What are some of your favorite exercises to do with your horse, if he/she was feeling muscle stiffness laterally?
I have a few already that I do, but am looking for new ideas to keep things interesting for the both of us.
Not sure about your level, but I would keep it simple. Ride a perfectly correct circle. First in the walk and then in the trot. Its really important that the circle is round and the horse is not drifting anywhere. That will make you use your legs. In order to change sides, you can either change circles or change through the circle. Important is that you keep a steady connection in whatever you do. Same rhythm , same bending and same connection all the time. If you really keep doing this. you will feel that your horse loosens up and will bend correctly. If you do to many things before the horse loosens up , he might tighten up. so be patient
Thanks. We already do that in our warm-up, but that I definitely donāt want to do that for my entire ride on those days that we take it easy. I would get bored 
If I feel like a horse is stiff before I ride, I like to do some in hand work with flexions and slow circles getting the horse to gently bend and lower the neck to the inside. If I feel like my horse is stiff while Iām riding, Iāll stop and do the slow circles with bend and stretching - thinking about getting him to stretch towards the inside of the knee on the inside of the circle.
I also try to think about stiffness or resistance to bending as a tightness on the other side of the body and that helps me slow down the stretch and ask for it more gradually.
I think counter bending on a circle helps loosen a lot of horses up too.
Yep thatās the ticket for me too. And then I do figure 8s one with proper bend and the next with counter, then back and forth.
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Walking and trotting loops, paying special attention to the change of bend. You can also add voltes in to emphasize the bend in the stiffer direction (e.g. go left, ride a loop to x, then ride a 10m volte right between X and the wall, then complete your loop, or ride a volte left in the corners at the beginning and end of your loops). If horse is having a hard time with that, I like to do 10-m half volte, then trot across the arena and do the other half of the volte.
If you and your horse are good at lateral work - on a 20 meter, do shoulder in to renver to shoulder in to renver, then shoulder in, shoulder out, shoulder in, shoulder out, and so on, mixing up the lateral work, making it sharp and quick, and donāt stay in any single movement for more then 1/2 the circle. Keep the horse forward and thinking and reacting. Of course, that is for the more advanced horse and rider - at least 2nd level.
For a lower level horse, if they can do 10 meter circles (you really need a smaller circle to truly work on bend), then ride the full arena, with a 10 meter circle at about every other letter. Then do a change through the school using a couple of 1/2 ten meter circles, and repeat the other way. Then take a break on bigger figures and do a 3 loop serpentine, then a 4 loop serpentine, then a 5 loop serpentine, then again, change through the school and repeat the other direction. You can do this in trot or canter, but if canter, remember to add changes of lead where appropriate.
Basically, you just want to keep adding bending lines, and it really takes a smaller figure to create flexibility and suppleness.
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If you do this in your warm up and it doesnt work something is wrongā¦ I think these circles are not boring at all. Once you feel your horse is relaxing and starting to push from behind itās amazing and before you have to work on things to make it happen. And donāt underestimate the walk phase. Itās not done in 5 min. I donāt think lateral work will solve the problem. That has to be addressed in the warm up
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If the horse is stiff as in hollow to one side and green, he needs lots more gymnastics to be able to carry his weight balanced through a 20 metre circle.
I find doing lateral work at the walk in hand and then under saddle very helpful over time. Also all the random loops and true bend/ counter bend work.
The truly stiff and hollow sided horse wonāt warm up in one session. You need to help him rebuild his posture and muscles over weeks.
Doing only 20 metre circles on such a horse can lead to rushing, imbalance, and even hock strain.
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As a few other people have noted, itās really hard without knowing specifics of horse and rider capability.
My mare has painful heat cycles and work actually helps her. Weāve progressed to the point I ask her to do walking turn on the forehands in hand so she REALLY steps under herself toward or even past her center of gravity, then once she seems to loosen up I ask for half steps in hand, which is what really helps her comfort level. But thatās targeted loosening related to a specific physical issue, and of course she has to understand the request for half steps - it would just upset her if she didnāt know what I wanted when she was uncomfortable.
For normal tightness/tension for a horse trained to lateral work, I play with what Iām feeling and see what helps. Does my horse feel like it doesnāt want to bend left in its body? Iāll try shoulder in left and haunches in left. Usually one results in the head coming up and hollowing, and one results in a horse getting rounder, and it depends on the horse and the day. I donāt hold for long when I get the response I want, and donāt start out asking for show-worthy lateral work. I just want that bend to happen at all, then I reward by releasing the request and letting the horse straighten out. I start at a walk and build up to other gaits.
