When we ask Swedish show jumper, motivational speaker, and mental coach Johanna what her favorite exercise is, she immediately replies: The Four-Leaf Clover.

– The Four-Leaf Clover is a version of the famous riding exercise The Swedish Castle. It was Anna Sjögren, who helps me out with training schedules for my horses, who first told me about it, Johanna says.

When practicing The Swedish Castle, you ride along a square track, and then you circle outwards from the track at each corner before turning back onto the track.

– Instead of doing the circles, you ride in squares when practicing The Four-Leaf Clover. This means you keep the horse straight throughout the exercise and focus on moving it using your outside aids in 90-degree turns, Johanna explains.

What is the purpose of this riding exercise?

– The purpose of the exercise is to keep the horse straight, tracking up, with a straight neck. The goal is to eventually just be able to think the word “turn” in the corners, for the horse to do it. However, it takes a lot of repetition and practice before you get there.

”The goal is to eventually just be able to think the word ‘turn’ in the corners, for the horse to do it.”

– Johanna Lassnack

Do you have any tips to succeed with this riding exercise?

– My best tip is to begin with a lot of space so that the turns won’t be too tight. The smaller the space, the more difficult it is for the horse. Another tip is to do the exercise in intervals of two to three minutes to make sure you’re not going for too long but taking breaks in between.

Is it possible to adjust the difficulty of the riding exercise in some way?

– You could do the exercise in a bigger arena, then it becomes easier. If you’d like to enhance the difficulty, you could put poles on the square track. Place the poles like a “clock” – one on each short side and one on each long side of the square.

When do you use this riding exercise yourself?

– I use this exercise every week to check my horse’s straightness and make sure my aids are working together. If they aren’t, this riding exercise lets me know instantly! Furthermore, I use my older horses for this exercise. If you are doing The Four-Leaf Clover with a young horse, you’ll have to expand the turns. This exercise demands a pretty high degree of collection, which means that it shouldn’t be done with horses that aren’t there in their education yet.

Thanks, Johanna, you really gave us something to try out this weekend! 🍀

Download the exercise as PDF here.