Correct aids

[Debby Riley]

Aids have always confused me and although i am having lessons this has never been explained to me at all,

can someone explain them to me ?

[CobNut]

Aids are the signals you send to the horse, which tell it what you want it to do. They are the unspoken language between you and the horse - equivalent to the "leads" which a male ballroom dancer gives his partner.

There are five different ways you can give an aid:

1. along the reins to the horse's mouth
2. with your legs or whip to the horse's side
3. through your seat and saddle (if using a saddle) to the horse's back
4. by your position, balance, movement and weight distribution (which may really be part of 3, but I list it separately to distinguish the more refined weight aids from the "driving seat")
5. with your voice to the horse's ears and (hopefully) direct from there to its brain. Much more significant for the driven horse than for the ridden horse, since options 2, 3 and 4 are not available when driving.

Some of the aids are natural and inevitable: if you do certain things, then it impedes the horse's ability to perform certain movements; if you do certain other things, it communicates a cense of urgency to the horse which is likely to cause it to speed up or change up a gait (or three!). Other aid are artificial: they produce the results they do because the particular horse has been taught, at some stage in the past, that if somebody does (or says) a certain thing in a certain way, it is because they want the horse to respond in a certain way. Horses are generous, willing creatures, and will generally respond to these aids in the manner that they have been taught.

It is important to realise this - that the horse's responses to many of the aids are artificial, acquired responses. Because different horses, trained in different ways, may respond very differently to the same aids. Neither is "right" or "wrong" - it is just that a horse trained for one thing may need to respond differently from a horse trained for another thing. Thus a trekking centre wants ponies which will respond to unequal pressure on the reins by TURNING in the direction of the greater pressure; whereas a high level dressage rider wants a horse that will respond by BENDING in the direction of the greater pressure, but not turning. The legs and the weight, rather than the reins, are used to steer a dressage horse.

I hope this brief explanation helps. If there is some particular point of the aids that is bothering you, then it might help if you explain your particular and immediate concern in greater detail. I am sure there are many here who will be able to give you some pointers in the right direction. (Not me, I'm afraid: I'm just a happy hacker who's been bimbling about the coutryside on the same horse for so long that she and I understand one another intimately, and I don't really know what aids I'm giving her half the time because I never stop to analyse it. I tend to think "OK - we'll do this now" and we do. I'm probably not giving her the "correct" aids for half of the things we do, but she understands what I want and does it. And that's what riding is realy all about to my mind; developing a means of communication which you and the horse understand intuitively, so that you don't actually have to stop and think about what it is that you're saying to one another.)

[Shiny McShine]

As I understand the aids this is how they go:
There are leg, rein and weight aids.

The weight aids are:
- both seatbones
This is your natural weigh into the seatbones when moving in a straight line and an increase of weight in both seatbones when half-halting
- one seatbone
This is weight on either the left or the right seat bone when turning to the left or right respectively, or when moving laterally.

The leg aids are:
- the forward driving leg aid
This is where leg is applied in the normal position, either the inside leg only on turns and in lateral work or both legs on a straight line.
- The sideways driving leg aid
This is where the leg is applied slightly back from normal position and asks the horse for sideways movement of the quarters or whole body (depending on how the rein is used). It is used in lateral movements.
- The guarding leg aid
This is similarly positioned to the sideways driving leg aid but does not drive the horse sideways but prevents the quarters from veering off the desired track in that direction. It is used with one or both legs on a straight line to keep the horse straight on the track, similarly on turns the outside leg uses the guarding leg aid to keep the hindquarters on the track. In lateral work it prevents the angle becoming too great.

The rein aids are:
- the asking/yeilding rein aid
This is used on one rein to flex the horse or on both reins in half-halt and halt and when asking for contact. It involves taking or asking with the rein and then giving the rein when the horse responds. Alternately you can give and take repeatedly until the horse responds.
- the non-yeilding rein aid
This is where the rein is held/an asking rein is given and it is cancelled out by some response in the horse. It is sometimes used in place of the asking/yeilding rein by skilled riders when establishing the contact.
- the guarding rein aid
This is similar to the guarding leg aid. It prevents the horses shoulder from veering off the track either on a straight line, where either rein may come into use, or on a bend or in lateral movements. It also controls the amount of flexion in the opposite direction.

