using my legs

[CheriFen]

this is soooo confusing to me.

I find I ride using reins for turns and I know I should be using seat and legs. sooo, if I want to work on taking gentle left turns for instance- should I look where I want to go...then turn my belly button toward that direction? then take the right leg and apply pressure? do I apply steady pressure through the whole turn? or rhythmic tap tap pressure on and off?

and for the average rider/horse how much rein should I still need for general hacking...going around street signs and obstacles...My horse basically will brush me off on any object unless I use the reins to direct her away from stuff. I've been riding on the neighborhood streets and sidewalks until I get boots for her. so there are lots of things to go around so plenty of steering necessary.

are reins just needed more where there is lots of precise movements? mail boxes, trees, bushes, gas pumps, lobster signs =) that sort of stuff.

 

[Wally]

Get a copy of Heather Moffett's Enlightened Equitation book. She explains it so well in there.

You need to start feeling what the horse is doing under you, so you know what you aapplying your legs and seatbones to.

Feel your seatbones rocking on the horse and how he's making your pelvis rise and fall with his hind foot falls.

When you want to turn just rock a bit more weight onto the front edge of your seatbone on the side you want to turn, you will find your leg wil automatically slide back a bit.

 

[Bodshi]

I won't be much help as trying to learn to use legs myself, but this is how my RI explained it to me in my last lesson:

The rider's shoulders follow the shoulders of the horse and the rider's hips follow the hips of the horse ... so if you imagine the horse bending to the right in a curve, it's left shoulder will be ahead of the right shoulder, but its left hip will be behind its right hip. Therefore the top half of the rider's body should turn right to face the direction in which they want to go, but the pelvis should remain parallel with the hips of the horse, so the rider's left leg will be slightly behind the girth. Increased pressure from the rider's right leg indicates to the horse that he needs to move his barrel to the left, while the rider's left leg slightly behind the girth frees the horse's left shoulder to help him take the longer stride needed on the left as he makes the turn.

I understood it when she explained it to me, but it sounds a lot more confusing when I've written it down.

Don't suppose it will work until the horse is familiar with the aids though, so it might be a good idea to practice some turn on the forehands or other lateral work to help her get the general idea.

Mostly what I wanted to say was how impressed I am that your horse will go so close to all those obstacles. And also, what on earth is a lobster sign??!!

 

[CheriFen]

And also, what on earth is a lobster sign??!!

hehe. I live in Maine and it's a big lobster state. I live across the street from a library/town hall and gas station/grocery store and they sell live lobsters so they have a giant red lobster sign right next to the sidewalk. I was a little worried when we headed past it, but she didn't blink.

so far the only things that have scared her was her brush the first time I approached her with it, go figure, and fireworks...only the first few....and fly spray. That one she's not getting over any time soon.

 

[Tina2011]

Light aids should be enough for these kind of obstacles I think.....I am trying to think. I use a lot of leg yield when I am out hacking, that is move the horse sideways and forwards at the same time. For example, if a car is parked on the left (we drive on the left here just to complicate things) I use a light right rein (maintaining contact with left rein) and push horse over with my left leg. No tapping just a constant small pressure.

 

[carthorse]

I think we often over think weight aids, exaggerate them & this confuses them. I'd start off by focusing on where you want to go & not looking where you don't want to go, eg look to a spot a couple of feet to the side of the car & focus on that. I think most of us have a tendancy to look at the thing we want to avoid, but that automatically shifts our weight in a way that tells our horse we want to go to it - it seems it's very hard, if not impossible, for us to look at something without our weight & posture following that look & that's what our horses read. Or maybe I'm just very lucky with my horses & they are near telepathic :unsure:

 

[Wiz201]

When my share horse tries to go back to the gate, or if she does her funny gentle sidestep away from cars, I find legs work better than hands. When I want her to go to the right, I use my right leg on the girth and left leg goes back behind the girth and that is almost as effective as me trying to pull her round with the reins.