# using leg aides to turn CONFUSED!



## mramsay (Feb 1, 2010)

This may sound really stupid but... I have just recently purchased gelding who I plan to do nothing with but pleasure/trail ride. I have been getting conflicting information from two parties... First I would like to say that the horse which I bought is a 5 year old registered AQHA gelding who has had professional training in the past but hasnt been ridden in the past year as his previous owner was unable due to medical reasons. He can be saddled and ridden---does not know anything fancy, but apparently knows his lead changes). I bought him beacause he is a gentle puppy dog who loves people and loves to be handles. He doesn get nervous, but has lovely forward movement. I have only had him for a few days, and have only been on his back twice. So I have been working on refreshing his neck reining--picking it up beautifully and in no time at all, now I want to start introducing leg aides, I thought I knew what I was doing but I now have two people (who are experience horsemen) telling me two seperate things.; making reguess what I already thought I knew...
1. If you want your horse to turn LEFT apply pressure with the LEFT leg (so the horse goes "around it" this also causes the hip to turn out--to the left)
2. If you want your horse to turn LEFT apply pressure with your right leg (so that the horse moves away from the pressure)....
So which one is it; I dont want to be confusing him, and move backwards instead of forwards...


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## Fluffy Pony (May 2, 2010)

From what I know if you want to turn left and use the shoulder use the right leg to push him over. If you want to disengage the hind end use the inside leg to pivot the hind around while using the reins to help. 

Normally, since I have a pretty lazy horse, I mostly use my outside leg to which ever turn (using the right leg to turn left). This is partly because I want him crossing his front legs over each other and it helps keep my horse collected and using his hind end to 'turn'. 

If I wanted a sharper turn I would use more pressure on my right leg, or just use the left leg to help turn his hind around.

Dunno if this is correct... but this is just how I ride my horse and it works pretty well for me haha.


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## franknbeans (Jun 7, 2007)

I have been confused by this too, so don't feel bad. What my trainer has told me is to use the outside leg to turn the horse, but keep the inside leg on "like a post" to bend around. I am still figuring this out!


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## nrhareiner (Jan 11, 2009)

You want your horse to move away from your leg. So if you want the horse to move to the left you put your right leg on the horse just behind the girth. 

Now here is the confusing part. Depending on what you want your horse to do and what you do with your hands your horse should also be able to bind around your inside leg. This is not normally used for turning but as a positioning cue.

Ex. Yesterday I showed one of my reiners. When I was running the circles I had my out side leg a bit clouser then my inside leg and bumbing as needed to get her going in a nice circle. However on one of my circles I was not hitting the middle like I wanted. If I had straighted the horse up to hit the middle she would have done one of 2 things. She would have changed leads or her circle would have looked really off. So I kept my out side leg in the same position but I move my inside leg back just a tad and pushed her over so she hit the middle correctly but was still bent in the direction I was going. I did not change direction she did not straighten up. If I had wanted a lead change I would have put my inside foot a bit further back and opened up my leg to the new direction. 

It can get confusing in a way. At this point just get the horse moving away from your leg and once they are solid in moving every part of their body away from your leg you can add other cues if needed. I like to teach my green horses to do leg yields side pass 1/2 pass and by doing all this they learn to move every inch of their body with the lightest leg cue.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Sometimes it depends on how the horse was trained. Unless I am turning around something like a tree or a fence post, I never use inside leg. Using outside leg in a turn should keep their butt planted and they should cross over in the front to turn. If I am going around a tree or something, I will sometimes use inside leg just to give them a bit of bend so that they can turn as close to the tree as possible without actually hitting it.


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## Sunny (Mar 26, 2010)

If I want to turn right:
I keep my right leg close to their side and apply slight pressure, and i'll slide my left leg back a tad behind the girth to keep their rear from slinging out.


