lateral work: why, how to, and where for

[khall]

demi had suggested a lateral work thread and I am happy to start one! Lateral work has been a cornerstone of the work I do with my horses for years now. I had of course done lateral work with all of my horses US before I met Mark. Then once I started working with Mark I learned so much more about the details of the work and how to do in hand which IMO is invaluable in my training.

I teach all of my horses on the ground SF, SI, counter SI, renvere, HI, HP, yielding (but with bend) TOH moving TOF at the W and T and some day C. Of course we do other work in hand and US as well. SW, piaffe, RB especially. Cedar does FCs in hand

My two favorite exercises is counter SI and renvere. I find these the most helpful of all the lateral work. They mobilize the shoulders and really encourage the use of the thoracic sling. I use both of these in hand and US most often on bending lines, though renvere also on straight lines. Cedar had me moving both in hand and US from counter SI to renvere to SI to HI so change which you are changing bend and changing which you are mobilizing: shoulders or haunches.

What are your go to lateral exercises? Why and how do you do them?

[Ryeissa]

Mostly for straightness. I like also HI to increase the outside rein connection.
how and why I do it depends on the horse and that day but my go to are SI to LY to SI, HI to SI to HI, transition in HI or SI, or HP to LY

I feel what is wrong in my horse and choose the right approach to fix that situation. I often do no more than 5 steps per thing- so LY 5 steps, SI 5 steosm etc. Too much is going to cause the quality to go down

[Moutaineer]

We use the SI in the walk on the centerline as a warm up exercise--with halts in the SI and move-offs still in the SI alignment. Working towards the mirror, so no cheating Helps him with suppleness and getting the hind leg stepping through and under, and helps me with straightness and body alignment.

We use the leg yield in the warm up to confirm that he's listening to my leg and will move off promptly.

We use SI to renvers, SI to travers, etc, as suppling exercises in the warmup and during our rides if things are getting rigid.

We both thoroughly enjoy a good half pass, I have to say. They are his powerhouse movement at the trot and the canter. He finds them easy, fun and rewarding. As long as I can keep the bend and angulation where I want them, I tend to regard them as an end, rather than a means--I have to watch that he doesn't use them as an evasion to get out of doing more difficult, for him, work--like straightness!

[Dresseur]

So, when I'm riding (still down and out due to non-riding related groin injury ) I use (and was taught to use) lateral work every "working" ride. I liken it to strength and dexterity building since you can isolate which hind leg is loaded - so on the road to GP, each horse does whatever laterals it knows one to four long sides depending on strength. I'm simplifying this a bit of course - transitions, circles, on the rail, off the rail, that is all incorporated as we do the lateral work. But over time it builds the strength, dexterity and suppleness to get to GP.

[piedmontfields]

Just adding to the good pile of ideas here.

If my mare won't take up a good swingy free walk in our warm-up, I turn to lateral work at the walk to help her "let go" over her spine. Usually this in a busy setting where she gets extra tight, so I'll often do shoulder in, shoulder out, travers, renvers on a 20 m circle, mixing in longer rein forward walk and then picking her up again. Shoulder in/renvers is a bread and butter warm up for us---probably because it gets right to that conformationally challenged SI (thank you Iberia). I use leg yield as a basic check in on the sideways aids, but it does not address her tight back the way other work does.

[khall]

I see Mountaineer also halts in lateral work, do any of you do RB in SI or HI? That was also a Mark exercise, never had done it before I worked with him. He is also the one who got me started with counter SI and doing lateral work on bending lines. All of the other instructors I had worked with only had taught lateral work on straight lines as found in the tests. These instructors were FEI/GP riders.

I really appreciate dresseur encouraging me to do transitions in the lateral work, more than just in SI. Found out how hard that can be and how much strength it takes from the horse. It feels very much like I am almost asking piaffe type work when asking W T transitions in HI. Good stuff.

Another exercise Mark would have us do is HI spiral in on the 20 m circle, spiral out in SI. Or SI on 20 m half circle, 10 m circle and HI. Rinse and repeat.

In Spain we did all lateral work starting with LY beginning in the walk initially, then some stretching in the walk. Then trot lateral work and stretching in the trot, then canter lateral work and stretching in the canter. SI, HI, renvere some, LY, HP, TOH mostly on straight lines but also some on bending lines when needed to help with straightness.

[mari]

We use the SI in the walk on the centerline as a warm up exercise--with halts in the SI and move-offs still in the SI alignment. Working towards the mirror, so no cheating Helps him with suppleness and getting the hind leg stepping through and under, and helps me with straightness and body alignment.

