Leads

[CLAUDIA]

Hello Heather,

I've had quite a bit of time in the saddle since I first starting posting messages to this board. I try to have a lesson at least twice per week, and I practice whenever I get the chance. I also bought your book and have followed all of your advice from this message board. The trainers at the stable say I'm doing great for only having lessons for a little over a year. One thing I'm not quite sure about is leads. How do you tell if you're on the correct lead without looking? What does it feel like? I need to hear it in words because I try to feel it and it slips away after one lesson.

I'm also wondering what aids will help a horse that tends to pick up the wrong lead when going to the right.

Thanks!

[Heather]

Sorry I haven't answered this topic before, Claudia. The little sign alongside the message wasn't 'lit' so I thought I had already commented on it, until saw '0' replies aganist it!
Learning to feel the correect lead often takes quite a while. OBviously the better you can feel the hind legs coming under or striking off the ground in walk and sitting trot, will increase your ability to be able to feel the correct lead. There is no hard and fast way to tell you how to do this. I remember that years ago, I had a hard time feeling the correct lead. One day, I just knew that my horse had struck off wrong. By this time, I had a fairly advanced dressage schoolmaster, and it was on him that I first felt it. Now I could tell immeditiately if the hrose was about to even strike off wrong, and stop it before it happened! Be patient, and work on the feel in the other gaits first. My next video will concentrate in the first half, on learning 'feel'too.

With a horse that strikes off wrong, the best way is to let it run a little bit into canter whilst rising to the trot on the wrong diagonal. This throws the horse onto the correct lead, once he goes into canter. Do this for a while until he gets the idea of at least striking off on the correct leg, then go back to improving the quality of the trnsitions!

Heather

[CLAUDIA]

Thanks Heather!

I just realized that I posted my question in the wrong section of the message board. I'll keep paying attention to the horse moving under me at the walk and trot until it becomes second nature. And I noticed that I can now feel the best time to ask the horse to canter. I don't really know what the horse is doing, but I know what it feels like.

Thanks again!