Hello, I’m just curious when it is appropriate to start doing lateral work with an inexperienced horse, and what movements specifically? And how would you prepare for them?
Like I know that leg yield is in first level tests so it must be schooled early, and I’ve seen people recommend schooling turn on the forehand as preparation. But what about the others?
At what level would you start schooling SI/haunches in/renvers/halfpass? And what about shoulder fore?
You start on rhythm then relaxation before connection. Then comes impulsion. Then straightness and lateral work is better once you reach collection.
But basically you want the horse going calmly, forward and straight before you start going sideways.
The horse should also be moving well forward before you ask for rein back as well.
You can teach a horse to move laterally at any time. It is part of training the horse to move the haunches or move the shoulders. Nothing particularly exotic here.
As pluvinel says ‘at any time’. You probably already have started. On the ground, when you ask the horse to move over you are starting the work. Every time you groom, when you dismount… you can always tap the horse where you leg would be and ask/expect the horse to move its hind quarters over. Don’t forget to ask from the off side as well ( the right side of the horse). And tell the horse that it did what you asked.
@pluvinel I agree. Nothing exotic about moving sideways off the leg.
Think of lateral work in two levels. Level 1 isn’t about bend - it’s just about direction of travel. Leg yield is the classic here, although turn on the haunches and turn on the forehand can be here too. You can start these early on - once the horse is happily forward and understands go/stop/steer. Many people introduce moving the haunches and forehand away from pressure on the ground before ever mounting the horse.
Level 2 adds bend: SI, HI, HP, renvers. These are exercises that develop collection by asking one hind leg to carry more weight. You want to get the fundamental directives of training and first level pretty solid before starting these, and make sure the horse has enough strength behind to answer the question without compromising the quality of the gait.
I agree with the last three posts. I think all horses should learn the aids to move the shoulders…and move the haunches…early on. Turn on the haunches and forehand are great exercises to get a horse to think, listen and wait at any stage, and leg yield is basic, like joiedevie99 said. You of course don’t start out with a leg yield that’ll score a 8 at first level, but introduce the concepts of following simple aids early. Pretty much, the horse is just yielding to pressure, which is what they learn at starting. Be OK with any attempt as your horse figures it out, and really reward the “right answer”.
I can’t seem to edit the above post, but a horse who has learned to bend a bit on your aids is good for shoulder-fore. For some horses, shoulder-fore is the “mother of all exercises” until it is solid in shoulder-in later on. Any horse can do shoulder-fore if they can bend a bit around your inside leg and you can keep them on a straight line. It’s great because it slightly weights the inside hind leg and slightly engages the body, which any horse can do. That combo really helps a spooky horse stay on your aids and gives a lazy horse a reason to work a little. If you’re new to it, remember not to go overboard and ask for a shoulder-in…you just want a tad bit of bend in the body and no real collection. ANY horse can do this as they’re learning to figure out your aids.
Thanks for all the replies!
For turn on the forehand/haunches, are they “supposed” to be done from a walk, or is it okay to teach the horse from a halt? I’ve only ever done them from a halt in lessons, but I’ve seen it done at a walk.
We start teaching lateral inhand on the ground before the horse is even backed. We would have a green horse doing a few steps of shoulder fore, shoulder in, leg yield, under saddle at the walk very early on. We also do counter bend circles and spirals.
Shoulder fore, leg yield, shoulder in, all have the horse bent away from the direction of travel and all.build off the turn on the forehand.
Renters, Travers, pirouette, and. halfpass all require a bend in the direction of travel and build off turn on the haunches. They are all more difficult for the green horse.
Anyhow you teach all these at the walk and build up to trot and canter. They are really important to building balance in the horse, not just a “move” to pull out at a certain level. Obviously with a green horse you are not doing these with a great deal of collection or poll flexion.
A lot depends on the physical abilities of the horse. Iberians come with much of this factory installed and it’s more a matter of figuring out your cues. Other horses may find it more challenging!
I ride all of my young/green horses outside quite a bit and I introduce lateral work opening and closing gates and navigating trail obstacles. I find this easier because the horses tend to understand why I am asking them to move over. Also, when I was breeding foals, I often ponied them so they learned to yield along with the pony horse. An “organic” approach if you can manage it.
Scribbler - I don’t mean it as teaching them as a move for the test. I was just wondering at what time in a horses education are they ready to start schooling it, I thought it would be simpler to describe it in terms of level because a horse at each level will have a certain amount of balance/collection.
Do you continue to school turn on the forehand once the horse understands leg yield/SI?
I’ve always taught them from a walk because I think it helps to encourage forward thinking. I find that doing it from halt, especially on young horses, makes them feel a little “stuck”, and they end up just pivoting on a planted leg instead of doing a true turn on the forehand/haunches.
The world is not binary…
…Do you continue to school turn on the forehand once the horse understands leg yield/SI?
…
are they “supposed” to be done from a walk, or is it okay to teach the horse from a halt?
The world is not either / or…it is BOTH / AND.
So, yes…you continue to school the turn on the forehand…at all gaits and at all levels of training.
Obedience to the leg is demonstrated by the horse’s response to a request to move the haunches. Variations of the exercise of moving the haunches are used to introduce everything from the extended trot, piaffe, and piruette.
