Hi everyone, fairly new dressage rider here. I’m struggling to understand what I should be doing with my outside aids to turn my horse from the outside, instead of pulling on the inside rein to turn. I am particularly confused about what to do with my outside rein. I know I should turn my torso and look where I want to go. My horse tends to bulge his outside shoulder so I try to use my upper leg to encourage him not to bulge out. Thank you in advance!
First you need a horse somewhat well trained. Then you need to be in enough control of your hands and seat that your aids are consistent.
When I do this, I look in the direction and let my body turn slightly and let my outside thigh press on the horse. Then I moderate the degree of that turn with my outside rein. If the horse is in a cooperative mood that works. If not, need a bit of inside rein.
I was also taught this in h/j so you don’t keep pulling the horse off balance with outside rein.
You can practice this by riding on the buckle at the walk and seeing if your horse will turn from your seat. My experience is that if you are consistently balanced a horse will pick up the seat aids and generally be happy to respond to them rather than inside rein.
My Paint will do a very tight circle off just the seat so if I want a larger circle I need to keep some outside rein to moderate that.
Just play around on the buckle at walk and then trot, see how much you can communicate with no bit.
Bulge is however controlled by reins. That’s where lateral work and flexion and counter flexion comes in. If your horse bulges to the outside on a turn or circle you may need a bit more outside rein to counter flex and throw his weight to the inside until he gets stronger.
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Good start. While you dont turn with the inside rein, you do not abandon it either. It creates a bit of inside flexion (poll/jaw, but not a twisting face). It balances the outside rein so the face doesnt twist when the outside rein is used. The outside rein is against the neck because your inside leg pushes the ribs that way (he is "into the outside rein). Be sure you dont close your inside thigh too much when using that leg because it will block the inside foreleg and so block the turn. Your outside thigh can help both turn and prevent the outside shoulder from bulging (that is often caused by too much inside rein…). Your seat is SLIGHTLY weighted to the inside seatbone and that helps him turn as well - horses want to follow your weight (a fun thing to try is ride on loose reins at the walk and experiment with turning him just by looking or weighting seatbone etc)
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First of all the horse must know correct contact and what inside leg to outside rein means.
If they do not understand this then legs mean go, reins mean turn or stop and you never use legs and reins at the same time.
Using legs and reins together on a horse that does not understand will eventually (or suddenly) teach a horse to rear.
A horse who rears can go over backwards and land on and kill or maim the rider and/or themselves.
You are in dangerous territory at the moment and should not try to do this by yourself on a horse who does not know.
If you have a horse that does know then you need an instructor on the ground.
For understanding you have 6 gates. 2 seat bones, 2 legs and 2 hands. To go the way you want, you have to open the gates you want them to go and close the gates you dont want them to go.
You will hear inside leg to outside rein. Once the horse is in the outside rein. More inside leg and closing the fingers on the outside, the horse will circle to the inside. A turn is a quarter of a circle.
If the horse is not in the outside rein, the using more outside leg and closing the fingers on the outside hand, means the horse will turn to the outside.
Always look where you want to go. On a circle you should be looking around the circle, if you are going to go down the centre line, as you approach the short side, turn and look down the other end of the arena.
You will end up where you look. So don’t look down, you don’t want to end up on the ground!
The bulging essentially means more outside rein, but it has to be in balance with your legs and inside rein and on a horse who knows what it all means.
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Briefly the outside leg and rein are steady and supporting, while the inside leg pushes the horse into the outside supports, as your hips turn. Finally, there’s nothing wrong with a touch from the inside rein. What you are doing is keeping your horse upright, inside shoulder straight up and down, with no leaning of the horse.
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What other people said.
Fo me, I dictate the size of my circles, of example, with my outside aids. If I only use my inside rein and leg to bend into a turn, my horse will likely fall to the inside with their balance.
I tend to use my inside leg to initiate a turn. But I tend to use my inside thigh to push the horse to the outside rein and use my inside hip to say “stay up!” so it stays “up and down” around the corner or circle without leaning in. Also, I weight my outside stirrup a bit so I don’t lean in causing my horse to lean in. I use my outside rein to dictate the size of the circle and my inside leg and hip to say “stay upright and listen the the outside reins”. Most of these aids are “pulses” and not “on” constantly. The smaller the circle is, the more restrictive the outside rein is but I IMMEDIATELY release when the horse is on the right circumference and just keep aiding and releasing to keep it on track. Pulses, not constant.
When making a square, I use my outside rein and outside leg (calf and thigh) to turn, the inside leg helps keep the bend and inside hip up says “stay upright!”. Again, pulses. I don’t want to nag my horse so it tunes me out. Or be so restrictive in my outside aids that the horse feels trapped.
I test myself and horse regularly by walking a pattern and then more complicated patterns on a loose rein so we are always on the same page. I can make turns on the forehand and haunches, circles of any size I want, squares and other patterns holding the buckle. It’s all about by weight and leg cues. It’s a fun exercise and over time gets you both on the same page, and I really recommend this and building up to your mutual understanding of leg and weight cues. Don’t expect miracles at first, this is a learning process.
Most importantly, I taught and constantly reinforce my aids at the walk. My aids might be different from someone else’s but my horse knows what I’m talking about when I cue “now we’re going to bend and turn this much”.
Good luck!
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i do spirals to teach my horses aids. Once they understand the circular form and slowly tightening of a smaller circle and they understand that they are on an ever-constricting circle, they learn to put my aids in their mind. This is how i teach them what i am trying to ask. I do a spiral in and a spiral out both directions and show them that my pole leg (inside leg that shows them where along their body i want them to curl around, and the pressure applied 0r not, tells them how much bend i want) functions as a pivot point, and that my outside leg …which goes long and curls around their belly …like an arm across someone’s shoulder, is the appendage i am using to ask for geometry…the line of our spiral. My hands do little but keep them paying attention to all of their body and to keep their mind listening to me. MY body keeps a pivot that is more than a 20m circle. We do it at a walk so they have time to hear what i’m asking and put it together. Spirals are the main thing i use to get the 10m and perfect 20m circles and serpentines. I have another exercise…not a serpentine, but a ‘squiggle’. Doen center line, down quarter line… This is where i test and fine-tune their understanding of the aids installed during spiral ins/outs.
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Spirals are very very useful. However it’s worth keeping in mind that the horse uses its body very differently depending on what bend you use. A spiral can be done shoulder in, reverse shoulder in, haunches in, and haunches out, and I suppose just straight too. You would start with shoulder in, it’s the easiest. I feel like you start getting the most lift in the shoulders on the outward phase of shoulder in spiral. But it’s not a straightforward use of the outside aids to turn because of the bend away from the direction of travel.
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An exercise to help a horse know the outside rein is figure of 8’s.
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