One of the things I come across regularly is the idea that a horse should be ridden more from a rider’s seat and legs than from use of the reins. As many of you who have attended my clinics will already know I am a big believer in teaching a horse to be brilliant off the reins before worrying about teaching them to be brilliant from the seat and legs. But from time to time I come across people who are uncomfortable with this idea because it contradicts years of education in a more European style of training. I’m not suggesting that I wouldn’t want my horse to work from my seat and legs alone as the training becomes more refined and it is ready. However, this is not important to me until my horse can be soft and responsive to my reins. And there is a reason for this.
In the early stages of training we teach a horse that contact with our legs means get some life in your feet. Usually this translate into going forward because (i) the flight instinct of a horse often creates a ‘go forward’ reaction, and (ii) we normally start a horse’s education with teaching that the correct response to application of a rider’s leg is to go forward.
But then comes the day when we get all excited about teaching our horse to turn when we rotate our body and apply inside leg on the girth and outside leg behind the girth. To many this moment signifies the transition from a green horse to an educated horse. It is the leaving behind of the basics and the beginning of a new era of partnership, harmony and togetherness.
However, if the ‘go forward’ lesson is well established (which it should be) in the beginning virtually every horse will see the application of inside leg on the girth and outside leg behind the girth as a cue to speed up – not a signal to turn. There is nothing built into a horse to know the magic power of the inside leg on the girth and outside leg behind the girth.
This is where the importance of a brilliant response to the reins comes into the equation. If we have already taught our horse to follow the turn with the inside rein, it is a relatively simple transition to convert the feel of our seat and legs from the ‘go forward’ cue to the ‘turn’ cue. Start by offering a feel of your legs to indicate a turn and follow a half a second with the inside rein. Repeat it over and over with seat/legs first and back it up with inside rein to give meaning to the seat and leg cues. It won’t take very long before the horse will being to turn the moment it feels the seat and legs come into play.
Overwhelmingly what I see as the biggest sin in this process occurs at the beginning of the training when a horse tries to go forward instead of turning. A lot of people try to get bigger with their legs in an attempt to make the horse obedient to turning. Don’t do this. It will build a fight in your horse. He believes that the rider is asking him to go more forward the more pressure the rider applies with their legs. When a horse tries to go forward when the legs are applied, just hinder an increase in the forward response with the outside rein and use the inside rein to indicate a turn. The seat and legs should ONLY be used with enough energy that a horse can feel them being applied. They should not be used firmer to make the horse turn.
Now that I have said all that, I’m going to tell you that I don’t do it that way. I’ve mentioned those tips for those that are taught to ride their horse through turns in a very orthodox European style. But it’s not what I do with my horses.
As it was discussed in the comments about the Robert Dover video clip, riding like that is an attempt to trap a horse between the rider’s legs. It’s a mechanical approach to riding and has little to do with being in harmony with a horse.
When I begin riding a horse I spend a lot of time teaching its thoughts to follow the feel of the inside rein. The rein indicates to the horse it should think in that direction. When a horse’s thought is directed to where the rein is indicating, its feet will follow because everything a horse tries to do is preceded by what it is thinking about trying to do.
We don’t control the horse’s body; we only converse with its mind to try to influence its thoughts for the horse to tell its body to go along with our ideas. So when the reins ask a horse to think about going in a certain direction, and the horse says “okay”, it will be the nicest turn you could get because there will be no resistance and no competing thoughts to draw the horse somewhere else. I don’t have to use my inside leg to try to get the horse to bend around it and outside leg to try to block the hindquarters from drifting. The horse’s thoughts will take care of all those issues for me.
What I haven’t yet mentioned is using my seat and legs. I’ve been using them from day 1, but not working at using them. From the first ride when I want to ask my horse to turn, I rotate my shoulders and hips to the inside and put a feel in the inside rein. When I rotate my body to the line of the turn, it has the cascading effect of adding a slightly different feel to my outside and inside thighs. My outside thigh squeezes closer to the horse’s shoulder just a fraction more, while my inside thigh relaxes a fraction less. At the same time my outside seat bone moves marginally forward and my inside seat bone moves marginally backwards.
I don’t try to make the changes in my seat bones or my legs happen. They just occur because I rotate my body slight in the direction of the turn. The action of my seat and legs is passive, not active. With repetition, soon a horse picks up on the changes in my body as precursors to making a turn. As the horse gets better at following the feel of the inside rein with its mind, it starts to follow the feel of my seat and legs too. In time the inside rein takes a less active role until the day comes when it seems like you don’t need to use it anymore.
Notice that the way my legs come into play is very different to the traditional inside leg on the girth and outside leg behind the girth. This is because I’m not trying to use my legs to control the horse’s bend. I try to influence the thought of the horse and when that is right I let the horse balance itself around the turn.
To me this is what riding in partnership means. I play my role of talking to my horse’s mind and it plays its role of carrying itself. I do my part and let my horse do its part without interference.
Rider’s leg seems a little exaggerated.