We use the leg yield in the warm up to confirm that he's listening to my leg and will move off promptly.

SI to halt and moving off in SI. What a bear of an exercise! We did these during a lesson in walk and trot. So difficult! I think it's harder for me than for Odie. Especially the move-off in position, I really struggle to coordinate my aids.

[Ponichiwa]

We use the SI in the walk on the centerline as a warm up exercise--with halts in the SI and move-offs still in the SI alignment. Working towards the mirror, so no cheating Helps him with suppleness and getting the hind leg stepping through and under, and helps me with straightness and body alignment.

We use the leg yield in the warm up to confirm that he's listening to my leg and will move off promptly.

SI to halt and moving off in SI. What a bear of an exercise! We did these during a lesson in walk and trot. So difficult! I think it's harder for me than for Odie. Especially the move-off in position, I really struggle to coordinate my aids.

Yes, but it's great for QC'ing your horse's step-off mechanics. Holding the line and asking for a prompt, quiet trot transition without wiggles is tough stuff!

I see Mountaineer also halts in lateral work, do any of you do RB in SI or HI? That was also a Mark exercise, never had done it before I worked with him. He is also the one who got me started with counter SI and doing lateral work on bending lines. All of the other instructors I had worked with only had taught lateral work on straight lines as found in the tests. These instructors were FEI/GP riders.

A less advanced variation on reinback "in position" is turns in the rein back. I use this semi-frequently on Kiwi to keep the connection honest in the reinback (vs. just scooting backwards). We'll do 2-4 steps straight backwards, and then start a slight serpentine backwards. Tricky, but worthwhile.

I do quite a bit of reinback with Kiwi in spurts throughout the ride because she's got sticky stifles if she isn't kept fit, and reinback is one of the better ways to keep those stifle-area muscles strong.

My first dressage trainer had me do countless 20m circles in shoulder-in. That's one of those exercises that looks/sounds much easier than it actually is! And once we had "mastered" that, we moved on to 1/4 circle in SI, 1/4 in HI, 1/4 in renvers, and 1/4 in counter shoulder in. Painful, but man what a good exercise to improve suppleness and connection of all four corners of the horse.

[piedmontfields]

My first dressage trainer had me do countless 20m circles in shoulder-in. That's one of those exercises that looks/sounds much easier than it actually is! And once we had "mastered" that, we moved on to 1/4 circle in SI, 1/4 in HI, 1/4 in renvers, and 1/4 in counter shoulder in. Painful, but man what a good exercise to improve suppleness and connection of all four corners of the horse.

Yeah, it is brutal...but so so useful. JJ and Charles are big proponents of this. I use it as warm-up in walk, and as suppling strength work in trot. We are not capable of doing it in a circle in canter!

Your reinback notes are very helpful--thanks!

[Dresseur]

Re the lateral movements on a circle, SI on the circle is very hard to do correctly for most horse/rider combos (not saying it's not useful - but most combos end up making a pseudo-leg yield or overbend the neck) - I find that I get more bang for my buck keeping it on straight lines against the wall to help guard against the haunches swinging out and bastardizing the movement. What I will do a lot of is HI on the circle, it's easier to feel when it's correct, and it is a great pre-requisite to piris.

[Sue B]

I find really good ly to or from the centerline in walk is the best way to get Rudy to release tension. Of course, I got yelled at for doing this by Ms. Canace, despite the fact that it was and is highly effective. She has the wonky view that you wait to do lateral work until your horse is relaxed. that is something TB Rudy and I find impossible.

[piedmontfields]

Re the lateral movements on a circle, SI on the circle is very hard to do correctly for most horse/rider combos (not saying it's not useful - but most combos end up making a pseudo-leg yield or overbend the neck)

This is a good point. For some reason, I find it really obvious when we lose bend in SI on a circle and it becomes a leg yield. It is less obvious to me down a wall (probably there is a little more room for "kind of not yet a leg yield" for a step or so on the wall, where as on the circle, it's like the horse "pops" out of bend and I actually feel that). I am not so bad with neck bend, so that is probably why I like the circle help to keep track of things. Plus it goes on forever....although I do use long lengths of lateral work down the arena, too, as you described. I don't do that every day, but I bet it would help if we did (or at least every arena day).

[AmityBee]

Lateral work is the bread and butter for my instuctor. We've done a lot of different things over the years to work on the different issues as our training slowly comes along.

