Teaching Leg yield to a young horse

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Hi,

I'm currently teaching my young horse how to do leg yield. He is getting the idea of how to move away from my leg in walk but I was wondering if there were any exercises I should do to help me to teach him?

Any advice much appreciated
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I always start on the ground. In the stable make sure that the horse knows how to move "over" and away from a light touch to the side.

Then you can do this in the school when long lining (with an assistant). When you start the movement ridden you can then use the voice command and the light touch to the side with the leg aid.
 
If I'm ever unsure if a baby/green horse will know leg yield or not, I always start by turning up the three-quarter line and moving towards the track/fence. It's the natural way to move and helps them get the idea.
 
One way to try it is from a 20m cicle, gradually decrease to 10m (or as close as you can manage and remain balance), establish the 10m circle and acceptance of the inside leg, then leg yield out, but one or two steps at a time, then back on to the new circle to re-establish impulsion, then leg yield again a step or two at a time.
 
same as Silmarillion, i use their natural tendency to want to go back to the outside track, starting from the first track (about a metre from the outside track), then from 2nd track, etc etc. i also slightly exaggerate the aids... most horses will move under your weight if you weight the outside seatbone slightly more.
 
Imho the problem with doing it from 3/4 line is that youre exploiting a drift and not actively encouraging a step over. The point oif leg yield in a young horse is to help it to understand the different roles of the legs and their positioning in relation to how the horses legs should move and what pressures they should yield to.

Therefore I work with the head to the fence and the horse stepping away from my outside leg along the track sideways. The fence blocks the forward to allow the hand to be relatively soft and it is a very clear signal to the horse to understand what the pressure of your outside leg does when used in that way
 
I'm going to go with Boss on this one - I find the "drift" back to the track approach encourages the horse to fall over the outside shoulder, which can become such an integral problem. In order to counteract this the riders gets tempted to "catch" the horse on the outside rein, even succumbing to the temptation to go to an indirect rein aid, which is counter productive to the horse coming through with the hind leg and staying soft and forward.

The "nose to the wall" makes more sense to the horse and lets the rider do less with the hand and often makes it easier to keep the horse straight. I also find it easier to teach the movement in steps this way, making it easier to check each "bit" is correct before moving on to the next.

All that said, this can be one of those things where different methods work better for different horses. And, as Boss says, the movement is really just a means to an end anyway, somewhat like turn on the forehand (which seems to have become unfashionable, although I still find it a useful introductory exercise) so however the horse gets the message correctly, I guess.

I did have one horse that learned it best off the diagonal. I think I got the idea out of a magazine and it worked a treat. I don't know which situation it would work best for since I chose to use it out of desperation but I'd try it again.
 
Agree with Bossanova on this. Allowing them to go back to the track is really just a drift, which is not the point of the leg yield.
I actually start them on this on the ground - during lunge work, we spend a fair amount of time teaching the horse to move away from pressure, so we can move the body, the hind end, the front end, whatever we want. It translates fantastically to ridden work.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Imho the problem with doing it from 3/4 line is that youre exploiting a drift and not actively encouraging a step over. The point oif leg yield in a young horse is to help it to understand the different roles of the legs and their positioning in relation to how the horses legs should move and what pressures they should yield to.

Therefore I work with the head to the fence and the horse stepping away from my outside leg along the track sideways. The fence blocks the forward to allow the hand to be relatively soft and it is a very clear signal to the horse to understand what the pressure of your outside leg does when used in that way

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly how I would suggest it should be introduced to a young horse. I use this exercise on a daily basis with my more advanced horses as part of their warm up program. You can vary the angle making it less severe for the babies and a steeper angle for the more advanced horses to really get them stepping through and crossing over
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