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As I'm coming around the circle, it occurs to me, not all of my horse is coming around the circle!  Some of it is decidedly trying to leave!  I have seen a similar situation in riders that is particularly prevalent during half pass.  Theoretically, it's a half pass to the left and both horse and rider are stepping to the left.  In reality, half the rider is fighting desperately to go right.  Sure, the outline of the horse and rider looks like it's supposed to, but inside, something else is going on.  There is a discrepancy between the physical and the mental, between the meal and the menu, so to speak.

The easiest way to learn about this is at the walk - why?  it's slow enough!  The easiest place to learn about this is on the circle - why? it corrects a lot things at once and makes sense to the horse.  (Although, as a side note, what I thought was a circle when I was learning to ride is not the same thing I think a circle is now!) 

So, starting with the easiest thing, here's what you do:

• Begin walking on a 20m(ish) circle.  Bigger if you need to.  
• Your first task is to be aware of what is happening.  After that you can decide what action to take.  To become aware of what is happening and start sorting this all out, ask yourself:
  • is the poll on the circle?  
    • is it 'wanting' to travel on the circle?  
    • where does it 'want' to travel?
  • is the point between the withers on the circle?
    • is it 'wanting' to travel on the circle?   
    • where does it 'want' to travel?
  • is the sacroiliac joint on the circle? 
    • is it 'wanting' to travel on the circle?   
    • where does it 'want' to travel?
• Now what to do about? 
  • If this is all you do, you've actually accomplished a lot more than you may think.  You've brought awareness to yourself and your horse and *that alone* will allow the self-corrective mechanisms to kick in.   Maybe not super-duper quick, but the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and this was that step.
  • There is also a technique you can use from Ortho-bionomy which can help.  

Those questions above bring into the conversation the concept of vectors.  Vectors are ways of describing speed and direction together.  Or, they're arrows of movement: Which way is something going?  Which way are the forces acting on it going?  If you pick up a ball and throw it, the ball is going in a direction away from you.  It's also got some up/down direction and some forward direction which, when combined, produce the direction it's going in.  (and if you're really clever, you can assign numbers to all of this!) (we're not going to do that.)

Riding a horse on a circle is more like winging a tether ball around a pole.  Because I'm a nerd, I'm going to label these things correctly, but I'm also going to name them according to how we ride.

	green arrow	path of movement	path of movement - where we want to go
	at	Tangential Acceleration / Velocity / Inertia / Momentum	where we'd most likely go if we forgot we were riding a circle
	ac	Centrifugal acceleration	generated by our inside leg
	ar	Centripetal acceleration or Radial acceleration	generated by our outside leg and supporting outside rein and (hopefully) the horse.

The only thing that's really important here is to realize there's more than one 'push' involved.  Some pushes are to the inside, some to the outside, some forward, some sideways....  because it's a horse, we've also got a lot of stuff going on inside.  There's all kinds of pushes and pulls generated by muscles leveraging bones and working against the ground.  (which we'll talk about a bit later!)

Sometimes it helps to stop doing the thing that is causing the problem.  With horses, very often we end up chasing after each new problem with a solution that creates another problem.  It can be helpful to stop all of that.  

Problem	Possible Rider Induced Causes	Solution
Horse isn't going	too much pulling back on the reins	stop that!
Horse is 'falling out'	outside rein is MIA	provide support on outside rein
	outside rein is pulling horse to outside	stop that!
	outside leg is MIA	provide support with outside leg
	inside rein is pulling to inside and horse is rebelling	stop that!
Horse is 'falling in'	outside rein is MIA	provide support on outside rein
	inside rein is pulling horse to inside	stop that
	inside leg is MIA	provide support with inside leg
	outside rein is pulling to outside and horse is rebelling	stop that!

Provided all your limbs are where they belong providing support at the right time, the next thing to do is figure out where your horse's body is wanting to go.

A very obvious case of this is asking the horse to go to the right and it decides it wants to go left.  It can go left with it's head, it's shoulders, it's body, or it's butt.  Horses are very creative.  You know it wants to go the other way because there is an obvious pull or drift in the direction it wants to go in and you're perhaps not going where you want to go.  A less obvious case can involve any of the above but you're applying enough force with legs and/or reins to counteract the horse and keep it's feet on the circle.  The trick is to get the horse to carry itself where you want it to go!

I teach several different ways to resolve this.  

If all you do is provide accurate feedback about what is actually going on, you are helping to resolve things.  

The next easiest approach is based on Ortho-binoomy / Equine Positional Release and involves accentuating the pattern.  If I feel like the horse wants to throw its head to the outside, I become aware of where the horse wants to throw it's head to and pretend it's over there, and maybe just a little more over there for good measure.  Or if it's the withers that don't want to be on the circle, I pretend they're a little bit further away even.  

When you're starting out, you can still accomplish quite a bit by limiting yourself to the three major points along the spine of poll, withers, and sacroiliac.  Be observant of how they relate to the line of travel on a circle and you will find it helps quit a bit.

Usually the horse will respond positively in about a minute.

For instance, this horse is tracking left and and the poll and tail on are on the circle, but the withers are habitually right of the circle.  The green X is 'where the shoulder point belongs.'  The red X is 'where the shoulder point is.'  The yellow X is at the end of a 'vector' found by connecting the two and going just a little bit beyond the red X and is where I pretend it is.  I 'hold this thought' for perhaps a minute and then let it go.  In reality, these distances are in inches usually.

For instance, this horse is tracking left on the circle and I have the sense that it is throwing it's shoulder to the right instead of tracking forward with it, towards the circle.  The green X is 'where the shoulder point belongs.'  The red X is 'where the shoulder point wants to be.'  The yellow X is at the end of a 'vector' found by connecting the two and going just a little bit beyond the red X and is where I pretend it is.  I 'hold this thought' for perhaps a minute and then let it go.   In reality, these distances can be in feet, as in a foot or two or even like thirty.

Doing this for the three major points along the spine - poll, withers, sacroiliac, and how they relate to the line of travel on a circle, simple as it is, helps quit a bit.

If you try it, let me know how it goes!  And if you'd like some hands on, call me up for a lesson.  

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

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"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities." 

~ James Allen