canter aid, inside or outside leg

[colorfan]

I just went to a clinic with a great clinician who seemed to be able to sense what I was doing and was able to provide help for a couple of problems and during both lessons my mare relaxed more and was softer at the end of the ride.
So, when he said I should use my inside leg for a canter depart I listened and I want to really consider his advice.
I have been taught to cue with the outside leg to cue the push off hind leg. I don’t really know any other reason for the outside leg.
He gave two reasons: one- in his opinion it was less disruptive, providing a smoother transition, two- at more advanced levels he said outside leg canter depart was often confused by the horse for a half pass.

What way do you prefer and why? Does it boil down to personal preference, what works best for you?

[stoicfish]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsl-_-lOIiw

[FEIwannabe]

Some riders don’t even swing their outside leg back, but instead use their seat with a scooping action of the seat bone and a go signal with the inside leg at the girth. I was able to do this with my mare. Haven’t done it with my gelding yet. We’re just finally making some good headway in the canter with him, so I guess I should start thinking about maybe starting that with him.
I’ve been taught the inside leg is the go button in both trot and canter.

[pluvinel]

[QUOTE=colorfan;8832945]
…
He gave two reasons: one- in his opinion it was less disruptive, providing a smoother transition, two- at more advanced levels he said outside leg canter depart was often confused by the horse for a half pass.

…[/QUOTE]

This^^^^ is what I have been taught by Cadre Noir instructors for the reasons stated above.

I sit on the outside seat bone and “ask” for the depart with the inside leg. In this position it puts my body “leading” with the inside leg.

[CFFarm]

Inside leg at the girth.

[Kolsch]

But when it comes to putting on the changes, which is easier for the horse to understand?

I’m an inside seat bone/inside leg for the depart, and the best “changing” horse I’ve ever ridden would change from your hips, but dayum that timing window is so small, I wonder if the outside leg depart people are able to teach them more quickly by not needing to be so precise.

[Bogey2]

inside leg

[SillyHorse]

Another inside leg user here.

[kashmere]

I shift my outside leg very, very slightly back, but it’s not my actual aid to canter. From a rising trot, my canter depart generally looks something like: approach corner, begin to sit, sit into the corner and draw outside leg back juust a couple inches, cue for canter with inside leg/seat bone through the corner.

My horse is quite green, and I find our transitions prompter and straighter with this aid than if I just ask with the inside. I also aim for the flatter “hunter/jumper changes” rather than “proper” changes, because that is my main discipline. The outside aid really really helps in teaching this.

[MysticOakRanch]

It is both… Inside leg at the girth - creates the bend, keeps the horse upright and on your aids. Outer leg goes back quickly - not a huge amount back, AND at the same time, the seat asks for canter.

In half pass, the outer leg stays back for the movement, and the seat asks for sideways movement, not for a transition (so the outside hip is pointed in the direction you are headed).

Watch the video posted - his outside leg is back - not greatly, but it is back - this tells the horse which lead to pick up. Watch someone doing tempis - again, the outside leg (which switches with the tempis) tells the horse the lead. Of course, the hips are also involved. The seat really dictates the gait you are riding.

But - if you put the outside leg back and just “lay it there”, that is more closely the aid for haunches in (or half pass, depending on what angle the horse is moving), so that is where it gets kind of tricky.

[Crockpot]

Interesting- seriously more a seat aid than a leg placement

but then to support seat aid- inside leg applied on girth with outside leg just placed behind girth

applied and placed being different things.

Seat aid most important though

[Nestor]

[QUOTE=Crockpot;8833250]
Interesting- seriously more a seat aid than a leg placement

but then to support seat aid- inside leg applied on girth with outside leg just placed behind girth

applied and placed being different things.

Seat aid most important though[/QUOTE]

This is how I think of it. Or rather, think of it when I’m not in the saddle, as in the saddle it’s so minute I never think about it. :lol: Funny what you realize when trying to explain something like this!

Yes, my horse canters from my seat, although it’s inside seatbone scooping forward. My inside leg is at the girth, and might be applied if he’s not reactive to just my seat. My outside leg might move back a touch, but it’s never something I think about, as it’s mostly neutral.

