Thursday Training Tips

This meme has done the rounds for a while and although it is funny it is actually a sign of lack of correct training if this is your horses reaction to a leg aid. An aid should go on and should not come off until you get the desired outcome that you want. Lets use the inside leg for our example. If you are working on trying to get more bend through your horses body around corners and circles then you should be applying your inside leg and releasing once the horse has given you the desired movement. If you go around a corner and apply leg and get no reaction from your horse and then take leg off once you come out of the corner and think to yourself ‘I’ll get it next lap,  or I’ll put it on harder next lap’ you are most certainly training your horse to ignore your leg. Leg goes on with no response leg comes off as a reward, you are teaching your horse to ignore the leg aid againa and again. What you need to do is once you put a leg aid on it must get harder until youget a response. However if your horse is choosing to run forward from your leg or is just ignoring it and continuing on their path then you must pull them up to either a walk or a halt and get your leg yield step before you remove your leg. If your horse learns that they cannot ignore your leg aid and that you eill pull them up and make them move off from it they will learn to be more responsive and to become softer as well.