Winter 2025 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Winter 2025 4 By L.A. Berry From a folding chair in the corner of the arena, two- time U.S. Olympic Dressage veteran Lendon Gray pa- tiently challenged her young D4K clinic riders: “Try and run me over.” The prospect of trampling their mentor blanched the blush from the cheeks of some already nervously forgetting to breathe while trotting the long side of the indoor arena at Riding Right Farm in upstate NewYork. She repeated, “Run. Me. Over.” It was a light-hearted command, intended to encour- age riders to deepen their corners, but no one seemed to have gotten the memo that most horses will go to any lengths not to step on icky humans. Instead, rider after rider succumbed to turning away from her corner, with strides to spare. Running anyone over this summer afternoon wasn’t likely to happen. But with practice and encouragement, better-ridden corners might. The Long & Short of It Competitively speaking, Lendon calls corners our “best friends” when we want to set a horse up for what’s next. “Is there some ‘whoa’ or ‘go? Will they bend off your leg? Is this working? If you’re not feeling on track at C you won’t at M either.” Her observation echoes the sentiments of another USDF Hall of Fame contemporary, three-time Olym- pic Dressage chef d’equipe and USEF ‘S’ judge, Jessi- ca Ransehousen who said, “In the Dressage ring, you must look at the corners as your friend!” In front of a judge’s box, well-ridden corners set the stage for better movements, a better-balanced horse, and a more accurate and polished ride. Judges look for corners ridden not as sharp turns or loops, but smooth- ly cadenced arcs, whose degree of bend and flexibility will progress as a horse moves through the levels. “From the moment you enter the ring at A, judges take every stride into consideration, including combin- ing corner scores with movements before, after or with a transition,” advises another ‘S’ judge, Amy McElroy, whose riding career began at Rice Farms on Long Is- land. Looking at tests for Introductory and Training Lev- els, she says every transition (with the exception of cen- ter line) comes through a corner, so show a judge how you direct your horse’s line of travel rather than letting the rail do it for you. “Your short sides are taken into consideration the same as circles in scoring. They will be linked to a movement before, a movement after, or a movement within. Short sides are not rest breaks. Sim- ilar to corners, they are where you regroup, encourage and balance your horse as you prepare for what’s to come.” Corners are equestrian equal opportunity at its best because every arena and every ride – from Training Level to Grand Prix -- always has four of them. Casual Corners But what if you don’t care about showing dressage with your horse? Is riding every corner well, every time, all that important? Yes, says Lendon. To start, you are maintaining a consistency of message with your horse as they learn to anticipate and depend on your cues for turning through the corner and not just following the fence line. Riding corners -- and riding them well – is a necessary exercise in discipline: “It’s got to be every corner, every ride.” Look at corners as exercises in developing balance, bend and engagement. Even if you only dance at home when no one is looking. The turn through the corner is among the first ex- ercises to develop obedience to the unilateral aids, as Colonel Bengt Ljungquist observed in his Practical Dressage Manual. “Though variations of style do occur, the main principles of dressage are eternal. Most horses will push in (cut the corner). This is prevented by a leading outside rein and squeezing inside leg, if necessary, sup- ported by the inside rein.” Inside leg to outside rein, you say? Yeah. That. Turns through corners are done mainly by the in- side leg in coordination with the inside rein: inside leg at the girth, outside leg behind the girth to keep haunches from swinging out, outside rein controlling the bend. The rider should shift their weight slightly to their inside seat and heel, while their outside shoulder moves slightly ahead, following their horse’s outside shoulder. Coming out of the corner, straighten the horse us- ing the outside rein and push forward into the “new” direction. “Riding a corner,” Lendon explains, “is like rid- ing a quarter of a volte or small (6-to 10-meter) circle, with the horse flexed to the inside. The rider is using aids and bend similar to riding a circle. The bend part, the quarter-volte, is a collecting exercise you get four chances at in every ring you ride.” “The importance of your inside leg is to ask the horse to step under and bend in their rib cage, while your outside leg keeps the haunches from falling out. Your horse should come out of a corner rebalanced.” Halt, Go and Replay One of the simple but corner-friendly exercises the founder of Dressage 4 Kids (D4K) likes to employ is also a lesson in teaching a horse to wait for you. This ‘halt-go’ exercise can be performed at the walk or trot, involves no special equipment, and builds (Continued on page 11) Gray coaches young rider. courtesy of L.A. Berry TRAINING WITH Lendon Gray Getting Deep Into Your Corners