Leg yielding.

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NicandLiv

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Bit of background, I have a 14 year old cob mare had her for nearly 2 months now. I have lessons weekly (this has only been my second lesson today as I've just been doing some bonding and groundwork with her before moving onto more ''formal'' training so to speak). She hasn't been ridden much for past 3 years, previous owner let her do what she wants (i.e. if she kicks on a hack, owner would dismount and go home). Previous to that we don't know any history, only that she was brought over from Ireland to be a broodmare, don't even know if she's had any foals.

So... The issue we have come across whilst riding, was when I was trying to get her back onto the outside circle and putting pressure with my inside leg asking for leg yielding, she began to trot. And we since figured out that whenever I put any pressure on my legs she immediately goes faster.

In hand, I can ask her to ''move over'' (turn on the forehand)by applying very slight pressure (she is a sensitive horse and goes by voice command only) just behind where the girth would be and using my other hand on the lead rope bringing her head towards me. I am not sure how to go about teaching her to actually move sideways on the ground, and hopefully it should help when I ride her next weekend if I use the same voice command and same aid but using my leg instead of hand.
 
Ask your instructor to establish halt and walk on, then establish half halts in walk and trot. Do lots of transitions up and down until the horse is listening to hand and leg. When this is in move on to leg yield using shoulder fore first.
 
Sounds like she doesn't understand the difference between a forwards and sideways leg aid.

Can you do turn on the forehand and or part turn on the haunches under saddle? It's a bit hard without seeing you but you need to be sure your aids (weight, legs and hands) are all in the right place at the right time. Some horses find leg yielding easier in a straight line rather than circle.
 
Wheels said:
Sounds like she doesn't understand the difference between a forwards and sideways leg aid.

Can you do turn on the forehand and or part turn on the haunches under saddle? It's a bit hard without seeing you but you need to be sure your aids (weight, legs and hands) are all in the right place at the right time. Some horses find leg yielding easier in a straight line rather than circle.
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Nope, under saddle all she knows is walk, trot, stop and rein back (but with everything, all you need to do is say "back" and she goes back, so I am going to work on introducing the leg and rein aids for this when I've cracked the yielding). Which for a 14 year old is pretty poor! But hey ho, I am enjoying training her. We have cracked the leg yield movement in hand now, I have found I need to put pressure just behind the girth for her to move correctly. I can do turn on the forehand in hand now as well. I have a lesson this weekend so I'm just going to concentrate on trying to get these achieved under saddle before moving on to anything else.


She is a funny one, you can tell she hasn't had confidence in a rider/owner/human for a very long time, it's really sad.
 
Some horses need a 'context' to understand what you mean, so respond better on hacks. If you need to use a school because your RI is there, could you set up obstacles for her to move round, so that she knows why you are asking her to leg-yield.
 
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