This zig zag is not about travelling sideways - the aim is to shape your horses body around your leg.

In this lesson you will learn there is a clear and deliberate purpose to each step in the zig zag pattern, so that you have a clear understanding of how to shape your horse’s body. When you apply the same aids consistently each time to create a 'mould', your horse will then understand how to organise their body, so they will become light to your aids and beautifully uphill and fluent in the half pass.

Step 1: We start in shoulder in on the quarter line, which is tricky because we don’t have the support of the fence. Remember what we learned in the elementary program when we started developing shoulder in - the aim is to bring your horse into an uphill balance.

Step 2: shift onto your inside seat bone and use our inside calf to flex your horses rib cage. You can yield towards the track, a few steps, but this is not about travelling sideways, it’s about you recognising the feeling of your horse softening to the inside and wrapping themselves around your inside leg - the aim is to feel the shaping of your horses body into a ‘mould’ which you have formed with your inside leg and outside rein.

Step 3: half halt with your outside rein to prepare your horse then turn your head to look diagonally across the arena. Your head is a weight aid which tells your horse to move in the direction your are looking into HP - the aim is lightness and fluency in the half pass. It’s not about pulling on your inside rein and and clamping your outside leg on and shoving your horse sideways!

In this lesson I will teach you how to set up the corner, like a pro!

Corners are really important, especially from this level onwards - they are your golden opportunity to prepare and rebalance your horse for the next movement, and make any adjustments so that you can improve your accuracy. If you watch the top riders you will see this is what gives them you a beautiful polished performance, it seems as though they spend hours in the corner, so the trick here is to start early… way before the corner!

In this lesson we are going to use the same component parts we learned previously in lesson 1 to set up for the corner correctly. We’re going to start in walk, focusing on the short end and 2nd corner, and I will show you exactly what to do step-by-step.

Step 1: As I am riding past A or C I am already positioning the shoulders-in. The trick here is to start turning the shoulders early!

Step 2: This is one of those ‘think it, don’t do it' moments, where I want you to think ‘leg yield’ but we're not actually moving sideways. The aim is to flex your horse through the rib cage.

Step 3: I keep my weight on my inside seat bone and aim to create the same 'mould' around my inside leg which we learned previously in lesson 1.

Step 4: I turn my head towards the diagonal line and we move off fluently into the HP it should look like it flows.

The aim of this exercise is to create the ‘mould' consistently, in the corner. If I feel I haven’t quite got the right shaping, I will circle and try again. By working on this exercise and focusing on the corner, you will find the Half Pass will just flow and it will feel beautifully light... and easy!

I love squares - they really are magic! In this lesson we use the corners to accurately set up half pass from the centre line.

In the previous lesson we condensed the components parts of our 'zig zag' onto the short end and the 2nd corner, so by now your horse should understand the 'shaping' in their own body when you create that 'mould' consistently, and the set up for half pass from the corner

At medium and advanced medium level, the half pass is often from the centre line - so our 'magic squares' are going to help to set us up accurately, with beautiful shaping and balance.

We start on a 20m square in shoulder-in at the end of the arena just like the previous lesson, except this time we have 4 corners instead of just 1 - so you need to get organised quickly! Gradually we reduce the size of the square down to 15m and finally 10m which sets us up accurately on the centre line, ready for half pass.

The aim in this lesson is to create the 'mould' consistently in every corner so that you and your horse re developing the skill sets you need to take you up to advanced level and beyond. By the end of this season your Half pass, pirouettes, and your overall performance overall is going to become much more grown up and proficient. Enjoy!

In this lesson your canter and half pass will be completely transformed - like magic!

Squares are not only a brilliant tool for practising your corners, but they also the building block for pirouettes. In this lesson we up the criteria and progress to canter, working on the same magic squares as learned in the previous lesson. Each corner will come up quickly - especially on the 10m square, and you really will start to feel your horse 'sitting' their pelvis down and lifting their inside shoulder.

Gradually it will begin to feel more like a 1/4 pirouette. Not only will we be aiming to create the same 'mould' around our inside leg which we learned previously, but this time I really want you to focus on is using your seat and rider posture to help your horse learn to organise their own body in the corner - a little tip for you is if you focus on the pommel of the saddle and angle it inwards and upwards, then you will be in the correct rider posture.

Finally, we then take this beautiful uphill posture into the half pass from the centre line - that’s the aim!