 In today's exercise, I'd like to talk a little bit about the importance of visualizations, and the piece about visualizations is they create clarity in your ride. I just came to the arena, it's freshly drugged, which is super nice because it gives me some clear lines and some clear places to ride my horse. As we're going along, what I'm going to think about doing is riding these lines and staying specifically on a particular line. I might place this hindquarters on a different line than the line I'm on. What I'm doing is I'm creating a channel with my legs and my reins to help my horse understand where they need to be. When they're in the middle of that channel, I harmonize with them. So I leave them alone, I don't put any pressure on them, and we go along and we're together and we're in unity. If they come off the line, they're going to run into the leg and rein on the side that they came towards. So let me show you this in action. What I'm going to do is I'm going to create this channel here, right? So my legs, my reins, and I'm riding the specific line. So there's a real clear idea of where I want the horse to be because I can see it in these tracks. One thing I can start doing is I can add a little variation to this. So I might consider bringing my leg back and placing his hindquarters on a line different than the line that his shoulders are on. So it's clear his shoulders are on this line, his hindquarters are on the line over here. Maybe I swing his hindquarters back over the other side. And now his shoulders stay on that same line of travel and it's clear I can see that line and his hindquarters drift over. I could create a situation where I ask the shoulders to be on a different line. So I'm going to bring his shoulders over here and keep his hindquarters on the line that we were just on. So now we're riding in like a slight shoulder in sort of position. And when he's on that line, I harmonize, right? And my line right now is not a one track line, but it's on three tracks, sometimes four. Now, maybe I decide to do a turn on the forehand because I was just holding his hindquarters. So I move the hindquarters around and I'm going to come back over my tracks. Now you could see I'm getting a really clear line drawn in the sand. Now here I'm going to bring his shoulders over to this side. I'm always drawing with my body where I would like my horse to be and I'm leaving his hindquarters on that track. Now when I want him to come in the middle, I just bring my hands this way. Then when I want his shoulders to come over here, I'm drawing that line, right? I'm creating a line here so that he understands where he's supposed to be. And now I'm going to be a little tricky here. I was just moving his hindend under that way. Now I'm going to just switch and see if he can be responsive enough to bring his hindquarters over this way. And then we'll walk along this line. The important piece is going to be that we always harmonize. I'm taking his shoulders on the line, riding a shoulder in and I've got his hindquarters on the opposite or on the outside of that line. So now his hindend is here. When he's on this line though, I'm really quiet. I'm not really saying much of anything. But if he comes off the line, that's going to be where I add a little bit of pressure. I'll just come through this turn. Good. And then I'm going to do the same thing this direction. So I'm going to bring his hindquarters off the line. Good. And his shoulders stay on the line. Again, harmonizing. Now, how do my legs and reins work when I'm doing this? So let's straighten out and let's talk a little bit about it. When I'm on the line and I'm riding a straight line, everything is perfectly straight in my body. So my legs point straight, my knees point straight, my toes point straight, my arms, my shoulders. Everything is very square and straight. When I ask him to bring his shoulders one way or the other, what it looks like is I am here and secure on this leg so he's bending. And then I place his front feet over to this side of the line here. So now when you look at me, I'm not square. I've got a little bend. If I were to be a horse and be on my hands and knees and legs, I am exactly the same. So my legs and my arms match his legs. So my feet are the same as his hind feet in their placement. And my shoulders are the same in their placement. So if you're confused about how to place your body, think of yourself being on your hands and knees and just mimic what the horse would be doing. That's the correct placement for your body to draw that line for the horse. And then again, when they get the answer, harmonize. Think about riding a pool noodle. And the pool noodle, if you had to curve and bend the pool noodle and get the pool noodle on the line, you're going to be using your knee and thigh, your inside leg, your outside leg, your hands the same way with a pool noodle that you would be on your horse. So you've got a couple of visualizations there. You've got your hands and knees to think about shaping your horse. Then you also have the pool noodle to think about shaping your horse. When I ride this exercise on a trail, what I would be doing is I'd be riding on the track of the trail with my horse, I'd be riding along. And then I would just try stepping the front feet over a little bit, but keeping the hind quarters in one place. And I might just release and go for a little walk and walk straight at that point. And then what I might do is I might try at the other direction. So I just stepped his front feet over here to the left. I did this and he responded and stayed really nice so that I release. I go straight and then I swing his front end over here. And I say, can you step your front feet over this way? And then I release and I go straight. So I might just swing it a little bit initially and get a couple of steps at a time. Then eventually what I end up doing is I end up holding it. I would do the same thing if I were thinking about the hind quarters. So let's say I was riding the hind end and I wanted to swing the hind quarters to my right. I would step it to the right, good, and then I'd release and I'd go straight. And then I just harmonize with the horse for a little bit. And then I'd step the hind quarters a little bit to my left and release and go straight. It's really easy for me to do these things when I have a clear line because I know when to release. I know when to let go of the pressure. This is where a lot of riders get into trouble because they're not really clear on where their line of travel is. They don't notice when the horse moves or haunches one way or the other or the shoulder one way or the other. And then therefore they don't know when to release. If you're not consistent in when you're asking and putting pressure on and when you're releasing, it makes it really like unclear to the horse. They don't understand what you're looking for. But if you can set it up so that you can create some clarity, the horse has a itchy leg here. If you can set it up so that your horse, and you have clarity, and you know exactly where you'd like them to be, now you start building the consistency in and through consistency, you create a conversation that carries lightness and you guys go together in unity. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this exercise. Play around with it. You can only begin by just riding a straight line and being really clear about keeping your horse on that straight line. Then start swinging them one way or the other with the shoulders on either side of the line and then the haunches and just get a step here, a step there and then go ahead and play around with it by riding a full line with like a haunches in or a shoulder in. Remember those visualizations. You've got the noodle exercise or the thought of riding a noodle and how you would place your arms for like a shoulder in with the noodle or you've got getting down on your hands and knees and how you would actually have to shape for that particular movement. That's exactly what you're doing in the saddle. And then you're always softening and giving to the horse and riding in harmony and unity when they get the correct answer. All right, until next time, happy riding.