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## mramsay (Feb 1, 2010)

Still confused (from the replies, lol). I was taught that to turn LEFT use your RIght leg at the shoulder to turn the horses front end away from the pressure; if you really want them to turn sharp, also use your LEFT leg begind the girth to cause the hip to sling out.... Does anyone else use this method? Of course I will start from the ground teaching him to move awau from pressureat the hip and shoulder.


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## mramsay (Feb 1, 2010)

smrobs said:


> Sometimes it depends on how the horse was trained. Unless I am turning around something like a tree or a fence post, I never use inside leg. Using outside leg in a turn should keep their butt planted and they should cross over in the front to turn. If I am going around a tree or something, I will sometimes use inside leg just to give them a bit of bend so that they can turn as close to the tree as possible without actually hitting it.


This is what I was taughtn (outside leg at the shoulder inside leg behind the girth?


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## nrhareiner (Jan 11, 2009)

No inside leg. Open up on the inside and use your out side leg to move the shoulders. You do not want your hip to swing out. You loose forward momentum and you disengage the hind end and take the horse off balance.

The inside leg is not to turn the horse but to move him/her over. Like what I described in my last post. I needed my horse to move over into the center/middle to make a correct circle I was not trying to turn her.

No matter what you are trying to do your horse should move away from pressure.


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## WickedNag (Sep 7, 2010)

My daughter's new horse (bought last spring) can be ridden totally bridle-less and just off your legs. She learned to cue him with the the outside leg and in different positions as well depending what part of Sheldon she wanted to move. Different pressure from the seat area cues to stop, not sure how she gets him to move from a walk, to a jog, to a lope but I think that is her legs also.


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## sorelhorse (Feb 16, 2009)

haha ummm no. if you want your horse to turn left, use your left leg, and if you want him to turn right, use your right leg.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

^^I guess it depends on what kind of riding you are doing. If I used my left leg to turn left on any of my horses, then their butt would come unstuck and the turn would get sloppy. Everyone I know uses outside leg during a turn unless they need to move the whole body over (like going around a tree or something).


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## Sunny (Mar 26, 2010)

sorelhorse said:


> haha ummm no. if you want your horse to turn left, use your left leg, and if you want him to turn right, use your right leg.


 This is closer to how I was taught, too. Do you ride English? I do, and I think this is more of the English norm. To go left I keep my left leg close to the horse and then slide my right leg a bit behind the girth. So technically I use both, but the pressure is mainly my inside leg. ETA: I saw smrobs post and wanted to add....that is the reason I slide my outside leg behind the girth, to keep their butt from coming out and making it look messy.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## nrhareiner (Jan 11, 2009)

I have yet to find a western trained horse who was not trained to move away from pressure. IE out side leg. Out side rein and so on.


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## sorelhorse (Feb 16, 2009)

Sunny said:


> This is closer to how I was taught, too. Do you ride English? I do, and I think this is more of the English norm. To go left I keep my left leg close to the horse and then slide my right leg a bit behind the girth. So technically I use both, but the pressure is mainly my inside leg. ETA: I saw smrobs post and wanted to add....that is the reason I slide my outside leg behind the girth, to keep their butt from coming out and making it look messy.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


i do english and western. pretty much i teach my horse to go away from pressure.


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## Tazmanian Devil (Oct 11, 2008)

I have seen some english instructors giving beginner lessons. The way they explain the turn to their students is to use the inside leg as something for the horse to "bend around." No actual pressure is used on the inside unless the horse doesn't properly bend into the turn.

They also instruct student to look and "point their navel" to where they are going. This has the effect of shifting weight in the seat and applying pressure with the outside leg.

From the body/leg position, this all seems very similar to western riding. The big difference in the english vs western turn is in the hands/reins which is accounted for in the bit design.


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## WickedNag (Sep 7, 2010)

Well, I totally misread the post the first time. Horses are trained to move away from pressure. Placement of the outside leg will control either the front, middle or rear of the horse in what area you want to move. Hope that makes sense to you.


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## aforred (May 12, 2010)

nrha, I like the way you explained that. :clap:


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