A very dim question...

[Lolo]

Right. When you ride, is it your heel or your calf giving the aids?

This is a top contender for stupidest question ever asked on HHO, I know. But it's been bugging me as of late! I have always actively disliked seeing people school in anything other than fitted boots/ chaps/ anything but those awful rubber boots or wellies or 'country' boots. Because I thought your calf was essentially (here's a really pretentious description, but hey ho) was like the bow and your horse's side like the violin, and if you had a big splodgy bow you couldn't get nice music...

But I've been told I am wrong. Am I? If so, I will stop disliking the baggy boots for practical reasons and move onto the purely aesthetic

For reading this, here's an adorable photo of Reg sporting his best winter gear...

He thinks he's rather dashing in that get up. His chum hasn't stopped laughing at him... I think the hunters think that the eventers are a little bit soft (in the head!)

 

[Roody2]

I've never heard the bow-violin analogy but it makes sense to me!!
Does that difference in footwear/riding style reflect in results? I haven't seen many successful riders riding apart from at events where they always have proper boots on so I don't know what footwear they use at home.

 

[soulfull]

you are right hun. Ignore whoever said your not

my view is that baggy boots/wellies are not good for subtle aids, which is what we all want. They may even irritate the horses sides by touching without you knowing

 

[Gamebird]

My aids depends on what I'm riding. For example riding a big horse in a jump saddle I give aids entirely with my heels/lower calf. Riding a small horse in a dressage saddle I rarely ever use my heels, it's all calf (my heels are usually below the horse's side). If your horses are as greasy as mine it's easy to see where the grease marks are on your boots and which part of your leg you've used.

I never ride in wellies/country boots though. Either long riding boots or short boots and half chaps/gaiters.

 

[dafthoss]

I use the calf for subtle ones and the heel if the subtle one was ignored.

A little bit depends on the size and conformation of the horse though, but I still try to stick to calf first then heel.

 

[dieseldog]

I think if it doesn't matter what you ride in. There used to be a guy down here who jumped 1.40 classes in green wellies. Mark Todd in fishing waders will be far more effective than me in the best boots available

 

[TrasaM]

I developed a very bad habit of using my heels because the horses I was learning on were a bit dull to squeezes. To do so you have to raise the foot which means that the leg is no longer in the correct position. ( at least it does woth my legs and the size horse i ride) Its taken me a while to get out of the habit but mostly now it's my calf which gives the aid and RS says she's really pleased with my leg position. Also never heard that before and I've had lessons with quite a few different instructors. Wonder if there is some confusion here because of using spurs ?

 

[Littlelegs]

My calf, I only use my heels in a spurs type scenario for refinement. I imagine in baggy boots you probably wouldn't get the same precision. But to play devils advocate, using that logic you could also say that wearing just short boots allows you to use your calf muscles more precisely than in long leather boots, yet its long leather boots that most adults wear.
I do see where you are coming from though. Daughter has some long rubber boots, with the idea when we are short of time it saves messing between jod boots & wellies for the yard. Being a skinny legged kid, she looks like she's stood in a pair of buckets they are that loose. And it took all of 15mins on a hack for us both to conclude she found it difficult to use her leg as usual.

 

[Lolo]

Ok, I will continue justifying my dislike of them with the slightly less bad sounding "not practical" rather than "they look ugly"... Thanks I know the heel plays a part, but I didn't know if I had made up my rather odd analogy!

 

[Carefreegirl]

It's not until someone asks a question like this that you actually think about what you're doing !

Having just thought about it I'm definately a calf squeezer unless I'm going up to any type of jump over 1ft 9 then I'm definately a 'heeler', kicking and screaming like a banshee as the sooner I'm over it the better

I'm also a 'long fitted boot' person, can't stand things flapping around.

 

[Sol]

I use my calf, usually by dropping my little toe. If I wear spurs, I wear long ones so I can just sort of turn my leg a bit I hate and sort of loose boots anyway because I have stupidly bendy ankles and then my feet just sort of... flop around! not fun.

 

[ajf]

Ooooo I'm going against the grain here!

Well any proper riding I use long leather boots, however at the moment I'm using some 'country' boots for hacking at home, but that's because I have fat legs so nothing loose and I can fit really thick socks on underneath!!!

 

[RachelFerd]

I ride in wellies. Nearly all the time in the winter. I use my calf to give aids, I have no issues wearing my wellies or variety of cold-weather boots to ride. I am regularly seen riding out in a dressage saddle combined with rubber wellies. Possibly this is because my calves are so skinny that I am used to riding in floppy boots and I consider it normal. I ride lots of horses every day, often dragging them out of muddy fields, and I am certainly not going to mess about trying to swap footwear around as part of the process! Sure, it is scruffy, but at this time of year I am much more interested in staying warm than I am in looking smart.

 

[Santa_Claus]

I use the calf for subtle ones and the heel if the subtle one was ignored.

A little bit depends on the size and conformation of the horse though, but I still try to stick to calf first then heel.

This!

 

[Nicnac]

Agree calf however if you are riding in -6 at 8pm like I am during the week, you are welcome to try to do it in anything other than muck boots or similar.

If I were to ride in 'normal' long boots I wouldn't be able to feel my toes, feet or calves!