Help with leg yielding please

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daydreamer

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Hi,

I would like to start doing some lateral work on a horse I ride but am having difficulties! I have tried leg yielding from the 3/4 line, along the fence and on spiral circles. I can get a little bit of sideways movement sometimes but it isn't great! He just isn't really moving away from the leg and tends to trail the quarters/fall out through the shoulder a little. He also tends to be a bit like a windup toy.... get slower and slower and nearly grind to a halt!

I do a lot of direct and indirect transitions and transitions within the pace to get him off the leg before trying lateral work, after this we can have forwards off the leg but still not sideways :(

So... any suggestions? Should I initially be content with just a little sideways and not worry about true crossing behind? I wondered about trying to do work from the ground but I'm not sure exactly how?

Thanks!
 
It sounds as though you are blocking him TBH. Any chance of some video? It is near on impossible to help without seeing what you are doing. As with everything tho, when you start to teach a movement anything is better than nothing, so if he IS moving away from your leg then reward and go straight, don't ask for too much angle, ensure you are not collapsing your hip or blocking with your hand and start with gradual incline and work from there.
 
Weezy said:
As with everything tho, when you start to teach a movement anything is better than nothing, so if he IS moving away from your leg then reward and go straight, don't ask for too much angle, ensure you are not collapsing your hip or blocking with your hand and start with gradual incline and work from there.
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Very good advice ;) especially the reward and go straight part - if he is grinding to a halt when you are asking then you are going to find it harder to get any movement sideways - he needs to be taking you forward first :) try setting yourself small goals first, a few good steps and then go straight again, and keep repeating that (should be able to fit a couple of repetitions into a long side).

If he does start to really slow down and ignore your leg, have a break and do something different - trot/halt/trot or walk/canter transitions etc, to really wake him up again :)

Also, make sure you are prepared well - have him really straight on the 3/4 line before you start, so you aren't beginning with a bit of a drift. I like to ride up and down the 3/4 line in a straight line a couple of times to check this.

If he will tolerate it, you can try tickling him with a long stick on his quarters, if they are drifting, just to show him that he needs to bring them too. In the first instance, I like to keep the neck straight so that you don't lose the shoulder so easily (or at least you can tell immediately if you do! ;))

One final thought - sometimes it's easier to teach this out hacking, esp down lanes etc as the lane leads the horse forward (so this avoids the slowing down issue) but the hedges help you to keep straight if you see what I mean. (traffic permitting obviously - I'm lucky to have lots of quiet narrow lanes :D)
 
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Thanks for the replies, unfortunately I can't post videos as I don't have a video camera and it isn't my horse :( I had another go tonight and got some better steps, thinking about not blocking the movement and just doing a bit at a time. Riding the 3/4 line straight in a good forward walk first also helped I think. Millipops he does tolerate a schooling stick to the extent that he ignores it unfortunately! ;)
 
I tend to do it in walk as I know I find it harder to coordinate myself in trot and can end up a bit wonky on some horses :o Thinking about it he has quite an easy trot to sit to so I will try some in trot next time. Ta!
 
When you use your leg to ask him to go across do you use it on/off/on/off or just keep it on? You should use it on and off in rhythm with the stride. Using your leg that way also helps stop you going tense through your hips and back and gripping with your thighs, which will block forward movement
 
I try and feel the hind leg moving and then use my leg on and off like you say, I finally twigged that this worked when I rode my previous share horse bareback and could really feel the movement :D
 
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