Do you feel like you’re constantly repeating your leg aids, just to keep your horse moving? Does your horse slow down, or even stop, when you stop applying your leg? Are you afraid that your horse will transition back to trot if you don’t constantly encourage him with your leg when cantering? 

Neutral riding to reactivate your horse 

I use the term ‘neutral riding’ to describe the situation where a horse stays constant in terms of speed and frame, even though his rider is not using any aids at all. This makes sense, doesn’t it? When you don’t give an aid, your horse should keep on doing wat he was. 

Often, I see riders who have to ‘keep their horses together’, with a constant use of leg and hand. In the real world, neutral riding is not the easiest thing to do! In many cases, whenever riders stop applying their legs, their horses will slow down or even make a downward transition. And whenever the rider relaxes their hands, these horses lengthen their frame, stretch their necks, speed up or even completely shut down.

Stop your leg aids, for a bit

It’s very useful to find out what happens in case you stop doing anything. Just try. What happens if you don’t give any leg aids and don’t use your hands? Stop balancing your horse with your legs and hands and let him figure it out for himself. Try this by trotting around the arena and becoming completely neutral. What happens? My guess is, you will quickly encounter a small problem. Now, we can start solving this.

How to apply your leg correctly

Let’s start with the correct leg aids. When your leg is ‘neutral,’ it basically lays long and flat along the saddle, with your calves touching your horses’ sides. Your leg is relaxed, you’re not pushing it away from your horse, but you’re also not clinging to him. When applying a forward leg aid, just give one small tap with your calf or heel. If the horse doesn’t respond, give him a rapid ‘tap-tap’ aid with your calf directly in the next step. Don’t make this a long and clingy leg aid! Also, keep your leg in the same position, don’t push it further back. Your second aid is faster and a bit more intense than the first. Duration and location should be the same, however. If your horse does not respond to your first leg aid, the second ‘tap-tap’ aid should follow directly. Don’t wait until you are halfway around the arena. If you teach your horse this, it will only take a little while before he starts to respond directly to your first aid. When you start giving your aid from a neutral position, it will often lead to a much better response.  

Teach your horse to respond correctly to your leg 

When training a horse, I’m always looking for the ‘Yes’. Horses can also respond to your aid by saying ‘I have a different idea’ or ‘No’ or ‘What?’. When you start asking your question from a situation where there are no other aids, it is much easier for your horse to understand and respond, than when he is already dealing with a flurry of aids from you. That’s why being able to ride ‘neutrally’ is so important. It makes your first question much clearer for your horse. For instance: two legs on, means ‘go forward’. Your horse either responds correctly, or not. If he says ‘Yes’, great. 

What to do when your horse says ‘No’?

But what if your horse has a fussy or angry response to your leg? Perhaps your horse doesn’t respond to your aid with a clear ‘Yes’ but has a different answer, or even no answer at all. Some horses respond grumpily to a leg aid. You may notice their ears going back, a swishing tail or pursed lips. Tail swishing can be translated as a ‘No’. The solution is to repeat your question more clearly. And ask yourself, whether you were really neutral and soft in your hand, when you put your leg on. Or were you secretly ‘helping’ your horse stay upright? Keep your hand relaxed, give a tiny bit of space and keep the contact light. Then you can give your first leg aid, followed by a second clearer leg aid. Start soft, intensify and if there is no response, briefly use your spurs or whip. This way it should be absolutely clear to your horse, that there is only one correct answer to your question: going forward. Perhaps this results in your horse going faster, but simultaneously developing other problems.  Don’t worry about this. We have to solve the first problem first. Make sure you give brief leg aids and don’t keep your leg pressed to the horse’s sides. 

What to do if your horse lengthens his frame? 

A forward leg aid, with two legs simultaneously, can result in a ‘Yes’ a ‘No’ or another answer from your horse. Some horses don’t go faster, but only lengthen their frame. They basically fall apart, without ever increasing their speed. For many riders, their first reaction is to deal with the front of the horse, trying to restore ‘througness’. However, this horse has not only lengthened and stopped being ‘through’. The main problem is that his hind legs are no longer carrying the weight. To prevent a horse from lengthening, don’t bring him back and make him shorter, but keep him in front of you, apply your legs and speed him up. Once he has re-found his impulsion, and his hind leg is moving under his body, you can start to see if he will accept the contact again.

Forward is the right answer to your leg aid 

Even if your horse runs away a little bit, this is still the right answer in principle. Should his response be a little too much, you can gently follow up with a slowing aid. Keep your hands still and slow down the rythm of your rising trot. Make sure to do this gently, because he did go forward, his response was just a bit too much. Try to solve this by giving a more subtle leg aid, the next time. Don’t be too direct in slowing him down and don’t punish your horse if he takes off too fast. In short: Test your leg aid by doing nothing, maintaining a neutral position, before you put your leg on. If you horse does not speed up in reply, solve this problem first. Should your horse become longer in the frame or lose his throughness in the process, that will be the next problem you solve. Try to address each issue you encounter, one by one.

 Happy training!

Hester