How to make SENSITIVE to aids

J

jumper-4-joy

I luv Ash!!!
Oct 21, 2005
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California, USA
hey everyone,

I just got a draft horse. I rode him for the first time today, and he does not seem very responsive to aids. Although, I did only have a halter on him, so that could be part of it.:p But I am talking about leg aids.
He is totally bombproof and has a really good mind, so it should be pretty easy to teach him.
He is not that hard (I only walked today though) but it does seem to take a bit to make him leg-yield. (I like my horses almost overlysensitive to aids)
He has not had that much training with it at all, so how would you teach a horse to leg yield who has had no prior experience doing it?:confused:

Thanks!:D
 
A dressage whip. Seriously. The more you kick a horse, the less they learn to respond.

Instead, what you want to do is ride, ask for a bit more with your leg, if you get no response, flick with the whip behind. If he scoots forward, try not to catch him in his mouth (its counterproductive because you want him going forward, even if its out of surprise) Then he soon learns that when you apply leg it means get going.

As for leg yielding, make sure you are using your weight aids effectively too. Shifting your weight to the inside does help as well as using a guiding outside rein. Again, you can always use the whip to back up your leg
 
The "Legs-away" exercise, used by many professionals, is top in my book!

When you ride - from the moment you mount - keep your legs so that they are not touching the horse's sides. Then when you need to use it, give the horses a clear and firm yet not hard, nudge. It should be an on-off application and he should react pretty much straight away - do not settle for second best. If you allow him to be lazy once, he will forever be pushing this already frail boundary. If he does not respond immediately, swing your legs slightly forward and out and give him ashort, sharp kick, acked up with a sharp tap of the whip behind your leg if necessary.
If he jumps forward, let hij go - even if it's in canter, rushed or a bit of a mad dash, don't touch his mouth and flow with the motion, and praise him with your voice and with your body, staying in good balance and being unrestrictive.

If you do this every time you ask him to move forwards then he should learn quite quickly to respond to the initial aid, and you will need to do this every time.

Do not let yourself get into the habit of nagging with your leg constantly - he will switch off to you and become all the more dead to the leg.

Good luck!

:)

ps - make sure he is receiving the right diet, plenty of turnout and has no physical problems (so have his back, saddle and teeth all checked) before moving forwards in any ay in his training.

xx
 
I would find out what he knows first and stick with that. You can then be confident that he knows what is being asked of him and is just being lazy. This means that you can gently ask once, ask again more forably and then add in a tap with the schooling whip if he still doesn't respond.

Keep you cues predictable so that he knows that ignoring the softer aids will lead to harder ones. This will teach him to anticipate and so lighten up so predictability is the key.

Once you know what he knows and he is lightening up then you can think about teaching the leg yeild. I did this from the ground first and used voice and my hand on Joy's side.

Once she got the hang of it from the ground then I tried it in the saddle. You may need a helper on the ground at first although we didn't.
 
i agree with Joyscarer. work on getting him more forward with the method above and then teach leg yield. i would ask someone to walk with you and as you ask for leg yield make sure as SA said that you use your weight and that you push and don't nudge as the inside hind comes off the ground, if there is no response ask you helper to push him slightly so he gets to realise what the leg aid is asking.
 
re. puzzles legs away exercise....My understanding of it was that you rode with your legs resting quietly against the sides...but took them away for few seconds before applying them ( however firmly is needed at that time ).
The idea was that the horse learns to react to the leg being lifted away from his sides...anticipating the 'thump' so that the leg aid can be made less and less obvious each time and get a forward response. My horse learned to go forwards from my leg being lifted away...not sure if thats a good thing...he is just a bright horse!
 
i have always been taught that your legs rest quietly on the horses sides and the aid for more forwards is to squeeze meaning your legs don't leave the horses sides.
 
The suggestions here are all good ones. I'd also try to work out what he enjoys & use this to wake him up/motivate him. My old cob was ex-RS & seemed to assume that he was going to have a boring time when he went into the school, so he would be half asleep & you sometimes really had to bully him to get him going - not fun for horse or rider. He absolutely loved doing turns on the forehand/haunches & square corners though. When he was feeling sluggish, I do a few square corners & throw a turn in when he wasn't expecting it. This woke him up & got his focus on me, so he would usually work really well after that :).
 
puzzles said:
The "Legs-away" exercise, used by many professionals, is top in my book!

When you ride - from the moment you mount - keep your legs so that they are not touching the horse's sides. Then when you need to use it, give the horses a clear and firm yet not hard, nudge. It should be an on-off application and he should react pretty much straight away - do not settle for second best. If you allow him to be lazy once, he will forever be pushing this already frail boundary. If he does not respond immediately, swing your legs slightly forward and out and give him ashort, sharp kick, acked up with a sharp tap of the whip behind your leg if necessary.
If he jumps forward, let hij go - even if it's in canter, rushed or a bit of a mad dash, don't touch his mouth and flow with the motion, and praise him with your voice and with your body, staying in good balance and being unrestrictive.

If you do this every time you ask him to move forwards then he should learn quite quickly to respond to the initial aid, and you will need to do this every time.

Do not let yourself get into the habit of nagging with your leg constantly - he will switch off to you and become all the more dead to the leg.

Good luck!

:)

ps - make sure he is receiving the right diet, plenty of turnout and has no physical problems (so have his back, saddle and teeth all checked) before moving forwards in any ay in his training.

xx
Click to expand...

I use this method also:)
 
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