Les Vogt Supervised My Turn-Arounds
Wow! You sure had a lot to say about the turn-around. Thanks so much for all the help. You know the best part about it? Now I know I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a difficult maneuver. It’s really hard to get the hang of! They (the they, you know who they are) make it look so easy.
I got to go to my third Les Vogt clinic last weekend, as you know (only my second on horseback). During his clinics, there is free time where he’ll let you choose what you’d like to work on and have him help you with individually. I chose to spend most of my time, under the watchful eye of Les, doing turn-arounds and the collected sequence stop.
I think the two maneuvers have one major thing in common, that thing that Les is always saying, “It’s all in the neck!” This clinic really hammered home the importance of that. If the horse isn’t supple and soft in the neck, the maneuver will always fail. I don’t know why it’s taken so long for that to sink in to my noggin.
With the turn-around, I worked on the approach a lot (riding into it like Al says)–bumping the back of the horse up to the front, always keeping the form of the neck. When the neck was right I could make the attempt. I really had to pay attention to my hands (drrr). The inside rein (hand) helps create that bend where you should only see the horse’s eyelashes, and the outside rein (hand) controls the speed and also helps to keep the form of the neck. With Les supervising several attempts, I feel like I’ve really got the idea now and realize that it’s going to take a lot of practice before it becomes second nature.
I get it now. Basically, there should be no resistance in the neck whatsoever. None. Thats where I need to work with Leo right now, but he’s pretty dang close (I say this with no small amount of pride).
Amanda, you were talking about some hip issues? I think you said your horse might be swapping ends a little? Leo does that too. I watched Les have some riders really go to work on that. If the horse is swapping ends than one thing he suggests is “having a conversation” with the horse about it by pushing the inside hip to the eye, before trying again. Also, where is your foot/leg? Have you tried cuing from farther back, like you would to move the hip in a turn on the forehand? You probably already know that but just in case–it might help hold the hip in.
