leg aids – Horse Listening

3 Steps To A Quieter Leg Position

how to quiet the rider's legs — Photo Credit: J. Boesveld

Do any of these things happen to you?

You lose your stirrups during a transition.
You feel your feet bouncing in the stirrups, especially during sitting trot.
Your lower legs sway in canter.
You can't feel your feet in the stirrups.
You have trouble placing your legs on your horse's sides.
You can have nice long legs riding without stirrups, but still lose the stirrups as soon as you start using them again.

These things happen to most riders at some point, especially during the first few years of riding. Sometimes, you develop a habit that lasts even longer, mostly because your body blueprinted itself long ago and now it's even more difficult to break that habit.

But it can be done.

We are always striving to maintain quieter legs, a more secure seat, and stable feet (preferably with the heels lower than the toes). The thing is, the harder we try to keep the legs from moving, the more they swing, tighten, and finally slide out of the stirrups!

What to do?

Here are three steps (pun intended!) to a quieter leg position.

1. Soften through the seat.

Whenever you find tension in the lower legs or feet, you can direct your attention higher up. In this case, consider your seat. Are you tight through the lower back? Are you gripping with the gluteal muscles? Maybe your hip angle is closed or you're leaning forward in the upper body.

In all these cases, start with softening through your seat. Don't become a blob of jelly - just feel for tension or gripping, and release that as much as you can. Allow the hip angle to open. Allow your upper thighs to really sit into the saddle.

Try to be quiet in your seat aids. If you feel you are moving bigger than your horse, or if you are pumping through your seat and body to get him moving, work toward whispering your aids, reducing body movement, and becoming lighter over the horse's back. We often get "too loud" in attempt to be clear. The quieter you can be in your body, the more opportunity you can have to feel your legs and the horse's sides.

So start with a softer seat that allows a more open hip angle and a straighter leg from the highest point of the thighs.

2. Straighten the leg from the hip through the knee down to the ankle.

Do two things with your leg.

First, rotate your leg inward toward the saddle, so your knee is facing straight ahead. You might need to grab the back of your riding breech and actually pull your leg slightly backward from the hip, placing the thigh flat on the saddle.

Second, straighten your knee slightly. Don't push it too straight, but see how much you can open the knee angle as you lengthen your leg downward.

It's like a stretch of the leg, constrained within the length of your stirrup leathers. You might discover that your leg will naturally feel longer.

3. Push into the stirrup with your foot, allowing the heel to go down if it can.

Now let's focus on the foot itself.

The ball of your foot should be flat on the widest part of the stirrup. If placed correctly, you will feel like the stirrup is as solid as the ground. We call this "grounding" your feet in the stirrup.

After you have lengthened your leg in step 2, you might feel that your heel just wants to go down on its own. This is a great sign that you are on the right track. However, don't force your heels down - that would cause more tension in your leg and be counterproductive. Let the heel hang if it will.

Start at the halt.

Take time and soften through the seat and hip, position the leg and then ground the foot on each side. Do all of this at the halt first, so you can feel the effects on your seat and leg before you add movement.

Then try to maintain the leg position through each gait. Walk is easiest. It might take some effort at first but will feel more natural over time, until you aren't even aware that you are doing it.

The longer leg and softer muscles will also allow your seat to position deeper into the saddle.

One last thought. You might not be able to do all three steps right away. In fact, you might be able to do one, then another, then maybe two at a time... you know what I mean. Add transitions, the sitting trot or canter to the mix, and you might have to be even more patient.

So be aware of what your seat and legs feel like, work on loosening the seat and lengthening the leg, and one day, you might be surprised that somehow, without forcing anything, your legs stopped swaying, your stirrups stayed on your feet, and you can actually feel the stability of the stirrups even as you canter merrily along!

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Leg Yield/Shoulder-Fore – A Great Way To Your Horse’s Back

We know why we want a supple back.

