Former trotter struggling with circles

Hi! Try riding square turns. You stay on the same area as a circle, but instead of a round track you ride a square. At each corner, turn clearly with a leading inside rein, never backwards with the hand, and follow through with the outside rein. Imagine your hands are holding bicycle handlebars, so that you do not brake with the outside rein while you lead with the inside.

🥕 As soon as you have turned, catch the horse and straighten with the outside rein. Then ride straight for a few steps before the next "corner" of your square. Once this is working well, you will feel the horse turn without falling in. Give it time. Walk slowly through the exercise to begin with. It will almost certainly take several sessions and plenty of repetition before you feel the horse understands what to do.

🥕 Vary the rhythm and tempo in walk once the exercise is going well.

🥕 When the walk is going well, move on to the same exercise in trot, thinking exactly as you did in walk.

🥕 Once you are both really confident with the squares, try turning them into "diamonds" with more corners. Same idea: turn, then straighten, and think forward after each turn.

🥕 I also hope you can ride with a coach you get on with in the Academic Art of Riding. It tends to be so much more fun, and you progress better, with help from someone good. 😀

Good luck! 🦄