If either horse or rider have difficulty (and I have nerve damage, so itās a common reset for me, to help align what I think I feel with reality) using cones can really help. Use 8 cones. Set cones at the 4 15 minute marks for a clock - but mark the outside ones on the perimeter of the smallest circle which is really easy on your horse. Then a few meters inside that, put additional cones. Ride that circle and try to stay centered in it, then leg yield out to outside the outer cones, leg yield in to near the inner cones (with counter flexion and bend), and try to keep steady bend and proximity to cones. It really helps you identify where you lose the bend because of your horseās stiffness, and where you arenāt riding it as well.
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Lateral work most definitely will help with suppleness, and I use lateral work in my warm quite often - I can do shoulder in with posting trot, in a working trot, and do use this just as a suppling exercise. The exercise(s) I described using lateral work are best done after the horse has had a bit of warm up, and is ready for sitting trot work, but lateral work can also be integrated into the warm up, and is absolutely useful for developing suppleness and flexibility.
I do agree, the walk is an important part of warm up - most horses need at LEAST 10 minutes of walk before they can really progress to trot and canter work. Personally, I use the walk just to get the muscles moving and the back swinging - mostly free walk, and outside of the arena, but lateral work can even be done in the walk.
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I think (might be wrong) that the 20m circle is the first and easiest thing for a horse to find his balance and start to bend.
If you ride it in the walk you can feel very well where the horse looses his balance and for example drifts to the outside or pushes his hind inside. And on the circle you can easy fix it without the need to pull a lot on the reins. You just keep the horse on the circle and let him find his rhythm.
Its not forcing the horse to do anything but it helps him to find his balance himself. And it will show you very easy whether it pushes his hind inside or whatever. The important part is really to have an arena with marked circle points which you can use. A circle really forces you to use your whole body in order to keep your horse on track. Otherwise it will drift away and the circle is not round anymore. And if you get bored you can change through the circle. And donāt forget you are only allowed to touch the wall at the circle points with your knees. Otherwise you need to keep your horse between your legs.
Its a beautiful excerside which is unfortunately very underrated 
It will help you to eliminate crookedness in a horse. I have no idea how to eliminate crookedness with lateral work. For me that the next step to do when the horse is not crooked anymoreā¦
And I also believe that a crooked horse is more prone to hurt himself then a horse which is finding his balance on a circleā¦
oh and this video shows exactly what I tried to explainā¦
https://www.facebook.com/dressagetraā¦6367706438304/
And please nobody brings this ridiculous argument that this is not a normal horse and cannot compared to everyday ridersā¦ Thats an excuse. Everybody can ride a round circleā¦
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I love spiral circles!
https://dressagetoday.com/instruction/how-to-ride-a-spiral-circle-30937
https://dressagetoday.com/instruction/spiraling-circle-suppling-exercise-26723
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Well, as other posters have said, lateral work at the walk, incorporated into loops and circles and counter bends, helps the horse step up and under and helps the abs lift and the back lift, and the hind legs step under.
āāi do see a lot of dressage trainers who do no lateral work at the walk, and wait until they are prepping for the test level that demands it, to start muscling the horse into a trot shoulder in. That obviously is not going to accomplish what Iām talking about.
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I really like shallow loops and serpentines (I personally prefer four to three, but depending on the degree of stiffness in question, three is probably easier and more generous to start out with). For some of the horses I ride, stiffness tends to be related to being really one-sided in the bit (their owners have a strong hand they favor/overuse) which has created some stiffness tendencies or a general unwillingness to be completely supple and stretch around.
The shallow loop & serpentines are pleasant for me because the changes of bend are helpful to confirm aids and then ensure rider correctness through them - and itās nice to have some new āreal estateā in the arena. Variations of them (stretch over center line/top of loop, collect over centerline/top of loop, transition down over center line/top of loop) are helpful to me to keep changing things up so the horse doesnāt get anticipatory, as well.
To really school bend, once a horse is warmed up, I really like committing to a serpentine and then at centerline elect to do a circle - you can either continue the bend you establish coming off the wall, or use that to change the bend. For starters, I tend to be a little more generous on the circle size (16-18m) but as you proceed you can shrink it down to doing a 10m circle at centerline before continuing on with the loop, and then at the next centerline, have another circle in the opposite way.
