Confusing signals?

[Equitating]

My mare is sometimes confused as the aids I have been taught for leg yield and canter are similar. To leg yield to the left: slightly lift the right rein, slide the right leg back a smidge and apply pulsing pressure as needed. To canter on left lead: slightly lift the left rein, slide the right leg back a smidge and "nudge" into canter.

I think that to canter I need to ask more with the inside leg and just move the outside leg back as a cue??? Would this help clarify things to my mare? When we first started working on leg yield she would canter as soon as I moved my leg back but now she takes more "asking". I really don't want to supress her responsiveness.

Riding is such a complicated thing! so much to remember all at once! I love it.

[cvb]

This won't answer all your question, but I was a bit caugfht out by your description of aids for leg yield.

The thing about leg yeild is that the horse is flexed away from the direction of travel.

i.e. if you are leg yielding to the left, you would expect the horse to be flexed to the right a little. The horse is yielding to your leg pressure - so if going to left, they are yielding to the pressure on the right.

Of course its not that simple because you don't want the horse to just fall flat on its face, so you need to support with the other leg and hand.

I had one of those 'light bulb' moments doing leg yield in a lesson here in sweden. You have to resist trying to lift the horse up and move it across yourself - you often see people with hands way over to the side when trying leg yield. But the light bulb moment was that the best leg yield was when I kept my leg AT the girth, and did not take it back.

If you take your leg back - you are asking the horse to flex his quarter TOWARDS the direction of travel not away. So at the front you are saying 'flex right' (if going left still) and with the back you say 'but put your backside to the left'. Which of course results in a less than wonderful leg yield. You may get sideways movement, but not what you really want. You may actually find you need your LEFT leg slightly back, to support the quarters and keep them 'straight' - of course it would just be a support, so passive.

The instructor in the lessons I was going to in Sweden started leg yield across the diagonal. In Uk it was almost always taught parallel to the long side., either moving in or out. Leg yield on the diagonal is an interesting exercise because it really makes you think about what you are doing, and the horse does not either fall back to the side, or not want to move away from it.

[Equitating]

I see what you mean, cvb, but if I don't move my leg back slightly in leg yield my mare takes that to mean a turn on the haunches! She is lazy and doesn't do any more than she has to....if she can she will just cross over with her front feet and not the back. If I have my leg behind the girth she will respond by moving her back quarters.

We will get good results in the end.....I tend to want to cut corners or find the easy way but with horses that obviously is not the way to go!!!