29/05/2024
'Bending around the inside leg'
Do horses bend around the inside leg, and is it possible?
The short answer is no. However, it is indeed possible to teach the horse the meaning of the inside leg aids.
In dressage, the use of the inside leg is frequently used for various purposes. Common phrases such as "more inside leg," "inside leg to outside rein," and "bend the horse through the whole body" are often encountered when learning about dressage.
I've just researched some of these quotes, and it's been quite overwhelming!
While I understand that horses are smart and can learn complex sequences of aids, I believe it's best to keep things simple!
Before I continue I want to quote some of the official ways....
Bend refers to the whole body and flexion refers to the poll, we can flex without bending but we never bend without flexing.
Inside leg to outside rein is the secret to bend. The inside leg creates bend and the outside rein catches the energy and the outside leg controls the quarters.
It's impossible to bend without poll flexion and learning to flex the poll will improve suppleness.
To improve bend spiral in and out on a circle using the bending aids, inside leg at the girth to bend and the outside leg to control the quarters
Wow!!
Given the name of my page, "Riding from the Ground Up," and my specialisation in work in hand for many years, I considered this as excessive micromanaging during simple exercises such as riding a circle or a corner when all of this can be accomplished on the ground without a rider and leg aids.
I am amazed by the lack of emphasis on the role of the neck and shoulders in horse training. Novice horses are expected to master bending from the inside leg, but the area where the inside leg is applied lacks flexibility. Meanwhile, the neck, the most supple part of the horse, is completely overlooked. Is it surprising that many horses and their dedicated riders struggle to progress beyond the prelim/novice level?
Let's look into the official points I quoted and compare them to a more rational approach.
It's commonly misunderstood that horses bend from nose to tail, but in reality, the area from their withers to their tail lacks flexibility compared to the neck vertebrae.
The illustrations often found in dressage books represent an ideal rather than reality. You would never witness a horse bending like a banana in an aerial shot. Never!
The idea of never asking the horse to bend without poll flexion.....
What a crazy idea and no wonder horses find it so challenging to become flexible! When the poll is flexed, it denies them the ability to bend and when the horse has been taught to flex the poll before becoming flexible in their neck, they very quickly say yes to their poll and no about the bend.
When a beginner horse is encouraged to flex its poll before learning to bend, it will lead to a shortened neck and an over-flexed horse rather than achieving suppleness.
When working with a horse using a gymnastic approach, the horse can bend with a flexed poll. However, it's essential to address the horse's natural crookedness before focusing on this. (Please refer to my previous post about natural asymmetry)
The next point is the use of the inside leg:
Before the horse has overcome their natural crookedness, they will fall in on one rein. Officially, we are told to use the inside leg to correct this, but when we ask the horse to bend, we also use the inside leg. So, we use the same aid to fix two different things. Confusing, don't you think?
So, let's break this down and consider this from the horse's point of view.
Falling to the inside shoulder is a problem with the shoulders; our inside leg is behind the shoulder, so wouldn't it be a better idea to use the hands which are above the shoulders, to correct this? The horse is then asked to bend, but officially, the poll needs flexing first, so with poll flexion, the horse is then expected to work out what the inside leg means to bend. Wouldn't it be more helpful and less confusing to use the hands to teach the horse to bend? Our hands have the ability to communicate a wide range of messages, while our legs are not as versatile when working with a novice horse.
Inside leg to outside rein:
Now, this is an interesting statement and one I have never understood!
So officially, the hands flex the poll, the inside leg creates the bend, the outside leg controls the quarters and the outside rein holds the energy.
I'm a bit unsure where to start, but let's remember that we are still working with a horse in the early stages of its training. The horse has not been taught how to move away from the inside leg with shoulder-in, nor has it been taught how to move the quarters in the same direction as the bend with travers exercises. Therefore, these leg aids will not make any sense to the horse. Additionally, if, by some miracle, the horse trained in this way reaches a level of shoulder-in and travers, haven't we dulled them to the leg aids with this riding in the early stages? This usually leads to the phrase "more leg", suggesting that using firm aids will lead to the desired response from the horse. However, as mentioned, the horse has not yet mastered the specific language of leg aids.
