It’s one of those oxymorons of horse training that in order to make our horses straight, we make our horses bend.
Let’s leave for a later post the question of what straight actually means, since straightness varies depending on the level of education of horse (and rider). For today, let’s stay with the basic working definition of a “straight horse” — a horse that moves without favoring one side (or one direction) or another.
Depending on the bend in our horse’s body, most of us can easily identify which direction is our horse’s “good direction.”
We start working on making the “bad direction” as good as the “good direction” by riding our horses along curved lines — in circles, serpentines, bending lines, shallow loops, etc.
Most of us are also taught that the best way to bend our horses is with diagonal aids — the oft-repeated “inside leg to outside rein.” While this orchestration of aids is extremely effective, it requires knowledge on the part of the horse, and independent aids on the part of the rider. This is part of the reason it so often fails.
Anyone who doubts its failure must have been blessed by not having to hear trainers shouting the words “OUTSIDE REIN!” or “INSIDE LEG TO OUTSIDE REIN!” repeatedly across the arena to mystified, frustrated riders and their counterbent and equally frustrated horses.
For “inside leg to outside rein” to be effective, the horse must be responsive to the aids. He must be supple enough to be able to bend and not brace, and must understand the use of the outside rein as a “bearing rein” or “neck rein” (sometimes also known as a western rein or supporting rein).
The lady on the grey horse is using an outside bearing rein to turn her horse to the right. Now doesn’t that look easy? It’s not. But see the happy horse?
For a rider to properly apply “inside leg to outside rein,” he must have independent aids. Part of being “right handed” or “left handed” means that strength and nimbleness tend to align on one side of the body. Riders must overcome this “handedness” in order to effectively apply diagonal aids.
You can easily apply the diagonal aids if you can move the shoulders of the horse independent of the haunches and the haunches independent of the shoulders. Tests of this ability are the turn on the forehand and the turn on the haunches (actually, these days, the true test is a pirouette since the turn on the haunches is no longer synonymous with a pirouette and provides for forward movement). If your horse can’t execute at least a quarter pirouette, your horse isn’t yet sufficiently trained or supple to comply with the diagonal aids, or your aids are not yet refined enough to be able to transmit diagonal aids clearly to the horse.
Working on the pirouette (or is it the turn on the haunches?) at the Reitschule Großhelfendorf bei München, courtesy of Andizo at the German language Wikipedia
When riders have difficulty isolating diagonal aids (right hand/left leg or left hand/right leg) and horses have difficulty understanding, riders instinctively try harder. Trying harder is a good thing, but applying stronger aids is generally a bad thing.
Does this sound familiar to you or your students — as the stronger inside leg is applied, the rider tends to draw the knee and thigh up, and to compensate for this by lowering the inside shoulder and collapsing at the waist…or the rider draws the inside leg back, which throws the haunches to the outside and makes the horse fall in on the circle…or, in desperation, the rider applies the heel or holds the aid, and teaches the horse to ignore it all?
The problems in transmitting these aids are not limited to the rider’s legs. With a horse not trained or sensitive to the subtle effects of the rein, the outside rein cannot be used properly. Riders who have not been taught or mastered the various rein effects usually employ a direct rein of opposition, towards the hip on the same side of the body. This rein effect is partially successful in preventing the outside shoulder from escaping, so it’s the most common rein aid employed in “inside leg to outside rein.”
The oft-seen, unfortunate outside rein aid — the direct rein of opposition. And the unhappy, bracing horse. Photo courtesy of Dee.lite at the German language Wikipedia
Unfortunately, since this is an ineffective rein aid for sideways movement if combined with a restricting inside hand and inside leg, the rider tends to strengthen the aid by pulling back (which makes the horse brace even more). Often, the horse responds to this pulling outside rein by turning towards the outside, so the rider corrects the developing counterbend with an even stronger inside rein (defeating the entire purpose of the outside rein) and/or inside leg. All this tends to make the rider’s weight shift to the inside, and the horse attempts to balance that weight by moving his own weight towards the inside.
What has happened? The rider’s body has succeeded in telling the horse to bend in exactly the opposite direction of what is desired.
Why do the same aids work in the horse’s good direction, then? They don’t. It’s an illusion that they work. It’s simply easier for the horse to bend in that direction, despite everything that the rider is doing wrong.
Luckily, it’s infinitely easier to bend your horse with your eyes and belly button (and a little flexion of the jaw) than to use brute strength. Or you can use Buck Brannaman’s methods, which have been on my mind lately. More on that in another post.
Reflections on Riding 
There’s got to be a better way to phrase it that makes more sense to people like inside leg holds the bend, outside rein moves the shoulder? You probably have something better than that though 🙂
I wonder if the instructors who keep repeating that mantra like a recording really know how it works? Due to bad trainers I’ve made this direct rein mistake that you describe and got nothing but frustration out of it.
LikeLike
Hi Shannon — You’re not alone in being frustrated and misdirected during this exercise. It’s exactly the problems you and so many other riders encounter while trying to perfect “inside leg to outside rein” that led me to write this post.
