what exercises/things can i do to teach my horse how to move off of a lateral leg cue and/or stand himself up (especially through corners)? my horse falls in no matter how much i do. we’ve worked on lateral movements like leg yields and such but nothing seems to help him. his instability and speed (caused by the falling in) make me uncomfortable in his canter and that’s obviously something i want to remedy. please help!!
Are you working with a trainer?
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He doesn’t know how to balance. Canter big circles using only your inside (leading) rein and use your inside leg to hold him on the circle. Practice making the circle smaller wirth the inside rein, then bigger with your inside leg.
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Spiral in, leg yield out.
And, work with a trainer. IMHO, every good Hunter rider also needs a good Dressage trainer, if the Hunter trainer isn’t about more than just slow and steady and obedient.
Start in-hand from the ground. If your horse can’t move off your light hand pressure where your leg would go, that’s your problem
But also, a good trainer will pick up on where you, the rider, aren’t allowing, or even actually asking, the horse to “stand up” around curves.
Are you dropping your hip? Shoulder? Are your hands asking for the wrong thing? There are enough moving parts that it’s not enough to just suggest a list of exercises, BUT, the spiral in, leg yield out, is a productive one, if you, the rider, are doing the right things.
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I teach several jumpers basic dressage principles. I’ve never seen a horse fall in on a circle, corner or straightaway unless the rider was leaning in. The horse responds to weight and seat cues, so if you’re looking/twisting to the inside, lowering your inside shoulder/hand on a circle or corner, your horse does the same (no matter how much else you do) because your inner leg cannot over power the weight of your body leaning in. Sounds like working with a trainer well-versed in flatwork would be helpful.
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I hate to jump on the “what does your trainer say?” bandwagon, but what does your trainer say? What exercises are they having you do in lessons that you could practice on your own? Have you asked them for homework?
I say this because while this is a very common issue, it is also VERY common to have the rider contributing heavily to the problem. Training the rider to sit up and have body control and do all the little things to balance a horse and help them gain strength is 90% of it - and feel is impossible to teach over the internet. I’m not perfect either - BTDT and you really need competent eyes on the ground.
Cones on the corners can help give you a visual to ride around, spiral in and leg yield out, and a few other methods are super effective (some I won’t suggest because they aren’t appropriate unless the rider is ON IT vs also trying to learn). How’s the control at the trot? At the walk? What kind of lateral work can you do with him?
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Checklist for things that riders usually do to cause this:
-Am I leaning in?
-Is my inside shoulder ahead of my outside shoulder?
-Am I crossing the inside rein over the neck?
-Am I pulling his head to the outside?
-Is my inside arm completely straight?
-Have I put my inside hand down on or below the neck?
-Is my inside leg actually on the horse, or stuck in front of me into the shoulder or girth?
Once you have fixed these things you also have to remember to have a feel of your outside rein to control your speed and the bend of your circle. The inside rein should be just guiding softly. I usually say it should be able to be made of spaghetti. Cooked, since one kid did ask.
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I love this. Kids, man 
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Can you do it at the walk? Trot? Start there.
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I had one like that where a counter-bend helped.
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yes
@fivestrideline @Lusoluv my trainer has me do a slight counter bend and really focus on my inside leg, making sure it’s in the correct spot and that i’m applying enough pressure so my horse can understand the cue. she has said that he falls in/is off balance because he was broke improperly and wasn’t taught lateral cues. she also says that his hind end needs a bit more muscle to stand up straight. she hasn’t mentioned my position contributing to it at all, but i can ask. i feel like i’m pretty centered, but i can’t be 100% sure since i’m riding lol
I canter around the paddocks a lot in the lanes. if they don’t get off your leg or stand up on the inside leg, you will bash your leg on a post.
if shoulder- in and leg yields aren’t working, i’d try canter around their paddocks assuming they are square and you have a lanes to canter around.
I don’t follow the logic of counter bend. wouldn’t that naturally make the horse want to fall to the inside? of course if done well, you can avoid it, but all things being equal it seems counterintuitive to me.
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If the horse is not understanding the outside rein, start with figures of 8’s.
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Inside leg, outside rein puts the horse in frame. (No, rhyme was not intended).
