A reader of my short story books (Old Men and Horses, and Changing the Tide) wrote to ask that I post about hindquarter disengagement and forehand yields since they are mentioned in the books several times without an explanation as to what they are or how to do them.

First, it is probably a good idea to talk about why I believe we should practice them and what purpose they serve. Others may have their own views and explanations, but since I teach them to at least one person at every clinic, it’s only right that I explain my ideas about these valuable exercises.

To begin at the beginning, the most basic function of the reins is to be able to direct a horse’s thoughts and connect those thoughts to the horse’s feet. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about stopping, going, turning, or riding a line. The reins direct the horse’s thought. The horse’s thought then directs the feet. It’s that simple or hard – depending on your point of view.

One of the ways to teach this simple idea is to start on the lead rope and in time graduate into the saddle. Some people just work on the response to the reins when they ride and not begin on the ground with a lead rope. It’s easy to forget that the lead rope is nothing more than a rein, except the rider is on the ground. So it often helps a young horse to begin to follow the feel of the rein by starting with following the feel of the lead rope from the ground. It’s one of those obvious instances where the groundwork directly relates to the ridden work.

It’s important to remember that the purpose behind these exercises is to connect the reins to the horse’s thought. If you keep that in mind, two things become obvious.

The first is that there is no place for any driving aid to make a horse step their feet sideways. Very many people are taught to drive the hindquarters across by either swinging the tail end of the lead rope (during groundwork) or using inside or outside leg (when under saddle) to make the feet move. But this distracts from the function of the reins because it then becomes about the feet escaping from the driving aid, rather than yielding to the feel of the inside rein with their thought.

The second thing to remember is that the only point of the rein is to direct the horse’s thought. It’s not about moving the feet in the way you wanted. It’s the mind of the horse that directs the feet; we only talk to the mind so the horse can connect to the feet. This is important because people tend to release the reins when the feet have yielded and not check if the thought had yielded. Commonly, a horse will be thinking in one direction, while we use the reins strong enough to force the feet to yield in the opposite direction. The result is a horse that is crooked and has a habit of falling in or out of the turns because there is a disconnection between what the reins are making the horse’s feet do and what the horse’s mind is trying to make its feet do. This disconnection between the horse's thoughts and its feet is what causes resistance.

So in short, the purpose of teaching hindquarter and forehand yields is to connect the horse’s mind to direct its’ feet as our reins intend.

I’ll describe these exercises for those that don’t know what they are.

The hindquarter yield is nothing more than a very tight turn, where the horse almost pivots on its front feet. Imagine standing next to your horse by its flank and holding a carrot. In most cases, the horse will turn its head to look at the carrot. If it wants to eat the carrot, it will pivot on its forehand and step its hindquarters away so that its body is lined up towards the carrot. That’s a hindquarter yield. At the risk of repeating myself, it is nothing more than a very tight turn

No driving or poking at the horse’s flank is necessary because the carrot provides enough incentive for the horse’s thought to direct its feet to disengage its hindquarters. Now substitute the carrot for a lead rope (during groundwork) or an inside rein (during riding). How do you make the lead rope or inside rein as meaningful as a carrot?

It’s done by offering a feel to a horse with the lead rope or inside rein and waiting until its thought shifts to where the feel of rein is directing. If the thought is strong enough, the connection will flow to the feet, with minimum resistance. There will be a light feel on the lead rope or rein, the neck will bend softly around and the horse’s head will be almost perpendicular to the ground as it looks to the inside. Finally, the inside hind foot will step quietly across and in front of the outside hindfoot.

For my money, the most important part of a hindquarter yield is the quiet softness when the horse’s thought follows the feel of the lead rope or inside rein. The disengagement of the hind feet is the last and least important thing to happen because it can only happen if the thought softly follows the flow of energy from the lead rope or inside rein. In fact, in the beginning, I often focus on a horse just looking in the direction of the feel of the lead rope or rein and release for that without waiting for the hindquarters to disengage. When that becomes reliably soft, then I’ll wait longer until the hind feet yield before releasing the feel of the lead rope or inside rein.

A forehand yield is similar to the hindquarter yield in principle in that it is about getting a horse to follow the feel of the lead rope or inside rein with its thought. But in the case of a forehand yield, it is the front feet that the horse directs to step across, while the hindquarters are relatively quiet. This requires that the horse shift some weight off the forehand so that it is easier to pick up the front feet to place them to the side.

In mechanical terms, the difference becomes that when asking for a hindquarter yield the lead rope or inside rein is used indirectly, while they are used with a direct feel when asking for a forehand yield. So in brief, if you want to direct the hindquarters use an indirect rein. If you want to direct the forehand, use a direct rein.

A direct rein is when the feel of the rein (or lead rope) leads the horse through a turn. This requires there to be more of a sideways feel to the rein (ie, the rein is offered further away towards the rider’s knee). Conversely, with an indirect rein, there is more of a backward feel to the rein (ie, the rein is directed back to the rider’s hip or belly button). This means that the direct rein crowds the horse’s inside shoulder to discourage stepping the inside shoulder to the inside. But in either case, no driving aid (inside leg, whip, swinging rope, etc) is used to cause the feet to move sideways.

I have added a few photos taken at my clinics that should help illustrate the various points I have tried to make. I hope they will clarify the concepts that are hard to put into words.

The important thing to remember when teaching hindquarter and forehand yields is that you are connecting the rein or lead rope to the back end and the front end of a horse both independently of each other and in unison, via the horse’s thoughts. I’ll say it again….. “via the horse’s thoughts.” It is not the feet moving that is important – it’s the thought directing the feet that should be our focus. When we have this sorted out with a horse, softly following the feel of the inside rein and balanced turns become a way of life.