Long Suffering Instructor has decided to make himself suffer even longer by insisting I know where Wonder Pony’s hind legs are 
I cannot for the life of me feel the inside hind–except in trot and even then I’m cheating because I look to the outside shoulder. At moment, I can only feel the inside hind coming forward if he cues me with “Now. Now. Now.”
Anyone else want to chime in on this? How did you learn?
Spending lots of time riding with eyes closed calling out when nominated leg hits the ground…only by feeling it, will you feel it!
first, memorize the footfall pattern of each gait. walk is 4 beat with the following sequence: : left hind leg, left front leg, right hind leg, right front leg.
trot is the following sequence: left front/right hind, right front/left hind.
it’s easiest to memorize the sequence of the walk and then learn to feel what that inside hind feels like - you know it is coming forward right before the inside shoulder and leg comes forward.
have a friend watch you and in a circle, call out the inside hind when it comes forward. for my horse, his walking gait is quite powerful and you can really feel when he swings the stifle and leg forward.
you will need to know when the inside hind is coming forward to perfect such moves as leg yield, shoulder-in, and lateral work.
Yeah, we’re at that stage of perfecting and improving…well, technically, we’re all ALWAYS at that stage, but I’m sure you know what I mean.
I slid through life not really knowing this and now it’s come back to bite me. WP’s gaits aren’t particularly powerful and can be quite grounded so am perpetually confused about what’s going on under there.
Ride bareback. It is so much easier to figure out what’s going on down there when you can feel the tiny movements.
Get on the lunge, and instead of thinking about feeling the hind leg lifting, think about how the horse’s belly has to move to accommodate that movement. Definitely close your eyes and let yourself move with the movement, so as your trainer says “now, now, now” with your eyes closed, just really focus on that feeling. I do agree it helps to know the actual footfall pattern, but to really focus on the feel is almost meditative - and I find being on the lunge where that’s the only thing you are worried about is the fastest way to gel it in your brain.
My following seatbones let me know at the walk, Alternate seatbones rise and fall with the hind legs. When your hip is down his hind leg is rising. Once he steps on that foot your seatbone is pushed up. Close your eyes and let your seat follow the motion.
Can’t explain it at the sitting trot but I can feel it. After learning how to feel it at the walk I haven’t given it any thought at the trot but I know that I know when to apply the aid. Sorry I can’t be any clearer.
Forgot about the belly filling your leg. Haven’t thought about this in a long time.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who missed out on this early…
In the canter try half halting as the mane is flying in the air or the ears are coming back to you…in the sitting trot when the horses hind leg is stepping under you should feel that hip go forward, same with the walk. It’s what finally worked with me!
Let the lower half of your body swing side to side with the torso of the horse, and encourage the horse to walk bigger. When your leg swings in, the horse is lifting that hind leg. That is also the time it will feel “natural” to use a leg aid, for instance for shoulder in. If you are moving with the horse, it isn’t hard to tell, but if you aren’t moving with the horse, it would be impossible.
This is something that you cannot force. It comes with time in the saddle. How long? A lifetime in the saddle. So more riding is needed, with all of the above.
I could feel before riding this time, as I stopped for a month or so over Winter (Down Under). Before I could feel hind legs. I could feel lameness. I could feel bend. I could feel which canter lead they were going on before they cantered. I could feel lateral work.
This time I have started riding I can feel more. I can feel if the hooves are long or short. I can feel if they are putting their hoof down by lifting it or by being flat footed and last night I could not just feel that the horse was not right but on the right lead I could feel that the leg on the outside front was not coming forward as much as the hoof on the inside. I am excited and yes I have had a lifetime or two in the saddle with time off in between.
I am excited to know if there is more to feel with another lifetime in the saddle!
Ride a powerful and short backed horse! It’s easy and instinctual on some horses, and more challenging on others. I know where my long-backed mare’s hind legs are because I’ve learned from other horses, but she would have been terrible to try to learn on. Only now that she is developing more power, fold in the hind legs and fold of her pelvis do I really feel connected to the hind legs.
