leg yeild...

[Jen]

how do you guys give the aids for leg yeild??? i have been told two different things by different people at college and im confused!!!!!

[racaille]

Well, this is what we do - but this is france so it may be different ....


Set off straight down the centre length of the arena in sitting trot up to X. The look where you want to go - say left. Put your right leg on behind the girth for a stride then release, on and release etc while maintaining your inside leg ie left, on the girth, in the 'go forward' aid. Your horse should move away from your right leg while still moving forward. Keep an equal pressure on your reins to keep the horse straight but beware that an easy mistake is to overbend, so don't yank the outside rein.

I daresay this is a crap explanation. Horses need to learn this and many find it easy to work in a circle to start with. There are quite a lot of exercises that get horses used to crossing their legs and to teach the rider what it feels like so you know you've got it right.

[haffyfan]

I'm useless at explaining (and even remembering for that matter) the aids BHS style but I found two previous posts

thepaddocks.proboards85.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=faqs&thread=648

thepaddocks.proboards85.com/index.cgi?board=dressage&action=display&thread=1498

Or I find this method easiest to teach the young horse but your instructors may have a hissy fit or five!

It's an exercise/method which I picked it up at a Bob Mayhew clinic. It's officially for teaching side pass but works equally well for introducing leg yielding I find. Basically if you wanted to for example step sideways to the right yourself you would gently rock your weight to the left, thus freeing up your right leg to to take a step.

So if you want your horse to move right you need to gently slide your weight left and open your right hand/leg a little allowing him to follow the movement through as soon as the left leg is applied and you should find it's the easiest thing in the world for him to make a small movement/adjustment in the direction you wish. Of course his level of training/schooling will affect the degree of movement you get. (Hope that makes sense!)


Remember western horses do a lot of ground work prior to being ridden and one of the main aspects of western horsemanship is the importance of gaining their respect through their eyes to the feet and in accomplishing the four basic movements - going forward, disengagement of the hindquarters, going backwards, and moving sideways. These are taught at an early age both on the ground and under saddle so going backwards/sidewards is quite natural to them by the time they are in work.