James Irvin is a Canadian Grand Prix dressage rider and a very talented and passionate dressage coach. Auditing his clinic was fun, inspirational and very educational. I wrote 5 pages of notes and would like to share with my readers a few neat exercises. These exercises are not common in dressage clinics and I also know from riding them myself (my coach trains with James Irvin) how helpful they are!

Circle in counter-canter - this exercise has been used in two lessons to improve the quality of flying changes and the quality of horse's canter. It was done on a 20 m circle. At first James asked the rider to ride counter canter in a very active, forward manner. On the circle the rider had to bend her horse not according to the canter lead but according to the circle. The horse had to stay on a single track (swinging of the haunches out makes it easer for the horse to negotiate counter canter turn). The flexion and the bend through the body had to follow the circle.
To improve flying changes - after a few successful circles the rider went large in counter canter and asked her horse for a flying change which had more jump, volume and uphill balance. A few times the horse was asked to leg-yield toward center line and then still continue in counter canter and do a flying change
To improve the quality of the canter - the counter-canter circle was ridden with inside bend on the open side and in correct for the lead shoulder fore position on the closed side of the circle. This made the horse sit and lift.

Canter half-pass to Leg-yield - To improve horse's ability to bend in the half-pass James asked the rider to switch and leg-yield back to the same wall instead of continuing the half-pass. This made the horse very aware of the inside leg and made him jump up and under himself. The idea is that same inside leg is used for the half-pass and the leg-yield. A horse who stiffens against inside leg in the half-pass will have very hard time leg-yielding back. Improving that transition improves bending in the half-pass.

Renvers on a circle - This was used as a straightening exercise a lot, particularly in trot. The renvers were more of an idea rather then full execution of them. Though, some horses came very close to doing renvers. The biggest challenge, especially, riding a circle, corner, turn is for horses shoulders to stay upright and come around the turn while hind legs come under without swinging in/out. This exercise was particularly helpful in the situations when horses were falling out with outside shoulder and falling in with hind legs (overbend, collapsed).
James went father then simply correcting this mistake with counter flexion. Some horses can do counter-flexion and still lean over with their shoulders. Riders were asked to use their inside leg a lot. It has to drive horse's inside hind under the body while hind legs follow the line of the circle. Renvers on a circle is a difficult exercise for a horse so horses were not so keen to swing their haunches too much out. Provided, a horse was asked to trot energetically forward and stay light in the hand reaching for the bit. This is why such correction worked so well. The difference was amazing. Horses transformed as they trotted with more uphill, more swing and elasticity in their steps, longer necks and freer shoulders.

Happy riding...