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Corners are one of the most important movements in dressage. Well ridden the horse it provides an opportunity for the rider to check the horse’s balance, engagement and impulsion and prepares the horse for the next movement.
Often, riders ignore the corner and allow the horse to fall in through the corner which means that the horse is unbalanced on the straight side and poorly prepared for the next movement.
Correctly ridden, the horse should remain engaged with their inside hind leg travelling a shorter inner track following the inside fore leg. The outside hind leg should follow the track for the outside fore leg with the horse’s ribs released softly around the rider’s inside leg.
For this blog I reviewed the tests ridden at the Grand Prix Special - FEI Dressage Nations Cup™2026. The full event can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPg1bJKkht4
Of all the tests I reviewed, none had correctly ridden corners. Below are some screen shots which hight light the problems that were shown.
1 Raphael Netz and Great Escape Camelot (time I:32.46). In the first picture you can see the inside hind leg stepping across the outside hind leg, disengaging the inside hind. The second picture shows the outside hind stepping further out of the corner dropping the horse onto its inside shoulder.
2 The next picture shows Meagan Davis with Toronto Lightfoot (time 42 minutes). It shows a clear disengagement of the inside hind leg sending the outside hind leg wide in the corner.
3 Next series of pictures show Geñay Vaughn with Gino (time 1:12.27). As the horse enters the corner, the rider is twisted in her body, sits against the movement and takes back on the inside rein. This disengages her horses inside hind leg and pushes the horse onto their inside shoulder.
In the second picture, they are approaching the second corner on the short side of the arena.
Again, the rider is sitting behind the movement and pulling on the reins. With the rider in this unbalanced, blocking position, the horse remains off balance and disengaged along the short side and through the second corner.
In the final picture you can clearly see the inside hind leg crossing to the outside if the curve, disengaged and out of balance.
Corners are a golden opportunity for a rider to check the horse is balanced and engaged, these three examples show riders making their horses more disengaged and unbalanced.
4 Henri Rouste and Tiffany’s Diamond (time 1:23.51). As they enter the corner the horse’s inside hind is already stepping to the outside dropping weight towards the inside shoulder.
In the second picture, this knock-on effect of this disengagement sends the horse’s outside hind leg towards the outside of the line of travel through the corner.
In the third picture the impact of this poorly ridden corner can be seen with the horse out of balance and disengaged in its haunches.
5 Jordan La Placa with Gold Play (time 1:56.03). The picture shows clear disengagement of the inside hind leg as it crosses over the outside hind leg. This creates a loss of balance in the horse through a poorly ridden corner.
Training Riders, Transforming Horses
© Diane Followell
