“Inside Leg To Outside Rein” – The Cheat Sheet

How often have you heard that term? Sure, it sounds like a pretty simple concept until you try it - from coordinating your aids, to helping your horse develop an understanding... it can be more complicated than it looks.

I find it helps a lot to think of this as one whole movement, rather than breaking it down into little bits. However, to gain a true understanding, and to begin to train your body, you may need more information in order to develop the ability to make it all happen in one movement. So let's break it down.

Final Picture

As it can get complicated, I'm going to start with the final picture to give you an overview of what it is and looks like.

The action of "inside leg to outside rein" is meant to create and then maintain bend, without running forward or drifting out. In theory, the horse should respond to your active inside leg by moving away from your leg (in the rib cage area), thereby stepping out toward your outside rein.

Your outside rein can then become an active actor in the movement by either limiting how far the horse can step outwards (as in stopping a leg yield from happening) or half-halting (to keep the horse from speeding up or falling to the forehand).

The horse should have a banana-like curve in the direction of the turn. (It is important though to realize that the horse's spine doesn't actually "bend" that much - the bend we feel is the result of the hind end and front end stepping into the turn). The degree of the curve is dependent on the circumference of the circle - the larger the circle, the smaller the bend. A deeper bend will happen on a 10-meter circle or smaller, but this is usually reserved for fairly educated horses (2nd level and up in dressage).

The Details

Here is a more detailed breakdown.

Rider's Torso: Turn your core toward the turn. Look in the direction of the turn (not past the turn though). The smaller the turn or circle, the more you turn in yourself.
Inside Seat Bone: Weight is on the inside seat bone. This is because you are going into your turn and want the horse to step up and under your weight.
Inside Leg: The inside leg applies pressure (from below the knee down) to the horse's side. The horse should step away from the pressure.
Outside Rein: The outside rein "fills up" when the horse steps away from the inside leg. Now, you can use the outside rein to turn the horse (apply pressure as a neck rein), or half-halt (to slow the leg speed or maintain balance) or just accept the bend with no further activity.
Outside Leg: The outside leg has a job too. It asks the hind end to also step away from pressure, to the inside. This means that the hind end should be the final component to the horse "wrapping around" the inside leg. The hind end can almost do a very small haunches-in to achieve that.
Inside Rein: While this rein should be fairly inactive, it will open slightly into the direction of the turn (not so much that your arm comes away from your body). It can act as a guiding rein for less experienced horses, or ideally, it will just "flutter" and not have a whole lot of pressure on it at all. It may need to come into play to maintain flexion if you have too much pressure on the outside rein, or the horse just turns his head to the outside naturally.

The Cheat Sheet

There is a way to make all the above happen fairly organically. Do this on the ground. Stand straight with your weight evenly distributed on both feet. Hold your hands like you're holding reins. This is what straight feels like.

Now, turn right as if you are going into a turn.

Start the turn from your middle, but let the rest of your body just do what it must do in order to allow the turn to happen. You'll notice that as you turn right, your inside rein will "open", your outside rein will come closer to the neck ("neck rein"), your inside leg and knee will soften and come a little forward, and your outside leg will automatically slide a little further back and tighten (to the horse's body if it were there).

Straighten again, and do it all in one motion. "Swoop" to the right. Then swoop to the left. Everything should just move along in tandem. This is what you want to achieve on the horse's back.

Common Problems

Most horse and rider combinations go through several stages of mistakes as they develop a really good "inside leg to outside rein" feel.

The first thing that will likely happen when you turn your body in to the direction of the turn is that the horse will just lean in and "fall" to the inside of the arena. This is where your inside leg comes into play. It may take some time to teach your horse to step away, not into, your leg pressure. Don't despair if it takes several weeks or more. Your horse will get better over time.

You might shift your weight to the outside. This happens all the time! While we focus on using our inside leg, we tend to try to move the horse to the outside by throwing our body in that direction. Just catch yourself doing it, move back to the inside seat bone, and continue.

The horse will likely speed up when you first apply your inside leg. This is when an outside half-halt will be useful. Be sure to be crystal clear in explaining that pressure from your inside leg doesn't mean "go faster," but rather, "step away."

Another common problem might be that you have to learn how much pressure you need from your leg, and how much from your outside rein. In the meantime, you might end up with a horse that weaves left and right, looking like a squiggly worm! Don't despair! It's so much about coordinating body parts, and it will take time for you to adjust each part as needed. Just keep trying, feel for the worm, and steady your aids.

I hope this helps you a little on your riding journey. Let me know in the comments below what your experiences with "inside leg to outside rein" have been.