It is very interesting to see that we do or did quite a few of the things already mentioned above.

My horse is on the heavier side. He's a Welsh Cob, "energy efficient", not really a pleaser. We had huge issues with straighness and forward. He loves to just plow through life with and on his massive shoulders and tends to forget that he actually has the massive haunches to go with those...

He also lives in constant fear of falling on his face when asked to use BOTH his hind legs evenly. This is especially apparent in the halt and during travers to the right, with his weaker hind leg leading.

When we first started we did a lot of SI/HI/renvers/travers along the rail sometimes through the corners on straight lines. We never did LY.
Once the basics were working we started to do a lot of changes in the lateral work. SI to HI every few steps by realigning the shoulders to the haunches (and not the other way around). The idea was to really get his shoulders up and under control and in front of his haunches.

We also did the walk/halt, trot/halt in alignment Mountaineer mentioned. Only we stayed on the rail for those. My instuctor still belives that we will get Crispin to piaffe one day and especially the trot/halt in SI helped to get more "sit" into his hind end.

Like I said above, he also lives in constant fear of falling on his face. So step by step and stop and go it is in travers for him too. Otherwise he tends to rush through them. Generally, we do most of our lateral work s-l-o-w. Crispin likes to not listen and rush through the harder parts.

We introduced CC and it became apparent that c/w transitions needed work. This is where HI on a circle comes in (10m). The haunches doing a smaller circle is helping him carry more with his hind end (we are also doing those circles counter bend at the trot for the same reason).

And then there are those exercises that aren't really "dressage movements" but are also helping a lot. For example, we do a little excercise we call the cross. It's halt, full pass left, halt, full pass right, halt, rb, halt, forward, halt, rb. Slowly, step by step. Only 2-4 steps each. It hepls with reactivity, mobility and listening to the aids.

We also something we call the clock. On the haunches or on the forhand we turn around and obstacle like the hand of a clock. We usually use the mounting block. The obstacle helps to keep position and have, again, a little more "sit" in the haunches.

When by myself I like SI to travers to SI. And something my instuctor calls "passade". It's not quite that. it's travers from the rail to the center line, a turn on the forhand in travers (or HI) and travers back to the rail.

This is from our first ride trying the passade. I can see all our little issues, how uneven he is behind, rushing to get his "good" leg under and get me out of the way in the prosess.

https://youtu.be/PDElGBHTbQA

[Chisamba]

I believe the theory that the benefit if dressage is to teach the horse ro carry itself equally on each if its four legs, with the obvious goal being soundness and balance to enable them to carry a rider without excessive stress.

So the lateral exercises the, have as a goal, the redistribution of weight to develop balance and self carriage.

I gave often seen horses trained to be lovely and relaxed, and very supple in moving their shoulders, haunches or whatever the rider asks, but western pleasure horses can do the same, with no contact, shuffle steps and 80 percent of their weight on the forehand.

My goal is to allow the horse to carry itself evenly. Since most horses are concave in one direction and convex in the other, I take my time with lateral work to help them develop the suppleness on the convex side, and the strength on the concave side to become ambidextrous.

I also use lateral work to develop more uphill balance.

I find the shoulder in on 3 tracks most helpful for that.

10 m circles too, I will add a 10m circle almost anywhere during a lateral exercise to improve bend, tempo or any of the minute aspects that can easily be lost when doin lateral exercises.

I start and finish most medium gaits in shoulder in. I will start and finish half pass with shoulder in. If the horse is not crossing well behind i will finish my half pass in travers instead.

I use renvers to help balance counter canter, I use renver to teach the horse to pick up counter canter on the rail.

So I guess I am trying to explain that I use the lateral exercise to improve the horse, not for the sake of it.

[demi]

...
https://youtu.be/PDElGBHTbQA

nice video AmityBee. Although I didnt understand your trainer’s language, I could get the feeling of it, especially when she said “Ahhh”!. She sounds like a good trainer! And the video is a good addition to this thread.

[AmityBee]

nice video AmityBee. Although I didnt understand your trainer’s language, I could get the feeling of it, especially when she said “Ahhh”!. She sounds like a good trainer! And the video is a good addition to this thread.

Thank you. Yes, I adore her. She's such a calm, versatile and positive person. She is basically reminding me to stay slow, to not let him rush through the exercise. In the turn she's telling me to sit more to the right (even though I'm aware I always end up to the left *sigh* ) and to help Crispin by opening the left rein a little. And on he travers back to the rail she tells me to make sure the forehand is leading.