To squeeze? To nudge? Or to Kick?

[Juliaa]

When I first started of riding I would raise my heel so I can nudge her with my heel to get her going... as I realised what I was doing I would try to maintain a long leg and just do a nudge using the inside of my boots which would work on her as she's a forward going mare who loves to please .

But as I started taking lessons I rode horses that needed way more leg and I fell victim to raising my heels to give the horse a nudge with my heel thinking the reaction would be bigger, when asking for canter on a plodder I'd do pony kicks and it looks absolutely awful but I have no idea what's the best way to get a horse listening to leg aid and more forward?

I do use a crop but on the recent 17hh he didn't really respond to me kicking and using the crop behind my leg, and I hate to nag, meaning... kick kick kick crop kick kick as it gets me knowhere and might make him a bit faster for a second or so..

Would like some opinions and advice and how you'd take this on!

 

[newforest]

Mine is naturally laid back. She does respond but usually it's half hearted.

I only squeeze then nudge with the inside of my calf. I do use my voice good or bad she responds so that's more important.

I do have a stick and I will give a firm tap with it.

 

[Juliaa]

Mine is naturally laid back. She does respond but usually it's half hearted.

I only squeeze then nudge with the inside of my calf. I do use my voice good or bad she responds so that's more important.

I do have a stick and I will give a firm tap with it.

On the 17hh horse I did a lot of kicks, but it was my first lesson back from holidays so I felt like I was doing everything wrong. I'm not used to being firm with a crop, but I'm guessing if he's not responding to led aid then it's handy...

I'll try squeezing with my calves next lesson, squeezing and releasing pressure when I get the desired effect and use a crop when he's still not responding.

I just feel like kicking throws me off balance when in canter

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

My pony is forward going, so normally a squeeze is enough, a nudge only if he is being lazy in school.

I only ever gave him a Pony Club kick once and I will never repeat it! It threw me off balance too, but him even more so

 

[newforest]

To me a simple firm tap that says hey wake up is better than lots of little irritating kicks that they just ignore anyway.
Focus on what you want, where you are going and how you intend to get there.

 

[KP nut]

The way I usually get an unresponsive horse on the aids is to come back to halt. Then pick a point I want to ride towards, focus on it and give a gentle nudge. If the horse doesn't respond I give a firm tap with a whip to establish walk. If still no response I'll smack harder on the basis that I will be as soft as I can be but firm as I need to be to get a response. Once a horse is walking nicely, I give a stroke/scratch and come back to halt. Then repeat: focus, nudge, tap. It usually only takes a few repetitions to get a smart walk from a nudge. Then I'll use exactly the same aids for trot from walk. If the horse goes into walk well from halt, trot is normally much easier. I also use energy and rhythm ie focus on visualising 4 beats for walk, 2 beats for trot and no beats for halt. That also helps but not all horses are used to responding to that.
At first I use lots of transitions but then I expect them to maintain walk or trot for longer. If they slow down it's the same patttern: nudge/tap. But if i find myself having to nudge/tap too often, rather than nag I tend to come back to halt again to remind them what the aids mean and what I expect.

 

[Juliaa]

My pony is forward going, so normally a squeeze is enough, a nudge only if he is being lazy in school.

I only ever gave him a Pony Club kick once and I will never repeat it! It threw me off balance too, but him even more so

I'm not really a fan of pony club kicking, and I've only done it in RS's where the RI tells you to kick and it makes it look kinda ugly and throws me off balance and I get a shabby result.

So started wondering if there's a better way to get a horse forward without throwing kicks at it

 

[Juliaa]

The way I usually get an unresponsive horse on the aids is to come back to halt. Then pick a point I want to ride towards, focus on it and give a gentle nudge. If the horse doesn't respond I give a firm tap with a whip to establish walk. If still no response I'll smack harder on the basis that I will be as soft as I can be but firm as I need to be to get a response. Once a horse is walking nicely, I give a stroke/scratch and come back to halt. Then repeat: focus, nudge, tap. It usually only takes a few repetitions to get a smart walk from a nudge. Then I'll use exactly the same aids for trot from walk. If the horse goes into walk well from halt, trot is normally much easier. I also use energy and rhythm ie focus on visualising 4 beats for walk, 2 beats for trot and no beats for halt. That also helps but not all horses are used to responding to that.
At first I use lots of transitions but then I expect them to maintain walk or trot for longer. If they slow down it's the same patttern: nudge/tap. But if i find myself having to nudge/tap too often, rather than nag I tend to come back to halt again to remind them what the aids mean and what I expect.

I'll definelty try that, as hopefully it'll get the horse more responsive to my leg aid. I guess I also struggle with being firm as the mare I loan is a delicate one and a small tap on the shoulder to wake her up is all she needs

Thanks for the advice!

 

[HaloHoney]

I squeeze with calves, count one, two, and if no response, tap-tap-tap with dressage whip to draw attention to my leg. Once desired result achieved, back to halt, try it again making sure I release the squeeze when desired result is achieved.

 

[Mary Poppins]

I am retraining my horse to go from a very light aid now. So I squeeze and if he doesn't respond I tap with the whip (not smack, just tap). We then repeat the transition until he goes from the lightest squeeze. It's not been a quick process as I have had to change the whole way I ride, but it's much nicer for both of us when he responds.

 

[Lissie]

Nothing useful to add, I only have to shorten the reins and I get trot

 

[PePo]

Seat first for me, then the lightest squeeze - so I'm in Lissie's camp now! If not, then a slightly larger squeeze followed by a small tap either on the shoulder or behind my leg.

 

[Ao-]

Different horses respond to aids the way they've been taught to. Laid back or fast forward, in my experience if I go in a saddle and the horse won't respond to legs at all, I'll get a whip for ma small tap on the neck and most will finally respond to legs from then on without even having to use the whip. Of course, I'm a begginer rider more or less, so I never had really bad cases. But I have had difficult horses that got desensitized due to being worked WAY too much and most of the time by inexperienced riders. That horse only responded to the trainers and whip smacks... apart from other bad habbits with "clients"... like forcing himself to pee and drop every once few minutes. The stallion had a wonderful temper overall and it was sad to see... it wasn't his fault, but the trainers'. Another I've had, a FriesianxHanoverian mare, would need as little as a tiny lil bit of pressure to change gaits or collect. You didn't even need to raise heels, pressure with lower part of leg was enough, and she also responded to vocal commands. I love her and she's a dream of a horse to ride, even though she reads seat position as well and I would not always have the best balance at taking corners at canter, or lean forward in the saddle, so she'd get a lil bit confused xD.

The best is when your horse is taught to respond to pressure with heels, rather than kicks. I myself absolutely hate to kick and hard pull reins. This is not how a horse is supposed to be ridden, and if it needs kicks and hard pulls, he's went through a lot of unpleasant experiences over the years to get desensitised, so I don't wish to add up to it, because a horse is naturally responsive. There are exceptions, but if the temperament of a horse isn't suitable at all for a school horse (spooky, nervous, very stubborn) why even force him into it without proper training and create accidents in the first place?

You cannot always ride responsive horses, but I think the idea is to be firm and "decided" in your commands, and follow the horse's responses and ears to see what it is paying attention to. And love them :3