So which hip is your inside hip? That depends, again our freelance wizard has shot
our dressage ring into space and we are in our big, green field. Are you moving your
horse’s haunches left? Then your inside hip is your left hip. Are you moving your horse’s
haunches right? Then your inside hip is your right hip.
Once you have your inside hip in place then the outside, regulating hip swings into
action. Pun completely intended. Without removing your inside hip, you apply your
outside hip and leg and press the haunches inward (remember, inward can be left or
right and the rail does not make a difference to this mechanic). The haunches then
wrap around your inside hip and create the body bend we so desire. The horse should
be on four tracks and the angle should be around thirty five degrees. Four tracks means
that the horse’s outside hind is inside of the horse’s inside fore. Three tracks means that the horse’s inside fore and outside
hind are in alignment. We want four tracks with haunches work.
So what about the head and neck? They should be moving up the rail, with slight inward flexion, undisturbed by all of those
antics that are happening behind the saddle. A very, very common mistake is that the rider senses a lack of bend, or are
yelled at to fix it by their red faced instructor, and rather than use all the all-powerful inside hip and leg, they pull on the
inside rein to fix the problem. Gentle readers, this does not fix the problem. The horse’s shoulders, neck and head should be
traveling straight into the direction of travel. If Dobbin’s head is pointing outside the ring sight-seeing then you have some
serious bend issues, even if his bum is off of the rail. If he is looking to the inside of the ring then you are focusing on the
wrong part of the horse to elicit bend. Another common mistake is the rider, when applying their outside leg and hip, will
use the inside rein as a balance bar and pull as they push. This will cause the horse’s head to jackknife inward even if it is not
what the rider intended, which can actually prevent the haunches from coming inward.
Move that bum!
Move that bum!
Remember that even if you are riding in the big, empty green field that our wizard
provided for us, that there is al v