Boy, what an essay! I hope it is helpful and/or accurate (please anyone if this doesn't seem correct let us know, this is straight off the top of my head from my knowledge of the aids and if I'm wrong I will need to know!).

[Debby Riley]

Many thanks for the explanation of aids, which with your help i know understand but what is bothering me is the correct leg aids for:

left hand turn (say for example in the schooling manage) do you put your right (outside ) leg back slightly and kick on with the leg closet to the centre of the school? and vise versa for the other direction?

Also to get the correct leg in trot/canter do you do the above but your leg is futher back say behind the girth? and then vice versa going the other way?

when i am having lessons i am just told to canter by kicking on gently but i know that this is not the correct way to ride or is it? I can get the horse to canter but not for long mainly because i lean forward which is something else i need to work on any tips on that too??

Thanks

[IrisSilverMoon]

Originally posted by Debby Riley


left hand turn (say for example in the schooling manage) do you put your right (outside ) leg back slightly and kick on with the leg closet to the centre of the school? and vise versa for the other direction?

Also to get the correct leg in trot/canter do you do the above but your leg is futher back say behind the girth? and then vice versa going the other way?

when i am having lessons i am just told to canter by kicking on gently but i know that this is not the correct way to ride or is it? I can get the horse to canter but not for long mainly because i lean forward which is something else i need to work on any tips on that too??

Thanks

for left hand turn yourelbows should be at your side and your reins at a good length. all you should have to do is to turn your shoulders in the direction you want to go an the horse will follow. Sometimes if you're making a tight circle you can keep your inside leg at the girth and have your outside leg slightly farther back to keep the horses haunches from falling out. But i wouldnt' worry too much about that at this stage of your riding, it will come later...:) just do the shoulders thing.

to trot you just need to shorten your reins a little and give an extra squeeze with your legs (squeezes with the legs should always mean faster and nothing else) the horse should move into the faster gait. if not give a tap with your whip or cluck to show you are serious, he might be a school horse dead to the leg i don't know.

For canter, you need to shorten your reins just a little bit more with the inside rein being slightly shorter than the outside rein so you have some bend and the horse knows which lead to pick up. you put your outside leg back a little and squeeze with that leg and the horse should pic up the correct lead. If not, cluck or tap with the whip...:)

you should never have to kick a horse to get him to go (but i understand that as a beginner sometimes that's how it works) but from the position you described it sounds pretty dangerous to me. Imagine if you are asking for a canter, you're leaning forward and take both legs off the horse. What would happen if he bucked at that moment? you'd probably go flying over the horses head :eek: It is easier for a horse to go faster when you lean forward but it's not as safe for you. You are the person that needs to be safe, cause the horse isn't likely to get hurt, just likely to go faster. leaning back is usually the way to go, i know its a hard thing to do as a beginner because instinctively you want to lean forward, but just try leaning back, you get a better seat that way cause it's easier to follow the movement. Also try not to take your legs off the horse for any reason as that also puts you in a dangerous position. I'm sure all of this will come in time though, so don't sweat it and stick to it! :D

[Debby Riley]

IrisSilverMoon- you have explained and made more sense than my instructor ( not that she is a bad instructor ) most of the horses are dead to the leg and i do feel that it is cruel to keep kicking the horses, i want to be a good fair rider, not just someone that sits on one !!

As for the leaning forward, this is out of fright and a bad habit that i have gotton into but now that you have explained why this is dangerous and what could happen this has helped, i am due to change horses at my next lesson to one that is not so dead to the leg so i wanted to give the correct aids etc

thank you i will keep you posted after my next lesosn on sunday. may be i should book some private lessons and try and improve my position.

My goal is to be able to ride safetly and confidently so that come the nicer weather i will feel confident to go on a hack, the previous time that i went on a hack, i was on a very forward going horse and i had not cantered before and i fractured my coccyx bone, a hard lesson learnt that day........ i needed lessons !!

[IrisSilverMoon]

I"m glad i could help!

definately keep us posted on your progress!