Staying on the Rail in Lessons

By: Galadriel Billington

10:30AM Apr 8, 2004

	Say you're going around the arena to the left; When you get to a corner, you use your left rein and left leg to make the turn. Keep contact with outside rein and outside leg, but these are not "active." For more about why your legs should be "on" the horse, even when you're not using them, see Point your Toes In.
	If your horse begins to drift off the rail, you may try to pull him back on with your right rein (outside rein). What you've just done is to counter-flex the horse; that is, you've bent him the wrong way. Now even though you're using your left (inside) leg to ask the horse to move to the right, he's still not going to be able to do so. He's bent the wrong way, and he can't circle into the rail.
	Let's look at circling, briefly. When you circle, to move out on the circle, you use inside rein & inside leg; to spiral in, you use outside rein & outside leg.
	When you're travelling along the rail, you're just making a very large, rather squared circle. If you want to open that circle--move toward the rail--you need to flex in the proper direction (to the inside), and use inside leg. So when you have flexed the horse in the wrong direction, you have not made it easier for him to stay on the rail. In fact, all he *can* do, flexed in that direction, is to "open" the circle or move "out" towards his shoulder--but his shoulder is toward the inside of the arena! By bending the horse in the wrong direction, you have actually made it easier for him to drift off the rail.