The leg yield is first introduced at 1st level in dressage. This handy movement can be used as an exercise to improve suppleness, responsiveness, straightness, and much more. The leg yield is a valuable tool that riders of all levels use for various reasons all throughout their riding career. It is imperative to learn how to ride a perfect leg yield!
About the Leg Yield
The leg yield is the first real movement you will learn. It involves the horse stepping forward and sideways at the same time, remaining relatively straight and parallel to the wall. (You can do a leg yield at different angles, but for the purpose of this article we’ll assume we are doing it either toward the wall or away from the wall, remaining parallel to the wall.) The horse’s head will also be slightly flexed away from the direction of travel.
Benefits of the Leg Yield
The leg yield is great for teaching a horse to move off of the rider’s inside leg. Many horses will lean on the rider’s inside leg, which results in the horse becoming crooked. This will make your circles collapse, your corners will get cut, and the horse will fall on it’s inside shoulder. When cantering on a circle, you might feel as if you are on a motorcycle thats making a very sharp turn and about ready to fall over! If you know how to ride a perfect leg yield, you can help you horse stand up by moving him off of and away from your inside leg.
The leg yield is also great for getting the horse into the outside rein. The concept of “inside leg to outside rein” is remarkably showcased with the leg yield. You are essentially moving the horse off of your inside leg and catching him in your outside rein. So the leg yield basically teaches horses how to “be” in the outside rein, and it teaches riders how to ride “inside leg to outside rein.”Once the rider has the horse “in the outside rein,” its much easier to ride a good half halt. Learn all about the half halt here.
It’s also a great idea to ride leg yields in your warm up to establish that the horse is freely moving off of your legs. You can get the horse straight, flexible and responsive before you start working on your harder movements.
How to Ride a Perfect Leg Yield
Let’s assume you are going around the track and you will turn down the next long side about 5 meters off the track, which is the quarter line. ( You can turn only 4 feet or so off the track and eventually increase it to the centerline, or even the complete opposite side as you get better at your leg yields.) After you make your turn you will be leg yielding to the wall. When you are first learning to leg yield, it is far easier to go in the direction you are already traveling, going to the wall. Also remember that it’s best to learn this movement on a horse who has already been trained to do this. If you try this on a green horse, it probably won’t work. Teaching a horse to leg yield is for a different article!
Before you try the leg yield you need to get your horse into a steady rhythm and in front of your leg. This means that the horse is moving freely forward and being responsive to your aids. You won’t get a very good leg yield if the horse is slow and putzing along! You also need to make sure you have a good contact with the bit with a straight line going from the bit to your elbow. If your reins are loopy, you won’t be able to keep the horse straight during the leg yield. You will need a steady outside rein to ‘balance’ the sideways motion. More on that later.
When you first turn onto the quarter line, you need to first make sure you are straight and parallel to the wall. You can’t expect a good leg yield if you don’t start out straight! Your horse should already be flexed to the inside because you just came out of a turn that would have required that same amount of inside flexion. You should just barely be able to see the horse’s inside eye. You will keep that same sort of inside flexion through out the leg yield.
Next, place your inside leg a little behind the girth and press lightly to ask the horse to move over into the leg yield. How far you take your leg back might depend slightly on the horse, but remember that if you put your leg too far back, it will distort your body and make the horse shut down. Take both hands and move them in tandem slightly to the inside.
Once You Put Your Leg On….
One of 5 things will happen:
Your horse just keeps going straight:
You are probably ‘blocking’ him on the outside, so he feels like he can’t move over. Check to make sure you are not jabbing your outside knee into him. This will block him from moving over. Taking your outside knee slightly off the saddle will ‘open the door’ for him to move over! It’s also possible you are blocking with an outside rein that is too restrictive. Open your outside hand toward the wall to ‘invite him’ over to the wall. Be sure to check all other areas of your body to make sure you haven’t shut any other doors for him. Open all the doors! Lastly, it could very well be that he needs a heavier aid with your inside leg.
Your horse only speeds up, but doesn’t move over:
This could be the same issue with #1 above. Your horse is blocked on the outside, so he has no where else to go but forward, and since you are probably kicking him harder and harder trying to get him over, he actually can’t, so he has no choice but to speed up.
The energy will flow out the open doors, so if the only door that is even open is the front door….the horse will go out the front door. However, there is the possibility that the horse doesn’t understand what it means when the rider puts one leg on, versus two legs on him. ( Both legs on = go forward. One leg on = get over!) In that case you’ll need to go back to basics to teach the horse this concept. Work with your trainer and do lots of turn-on-th-forehands to teach the horse to move over off of one leg.