(Explaining this got a little muddied, sorry - just going to write out an example. If you start tracking to the right, you leave the wall with a right bend - as you hit centerline, do a circle (to the right if you want to keep the right bend, or to the left if you want to work on a change in bend/establish more bend before you go through the loop to the left). School large at first but as your horse becomes familiar, you can shrink circles. And then as you return to the centerline, proceed on to the loop in the new track (left, in this case) and then as you come towards the end of your loop left, you hit centerline & do another circle.)
It gives you a lot of options. I also like it because it necessitates appropriate riding of the horseās hindquarters & shoulder, which is where I find a lot of horses will cheat in the bend - by throwing the outside out or diving through the shoulders.
You can commit to the same sort of exercise at the shallow loop - if you do a shallow loop to the quarterline, at the top of the loop you can do a 15m. circle in the opposite bend. (Or, once your horse becomes more supple, shallow loop to X and then do a 10m circle in whichever direction is the one youāre looking to school.)
Well, as other posters have said, lateral work at the walk, incorporated into loops and circles and counter bends, helps the horse step up and under and helps the abs lift and the back lift, and the hind legs step under.
āāi do see a lot of dressage trainers who do no lateral work at the walk, and wait until they are prepping for the test level that demands it, to start muscling the horse into a trot shoulder in. That obviously is not going to accomplish what Iām talking about.
Video is a nicely schooled and balanced 2 nd level horse. I agree any horse can get there. I donāt agree any green horse can do this on day 1, or even day 30, especially as the instructions to āleg yield off the circle,ā in other words to shoulder in a bit, assume horse is already prompt at lateral work off the single leg.
To be clear, I am talking about what you do with a very green horse, not warming up a schooled horse, not even warming up a training level horse.
If you arenāt involved with horses at that green level, horses that need āremedialā work on balance and bend in the arena, perhaps itās effective enough to just get on and power through.
However even if you are only riding well started horses the walk lateral work is an important thing to have in your toolkit IMHO, as most of the posters here have expressed in different ways
Not sure why you put so much effort (by quoting my post twice ) in trying to prove that I wrote something wrongā¦
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Maybe you know the OP. I have no idea whether his horse is green or not. The OP was asking for excersises for bending and that was my recommendation.
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now that you are talking about green horses, not sure if you are involved with green horses,
I have 2 right now. 2 young warmbloods one in regular training for a year now and one started around christmas.
For both of them these circles as done in the video are extremely important. They can do it and it really helps them to find their balance. I am not going to work them from the ground (why should I if I can do a nice forward circle with them) and for sure I will not do lateral work on the hand or under the rider. That is the basic idea of the German Riding system that everything need to be in a forward motion. And for a young horse the circle is perfect.
It was explained really well in the video by the way.
the instructor said that the horse tends to get strong (probably because its not perfectly balanced yet and thats an easy way to escape an unbalanced situation) and with the help of the circle and the legs and a bit of the outer rein, the rider can really control the horse very well.
If you watched the whole video you probably saw the during the walk she was leaving the circle and going straight, and immediately the rider struggled. (I was really liking that part because I have sometimes the same problems) So I personally would have stayed on the circle, because it would have been easier for rider and horse. And exactly these problems are the problems a green horse has ( at least mineā¦) so IMO this video might have shown a 2nd level horse, but it also showed issues nearly any horse can have (by the way in the I.W. video even TL and up horses had similar problems )
And BTW if you assume that the OPĀ“s horse is too green for a circle, I am amazed that you recommend lateral workā¦
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Didnāt mean to quote you twice, clearly had some glitch where I recopied my post.
Weāll just have to agree to disagree on the role of teaching basic lateral work in hand at the very start.
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First and foremost with any horse in warm up is establishing forward, in a body attitude that encourages them to stretch their top line, and go briskly forward, from there you establish your accurate 20 m circles, realizing that you as a rider need to ride more strongly on one rein or the other to keep the circle accurate. The you can progress to serpentines, serpentines that allow one straight stride to bend change, again checking your accuracy. There are no corners on serpentines.
With that done progress to LY, again accuracy. Then If you are at that level go for your S/I. and H/I.
And donāt forget to take days off to hack, or if thatās not available, force your self to ride reinless. That will keep you unbored.
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Consider a āribbon candyā exercise as a variation on serpentines. Works best on 15m or smaller radius circles if you have a standard arena but can be larger if you have the space to do so. You can do the same variations on flexion/counterflexion and bend/counterbend as mentioned above as well.
While youāre working, pay particular attention to the trot tempo during the changes of direction. Your horse will likely look to compensate for the stiff direction by either rushing and thus avoiding stepping through into an honest connection, or by dropping a bit behind the leg (with the same ultimate result). Encourage the same tempo and length of stride throughout to maximize results.
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