Teaching leg yield?

[Meadow21]

My new horse is proving more challenging to teach leg yield then I imagined. Basically he will only do it on the left rein, on the right rein he completely ignores my leg aid and will not do it. I have had 2 very experienced dressage riders (one rides grand prix, the other PSG) get on him and both unable, he would only do it on the right rein. Both have tried to reteach the leg yield to him, he remains perfect on the left rein and will not yield on the right. Ive had a physio check him over who said he has a slight unbalance but should be able to leg yield on both reins. Farrier has checked his feet and they are thin soles but should have no issues, vet has no concerns either. The other issue is I can’t use a schooling whip with him, he was obviously beaten in his previous home so he becomes too stressed and bolts if you’re using one! Does anyone have any ideas of what I could try or experienced a similar problem. He is a quirky/sensitive horse but tries very hard to be good and hasn’t got a naughty bone in his body.

 

[Littlebear]

Maybe teach him in hand first so he can build it up before doing it with rider. Bit of shoulder in, sideways, crossing over poles - see how he gets on with that?

 

[Melody Grey]

Can you move him over from the floor in day to day activities? If so, I’d try someone on the ground to usher him over and back up your leg aids. Can’t say it’s a problem I’ve encountered, but that’s what I’d try.

RE: the whip. You may be able to desensitise with time and patience? get him used to it on the ground first, then being passed it whilst mounted, passing it back etc.

 

[Red-1]

I would teach the turn on fore and turn on haunch: these move the respective ends.

Then I would set two tramlines of poles out, one each end of the arena near centre line, but offset, so you have to yield over one to the other.

Go from one to the other, but broken down in small bits, so rear end over, take a step, front end over, take a step. Make up the leg yield in micro steps. Only make it a walking/moving thing once you are confident that you can make either the front (or more likely) the rear end catch up. If the horse ignores you, make it a static tiny turn, then the tiny turn on the other end, so you are basically going sideways, then make a step forwards and build it up from there. Don't let the horse do too much forwards until you are confident you can make it also be sideways.

 

[hock]

If he can move over in his stable both ways it seems strange a decent jockey can’t get him to leg yield. When I saw your post I assumed it was a bay horse and was just going to suggest using exaggerated aids and using your seat to unbalance him in the direction you want him to go in to help him get it. Does the saddle fit?

 

[Boulty]

Would agree with seeing if you can teach it from the floor first. If he can't do it with you on the ground then I would personally seek a second opinion on his back from a different physio or perhaps an osteopath or Masterson method practitioner just to see if someone coming at it from a different angle finds something that's been missed / maybe take him to a referral centre for a poor performance work up

 

[Lyle]

Teach him to yield his HQs on the ground- so a turn on the forehand. He must cross his hind leg in front of the opposite hind. If he does this well on the ground, do it under saddle too. Then, I would pick up the left rein, and along the wall ask for a little right flexion and put my right leg back, so asking him to step across with the right hind. The wall should help stop him from rushing off. Once he truly understands that one leg aid means to move sideways not forward, I'd start to do the leg yield from half circles yielding back to the wall.