Mastering the Turn on the Haunches

There are some movements that one can more or less fluff through in Elementary even if one has zero idea what one is doing if one is blessed with an obedient horse - or at least, there were for me. Arwen reliably scored well for her extended walk and her leg-yields and her walk-to-canter transitions, and even I could figure out from the Internet how to halt and be immobile for five seconds.

Turn on the haunches is absolutely not one of those movements, and so ever since I rode my first sloppy, hindlegs-crossing, one-foot-pivoting, unbalanced turn on the haunches, I've been getting 4s and 5s reliably regardless of which unlucky equid finds itself stumbling through the movement with me.

The fact that teenage me thought it would be a wonderful idea to teach poor Thunder to be a reining horse, and accordingly installed the clumsiest and slowest spins known to man, was not even remotely helpful. Thunder thinks he knows exactly how to do a turn on the haunches: swing around as quickly as possible, preferably with at least some pivoting on one hind foot for good measure.

It was a few months ago that Coach J, who must have been ready to poke his own eyeballs out by that point, really addressed the turn on the haunches in one of my lessons. And now with Thunder being in light work for two more weeks before we can return to full work, and one of my favourite Friesians also coming back from some time off with walk work, it's the perfect time to finally tackle this awful, hateful, no good, very bad movement.

Anja is not quite at that stage of her education yet but would like the blogosphere to know that she's adorable

I thought my main problem with the turn on the haunches was that I was either riding a sloppy half circle, with my horse crossing the hindlegs, or a swinging turn, with one hind foot planted and pivoting. While this is true, Coach J was quick to pinpoint the actual problem: I wasn't actually keeping any kind of a walk rhythm. I was just sort of... putting on my leg and panicking.

When I tried to hold the walk, keeping the horse forward through the movement, I just made poor old Thunder jiggy and confused. So coach gave me an exercise that I have ground to absolutely l o v e and that is rapidly becoming a part of my everyday walk warmup.

Navarro is the king of turn on the haunches, thanks for the help big bro

The exercise goes like this:

1. From the corner, let's say H, ride a leg-yield left to the quarter line opposite S. It's important that the horse is really straight and stepping off the right leg. (For me, I have to work hard to make sure I'm sitting on my left seatbone and staying stretched in my left side, instead of collapsing onto my right seatbone. I have to think about leaning left to make myself straight).

2. At the quarter line between I and S, ride a full turn on the forehand left, thinking about making a tiny volte with the horse's nose instead of keeping it still.

3. Without slowing down, ride a half-pass left directly out of the turn, continuing on the diagonal line.

4. At the quarter line between L and P, ride a full turn on the haunches or walk pirouette left.

5. Immediately out of the turn on the haunches, continue in half-pass to F.

The main point of the exercise is never to lose the walk rhythm, not for a single step - and, beyond that, to keep the tempo constant, too. I found that the feeling of traveling across the diagonal and the fluency of going from movement to movement helped the horses and I to think of the turn on the haunches as a more fluid, forward-thinking movement instead of an abrupt change of direction the way it's written in all of the tests. Plus, being used to doing a full 360 degree turn on the haunches makes it really easy to ride the half turn in the Elementary and EM tests.

this mane is so amazing

Navarro and I worked on this today, and I hope to play with it on Thunder this Friday as well. Thunder and I have been doing some in-hand work today, but I'll post more about that tomorrow.

I was listening to Psalm 13 today and it happily coincided (or rather, God-incided) with one of my favourite resources, Daily Grace Co's podcast. Today's episode was about lament as a way to process grief within the context of living as a child of God saved by grace in a world broken by sin, and Psalm 13, as David mourns over the way his own son and his own nation betrayed him in 2 Samuel 13-15, is just such a sincere cry of a heart that feels forsaken yet trusts that God is always good.

bonus pic: my newest livery is a Friesian too and I am totally in love 💜

Psalm 13[a]

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 13:1 In Hebrew texts 13:1-6 is numbered 13:2-6.