The horse has to understand, what the outside rein’s purpose is. To guide the horse. Turns should not be ridden at the inside rein at all. This leads horses to fall onto their inner shoulder. So keeping a proper contact with the outside rein without pulling the head to face outwards and keeping your inner leg at the horse, giving the horse cues to bend itself through the corner. A horse that is not bending properly will automatically fall onto the inner shoulder. So check, if your horse is bending properly. Start on big circles. Check if you are able to ride big circles (20m) without using the inside rein. Can you see the rim/eyelashes of your horses inside eye? If yes, horse is more likely to have the correct bend for walking on a non-straight line.
Don’t think of corners as corners. Think of them as 1/4 of a small circle (8-10m). Ride them, like they are a small circle. But first you have to master bigger circles, before you can expect to ride a smaller one.
Proceed to check your seat. Are you sitting balanced. This means, you are putting the same weight and pressure at both sitting bones. Don’t bend your body at your hip. Many riders tend to lean to one side to guide the horse there with their aids but accidentally put pressure on the wrong sitting bone.
Giving correct aids with your seat is a difficult thing. Most people try to bend their upper body sideways. Don’t do this. Picture your inside leg getting heavier and longer. This is more of the correct way to give correct aids.
Last but not least: Your horse is crooked by nature. Each horse as one side where it’s muscles are looser and one, where they’re stiffer. If ridden on the side, where the muscles are stiffer, the outside is the one, which has to flex more. But they are the looser ones, so no issue. But if riding on the side with the looser muscles, the stiffers ones are outside, horse doesn’t like to bend here. Often times, horses react better to the leg on the loose side and less on the stiff side, so they don’t accept the outside leg (which should not be actively giving aids in a turn, but be there as some sort of framework) on those side, resulting in a horse, that doesn’t want to bend on side AND ignoring the framing outside leg, which results in a horse falling onto their inner shoulder to keep their balance.
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Have y’all spent time at the halt and walk and then trot teaching him the lateral cues?
Applying a strong aid doesn’t teach him the proper lateral work, just like yelling at someone in Spanish doesn’t teach them Spanish. It is relatively easy to muscle a horse around at the slower gaits and cover up the training holes, so that’s why it’s so common to have the canter be where it all falls apart.
Most likely. But you need to start building that at the walk and trot.
Besides just motorcycling around in a counter bend and applying stronger leg aids, has your trainer given you any specific exercises?
(ETA, I ask this on a thread where you came asking COTH for exercises for a reason - mainly trying to get you to think critically about your lessons and see where you might be in your training of this horse)
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I agree with others that say the root cause of most horses leaning in on a turn is the rider’s position. Keep your inside shoulder tall and level; Ideally you should be able to canter a circle with both reins in your outside hand, and your inside hand raised straight up above your head. Doing this will inherently weight your outside seatbone and free up the horse’s inside shoulder/inside hind to step under.
Your horse will follow your weight. Sit to the outside, and the inside hind leg will attempt to step under you to balance the horse. Sit to the inside, and the horse will follow your weight to step inside the circle (or corner). It is really common to be taught to weight your inside hip when using the inside leg, but most horses find this confusing: instead, step into the OUTSIDE stirrup, sit deeper in your outside hip (keeping shoulders level and spine soft), and the horse will follow your weight. This is very apparent to anyone who has started baby horses under saddle!
One more thing to try, particularly when leg-yielding or spiraling out on a circle: Look over the outside ear. Riders often get stuck staring “into the void” inside the circle, often unintentionally dropping their inside shoulder, and the horse follows the rider’s eye instead of stepping away and out on the circle. Soften your eyes and look up and out, where you want that outside ear to go.
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Well then you and trainer need to go back to basics and teach the lateral cues. It’s not rocket science. It’s the foundation of a balanced horse.
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Ooooooh I like this. Filing this away for myself!
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we have. my trainer says while he may not 100% understand lateral cues, she thinks he understands what im asking about 95% of the time but chooses not to obey due to poor training by his previous owners (the ones who broke him). i should have asked, what exercises can i use to strengthen my horse’s understanding of lateral cues as practice. we also do serpentine work and practice staying on quarter line just using leg aids to ensure straightness
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