Keeping leg off!

[ponies-R-gr8!!!]

I ride my friends pony and she is very sensitive for aids to go forward. (especially in canter)
I find that most of the time im making her go faster because my legs are automatically kept on(i think this is because my toes are out? Someone correct me!)
How can i stop doing this and also, how can i keep my toes in andmy heels down? I have tried dropping my heels down whilst walking up the stairs, but it doesnt work with me!

[*Grey Gelding*]

umm.....i would have suggested just making sure that your heels are down and your toes corrected from pointing outwards, but u did that urself i guess you could try lots of work in walk without stirrups on the pony and this will lengthen your leg position and deepen your seat? worth a try i guess! mayb concentrate on deepening your seat and tightening your back muscles to stop too

[Skib]

Forget about position.
Try breathing long slow and deep. Try in walk and trot first and see how many steps of the horse you can manage. Relax and expand your rib cage.

Then do this long deep breathing in canter. Your legs wont be too tight.
But that may not be your problem.
If you are already relaxed any horse may go on forward for you without conscious leg aids. You arent doing anything wrong. All you need is to learn from a good teacher how to slow a horse down. And practise downward transitions.
I had that gap in my edication too. But it is soon remedied.

[cazrider]

My instructortold me to roll my thighs forward if you get me. You can kind of pull them out at the back. This puts your leg in a much better position and deals with the issue of toes sticking out. It may sound a bit like greek, but it does work.

[*Grey Gelding*]

Originally Posted by Skib

Forget about position.
Try breathing long slow and deep. Try in walk and trot first and see how many steps of the horse you can manage. Relax and expand your rib cage.

Then do this long deep breathing in canter. Your legs wont be too tight.
But that may not be your problem.
If you are already relaxed any horse may go on forward for you without conscious leg aids. You arent doing anything wrong. All you need is to learn from a good teacher how to slow a horse down. And practise downward transitions.
I had that gap in my edication too. But it is soon remedied.

i dont particularly agree about the whole breathing thing, if your are unconsciously placing your leg on a horse then its going to go forward whether u breathe slowly, loads or not at all lol!

although i have to agree with the advice to learn to slow the horse down and with the leg aids possibly not being the problem

[eml]

It doesn't sound as if the problem is that your leg is on, legs need to be in contact with the pony anyway as otherwise they become even sharper in reponse.

I think the root of the problem is that you are gripping with your legs particularly in canter and as a result of this your heels are coming up and your toes turning out. Are other ponies you ride quite unresponsive? Riders often get into the bad habit of gripping as it appears to them to work with slower horses but then get into this problem wiith the more reponsive.

[*toHorse&Away*]

Really interesting thread, esp the last comment by eml.
A lot of the horses I ride are I suppose unrepsonive as they have to deal with all sorts.
This means lots of leg, which means poition goes all over, which means lack of balance which means gripping with the knees etc which in tirn leasto dead to the leg and the whole cycle starts again.
I am presently trying very hard to keep the leg off the horse, touching but not squeezing, and it is very difficult to hit the correct balance with keeping the momentum and getting to the stage where les are completely ignored!

[ponies-R-gr8!!!]

Eml- yes, alot of the horses i have rode in the past have been quite unresponsive, hence my instructor telling me to keep my legs on. However now, i am riding a non-riding school horse who is vey sensitive to the leg aids.
I think you are right that i am gripping with my legs in canter, how can i stop this?

[Sammii]

Originally Posted by *Grey Gelding*

i dont particularly agree about the whole breathing thing, if your are unconsciously placing your leg on a horse then its going to go forward whether u breathe slowly, loads or not at all lol!

although i have to agree with the advice to learn to slow the horse down and with the leg aids possibly not being the problem

What's Skib is trying to get across (as far as I'm aware) is that, yes, you will still have your leg on a horse, but the long slow breathing will relax the muscles whereas short quick breaths could tense you up, especially in your legs and calve muscles, which give the horse forward aids.

[eml]

In a way the pony will help you. I am lucky that I have very few ponies that require much leg so I tend to teach 'quiet' legs from the beginning. You need to concentrate on your body and still lower leg position which if you have to keep riding slower ponies will be difficult.

Ask your RI if you can do some different things like use a crop occasionally and lots of transitions to make your RS pony more responsive. Possibly have a few lunge lessons. On the other pony you are riding just concentrate on sitting up and straight and ( I know this sounds odd) wriggle your toes. It is physically impossible to grip while toe wriggling!!

Horseandaway don't try to keep leg off horse, think soft knees. Gripping with knees is the root of many problems including not being able to get horses going forward.

Basically Skib was right breathing can make you relax as does wriggling toes but moving up from a staid RS laid back ploddy pony to something more responsive is difficult.

I tend to go the other way and teach on sharper but safe ponies so riders are not so shocked when they get their own or ride friends but many don't stay as it means they spend longer on the basics compared with other schools.

[ponies-R-gr8!!!]

Eml- thanks thats really helpful and i will try it

[curlycal]

I'm having the same problem aswell. I have spent the past 11 months learning on horses that need a lot of leg to get going and keep going.
2 weeks ago I was given a much more forward going horse to ride. the first time I tried to stop from trot it took me 1 1/2 circuits of the arena
I also managed a perfect piaffe unintentionally
This week was a lot better, and I managed to get her working in an outline at times (how good does that feel to ride )
As an older learner I find it hard to concentrate on everything at the same time.
I think I need to try the slow breathing/ wriggling my toes advice.

Cal x