Do you have a gaited horse that is lazy? I’ve discovered the key to forward movement with my smooth gaited Tennessee walking horse: Stop using my leg aids.

Here’s my story…

Forward Movement without Leg Aids

By Jennifer Klitzke

Forward movement without rushing is a requirement in dressage. Other requirements are relaxation (of mind and body), rhythm (consistent tempo and strides), contact (acceptance of the bit), straightness (developing evenness in both directions), and collection (balance) as you move through the training process with the horse.

Coming from decades of German dressage, I learned to ride my horse forward from the hind quarters, through the body and into a snaffle bit contact. I developed an unconscious habit of driving my horse forward with my legs and seat, clucking and squeezing my calves against the sides of my horse to move forward with each step and into the contact. If that didn’t prompt forward movement, I would add the tap-tap-tap of a dressage whip.

I couldn’t figure out why my horse had less and less forward movement.

I explored saddle fit, my horse’s physical condition, and I even changed horse’s diet. Nothing seemed to get my horse to move forward without my continued prodding. I figured I just had a lazy horse.

The same thing began to happen when I began training my Tennessee walking horse until I stumbled upon a new training approach which helped me realize my error.

Separate the “go” from the “stop” for forward movement

At a classical French dressage clinic, I was introduced to the book Another Horsemanship by the late Jean Claude Racinet, a classical French dressage master who followed the work of Baucher’s second training method. Racinet’s book opened my eyes to a new idea: separating my leg “go” aids from my hand “stop” aids.

By combining my riding aids: driving my horse forward with my legs and seat into a snaffle bit contact, two things happened:

1. My horse became confused, “Do you mean ‘go’ or ‘stop’? I cannot do both simultaneously.”
2. When my horse chose to slow down, I developed the habit of becoming the engine that drove my horse forward with each step.

Lightness to the Leg for Forward Movement

From French dressage, I learned that forward movement is the horse’s responsibility not the rider’s. The rider needs to train the horse this responsibility. The rider needs to teach the horse to move forward with ONE squeeze and release of the calves and maintain this forward movement without continued squeezing.

This is how to obtain lightness to the leg for forward movement:

• First, teach horse what the leg aid means.
• Important: do not combine the leg aid with rein action.
• Second, immediately cease using leg aids when the horse moves forward.
• Third, be consistent in the application to train the horse to maintain lightness to the leg without prodding the horse along with each step.

Looking back, I realize that I didn’t have lazy horses. I had either confused my horses by combining my “stop” and “go” aids or dulled my horses to my leg aids with my continued squeezing with each step.

Riding with awareness to develop forward movement

Combining my stop and go aids had become an unconscious habit, so did driving my horse forward with each step.

As soon as I changed my training method to be responsive to the first leg cue without combining my go and stop aids, my horse maintained forward movement without continued leg aids with each step.

The concept of obtaining forwardness without leg aids works for someone like me who has gotten into the habit of squeezing with each step. Now I am riding with more intentionality and awareness of cause and effect, which I believe will replace those unconscious bad habits over time.

Forward movement is possible without leg aids. The calves have a place, just not with EVERY step the horse takes.

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