5 ways to ride the leg yield incorrectly and how to finally get it right!

Riding the horse forward is one thing, asking your horse to step sideways is another.?Asking him to do both at the same time is the true challenge.

The leg yield is a great exercise for creating better control of the shoulders and haunches and for creating more straightness in your horse overall.

When the leg yield is ridden correctly, the horse has a small inside flexion of the head and neck (in the opposite direction of travel) which should cause a slight bend through the whole body of the horse causing the inside hind leg to step under the center of weight and lift the horse forwards and sideways. The shoulders should lead the motion a little, but the haunches should be almost aligned with the shoulders, not trailing behind.

Unfortunately, there are many ways to ride this movement incorrectly causing the wrong muscles to get activated.

These are some of the most common mistakes I see:

1. The horse is overbent on the inside rein?causing him to fall through the outside shoulder and leave his haunches trailing behind.
2. The horse is not traveling forward straight?(perpendicular to the short side) and then sideways but is instead traveling on the diagonal with his main body and only facing the short side with his head and neck. This is caused by lack of outside rein use and lack of straightness in the rider’s body.
3. The rider has pushed the haunches over too much with their inside leg?and the horse falls on the inside shoulder and is now unable to make it across the diagonal as they are facing the wrong way with the balance on the wrong shoulder.
4. The horse has the incorrect bend or a twist through his head/neck?causing the horse to take the shape of the half pass instead of the leg yield.
5. The horse is going too sideways and not forwards enough?resulting in a lack of rhythm and impulsion. It feels like you’re never going to get to the other side and you arrive at the fence way before the corner.

Here’s a couple of ways to help you get it right instead:

• When you are first starting the leg yield, make sure that you are easily able to ride a shoulder fore two-track on the fence as well as on a bigger circle like a 15 or 20 meter.?This way you know that you understand correct bend and flexion of the inside body before you try to ride the leg yield.
• When a horse is riding a two-track shoulder fore he should be slightly bent to the inside, never flexed more than to the point of the inside shoulder.?This allows him to balance slightly more on the inside shoulder as he elevates the outside shoulder in the movement.
• As you come up the center or quarter line, prepare for sideways movement by shifting the center of gravity from the inside shoulder to the middle of the shoulders.?Do this by decreasing the degree of bend slightly on the inside rein and taking a better contact on the outside rein. This will allow the horse to bring the weight of his neck to the center of his chest and from there you can drop the weight of your foot and leg deeper into the outside stirrup. This will cause the horse to start drifting slightly towards the outside. Using the outside leg in this manner is called the “weight aid”.

It’s important that this is only a guiding aid. The rider should by no means start leaning or sitting down the back of the horse on the outside. Simply sit straight with your hips on both sides of the horse, but relax your leg separately from your seat, allowing the weight of the leg to “point the way” of travel.

Troubleshooting

If the horse starts to overbend,?straighten the horse and ride several strides forward with impulsion on a straight line and then ask the horse to take a few sideways strides again. Do this repeatedly until you can maintain just a small flexion without overbending and the horse continues to travel forward and sideways without losing impulsion.

If the horse is striding short on the outside hindleg?(the one that is closest to the fence) and only taking big ground covering strides on the inside hind leg,?then it might be good to straighten the horse completely in the reins to ensure that the horse takes equal strides with both hind legs.

To do this, straighten the horse and lift the rein which the horse is traveling towards (the outside). Make sure you only lift it as much as it takes to “stand up and straighten” the outside shoulder, do not lift it past this point as the horse will then bend in the direction of travel, turning your exercise into a half pass. At the same time as you straighten the shoulders, ask the horse to lead the movement slightly with the haunches. This will teach the horse to stay straight behind, avoid trailing with the hind legs and engage both hind legs equally.

At the walk, the latter exercise could be compared to side-passing or even full passing, however in the trot you must still be going forwards and sideways (not just sideways) for this to serve you.

Once you have the haunches engaged and the correct balance in the shoulders, you can go back to riding the leg yield with the shoulders leading and a slight flexion with the head, as you won’t lose the haunches in the movement anymore. Anytime you feel this happening, simply go back to the zig zag exercise of sending the horse forward and then sideways or break the movement down, straighten the horse with your outside rein and practice connecting your outside rein to the outside hindleg to open up the strides “leading with the haunches” for a few steps and equaling out the stride length of each hind leg.

If you have questions or trouble with your leg yield, feel free to reach out to me. Simply email?[email protected]?and I’ll be happy to help you figure out what works best for your horse.

Ride with Lightness

Celie xo