Just wait until your instructor wants you to control which leg is the first one to move in a transition upward and last one in a transition down. 
Not an upper-level rider by any means … that said, I just learned to feel them. To pay attention. Started by learning to feel the hind leg at trot to pick up the diagonal when posting rather than look for the foreleg. Walk … just to be aware.
There are many good suggestions here. May I add (donning flamesuit) you may never feel it. Some people just can’t. Same with posting diagonal. If you can’t feel when you are correct, you probably won’t ever be able to without looking.
It doesn’t mean that you will never be a successful rider, only that you will probably always have to work on perfecting your timing of aids. (If you don’t know where his hind legs are in space, you can’t give a canter aid at the right time, for instance. When it’s time for tempi changes, this can really bite you in the patoot.)
Take all the suggestions above, about riding with eyes closed (on the lunge, please) and feeling where YOU are at all 3 gaits so that you can start to correlate your movement with the horse’s.
I agree. We have been taught to stay in the center, so you do not really feel the horse’s movement. — can you automatically tell what lead you are on? Ask for several different canter departs, and close your eyes so you understand the feeling of identifying which [front] leg is moving forward.
Then, put away what you have learned about staying centered and let yourself go. Pretend you are a hooker walking down the street, and allow yourself to sway with the movement.
I shut my eyes and tune into what my hips are doing at the walk. At first I have someone call out the legs so I can get the feel of what my hips are doing. After I have it, I start calling it out myself with the eyes on the ground confirming if I’m feeling it right.
Okay, just to make sure I have this clear:
At the walk, rib cage will fill out against my inside leg when the inside hind comes forward.
At the trot, when my inside hip comes forward, the inside hind is also coming forward.
At the canter, half halt as the mane flips up because the inside hind is coming forward.
Yes?
We were at a Ray Hunt clinic once where he asked the riders to say “now” when the inside hind was coming forward. About half the riders did it correctly. I posted this on another thread about rotating hips:
This is one Susan Harris has us do whenever she is at our barn doing lessons. It’s a stalwart from Centered Riding and is one of the most enlightening exercises you can do.
Tack your horse up and mount up. Ignore the reins. Get another person. Close your eyes and have the other person lead you around. Keep doing it! For many laps, both directions, serpentines, whatever you can do comfortably. With and without stirrups. If you are a little out of whack on the corners your human friend can tell you a corner is coming. Add a little trot if that feels okay.
Focus on your hips and following the horse’s movement. Think about what direction your bones are moving: forward/backward, up/down, side to side. Concentrate on finding the circles your hip joints are making. What direction are they going, backwards maybe? On the diagonal? How large are they? Do they change? Think about what it would be like to pedal your bike backwards. Speed up a little and slow down a bit, ask for a longer stride, and be aware of how your body reacts to and receives the horse’s movement.
It is amazing how much more you will feel doing this than you do when you are “riding” your horse. It helps you loosen up and feel how your anatomy relates to the horse. As someone earlier noted, your body can’t necessarily point your toes in the optimal direction. But forcing your leg and your hips into an unnatural position can interfere with your horse’s movement, to say nothing of making you hurt. I try to remind myself to close my eyes on the long side for a few strides when I realize I am beginning to tighten up or grip or fail to receive the horse’s movement. What I like about this kind of exercise, and Centered Riding in general, is that it helps you synch your body with your horse’s and create images you can use to improve your position and your overall technique.
I feel it, then say “now” and therefore say now on the wrong hind leg. :lol:
I don’t believe that there are people who can’t learn, if they are able to learn to focus and quiet their minds enough to pay attention to the horse. I’ve known para-athletes with no seat/leg feeling at all who could feel which leg was moving. To me it says I have no excuse with my measly nerve damage on just my left seatbone area.
Yeah, I’m confident I can get this…eventually. If I can tell canter leads and posting diagonals without looking, I can do this.
Sounds like it’s going to be tedious as hell tho.
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