The Heart Exercise

Here is an exercise called the heart. Work on this for a couple of weeks and you will gain a lot of control. (See illustration) Your horse will eventually perform it quite easily (both western [w/o posting] and english)....we start at the right marker, trot to the side of the arena make two changes of diagonal - you should start on the correct diagonal, change, then change back to the correct so your horse is balanced around the curve.
At the top of the heart you stop, turn in place, then trot off again on the correct diagonal, change, then to correct. Halt at the left marker. At first the horses don't want to move across the arena, they may keep trying to go to the rail, but, in time your horse will obey and do it fine! The halt should be excellent and remember all your training from the past to turn on the haunches. Picking up the correct diagonal from the start is to be strived for!

Click to enlarge & print.

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