. At this time, are trying to get the full scope of challenges through a variety of perspectives!
I appreciate you bringing these things up, and I understand if the nature of the study impacts your willingness to participate.
We are simply trying to engage in conversations with trainers and riders interested in sharing their experiences riding circles and geometric patterns.
This discovery research is in hopes to better inform the creation of rider training solutions that actually have a positive impact on those in the community. I do respect your opinion, however. But I am hopeful that there are those willing to engage, as many have done so already in this thread.
