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Get Your Leg On - How to Use Your Leg Effectively for Dressage

The leg is arguably one of THE MOST important aids that we use to communicate with our horse. The leg is primarily a driving aid - it is what gets the horse to move forward - but the leg can also be used as a turning aid, a bending aid, and a lateral aid that asks the horse to move sideways!

There are 4 different sections of your leg that can be used to communicate with your horse:

Upper leg - from you hip rotate the thigh in so that you have contact with the knee in the saddle. There should not be daylight between your upper thigh and the saddle. The upper thighs can be used to help with a turning aid and the upper leg is important to support your seat to stay in the saddle.
The Calf- ideally most of the driving aids come from your calf. When asking for a walk-trot transition for example, you want the horse to listen to just simply squeezing with the calf.
The Heel - if the horse doesn’t listen to the calf, then the heel can come in to remind the horse to listen to the closing of the calf. With the heel, you can use a pressing or a bumping aid although generally the bumping aid is more effective!
The Spur - the spur is considered an “auxiliary aid.” It is an extra aid and while the spur can be very useful to getting the horse more sensitive to the leg aid, it is very important not to over use the spur.

Common mistakes:
Going first to the spur - many riders forget to use their calf and upper leg and go right away to the spur. In Dressage we want to have invisible aids so it is important to always start first from the calf, then use the spur only if needed!
Drawing the leg upward and shortening the leg. Remember to use the leg, and then make your leg long again. Keeping the leg long will allow you to have a correct and following seat. If the leg is clamped on, it will block the horse from moving.
Leaning forward and pulling when using the leg aids. A leg aid should be from the waist down. The upper body DOES NOT CHANGE! Yet many riders, especially when asking for the canter tend to lean forward and pull!
Giving mixed signals - Kicking and pulling! Many riders unintentionally tell the horse to go and stop at the same time. Be sure to use either the driving aids or the restraining aids but not both at the same time!

How do you improve the effective use of the leg aids?

Transitions are a great way to work on the effective use of the leg aids. Start with walk-halt-walk transitions, then move on to walk-trot-walk transitions. Always start by asking first just from the calf. Then go to the heel. The goal is that you have invisible aids so always start first with the calf!
I hope these tips are helpful for you! What is your biggest struggle with using your legs and with your leg position?
Happy Riding!
Amelia

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