Four Points of a Circle - Yvonne Losos de Muniz

Circles may seem easy, but they are often more challenging than they look! In this masterclass, Olympic dressage rider Yvonne Losos de Muñiz demonstrates how she rides her circles using 4 points.  Instead of thinking of the circle as a whole, Yvonne breaks it down into four points. As if there were four poles forming a cross shape, the points would be in the middle of the pole, creating a diamond shape. For dressage training, there would be no poles so Yvonne insists on visualising the points and using landmarks within the arena to make them as accurate as possible.  As demonstrated in the video, she rides a turn at each point, heading straight towards the next point. The turn creates a natural drift which allows the curve and creates a circle rather than a diamond shape.  When riding the circle using four points, the first attempt should be ridden in a simple way and not necessarily 'pretty' as Yvonne explains. This first attempt is for the rider to find out the horse's weaknesses and tendencies so on the next attempt, the rider can respond accordingly to what the horse does. The rider must remember to ride from the inside leg to the outside rein, and should adapt to the horse's weaknesses and habits on the circle.