Dead to the leg....

Lot1983

Active Member
Oct 16, 2006
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The Cotswolds
My horse is what you call 'dead to the leg', he is responsive, but I find that I continually have to squeeze and back that up with seat aids, and flick of whip to get him going.

If I decide we are going to canter, I sit squeeze and he canters, but I have to keep at him to maintain it.

I just wondered if there where any exercizes that we could try out in the school that would help him work off the leg a bit quicker, as going from walk to trot is quite 'slow'

I have ridden him in spurs and he is alot better, but I would prefer to try and work him on a day to day basis without.

Any ideas?
 
A long dressage whip. Seriously.
What you want to do is squeeze with your leg, if you get no response (instantly) you flick him with the whip on his haunches. Eventually, if you're timing is right, he'll get used to moving off your leg again.

I personally wouldn't use spurs, because you'll eventually just deaden him to that as well if he's not moving off your leg to begin with. A whip should be used for impulsion, spurs for refinement.

And then for exercises, keep him from getting bored. Lots of transitions, serpentines with simple changes in between, ect.
 
I second the dressage whip, don't be afraid to use it. A person will never have strong enough legs to overcome this type of battle, the whip has worked 100% of the time for me.

Excersizes to do...I would suggest lots of lateral work especially shoulder-ins and leg yields. One excersize I love is turning down the center line and leg yielding to the wall, then coming around the end of the arena and asking for an extended trot down the other long side and repeat. Do this in both directions, it's lovely for getting the horse off the leg. Transitions are great as well of course!
 
Well I go for the NH thing so I don't even squeeze, I only use my weight;) However if he wont go forward when I ask I have my savvy string ( a short peice of rope will do) and hit it across my shoulders and Mayo goes straight up into a canter or a trot and its very effictive. Now he always comes off me weight aids and I only had to use it twice! I've seen alot of people do this and it has always seemed to work very well:) It meens you don't have to kick or whip aswell:D
 
curly can get a bit like that if im not keeping her 100% focused, i do loads of halt to walk, walk to halt, often stopping at every letter in the arena. it really gets her going. then i do walk to trot and change pace at every letter.
 
Yep - got one of those:)

Echo transitions, transitions, transitions. I do a lot of trot-halt-trot transitions during my warm up, after a few of those I only need to use a small squeeze and he trots on (when I first get on it's squeeze/harder/stick-voice:eek: before he will react)

Also lots of canter transitions - if you are on a 20 metre circle and do 5 strides trot, 3 canter, 5 trot, 3 canter etc then you should get him a bit snappier off your leg. Also I find canter transitions quite useful for 'winding him up' so that after a few of them our walk-trots also improve.

ETA - in the canter, the way I try to keep Max from just falling out of it is to pop him into canter (like you, our trot-canter isn't bad) and then sit passively. If he slows or is about to fall out then I send him forwards with a squeeze and a tap of my stick, and then sit quietly again and tell him he's a good boy. I'll also sometimes push for some lengthened strides down the long side, then tell him he's a good boy and ask for the trot.

And just thought of something else (sorry). Be careful that you reward him when he does go forwards off your leg by sitting quietly and that you're not still squeezing (so that he knows that's what you want.)
 
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I think the problem is, that we are just getting used to each other and schooling on our own (without RI) I'M getting lazy and letting him slow when he wants too.

Will try lots of transitions on him, we've got a lesson booked tomorrow so I shall see how that goes.

I do normally ride with the whip but I am probaby swishing it about 6 inches away from his bum half the time!

I've also found if I go into the 2 point position in canter or trot he perks up becuase he thinks we're jumping or going for a gallop...

hummm, I think we need more focus in our schooling sessions (and for me to put in some effort so he does too!)
 
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