Think of the back as the gateway to all things good in horse riding. A supple back allows energy through the horse's top line. It releases tension, loosens muscles - allows instead of blocks. The up-and-down action of the back creates space for the hind legs to reach underneath the body, which will in turn promote better balance - whether on a turn or straight line.

But most importantly, the supple back allows the horse to carry you, the rider, in a more healthy fashion. Which is something we should all be interested in.

Consider the opposite: the clenched, unmoving back. Tightness. Rigidity. Blockage. Hind legs out behind the horse's center of gravity. Lack of balance. Bracing neck and on the forehand.

That image should be motivation enough to make you want to put in the effort it might take to learn how to get the horse to "work through the back."

While there is definitely much more to the supple back, the exercise below can help you get started at a basic level. These two movements combine to give you a sort of road map, if you will, to begin to find your horse's back.

1. Start with the leg yield.

Do it on a circle, in trot.

Use your inside leg at the girth, and stay evenly balanced in the saddle. Leg yield outward so that the circle becomes a little bit larger, bit by bit. The idea is to get the horse to lift through the rib cage (in response to your leg), lift the inside shoulder and shift weight to the outside. The horse's legs may or may not cross over each other - in this exercise, the cross-over is not required. Just a shift to the outside is fine, especially at the beginning.

You might notice that it is somewhat easier to get a bend to the inside if you can get the leg yield going well. The horse will already be reaching underneath the body deeper with the inside hind leg, and will be able to maintain better balance into the bend. Without too much fuss happening from your hands, you should feel the bend begin mostly thanks to your leg aid.

So now, your horse is stepping outward and the inside bend is developing.

Enjoy this for a few strides. Lighten your contact at this point, lighten your seat, and allow more energy through the horse's body while still stepping out and bending.

You're looking for a bouncier feeling, a swingier back... basically, more freedom of movement and energy.

Once you feel you have a nice bend and some easy steps outward, you might find that your outside rein "fills up" on its own, and suddenly, you have this wonderful neck rein on the outside rein, which will naturally lead you right into #2.

2. Shoulder-Fore

Now that you've activated the hind end, you can see if the front end can become lighter and straighter.

The shoulder-fore is a basic but excellent way to line up the horse's front end so that it leads slightly to the inside (and works on the bend again). Click here for the shoulder-fore aids.

Using your outside neck rein, bring your horse's shoulders just a little ahead of the hind leg tracks. In other words, the horse's front leg tracks should fall slightly to the inside of the hind leg tracks.

You're still on the circle, you just did the leg yield out, developed a bit of a bend, and now, using the outside neck rein and outside leg behind the girth, you bring the shoulders back in towards the middle of the circle - just a little.

If the leg yield was going to create a bulging outside shoulder, this shoulder-fore will quickly avoid the problem altogether. You'll notice that the outside shoulder straightens up a little and the front end lightens a little.

The straightening action will align the horse's spine and once again, you'll feel the trampoline-y feeling of the back that is active, round and engaged.

When You Get Good

Try it on one side first, then the other.

Then, switch sides - go right, then left, then right. Go off the circle and make it fun by finding new turns and circles in different places in the arena. Use serpentines, tear drops, S-changes... get creative!

Common Problems

When you first start with the leg yield, many horses will misunderstand the leg aid to mean speed up. If your horse quickens the legs instead of steps out, half-halt the speed, and regain your initial tempo. Then try again. It may take many repetitions for a horse to learn to step sideways away from a leg aid. Be patient, clear and reward often.

Another common problem is that the horse will continue to lean into your leg as you apply the leg aid. Many horses naturally lean into pressure. If your horse leans into your leg, come to a walk. Apply your leg aid again, and get the horse to leg yield at the walk. When the horse is responding, go back to trot.

While finding your horse's swinging back might be a difficult challenge, the feeling of floating energy that comes with suppleness is something you'll never want to go without ever again after you've found it for the first time. The bonus is that if you can listen carefully enough, you will realize that your horse will appreciates it too!

