All about horses

First your horse moves forward from the leg when you squeeze and release with both legs simultaneously .Then a well trained horse will move forward and sideways equally when you use one leg .

He will move away from that leg aid .

The rider must use a simple squeeze and release with both legs using the inner upper part of the calf to ask the horse to move forward .

You must not release so much that your lower leg comes off the horses side .

That would be considered taking your legs off the horse .

You must keep enough lower leg on the horse that if someone was to come up and try to pull your leg away it would spring back.

Don’t grip with your legs !

No horse likes that !!

The rider must not grip with the upper leg or knee which would stop the horse from moving forward.

This part of the leg and seat are for stopping .

The horse feels your seat ,back and thigh tighten and if trained properly will stop .

A horse that is not trained correctly from the seat and leg will not respond and you will have to use the reins as a punishing aid by using a quick sharp pull and a low toned voice aid such as “Whoa” or “Slow”.

Your reins are not used turning , they are only used for making The Horse look slightly in the direction it’s going.

Let’s go back to the leg.

The Horse must respond in a timely manner to the leg aid. No more than one and a half seconds should go by before your horse acts.

Sometimes you must back up your leg with a slight kick with your heels to make the horse jump forward if he does not respond to the squeeze and release leg aid .

Do not pull back on the reins right away , allow him to go forward so that he understands.

Then you must return your leg to the original correct position which is riding with your heels down and not touching the horse’s side with any part of your foot .

To accomplish this correctly you must turn your leg in and on from the hip so that your toes face the same direction that the horse is going .

You must be able to coordinate your heel aids so that you only use your heels when you mean to .

A young horse will need to have a crop behind the lower leg to push him forward if he does not respond to the riders legs alone. Before using the crop however the rider should use one squeeze and release and one kick with the heel.

It’s important that the horse is familiar with the crop beforehand.

The horse should be trained to accept the crop aid by using the crop to ask the horse to position his body where you want it .

Never use any part of your body , hands , shoulders etc. to influence the horse .

This is disrespectful and will only show the horse that he is stronger than you .

That’s not a good thing to teach any horse!

Once you have your horse listening to the leg aids and moving forward pat him on his neck and reward him with a soothing voice aid .

Tell him “good boy” he will want to please you .