It's similar to an English speaker raising their voice to make a French speaker understand - the French speaker won't understand English words just by hearing them louder!
It's essential to understand the proper use of leg aids. The key is to use leg aids lightly. If "more" and "leg" are used together, it will lead to issues. We should strive for a better understanding of how to use our legs rather than relying on applying more pressure.
Philippe Karl has the perfect, simple way to explain this....
"more leg, No, a better understanding of the leg, yes!
Légèreté riders are often criticised for using their hands too much and not riding from their seat and legs. In the early stages of training, we rely on our hands as we develop this detailed language. To aid means to help, so using hands in the early stages is necessary.
Once the horse needs less help from the hands, we can focus on fine-tuning the language of the legs and teach the horse how to bend from a leg aid. However, it's important to note that the leg aid should never be the primary aid for teaching a horse to bend. Once the horse understands bending from a hand aid, our legs can take over.
So, how do we start this education?
With neck rein turns, I've discussed neck rein turns in my previous posts about balance and natural asymmetry. Using the neck rein has many benefits. Once it's used to help the horse balance its shoulders toward the new direction and they understand the exercise, we can involve our legs.
Let's say we are riding on the right rein down the long side and preparing a change of direction. As we approach the end of the long side, we add a light counter bend to the left. We then bring the left rein against the neck and we open the right right to encourage the right foreleg to open and step into this opening rein. With our left leg, we can apply a contact at the girth with a light pressure, also encouraging the horse to step into the opening rein and ride a teardrop shape back to the outside track we have just left and now we are on the left rein.
In this exercise, we focus on several valuable aspects for the horse. First, we are performing a turn with a counter bend, which is a more natural way of turning. This helps the horse prepare its balance to the new outside shoulder and also establishes a light bend for the new direction. Additionally, we can introduce the concept of the inside leg. While the primary aids for this exercise are our hands, the horse will begin to feel the inside leg and understand that it means bend and also to move away from this leg aid. As the horse progresses, the inside leg will become helpful with circles and corners, making it an excellent pre-exercise for shoulder-in, too.
But, it is also necessary to know how to use the inside leg.
We need to synchronise our leg aids with the swing of the horse's rib cage.
It is the swing of the ribcage which will give the rider the feeling of bend, but it is not the spine curving. It's the rib cage swinging.
When a horse is walking, the movement of its hind legs affects the position of its body. For example, when the left hind leg is off the ground and reaching forward, the left side of the horse's body will drop and the ribcage will swing to the right. When the right hind leg is off the ground and reaching forward, the right side of the horse's body will drop and the ribcage will swing to the left.
So, when riding a circle to the left, the ribcage will swing left and right, and the position of the ribcage will not remain pushed out to the right while on the circle. This means using the inside leg at the girth and the outside leg behind the girth can impact the horse's movement. Simply relying on firm leg pressure won't stop the natural swinging motion, so it's essential to use leg aids effectively to influence the horse's movement.
Learning how to feel the swing of the horse's ribcage will also help the rider influence where they would like a particular hind leg to land. When we feel the ribcage swing to the right, we know the left hind leg is off the ground, which is vital to perform a lateral movement.
The key message here is not to overuse the legs during early training. Instead, focus on developing the language of the leg aids to achieve lightness and precision. A horse that is responsive to aids and moves forward hasn't been trained with strong aids. Also, don't assume that advanced movements are only for athletic horses. All horses can work with lightness and achieve collection when trained in a way that makes sense to them. When horses are trained as individuals, magical things can happen. If you are advised to use more leg in your lessons, remember that your horse needs a better understanding of the leg aids. Simply using 'more' will not be effective.