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7 Essential Aids For An Epic Canter Transition (Video)

Your canter departure doesn't have to be a rocket launch!

These 7 steps help you set up your horse for a smooth, forward canter transition from trot.

Read all the details in the original post.

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Read more here:

12 Riding Quick Tips - #10: How To Canter Instead Of Just Trot Faster: Does your horse just go faster faster when you ask for the canter? Don't worry if it happens. Just know what to do, and work through the situation to improve the transition in the long term.

Wrong Canter Lead? 5 Ways To Fix It: Do you have trouble getting the "correct" lead when striking off into canter? It helps a lot if you know different ways to encourage the horse to strike off in the correct lead.

How To Improve YOUR Canter-Trot Transitions: What happens to you and your body when you head into a canter transition from a trot?

What Are The Leg Aids For Canter? A detailed breakdown of the aids for canter.

Use The "Canter-Trot" To Truly Engage The Hind End: Energy from the hind end is the prerequisite for horse riding heaven and we all know that! We need to find out how to ask the horse to reach deeper underneath the body without throwing their weight to the forehand, and without speeding up the leg tempo.

When We Want To Actually Ride From The Hind End, But Get Stuck On-The-Forehand

This is a tough one. I bet we've all been stuck with on-the-forehand at some point during our riding career (probably longer than we'd like to admit).

So how do you transform on-the-forehand to (more) on-the-hind-end?

Learning the feeling of movement from the hind end takes time, and lots of practice. Because it's based on feel, it's more difficult to "find" than a simpler riding skill, like an open rein, or the outside leg back. Not only do we need to learn the feel, but there are seemingly never-ending levels of feel as we progress through our learning stages.

But let's start at the beginning. Let's assume we're working in the trot, but really, it's the same at all gaits.

Leg Aids

One of the most common mistakes we all make when we first want to access the horse's hind end is to let the horse go faster. So we squeeze with the legs and the horse speeds up. Faster means stronger, and stronger means hind end, right?

Not really.

The thing is, that the faster the legs go, the more the horse falls to the forehand. By sending all the energy to the front, the horse has to actually brace with the front legs (to avoid literally falling forward). Sometimes, the head goes up, the base of the neck drops and the back hollows. Sometimes, the horse trips or has a mystery lameness. But not all the time. Some horses can stay somewhat flat or round "looking" and still truck along with most of their weight on the forehand.

"Catch" The Energy

Sometimes, people call this "recycle" the energy but I find the term "catch" can be clearer when you begin with this concept. Pick a rein length that you feel is reasonable for your horse's level of education and keep it the same length while you ask for more movement. If the horse throws the head, reaches down, changes gait or runs faster, we must keep the hands steady and not-let-go-but-not-pull.

So we create the energy with our legs, but we must catch the energy with our reins.

Because if we let the energy "out the front end," we invariably have created the conditions for on-the-forehand.

So we catch but we don't pull. We also don't hold the energy for very long.

So far:

use legs for energy
catch the energy so the horse doesn't just speed up

Then Release

It's not a release like letting your reins slip out of your fingers or straightening your arms in effort to give more rein. It's more a release of your joints - your shoulders, elbows, wrists - enough that there is a small space forward that you invite your horse into, after the "catch" part. In terms of space, you might only let out half an inch of rein. The rest of the release comes from your body. (*Note: You can do this on long reins or short reins.)

The idea is to allow freedom of movement, allow the hind legs to reach further underneath the body, and ideally, have a soft, light connection with the horse that allows you to direct the energy lightly, softly and promptly.

What Does It Feel Like?

You might have to really tune in to your horse to be able to feel the hind end at first. This is likely because we are always so fixated on the front end. But if you work at it, and maybe get someone to help you from the ground, you will be able to identify what movement initiated from the hind end feels like.

Here are some thoughts:

- You might initially feel a really powerful surge behind the saddle. Sometimes, it might turn into a small buck. This is good because it's the horse trying to "come under" but doesn't yet know exactly how much. Don't reprimand the buck or the lurch. Just ride it through and thank your horse by doing your best to stay balanced and gentle in the aids.

