SUPER Serpentines

This common exercise has tons of benefits for your riding aids and your horse's responsiveness.

- SAMANTHA TURNER

Serpentines are a fantastic, easily modified exercise that combine turns and straight lines. While riding serpentines, you are working on your horse's suppleness, responsiveness to the aids, and straightness while at the same time improving your turning aids and overall accuracy.

HOW TO SERPENTINE

The most common type of serpentine is the three-loop serpentine. If you have access to ground poles, place two of them lengthwise on the centerline of your arena, equally spaced apart. Usually one-third of the way down the centerline and two-thirds of the way down the centerline works great. (See diagram below.)

Your serpentine officially starts in the center of the short side of your arena. You can track right or left to begin, but for the purposes of this description, we start tracking left. Your horse should have a left bend and push deep into the corner to begin the first loop of the serpentine.

Next, ride straight across the arena over the center of the first pole. As you come across the arena, straighten your horse, remain straight over the pole, and then establish a right bend as you enter the turn.

Repeat the process again, this time switching from right bend to straightness across the arena and over the pole, then to left bend. The serpentine is considered complete when you arrive at the center of the opposite short side of the arena, directly at the other end of the centerline from where you began.