Learning how to maintain balance on a horse allow the rider to become a better partner with the animal. Learn how to maintain balance and change leads properly from a horseback riding instructor in this equestrian video.
Feel balance
Be comfortable
Maintain speed
Change leads & directions
Kathy Kentala has been a horse enthusiast since she was six years old. Kathy owns the Bee Cave Riding Center in Texas and specializes in training youth groups.
Maintaining balance as we ride a horse is one of the most important features that we can learn so that we become that correct partner to the animal. No more so than in the canter. A rider is now cantering to demonstrate what we call a correct lead. As the rider is riding along right now, her direction is about to change. If we watch closely to the horse's legs we're going to see, where right there, we had a distinct change in his lead. The lead is, that in a circle and as you can see right now, the inside leg is going to stretch further. Right now we could have said he maintained his counter-canter for a brief moment where he then went to switching the lead. In other words, the direction began to change but he maintained and did not change the lead until a little further into it. At that time, he changed his lead here in the corner as he felt his direction changed. You can see a horse is a pretty talented animal. When they come to this point, where their lead is so important to their overall comfort and balance, they're willing to change or sometimes you'll hear it called swap, their lead frequently to maintain the balance on the circle. The studies have shown that it's a centripetal force that works or acts upon a horse as he circles at this higher rate of speed known as the canter. The canter is a three-beat gait so it does have what we call an asymmetrical quality to it, where the horse is going to need that leg leading forward further to help maintain his big body balanced, despite the centripetal force, as we continue to ask him to change direction. So we get to watch our horse closely and see that distinct movement of his legs as he manages to change his balance while we ask him to change direction.
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