The horse might breathe harder, deeper and/or louder. He might snort once or twice. This is also a sign that you are on track, because it is much, much harder for the horse to carry his weight rather than to let it run through onto his front legs. Again, give thanks and ride on.
The horse might miraculously feel straighter. If the horse usually leans on one shoulder or another, and suddenly, that all disappears - you're on the right track.
The horse might also stop pulling on your hands, or leaning forward and down with the neck. That too is a result of lack of hind end power, so once you really achieve energy from the hind end, the quality of your contact will likely improve dramatically.
Head bobbing/tossing might disappear. Same reasons as above.
Tripping and mystery lamenesses might also improve.
If you notice that your horse is moving with better expression (ears forward, looking ahead), more freedom in the gait, and seems generally more confident, you're on the right track.

The thing is, getting the horse off the forehand is something that takes time to learn, and then time to teach the horse. It's not something you can make happen in one day. Many horses don't even know they can move in this manner until they are given the opportunity. But you can make small steps of improvement. Occasional success will become more regular and one day, you'll notice that the horse is mostly initiating movement from the hind end - just because.

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From the book:

"Regardless of discipline, what would be the most significant effect a rider would want to have on her horse?

We all want our horses to improve in their athletic

development, skill acquisition and connectedness. Much of our rider development and training efforts go into working toward our show or personal goals....

But the best riders aspire to do one essential thing each and every day, regardless of goals and lesson plans: they work hard to improve their horse’s way of going.

Because proper balance and weight carriage is essential to a horse’s longevity. Each and every minute of each and every ride has the potential to contribute to your horse’s health and well-being.

Or not."

The book begins with the horse's hind end (!), considers the horse's back, moves on to rider development, and fills it all in with the fundamentals of horse riding so your horse can be:

happier in his body

happier in his "work"

better balanced all-around

Instantly order online. Click here to learn more.

7 Errors To Avoid After You Ask For More Energy – And Solutions

leg aids to canter — Photo Credit: NBanaszak Photography

What happens when you ask your horse for more energy?

The simple answer is that he should reach further underneath his body with his hind legs, go straight and energize within the gait. The hind legs reach deeper underneath the body, the energy "flows through", allowing for a rounder top line, a more active back, and a bouncy, straight feeling. Your horse's response to the bit should improve all on its own. However, it's easier said than done.

As you probably already know, there are many different unwanted things that can happen when you use your leg and seat aids to ask for impulsion.

You will likely discover that there are a variety of responses to your request. Most of them won't be what you're seeking - the straight, strong and true gait that you are asking for. However, the horse doesn't know any better, and it is your job to know exactly what you're looking for, and to teach the horse correctly from the start.

You might think this article comes from a negative perspective, but in my experience, it is as important to know what you don't want, as it is to know what you do want.

As Edison is quoted as saying, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Here are 7 things that can happen instead. The quicker you can recognize these miscommunications, the sooner you can address them. In fact, it would be best if you could correct these mistakes as they happen, before the horse loses more balance and then has to completely regroup.

1) Inside shoulder "drops."

This is what we sometimes call the "motorcycle lean." It happens on a circle or turn. Along with cutting the turn short in an awkward angle, your horse will likely fall into the circle, making it smaller than you want it to be. The horse will lower the inside shoulder and you will feel like you are hanging on an angle.

If this happens, try to stay upright yourself despite the horse's lean. Also, you can use a little leg yield and outside rein half-halt to improve the horse's balance.

2) Outside shoulder "drifts."

This is the opposite of #1. In this case, the horse will step outward, making the circle or turn larger than it should be. He will also often have his neck bent to the inside, while he continues to step in the opposite direction from your active inside rein.

In this case, shorten and straighten your outside rein to catch the shoulder. Avoid using more pressure on the inside rein. If your horse's flexion goes to the outside because of your outside rein, finish straightening the outside shoulder and then go back to flexion toward the inside after the correction. Once again, keep your own body upright and balanced. Don't lean along with your horse.

