Introduction
Are you using the short side of the arena or are you merely waiting for it go by so that you can get to the “interesting stuff”? When I was young I had no appreciation for the short side with its two corners as a gymnastic tool. It wasn't until much later that I discovered how valuable the short side and its corners really are from a gymnastic point of view.
I suspect I’m not the only one who underestimated the value of the short side. Most dressage movements are ridden either on the long side of the arena or on the diagonals so that people tend to focus on the movements and the longer lines, and they forget about the short side. In competition tests lateral movements, trot and canter extensions, flying changes, etc. are all ridden on the longer lines. There are some transitions and the occasional reinback that is ridden on the short side.
But the short side has so much more to offer than merely being a short connector road between two highways.
Gymnastic Benefits
It’s quite possible that many riders are not aware that the short side with its two corners is their preparation for the medium or extended trot that follows on the next diagonal or long side. Half passes, flying changes, but also leg yields succeed much better if you use the short side and its corners to prepare the horse.
If you break every movement down into a preparation phase, an initiation phase, the middle part, and the exit phase, you can use the short side and the 1st corner of the long side as part of the preparation phase of the movement that follows on the long side or the diagonal. And you can use the 2nd corner of the long side or diagonal as the conclusion and exit from the movement.
Let’s look at some examples.
Medium and extended trot and canter:
The quality of any lengthening of the stride depends on how deeply the horse’s hind legs were flexed beforehand. Medium and extended gaits are literally extensions of the hind legs. The more you flex the hind leg first, the more space it has to extend and push. That’s why you often hear the statement in order to lengthen the stride you have to collect the horse first. In the tradition of the old Spanish Riding School in Vienna trot lengthenings are ridden from the inside hind leg, i.e. the inside hind leg is asked to push more. If you enlarge the horse into the corners of the short side (alternatively, you could ride a shoulder-fore), you bring the inside hind leg more underneath the body, where you can flex it more with the help of the combined body weight of horse and rider. At the end of the corner, you can half halt into the inside hind leg as if you were planning to stop. This increases the flexion of the inside hind leg, which has a similar effect to compressing a coiled spring. The more you flex a hind leg, the more the horse feels the desire to extend it again because any force creates an equal and opposite force, according to Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law. Immediately after the two half halts into the inside hind leg your horse will be happy to lengthen the stride on the long side or on the diagonal that follows.
Half Pass
The quality of the half pass depends on the engagement of the inside hind leg. The more the inside hind leg steps under the body, the better the horse will bend and the more easily the outside hind leg will cross. That’s why it makes sense to prepare half passes by riding a movement or an arena pattern that allows the rider to engage the inside hind leg more and to create the necessary bend.
The simplest preparation for a half pass is to enlarge the horse into the 1st corner of the long side and then to apply two half halts into the outside hind leg. The corner helps with the creation of the bend. The half halts create a deeper flexion of the outside hind leg, which helps with the transition into the half pass. If the corner is not enough to create the proper bend, you can ride a volte (or 2 or 3…) in the corner (some of my old teachers used to say that 4 consecutive corners are one volte). You can initiate the half pass after the corner in one of two ways. You can either turn the horse’s shoulders onto the diagonal and when the hindquarters are on the diagonal as well, you ask for a haunches-in. Or you can bring the horse into a shoulder-in position on the long side and then transition into the half pass from there.
Enlarging into the corner
Enlarging the horse into the corner has several advantages:
It engages the inside hind leg.
It brings the horse into the outside leg and rein.
It shifts the weight from the inside shoulder towards the outside hind leg.
It creates the bend that you need if you want to ride a shoulder-in, haunches-in, or half pass afterwards.
The horse exits the corner in the perfect balance to start whatever movement you want to ride after the corner.
Enhancing the short side
In competitions, you only have the short side with its 2 corners to prepare the horse for whatever comes next.
In training you can fill the short side with gymnastic exercises. For instance, you can ride a volte in each corner. You can combine these 2 voltes into a figure 8 by changing direction on the center line.
You can ride a spiral volte from one end of the short side to the other in order to engage and flex the inside hind leg more deeply, which multiplies the beneficial effect of the short side and the corners. It’s a very powerful preparation for a variety of movements. At the end of the spiral volte the horse is ready for anything - lengthening the stride, half pass, canter.
Or you could ride a 10m x 20m rectangle that is formed by the short side, the 10m on the long side between the corner and the circle point, and the line that connects the circle points that runs parallel to the short side. The sides of this rectangle can be ridden in shoulder-in or haunches-in. This is also a powerful preparation for any movement you want to ride afterwards.
Corners!
The old masters used to say that if you can ride good corners, you can ride anything. If you can’t ride good corners, nothing will succeed. The corners are a part of the short side. You have to plan the corners a little in order to get the maximum gymnastic benefit out of them. Half halt into the outside hind leg during the last 2 strides before the corner in order to connect it with the ground and the weight. This means that you apply your half halts when the outside hind leg touches down. The outside hind leg has an anchoring function. If it is well connected to the ground and the weight, the horse is able to bend and stay balanced in the turn without leaning into it like a bicycle. The corner itself is ridden in 3 strides of the inside hind leg in the tradition of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Asking the inside hind leg to sidestep lightly by enlarging or a shoulder-fore position helps to bring the inside hind leg far enough under the body, to connect the horse to the outside leg and rein, and to develop the proper bend.
A sloppy corner in which the horse is neither balanced nor bending, means that the horse isn’t ready to perform the movement that you’re planning to ride on the following long side or diagonal.
Enhancing the corner
An exercise that is great for suppling the hindquarters is the turn on the forehand in motion around the corner. You stop c. 5m before a corner and ask the horse to sidestep in a quarter circle around the corner so that you arrive 5m after the corner and change direction with it. The horse’s spine is parallel to the radius of this circle, the horse is looking into the corner, and he is bending against the direction of travel. The front legs occupy a smaller circle. The hind legs are on a larger circle. The inside hind leg crosses and the outside hind leg should support the majority of the weight. The complementary movement to the turn on the forehand in motion is the so-called passade. It’s a working pirouette, or turn on the haunches in motion. Here you stop c. 5m after a corner and ask the horse to sidestep in a quarter circle around the corner so that you arrive 5m after the corner on the next side of the arena, and change direction with it. The horse’s spine is parallel to the radius of this circle, the horse’s tail is pointing into the corner, and he is bending in the direction of travel. The front legs occupy a larger circle. The hind legs are on a smaller circle. The inside hind leg should support the majority of the weight.
Both the turn on the forehand in motion and the passade can be very well combined with voltes in the corner, or with figure 8s.
Conclusion
Don’t let the short side pass you by. Use it to improve your horse’s balance. Use the corners to create the bend and the engagement of the inside hind leg that you need for the upcoming movement or transition. If the short side and its 2 corners seem too short to accomplish anything, expand it by riding patterns that allow you to stay in the area longer.