Your horse moves over, but keeps getting slower and slower …and slower:
The horse is either behind the leg or he is still slightly blocked somewhere. Check to make sure all your outside doors are open, as well as the front doors. Often in this case, the rider is pulling on the inside rein, often puling it across the withers in an attempt to “pull” the horse over! There’s two majors insights to be had about pulling on the inside rein:
1.When a rider resorts to pulling on the inside rein, it’s usually because they are not using their inside leg as they should. The inside rein is trying to take over the job of the inside leg! 2. When the inside rein is being pulled, it SHUTS DOWN THE INSIDE HIND LEG of the horse.
The inside rein is essentially the brake for the inside hind. So you can solve two problems by NOT pulling on the inside rein. When you finally start using your inside leg instead of the inside rein, you free the horse to move over. And when you are no longer pulling on that inside rein, you free the horse to move freely forward. So drop that inside rein, use you inside leg, and the horse will move forward and over, which is the very essence of a perfect leg yield. You may also need more outside leg. Typically the inside leg will move the horse over. The outside leg in the normal position will move the horse forward.
Learn more about the dangers of pulling on the inside rein here.
Your horse is moving forward and over but the haunches are making it over quicker than the shoulders:
This is called haunches leading. The haunches are ahead of the shoulders. The front end of your horse is dragging behind and needs to catch up. Or you need to slow down the hind end. If you feel like you have a quick enough rhythm and tempo, your horse might be pretty sensitive to your leg aid. You’ll need to take your inside leg off. It has already done its job by pushing the haunches over. Now that the haunches are too far ahead, you DON’T want your inside leg telling the horse to keep going like that! Take your inside leg off! That alone might fix the problem.
If you take off your inside leg and the haunches are still leading, you need to ‘invite’ the front end over. Open a door to the outside. First make sure you are not blocking. Is your outside rein too tight? Is your outside knee jabbing into the horse? All these things will block the front end. So after you’ve stopped blocking and opened the doors, you need to decide if you need open the door even further. In this case, you’ll need to lightly position your outside rein toward the wall by opening your forearm a bit away from the horse’s neck.. By taking the rein off the neck, it opens the door even more and invites the horse over. And remember; Don’t use the inside rein to neck-rein your horse over!
Your horse is moving forward and over, but the shoulders are making it over quicker than the haunches:
This is called ‘shoulders leading’ or ‘haunches trailing.’ You are not parallel with the wall because the haunches are behind and the shoulders are ahead. To ride a perfect leg yield you need to adjust the horse to make him straight. So what should you do? Well, you need to slow down the front end while speeding up the hind end. You may or may not need to add much more inside leg to the haunches depending on how crooked you are. But the main concept here is learning to slow the shoulders so the haunches can catch up!
To do this you need to ‘close the door’ to the outside a bit by riding a good half halt. Learn how to ride a good half halt here! Do NOT use your inside rein to pull the front end into alignment! In fact, you should be able to completely drop the inside rein at any moment in the leg yield and nothing should change. The role of the inside rein is minimal. It should only be used for slight flexing and suppling. With the leg yield it’s all about the outside rein! Using a firm half halt on the outside rein will allow you to sort of block the shoulders momentarily so the haunches can catch up. It also helps to move both hands in tandem to the inside. This helps get the horse into the outside rein so you can slow the shoulders.
Don’t be afraid of using more firmness on the outside rein than you usually do. Riding a good half halt in a leg yield feels a little different because you are actually stopping the sideways movement of the front half of a one-ton animal! So it’s gonna take a little more on your part. You will need a taught rein to create the ‘wall,’ and you’ll be using your core in conjunction with a slight pull-back or ‘stiffening’ of the outside rein.Just don’t pull back so much that it makes your elbow go behind your back. If it does, you need to shorten your reins.
Depending on the horse, you may only need to do this once and you’ll be off into a great leg yield. More often though, you’ll need to ‘refresh’ your aid through out the movement. This applies to all the above methods of fixing the problem. Don’t hang on to you aid. Use it, lose it. Refresh it.
How to Ride a Perfect Leg Yield – Summary
The duration of the leg yield will require constant tweaking. It could be that you start out and encounter all 5 problems before finishing the leg yield. You need to be constantly assessing the leg yield as you go along. Where are the shoulders? Where are the haunches? Exactly where should they be?
Go through all the checks in your head and adjust. Where are you blocking? What doors do you need to open? What ingredient is missing? Which tool from your toolbox do you need to pull out in order to straighten the horse?
Remember to take mental brakes for yourself and your horse when things aren’t going well. If you get frustrated, this will not help anyone. Refresh and start again. It takes time and lots of practice to ride a perfect leg yield!
Keep riding, Keep refining!
‘The Refined Rider’
And HERE is a great exercise that can reform your leg yield.