3) Hind end shifts to the outside.

The horse points to the inside with the front end while the hind end points to the outside. This can happen on a straight line off the rail. Sometimes, the rider causes the horse to move on an angle because of an overactive inside rein.

To correct, your inside leg can ask for a small leg yield, just like in #1. Use your direct (straight) outside rein to ask the horse to bring his shoulders to the outside.

4) Hind end shifts to the inside.

Many horses do this as they transition into a canter. It is also common for young horses to collapse through their hips even in trot, mostly because they are still weak and uneven in the pushing power from each hind leg.

Sometimes, a little extra impulsion may be all it takes to get the hind legs working more evenly.

5) Faster gait.

This is the most common response you'll get from young and older horses alike. Often, the rider doesn't recognize the increase in leg speed and so the horse just moves along faster.

A series of well-timed half-halts will help keep the horse's tempo the same even while you are asking for a little more power from the hind end.

6) Change of gait.

Horses will also change gait in response to a leg aid, mainly because it is often easier for them rather than to loosen more through the back and let the energy go "through" the body.

If your horse changes gait when you ask for more impulsion, gently transition back down to the original gait and keep on riding. Try again with your leg aids but you might want to add the half-halts in so that you can discourage a gait change before it happens.

7) Short stride/hollow back.

Some horses might tense in response to the leg aid. There may be many reasons why a horse will change his posture - whether because of lack of balance, discomfort, falling to the forehand, rider balance errors, or other problems that require the horse to tighten through the top line.

In this case, make sure that you are not causing the horse's tension. Adjust leg pressure, rein length (sometimes longer, but also sometimes shorter, depending on the horse's needs), balance (make sure you don't lean forward when applying your leg aids) and do use half-halts after the leg aids. The horse might tense just because he feels like he has to run faster.

I'm sure there are other things that can happen when you ask for more energy. In any case, you should be "listening" carefully enough to identify what the response was, and then take steps to correct any errors. Keep in mind that you're looking for a deeper stride in the hind end, a more bouncy, energetic back, a softer top line and better overall connection.

When you know what you don't want, you will find what you do want quicker and more consistently.

12 Riding Quick Tips – #6: Developing Impulsion

The thing about developing impulsion is that it rarely comes from more leg. The leg aids do play a role in increasing the energy of the horse, but they are not the only factor.

We often think that we should just kick the horse along. Without a doubt, the horse should move "off the leg" with increased energy and speed.

The novice horse might just move faster from the leg, and at that point, we don't want to stop him or discourage his enthusiastic response. Similarly, the novice rider needs to develop coordination of the leg aids (and overall body balance) so kicking at the outset is necessary for the rider to begin to control her legs. However, sooner than later, for both the horse and rider, we need to move away from the "kick" and more to the "aids."

True impulsion can only happen if the rider herself "has" impulsion. Let me explain.

If you don't have "impulsion" in your body, the best you can do is get exactly the opposite of impulsion: the horse just moves along at a faster rate (leg speed), hollows his back (hind legs our behind), falls to the forehand (loss of balance).... This happens because essentially, all you can do is chase the horse into speed. But impulsion isn't exactly speed.

It's more about energy. It's about buoyancy, it's about spending more time in the air than on the ground.

How can the rider encourage impulsion?

1. Lengthen the legs (by opening from the hips down) and "wrap" your legs around the horse's sides.
2. Squeeze your legs in rhythm with the horse's strides.
3. Lighten your seat as if to invite the horse's back UP to you.
4. Half-halt the resulting energy - don't let it just "go out the front," but redirect it so that the horse uses the energy to "bounce."
5. Keep control of the horse's leg speed with the half-halt as well. If the horse speeds up, half-halt to slow down and start again from step 1.
6. When the horse changes his movement from going faster to becoming more trampline-y, bounce right along with the horse, accentuating the off-the-ground moment of the stride.