When starting a young horse, early on I start asking for a mid LY, sort of a drift to the wall from the 1/4 line. Next comes Turn on the Haunches, then TOF, All three are very useful when hacking out, which is important to a youngsters development
As the horse gains strength and balance I like to add spiral circles to the program, being sure that when enlarging the circle you maintain the bend from your seat and leg. From there S/I becomes an easy progression. One they understand S/I on both reins, it is time to add H/I.
Most of these things can be started at the walk.
A lot of it is dependent on the finesse of the rider.
I think it might be more useful to consider the basic lateral movements as tools that you use to improve the horse, rather than elements that you school. So in that frame of reference, yes, you continue to utilize those tools to address issues. For example, my mare can tend to forget that she has hind legs, so we use TOF to get her moving off my leg and engaging for a crisp W/T transition. My instructor had me use this for W/C transitions on a more advanced horse. It’s not about perfecting the form of the TOF, it’s about using the tool to achieve better work from the horse.
Similarly, quite green horses should be starting to get familiar with LY, if they are being ridden on circles, to develop bend around the inside leg, and learning to carry weight on the outside pair of legs, rather than “motorcycling” around turns. If the horse can yield a little from the rider’s inside leg on a circle, it’s not much of a stretch to start a more traditional leg yield on a straight line.
It also depends on the particular horse. Even though my horse is more TL/working towards first, I use SI, CSI, travers, renvers and sometimes a bit of HP at the walk to help her come together, because she likes to go long as a bus (daddy was a western pleasure type quarter horse) and tends to be stiff in her spine. I’m not sure how much I’ll use TOF with my 4 year old when I start her, because she is one who tends to ground her front feet and disengage her hind legs naturally, so I might focus more on making sure I can move her shoulders as easily as her haunches. I think TOF could turn into a weapon she would use against me until I have her pretty confirmed at inside leg to outside rein. This is to say, there is not a cookbook order of introducing and employing the lateral movements.
The post above ^^^^ by @outerbanks77 bears reading.
The fact that we are here with these questions about when / where to introduce “lateral work” is reflective of the modern trend in dressage to drift away from training a horse to do actual “useful” work and to consider “dressage” as something that is done in a dressage test.
Most horses I know have not read the USDF “Up the Levels” manual or any of the “directives” for the various dressage test levels…the horse only knows what it is taught. A horse is a blank canvas upon which a rider/trainer paints their training philosophy.
As the trainer develops his student, eg., the horse, sometimes the picture that emerges…is one of harmony and calm…and sometimes…not.
Several posters have commented about training a horse to move their body as part of training them to open gates etc. This approach used to be part of any basic training of what was formerly called a “using” horse.
As others have noted, you integrate these moves as needed to improve overall way of going and you make sure they don’t drop out of your vocabulary with the horse.
I don’t know how useful it is to “perfect” a 180 degree turn on the forehand and keep schooling that. But your horse should retain the ability to move the hind end off the leg, as well as move the shoulders over off the aids. I personally use calf for moving haunch and upper thigh to move shoulders, or to turn.
Having leg yield in your tool kit is the best way to fix a horse that’s falling into the circle especially at speed because you leg yield or spiral out.
I recall doing 180 degree turn on the forehand and leg yield in hunter jumper lessons, but my dressage education has not put much emphasis in the turn on the forehand long term, as it doesn’t do anything much to gymnasticize the horse. Leg yield has become a variant on shoulder in for schooling purposes although the dressage test wants it done slightly differently (easy enough to do).
:rolleyes:
This has nothing to do with modern dressage… it has everything to do with more people having now access to horses, not taking lessons and wanting to train their horses on their own. It’s actually a misunderstanding of what dressage is, even competition dressage.
Horses started by good trainers all do leg yield and lateral work from the get going. No horse could do the FEI 5 yrs old test without having a grasp on lateral work.
And leg yield is asked at 1st level… so it should be technically mastered pretty soon
It’s only riders who are learning about lateral work who don’t do them. It’s also people who believe horses shouldn’t be trained/ridden before they’re 4-5-6 yrs old who don’t do them.
I see a lot of BNT/R and they truly « use » their horses at home. Of course at shows you see them pampered and protected and all… that doesn’t mean they are not being « used » at home - hacking out, opening/closing gates, -toilet paper challenge-, etc.
I agree that the early foundation is necessary. However I get to see a lot of low level dressage training and riding. I don’t see them integrating lateral work early on. They just start muscling the horse into a shoulder in trot when they start thinking about second level.
My own coach is on a different track. Actually she starts horses late, but she also starts them with in hand lateral work on the ground :).
I have no experience with BNT so can’t comment on that from personal experience. But I don’t know how you would train a horse without getting the lateral in early, so I’m sure they must also know the value of lateral work in developing the horse.
Well, let’s agree to disagree as the above has not been my experience.
I used to ride in open fields south and west of Miami. Ditto for areas west of Ft. Lauderdale. Believe it or not the McArthur Dairy owned the largest dairy herd in the world and grazed milking herds in areas that are now paved over with wall-to-wall development.
Claremont Riding Accademy (in NYC) closed its doors in 2007.
My experience is that access to horses has decreased as suburbia slowly encroached on farmland and priced land and people out of horses.
Today, kids in suburbia do not grow up “organically” with animals. They show up at a riding stable, take a lesson and leave.
Back 50 years ago, people might have had a backyard horse. Kids were grew up in what is now termed “free range”…galloping on the back of a pony…without a helmet. That life has become much harder to impossible to find now.
Anyways…This is my experience about eroding lack of access to horses…which leads to the questions such as OP posed.
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