Since the leg-yield is a movement of lateral nature, it has many benefits for both you and your horse. Among those benefits are the following: -
- Performed correctly, it encourages engagement of the hindquarters because the horse lowers his hips, which--
- Improves the natural balance of the horse that leads to
- Greater control and influence from you as a rider
- It helps establish lateral suppleness in the horse
- And finally, teaches you body coordination since it requires the use of seat, leg, and rein aids, which prepares you for more complex movements later on.
The Aids for the Leg-yieldFor a correct leg-yield, you will be using a set of primary aids and a set of secondary aids. I have divided the aids this way to allow you to pay more attention to what is required to execute the movement. Your primary aids will be as follows: - - Outside seat bone: shift your weight slightly onto your outside seat bone to encourage your horse to step underneath your center of gravity.
- Inside leg: by gently applying your inside leg behind the girth you will be asking the horse to step away from your leg.
Your secondary aids will be as follows:
- Outside leg: it will maintain forward energy when applied on the girth.
- Outside hand: use your outside rein to control the degree of bend and to prevent the horse’s outside shoulder from falling out by bringing your hand over the horse’s withers. If your horse advances his hindquarters before his forelegs, opening the outside rein will help straighten your horse again. You may do that by shifting your hand away from the withers and sponging the rein.
- Inside hand: gently ‘sponge’ the inside rein to encourage the horse to bend only slightly to the inside. Remember to be very soft and forgiving with your inside hand, using it only when needed.
- Figure One: On the right rein, turn right at A down the centerline and ride a 10-meter circle to the left. Ride your horse straight for a couple of strides then leg-yield to the right.
- Figure Two: On the long side of the arena, leg-yield towards the centerline, go straight for three strides, then leg-yield back to the track, changing flexion accordingly. If you are ambitious, you may want to try to half-pass back to the track. You may do that by changing your horse's bend towards the direction you are traveling.
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