Dressage—Cross Training for
All Breeds and All Disciplines
“Riding Back to Front, Part 4”
By Lynn Palm
In this article, I will continue with how to “talk” to your horse and discuss how the proper use of leg aids maintains good communication and enables you to ride “back to front.”
Legs
A horse must be taught to move away from pressure before he can advance any further with the leg aids. This is a fairly easy concept to teach because it works with the horse’s natural instinct of flight. A horse first will flee rather than attack. Use turn-on-the-forehand as a beginning exercise. Practice it first on the ground and then under saddle. If you need references for teaching this maneuver, Part 3 of my Longevity Training Series and Part 1, Vol. 2 of my Dressage Principles Series are good resources.
Once a horse learns how to move away from side pressure, he then will be able to understand its transmission through the rider’s leg aids. The first goal is to have your horse respond to lightness. Lightness here is defined as ‘like the touch of a feather.’ It is a touch that is soft and gradual—a warm feeling. It is not a pinching of a grabbing. When your horse responds to lightness, he is telling you that he understands your leg aids to the fullest.
4 Steps in Using Leg Aids to Communicate to and Teach Responsiveness to the Horse:
A correct leg position is always slightly behind the girth. You communicate or cue your horse with the inside of the upper part of the lower leg—the calf muscle. The first consideration when applying a leg cue or communication with your horse is where your leg is positioned and that you are using a light touch.
If you get no response or too little response by applying the leg as above, the second step to teach responsiveness to the leg aid is to move the leg position slightly back (a few inches), and cue again with a light pressure. There is a 10-inch area on the horse, from the girth back toward the hip, that is the most sensitive to the rider’s leg aids. You may continue to move the leg back within that 10-inch area if even more response is needed.
If you still are not getting a quality response, use your cue in a vibrating or pulsating action. This vibrating action will get your horse’s attention and should produce a quality response.
If your horse continues to respond inadequately, the final recourse is to give him a good slap on his side with your leg to wake him up and get his respect. You may assist your leg aid with a crop or dressage whip. A rider with perfect leg position may use spurs. Whips and spurs are artificial aids to assist the rider’s natural leg aids to move the horse. As soon as the horse responds properly, it is important to go back to the light aid to teach him that it is the lightness you want him to respond to.
Most Common Rider Errors:
The most common error riders make when they do not get the correct response from the horse with a light leg aid is to squeeze or pinch with the legs. The more you do either one, the more the horse will ignore you! If you are a rider learning how to use leg aids or your horse requires a lot of squeezing, you need to start over on the ground. Use turn-on-the-forehand to find the area on the horse’s side that is most sensitive and to refine how you are using your leg aids. Teach yourself and your horse lightness on the ground in the same way as you would under saddle.
The second most common rider error is to cue with the heel by bringing the heel up instead of using the calf. This is why you do not want to use spurs unless you have perfect leg position. With your heel up, you only will get quick fixes and many problems. The heel, like pinching legs, is a cue that horses ignore or resist. Also, you have changed your leg position upward, and this will reflect in your seat position and always result in a poor quality of communication with the horse.
The third most common error is to put the leg too far forward or too far off the horse. You want your legs hanging close to or touching the horse’s sides as that is the only way to have softness and correct timing with the leg aids. If your legs are too far forward or away, your timing will always be late to your horse’s needs.
With a sensitive horse, often the rider’s tendency is to have the legs too far away from the horse’s sides to avoid bolting. If you do not keep leg contact with a sensitive horse, however, he will overreact when you do put your legs on his sides. To the horse, the sudden pressure of your legs feels much like the sudden shock of static electricity does to us. It is more important with a sensitive horse to have your legs touching his sides at all times. If I am describing your situation, try swinging your legs very slowly back and forth along your horse’s sides to desensitize him and help him accept contact. Contact gives the horse confidence and helps him relax because he is not anticipating that sudden, shocking cue.
The rider’s seat and leg aids control the horse from the wither to the dock and that equals two-thirds of the horse. In the aids sequence, legs are second in timing to seat aid (seat=go forward). Leg aids control the majority of the horse. Specifically, the right leg controls the right side of the barrel, back and rib cage, right hip and right hind leg. The left leg aids control the left side sequence.
You should now understand riding “back to front” as it relates to both the seat and leg aids. They control the horse’s hips and hind legs that are the horse’s motor. Now you can see that we are driving the horse from “back to front.” In the next article, we will discuss controlling the horse with rein aids. In the meantime, check out valuable information on this subject in my Dressage Principles, Parts 1 and 2, and Hunt Seat Equitation, Part 1. You can find these and other resources by calling 800-503-2824 or visiting www.lynnpalm.com.