It takes quite a lot of coordination and energy to be able to first create this type of energy, and then to maintain it. But as you practice, both you and your horse will be able to make this happen more easily and promptly. Invariably, the better you get at creating impulsion in your body, the better the horse will get.

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From Horse Listening - The Book:

"But there is one other motivation that drives some of us to persevere in the never-ending learning process that is horseback riding: improving the horse. As your own skills develop, you begin to realize that not only can you meet your own needs through riding, but also that you can even become an instrument of benefit for the horse."

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12 Riding Quick Tips – #3: Work On Those Long “Wrapping” Legs

long wrapping rider's legs — Photo Credit: NBanaszak Photography

When we first learn to ride, we go through "leg learning" stages. At first, it's all we can do to keep our feet in the stirrups. Eventually, that becomes easier but then our lower legs flap forward and backward in the horse's movement. Sometimes, our legs pop off the horse's sides during posting trot. Other times, our legs are so tight that nothing can take them off the horse's sides! Then at some point, we "find" our legs, only to discover that we're now grabbing very tightly with our heels.

What to do?

Instead of going into complicated fixes for each scenario, try the exercise below. If you can work on this every time you ride, you will likely work through any of those problems. Over time, long, "wrapping" legs will become easier and easier to find, even while you use active leg aids.

The key to long legs, dropped heels and soft but "on the horse" knees is to develop the longest legs you can in the stirrup length you have. This can be used for both short jumping stirrups and longer dressage and western stirrups.

While the horse is standing still, stand up in your stirrups as high as you can, knees straight. Focus on straightening your legs - starting at the hip, then pushing your knees down and back (not too far back, just so your heels line up with your hips) and straight. The straighter you can get your legs, the more your hips will open, the better your knees will flatten along the horse's side, and the more heel you will suddenly have to drop below the stirrup. Then sit back down, lining your hips above your heels, keeping that long leg feeling as much as possible.

Of course, you won't end up with rigid straight legs once your horse starts moving. In fact, because you lengthened your legs, they should have gentle angles at the hip and the knee as a result. Your knees won't be able to grab on the horse's sides as strongly as before, and your heels should end up below the toes (or the toes above the heels, if you like thinking that way better) fairly naturally.

I know what you're going to say (it happens to me too)! It's not that easy to keep the legs long like this while the horse is moving!

No, it isn't. But it does make a huge difference - so it's worth the effort to keep at it. Here are some strategies.

In posting trot, push your legs down on the forward phase.

In canter, push your legs down on the down phase of the horse's stride.

You see, it's not that you have to have loose, dangling legs at all times. Quite the opposite, really. However, since most of us have some sort of gripping problem, finding moments of length will loosen the joints enough to keep our legs wrapped with tone, but not tightly, around our horse's side...

... which then will keep us better balanced and allow the seat to be freer and in sync with our horse - which is what we're aiming for anyway!

What Are The Leg Aids For Canter?

While the leg aids change little between the walk and trot, the canter does require some change in function and coordination.

Even when riders seem to know what they're doing, there may be some confusion about the fine tuning of the aids. Students often ask me to review especially the leg aids for the canter to make sure they are asking for the correct lead, and timing the aid in a way that helps the horse the most.

Basic aids

The basic aids are the way you first learn to ask for the canter. This method helps the rider find and keep balance especially as the horse changes gait and takes that first step into the canter.

1. Inside leg at the girth

The inside leg must stay at the girth. This leg might not have to do much in terms of squeezing at the calf but it is important in case the horse falls in on the inside shoulder. Many horses will lean into a turn or come off the straight line when they move into the canter, and the inside leg is the aid that helps keep the horse straight through the transition.

Put pressure with the lower leg and calf if your horse falls in. Wait for the horse to straighten up before you apply the outside leg, even if it takes a few strides before he's ready. If he doesn't fall in, you can apply both legs almost simultaneously (inside leg should go first though).

