What is the official way to ‘come out of’ hanunches in?
I usually move the horses shoulders on to the track of the haunches, then leg yeild 1 or 2 steps back to the rail.
My trainer has never said anything about my using that method- but a knowledgable friend watched me do it and said it was incorrect.
any ideas?
what do you do?
TIA
It is the quarters which moved off the line, so move the quarters back to where they originated (imho).
just put the haunches back in the track, don’t go in off the track and leg yield back. that is incorrect.
This is what they’re looking for in the show ring, FWIW (what Ideayoda said). OP-I think the way you are doing it is an excellent suppleness and responsiveness exercise :yes:, but it’s not the “official” way to come out of haunches in.
What do you think is the way to end the exercise??? But ‘offically’ conclude travers by straightening the horse (ie travers to a ‘positioned straight horse’) don’t just slide through a corner or come off the track.
There are many ways of concluding this exercise, ie go from travers, to travers on a circle, to half pass. Or any number of other multiples, but they are for a suppling purpose.
Which test are you doing? In 2nd level test 2 you do a traver from F to B and it actually says on the test “before B straighten horse” and you then turn left at B. So all I ever do is move the haunches back onto the track, i.e. straighten the horse. Have never gotten any negative comments doing it that way.
OOps. I mis-spoke! I mean, I mis-posted. I meant to say that what I quoted (what Ideayoda said) was the way to come out of haunches in. and, it was the way they are looking for in the ring (even if the OPs instructor never comments on her particular way). Then, I meant to say “OP-the way you are doing it is a great exercise for suppling”.
Sorry for not being clear!
bring haunches back in to line up with the shoulders and always straighten before the corner or next movement.
though I too think bringing the shoulders in on the haunches-in line to a straight horse is a very clever exercise to be doing at home, riding towards a mirror, making sure straight is straight.
most horses love haunches in a little too much
OP, not correct for the test, but I don’t see anything “wrong” with it.
Thanks!
That was really helpfull!
what a duh! moment- the ‘you moved the quarters in, so move the quarters back to the rail’ really made sense. I wonder why no one has ever said anything before? when I ride at clinics the trainers LOFF that I do the shoulder over/LY to rail… I feel kind of silly now! but hey I have super supple and super manuverable horses becasue of that method oh well!
Thanks again guys!
10 meter circle
:D10 meter circle , the old 4th level tests had shoulder in, haunches in,10 meter circle
For showing, moving the haunches back to the rail would be the only way to do it. Classically, it is incorrect, and the way that you are doing it would be more correct. Technically, you wouldn’t even have to leg yield back to the rail, just hold the line you’re on once you’ve brought the shoulders in line with the haunches.
Classically, to straighten the horse, you should always move the shoulders in front of the haunches, and not just shove the haunches around.
It is for this reason, the idea of always moving the shoulders first, that Podhajsky condemned travers and always used renver instead. Travers displaces the haunches and so can promote crookedness in horses. True renver (not just counter-travers) always moves the shoulders, never the haunches.
he didn’t recommend it be routinely or frequently done at the canter, in the direction the horse is crooked. it wasn’t completely condemned, it just wasnt advised to overdo at the canter. they very much did do haunches in at the spanish riding school under his direction at the trot.
similarly, and out of respect for that very wise advice, the american tests do not ask the horse to do haunches in at the canter. since the canter is an asymetrical gait in which young horses very often have the tendency to become crooked and place the haunches inward (crooked, not bending appropriately) the issue is very different at the canter.
the spanish riding school riders, i have heard, DO haunches in at the canter when they have an exceptionally stiff backed horse (stiff right behind the saddle) who needs haunches in as ‘physical therapy’, but it is supposedly quite rarely resorted to.
the haunches in is not finished by pushing the haunches back to the track, and the haunches aren’t moved inward during haunches in per se, they are actually just following a bend in the whole body. it is the same bend that would be used in a smaller circle, but is more demanding than a circle as the hind legs have to bend more, take more weight, and step to the direction of the movement.
to end the haunches in the rider simply stops asking the horse to bend, and the haunches go back to the track.
the reason the test finishes the haunches in that way is that it proves that the straightness of the horse is developing correctly and the horse is not falling in after taking the bend and doing the exercise. if the horse was allowed to finish the exercise in any other way it would not prove this or the rider’s ability to control the amount of bend the horse takes, via exercises that bend, straighten, bend, the chief reason why the shoulder in-circle-haunches in or shoulder in-haunches in is such a good test of the suppleness developing properly in the body and haunches.
Podhajsky advocates renvers not travers at any gait; in fact he says travers is never done at the canter (most horses canter haunches in anyway). The distinction is in always displacing the shoulders first so what may look like travers from above or after a few steps, originated as renvers. In other words, it may be renvers left or right, regardless of where the wall is, but the rider starts the movement by bringing the shoulders, not the haunches.
“Travers is a lateral exercise which is rarely practiced and very seldom applied at the SRS. As most horses have a tendency to go crooked,why should this inclination be further encouraged by an exercise in which the hindquarters are taken in from the wall?..The renvers plays an important part in the training of the young stallions…The renvers offers the same advantages as the travers and hardly any of the disadvantages.” (Complete Training Pg 140-141)
Things change, lord knows what they do now.
Yup. :yes:
