Leg day! Avoid making these mistakes while you ride.

If you have a horse that runs off on you every time you use a leg or you are having a hard time controlling and shaping their body, Then take a look at the mistakes below that I see most often in my riding students. Make sure that you are not making these mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not using your leg enough.

Your leg is a very important tool to communicate with horse. It is a lot less invasive than pulling on their face with your hands. Most of the Riders I see use a lot of hand and hardly, if any, leg at all. When it should in reality be the reverse.

Mistake #2: No feel.

Your leg should be as sensitive as any part of your body your that you use to communicate with horse. Especially when it comes to riding with spurs. This is for my western riders particularly. I see so many riders jabbing their horse with their spur. You should always always always start with a squeeze and then use a roll of the spur if you need more reinforcement. You should never. jab a horse with your spur. This leads to the horse becoming resentful of your leg or completely dull to your leg.

Mistake #3: Lack of precision.

There is a lot of opportunity for subtlety when you ride using your legs. By using the different parts of your leg, like the knee, thigh, calf and the heel. I See a lot of riders using their legs like a giant slab meat hanging off of the side of their horse. Where they use it to flop against their horses ribs and that's it. By using by using the different parts of your leg you can do so much more with your horse besides just speed it up and slow it down.

Mistake #4: Toes straight versus out

This kind of piggybacks off of the precision mistake. But not using your toes correctly will lead to unclear messages from you to your horse when it comes to your heel. Riding with your toes forward is a neutral position. To use your heel, turn your toe out where your foot is perpendicular to your horse's rib cage.

Mistake #5: High heels.

I would not I would not be much of a riding instructor if I did not mention this mistake. The best way to stay balanced on your horse is to have a have a straight line from your shoulder running through hip down to your heel. This when you push your heel down in the stirrup and have the ball of your foot on the stirrup. This creates a nice long leg from your hip down. I see too many riders trying to compensate for good balance by squeezing and gripping with their knees and going into a halfway fetal position on the back of their horse, which raises their heels, drives their toes down. This makes really easy for your horse to unload you over its head.

Mistake #6: Lack of preparation.

There are some horses that have never been taught the meaning of a leg when it's used properly. They have only been ridden with the meat leg. So then, when you jump on that horse and you try to bend, squeeze, and push the horse in different directions it will likely end up in the horse rearing, bolting, or crow hopping. Because there's a lot of pressure, a lack of understanding, and no place for that horse to escape the pressure. If you own If you own this horse, take some time to teach it some pressure and release on the ground in the same places where you would be using your leg.

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