Halter Obstacle Show People Question

[MiniHunterHorseFan]

When you turn your horse on the forehand and move his hindquarters towards his right, do you have his right or left front hoof stay planted? I used to do the left and then I heard from someone else to do the right. So I started changing my horse to plant the right. Now I heard from another trainer to plant the left. Which do you do? Which would a judge prefer?

 

[Keri]

It would be how your horse moves naturally. Picturing it, I would see the horse pivoting around his front left leg. But that's just me.

 

[R3]

On any pivot, front or rear, the correct foot to plant is the one on the 'inside' of the turn.

So, in your scenario, the horse is actually doing a Left-hand Turn on the Forehand (his hindquarters will be moving to the right, but his head will be moving to the left), with his left front foot as the pivot point.

If you do a turn on the haunches to the right, his body and head would move to the right, with the pivot point being his right hind foot.

But, many times in a showmanship class, horses do their pivots on the left hind foot. I think that is because when you are setting them up and turning them, it is easier for the handler to watch their right hind foot to make sure it doesn't move (when they are training) so that is how the horse learns to make the showmanship pivot. Although turning on the wrong foot is not ideal, usually it doesn't get marked down too severely.

 

[Minimor]

I didn't vote, because after reading your post I have to think that your poll and your question don't really match. Your question asks about a turn to the right, but your written description is describing a turn to the left.

As R3 said, it should be the "inside" hoof that is planted, and if the horse's hindquarters are moving to the right, then it is the left front that is the inside hoof, and that is the one the horse should be turning around.

In a pivot to the right, the hindquarters are moving left, and the horse is turning around his right front.

I suspect you've been getting conflicting answers on this because of how you ask the question. If you ask about a pivot to the right, people will tell you the right front is the pivot foot. If you describe the turn as you have here, then people will tell you the left front is the pivot foot, because you are describing a pivot to the left.

With pivots, it can be helpful to think of it as a forward movement--the horse should be walking around that pivot foot (whether it is front or hind). If the horse is pivoting around the wrong foot as he makes his turn, he will actually be backing up around that pivot foot!

 

[MiniHunterHorseFan]

Yes I was trying to describe a turn where the horse's head is moving left and his rear is moving right. So they call the turn by which direction his head is moving? I'm glad that is clear. At shows it has always been so confusing in the walk throughs. People always can't seem to get the direction down about turning on the forehand. I thought it was by which way his rear was moving. Glad to know now for sure that they call the turn by the head. So a left hand turn on the forehand is his head moving left and a right hand turn on the forehand is his head moving right.