10/09/2025
the punitive leg -
a horse is not born understanding a leg aid. Anyone who's ridden green or young horses can attest to some actually balking, slowing down or even backing up from the leg. It is a concept that has to be taught to the horse.
We teach the horse how to go forward when we are up on their backs with assistance from the leg. There are, of course many types of leg aids to give, and each discipline has different leg aids to teach. Even between people within the same discipline, there will be variations of how a leg aid is applied and how a horse is expected to respond to it.
Within most of these is some degree of incongruence between weight aids/sensory input to the horse and leg. In other words, we are giving one input with our weight and body and another with the leg - the horse can figure this discrepancy out through repetition and release or reward, but ideally the weight and leg are saying the same thing.
Ideally, when we use the leg, we don't block the hip or push the horse in the opposite direction we are requesting, and so on. A centered seat teaches the horse the leg is an extension of the seat - this is the best case scenario for a horse.
There are all kinds of bad legs to have as a rider: scrunchy, shovy, pinchy, squeezy, and so on. But the WORST leg there is to have is a punitive leg. This leg tells the horse the opposite of what the rider thinks they are telling the horse in every way, from emotional to physical -
The punitive leg is when the rider is frustrated with the horse's lack of response or motion and becomes a weapon. This is when the leg cracks, bangs, jerks, or attacks the horses side quickly, abruptly, and with force. I have heard riders be encouraged to "crack a rib" or "kick a fart out of one" before, encouraging riders to ride emotionally, punitively, and out of emotional and physical balance.
What does this teach the horse? Not going, that's for sure. Riders with these kinds of legs will find themselves perpetually threatening with their legs, and on horses who suck back frequently, catapult themselves forward after being attacked by the leg, and suck back again. You will not find freely forward with the punitive leg.
It teaches the horse:
-to protect their sides from random, impending onslaught of aids. To contract these muscles, tightening their backs, shoulders, and limiting breathing. If you've had someone punch you in the stomach, you get the idea - you can't have good range of motion like this, so it does not produce true forward, but it can get you a sq**rt forward temporarily.
-that the rider is emotionally driven, with untrustworthy aids.
-that the rider is tight and unmoving in their seat, with random and intense aids. The rider is behind the horse's movement and thinking in only noticing until it gets this far behind the leg, and does not follow forward motion when produced - therefore creating a sure bet at the horse sucking back soon enough in the future.
-to respond to the only greatest threat, and wait for that. It does not teach the horse lightness, or finding the rider's center or subtle aids - instead it teaches the horse, due to a cacophany of uncentered and unpredictable aids from the rider, to find the greatest threat to their safety and respond very quickly to that. It doesn't make the horse more sensitive because they miss or are unable to feel the other more important aids due to being in a state of self protection - they cue in more to the greatest threat, and less to the other aids.
If you find yourself on a not so forward horse, the most important thing to learn here is:
1- emotional control. It brings out frustrations, that is for certain. Every rider experiences these, but a good coach should be guiding a rider to empathy, self regulation and discipline, and developing skill sets - not attacking the horse with aids.
2- developing a steady rhythm and opening the body. A sticky horse is very closed. You open the horse through rhytmic movement, a following seat and open hip, and movements or figures that open the shoulders, back, and bring the hind legs through. A sticky horse is stuck on the front legs - we need the hind legs to generate power and take the hand brake off the front legs.
3- Learning to use the leg in good timing (not random timing) in coordination with the seat. The seat says forward, the hand opens the way, and the leg supports without blocking the hip.
A not forward horse is hard to do much with - but the rider carries a responsibility to check themselves before they wreck themselves, as I often lovingly say ;) It's the rider's job to educate themselves so they can educate the horse, and help the horse become forward, melting into the rider's aids through understanding.
Photo by Jessie Cardew of me doing the stanky leg