2. Outside leg behind the girth

I call this the "windshield wiper" leg. If you can free your leg at the knees, you can "swoosh" your lower leg back behind the girth, and basically teach the horse to take that first step with the outside hind leg as you swing your leg back. Please note that the leg doesn't have to stay far back behind the girth, though it should be positioned a little further back than the inside leg to be effective in keeping the hip straight and asking for the correct lead.

In general, you shouldn't have to apply a lot of pressure with the outside leg.

3. Seat

Well, I'd be remiss to not mention the seat here, even though I know I'm focusing on the leg aids.

The seat really is THE aid that indicates the gait change. In other words, your legs position the horse's body so he doesn't swing in with the shoulders, or swing out with the hips... but really, it's the seat that indicates the canter.

Just to keep it short - you position yourself so you are sitting tall on the inside seat bone, and you switch your seat rhythm from the trot to the canter. You can sit the last few trot steps so you can be in the saddle for the transition.

Please Note

Notice that I didn't mention a kick in any of the aids.

Sometimes I get questions about why I don't want to kick into the transition, and I realize it might be a little controversial for me to say this. However, in theory, the strike off for the canter does not need the rider to bang the horse on the sides and throw her weight forward (or fall behind backward). In fact, the quieter you can be, the better it is for the horse (and invariably, for you as you negotiate the balance change into the canter).

If your horse absolutely won't canter without a kick, then yes, go to the kick. But I encourage riders to work toward first positioning the legs as above, second exaggerating the windshield wiper outside leg, third changing the seat to a canter movement, and FOURTH - kicking with both legs. Then work toward weaning your horse off that kick, and become quieter in your position.

The Upper Body

The idea is to not fall forward or backward through the transition. Many of us want to collapse forward in attempt to encourage the horse to "go forward" - but changing from the trot (or walk) to canter is not really going forward at all.

In fact, it's more about changing the horse's legs. It's not about going faster, or getting longer in the body, or pulling on the horse to keep him shorter, or anything at all. There should really be no change (in our dreams!) other than the legs going from the two-beat trot, to the three-beat canter with an easily heard moment of suspension.

Ideally, the first step in the canter should be bold and strong, but not runaway. The next steps should be the same. You should clearly hear the three-beat rhythm of the footfalls. The canter should be round (not flat), ground-covering (not fast) and consistent (not slow down-speed up - slow down - speed up).

The Hands

This article is about the legs, so I won't go much into the hands except to say that they really shouldn't do much. 🙂

Ideally, they'd maintain the horse's flexion and bend. The rein might need to be shortened a little (an inch or so) if the reins were long-ish at the trot. Otherwise, there's little to do other than not interfere.

For a more advanced description of all the aids, check out the 7 Essential Aids For An Epic Canter Transition.

Now that I've shared my version of the leg aids for canter, I'd love to hear yours. What problems have you had with the transition to canter? What solutions have you found over the years? Share in the comments below.

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Riding gives us the place to just be.

Of course, there are other purposes too. Some of us revel in the challenge of learning the skills required to becoming a good team member of this unlikely duo. Riding is like no other sport or recreational pursuit simply because of the equine partner that must not only carry us, but also do so effortlessly and gracefully. As we develop our specific skill sets, we also grow as human beings in character, emotional maturity and mental acuity.

But there is one other motivation that drives some of us to persevere in the never-ending learning process that is horseback riding: improving the horse. As your own skills develop, you begin to realize that not only can you meet your own needs through riding, but also that you can even become an instrument of benefit for the horse."

And so begins the book that reflects the most important learning I have had in all of my riding years: that I want to be the best rider I can be for the sake of my horses.

This book is geared toward the rider:

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- some specific strategies

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Along the way, you will find chapters that discuss everything from the seat to the leg aids to the reins, discussions on half-halts, imbalance, halts, straightness and more!

Special in this book are the "In The Ring" sections that give specific suggestions based on the preceding chapters. Take these to the barn to try with your own horse!

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Tag: leg aids

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