[Crockpot]

[QUOTE=Nestor;8833297]
This is how I think of it. Or rather, think of it when I’m not in the saddle, as in the saddle it’s so minute I never think about it. :lol: Funny what you realize when trying to explain something like this!

Yes, my horse canters from my seat, although it’s inside seatbone scooping forward. My inside leg is at the girth, and might be applied if he’s not reactive to just my seat. My outside leg might move back a touch, but it’s never something I think about, as it’s mostly neutral.[/QUOTE]

yes always off the seat for my horses- legs support the transition

[kashmere]

[QUOTE=Crockpot;8833250]
Interesting- seriously more a seat aid than a leg placement

but then to support seat aid- inside leg applied on girth with outside leg just placed behind girth

applied and placed being different things.

Seat aid most important though[/QUOTE]

yup yes this is it.

[ThreeFigs]

With a green young horse, I think you do whatever it takes to get cantering, but the aids must be refined ASAP.

Now my guy can easily canter from inside seatbone, maybe a little leg, but the more tuned up I have him, the less it takes. After a while, you “think” canter and get it!

You’d want to use inside leg & seat, because that supports the bend, which comes in handy when riding changes.

[netg]

[QUOTE=Crockpot;8833250]
Interesting- seriously more a seat aid than a leg placement

but then to support seat aid- inside leg applied on girth with outside leg just placed behind girth

applied and placed being different things.

Seat aid most important though[/QUOTE]

Yes.

Some top international trainers will say outside leg. Some will insist inside leg. But ultimately, I’m pretty sure they’re using their seats more than their legs.

My legs position to indicate lead and provide a frame within which my horse should carry its body, but seat asks for the actual transition. Should my horse try to counter bend by dropping weight onto the inside shoulder, the inside leg bumps near the girth to get the correct body position, and if the haunches start to swing out (my mare tends to do it in the transition if she wants to pick up the wrong lead) my outside leg pushes the haunches back. This is how we’ve started getting flying lead changes on the aids - correcting a mistake, and because my seat is positioned for the lead I want she easily changes back.

You can teach pretty much any aid you want, but I find the hips are the easiest and clearest aid. I have old nerve damage on my left side which I aggravated in the spring. Because my mare has always cantered off the seat, she didn’t even know how to canter off leg aids, and my left side wouldn’t work to try to aid with my seat. My trainer helped out by warming her up and getting her wayyyyy in front of the leg and using his seat less and less so she got the point, then I was able to get the left lead without seat. She was very confused by this just because she’s so seat-specific in her preferences. My mom’s mare is the opposite and happily transitions off the legs but doesn’t want to do it off seat - she just ignores it and keeps swinging away in the trot. Different horses will show you what works best for them.

[Draftmare]

I do inside rein slightly lifted and then outside leg to cue. Seems to be the best way to get my mare to go.

[ShannonLee]

You can use any aid to teach a canter depart, but for true correctness I would read MysticOakRanch’s. If you really understand how to ride what she writes you will be able to ride most any horse up to the one tempis. The inside leg and the seat have importance for the quality of the transition or the flying change (straightness, thoroughness, balance, engagement). But the outside leg is the final quick aid for the depart.

[merrygoround]

Inside leg with a lift of the hips. However with a young horse or a horse that has difficulty with the bend, the outside leg comes into play.

This way when you are asking for a trotting HP your horse knows to stay in trot, because there is no lift.

So much of the work and training comes from not only the legs but how we use our body. And what is needed at the moment.

[piedmontfields]

[QUOTE=ShannonLee;8833736]
You can use any aid to teach a canter depart, but for true correctness I would read MysticOakRanch’s. If you really understand how to ride what she writes you will be able to ride most any horse up to the one tempis. The inside leg and the seat have importance for the quality of the transition or the flying change (straightness, thoroughness, balance, engagement). But the outside leg is the final quick aid for the depart.[/QUOTE]

Agree! But I will say that in learning stages (for horse, for rider) it can be important not to “ambush” the horse with the outside leg. Sometimes that is why riders feel forgetting about the outside aid is helpful. But they will need it down the road.