I like the simplicity of “inside leg holds the bend and outside rein moves the shoulder.” But for that to be successful, the rider must be able to effectively apply the aids and the horse must understand them.
As you know, I often say “inside rein asks for flexion, outside rein holds the bend.” Once the horse is supple, the hind end naturally follows the front end.
LikeLike
Just to be clear (to me anyway) you are saying that both the inside leg and the outside rein hold the bend.
LikeLike
Hi Debby – Thank you for your comment and I’m happy to try to clarify. I know I didn’t address the issue of “holding” the bend. I believe that the outside rein and the inside leg are both aids to encourage the horse to bend, but once the horse is bent, the aids are just “there.” They no longer need to be “applied.”
So while it is true that they are “held,” in that you don’t do something different with them, it should not be necessary, riding a well trained horse, for the aids to be applied in order to “hold” the horse in a certain position. Once the horse has given what you asked for, your aids should soften but remain in the same position. The horse should carry himself (that famous “self carriage”), until you alter your aids to ask for something new.
Does that clarify? And make sense?
LikeLike
Katie, Sorry to have taken so long to respond, but this is a perplexing and fundamental issue for many riders to understand if they have not been successful in feeling it first. My confusion lies in reading your post to Shannon on August 20 where you say “I like the simplicity of “inside leg holds the bend and outside rein moves [ie flexes] the shoulder.” But for that to be successful, the rider must be able to effectively apply the aids and the horse must understand them.
but there seems to be a contradiction when you say:
As you know, I often say “inside rein asks for flexion, outside rein holds the bend.” Once the horse is supple, the hind end naturally follows the front end.
Asking for flexion and holding a bend feel very different to me. So, which is it? Hope you can clarify further and alleviate my confusion. Thank you
LikeLike
Hi Debby – What a good question! I’m so glad that you returned to this issue. I understand why this gets a little complicated, and I’m sorry that I haven’t expressed my thoughts well enough to make it clear. So please let me try again…
First of all, it’s important for me to say that you are completely right that flexion and holding a bend are very different. And before we go on, I think it might help to talk a little bit about how they’re different.
Flexion is not bending. It is a relaxation of the jaw that then creates comfortable flexibility at the poll which allows the horse to attain a position where the nose is at the vertical or close to it, and also allows the horse to tilt his head to the side while keeping his nose perpendicular to the ground. This relaxation of the jaw allows the horse to release tension in the spine and lift the back, which then allows the hind leg to step under more. That’s one of the reasons it’s really a magic technique and the first step for helping a horse and rider who may not yet be ready for “inside leg to outside rein.”
On a circle (since this is the subject at hand), we ask for flexion with a slight lift of the inside hand, with an instantaneous release….in a well trained horse, it may be as slight as a minute turn of the wrist…and in a horse just learning, you might have to raise the hand high with some sense of urgency and repeat until the horse understands what is being asked for. (When that happens, needless to say, praise, praise, praise and the next time, ask with more tact.)
I know I’m overdue for a post talking about flexion, and for that I apologize, but the signs of flexion are a horse that provides no resistance to the hand, who easily moves the head, releases the back and often at first, moves the jaw in a slight chewing motion, providing salivation that wets the bit (this increasing the sensitivity of the communication) and makes a slight white “lipstick” that is visible on the outside of the mouth.
Once we have flexion, the inside hand goes back to neutral. It does not hold anything. The inside leg can come into play on a horse that knows the diagonal aids and a rider that can apply then well, asking for a little more bend. On a horse that doesn’t yet know the diagonal aids or a rider who hasn’t yet developed independent aids, simply asking for flexion keeps the horse from moving around the circle like a board, because, as we’ve said, flexion releases the head from the spine from the back.
Returning to our circle…now we have flexion with the horses head turned in the direction of the circle (exactly where we want the feet to land). The next thing we need to move is the shoulder, and we do that with our other hand — the outside hand. Where the shoulder goes is where the front feet go, so that’s why I say the outside rein “holds the bend.” Again, on a well-trained and supple horse, this may be no more than the feel of the outside rein along the neck, as a supple horse bent around a circle will naturally fill out the outside rein. With a less well trained horse, it may be necessary to give the horse some reminders, pulsing the rein against the neck to remind the horse to keep his shoulder and therefore front feet on the circle. (This is why training the shoulder to move independently of the hindquarters is so valuable early in training, with turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches and walk pirouette. Here, inside flexion and a bearing rein are the aids of choice.)
So this is all a long (probably way too long!) way of saying that the inside rein asks for flexion and the outside rein moves the shoulder and keeps it in place along the line of the circle.
There was certainly some “short hand” in my response to Shannon, who has been my student, so she knew exactly what I was saying, but understandably, it confused the issue. I hope that this clarifies, but I’m happy to continue the discussion. And I don’t want to sign off here without the reminder not to forget your belly button!
LikeLike
Thank you very much Katie for your extensive clarification. I really find your columns interesting and give me a lot to think about, and to practice. I stumbled onto your site by accident when I was looking at rolfing. When I read your story, I realized we have had similar paths, with horses anyway, but the broken body and a strong mind to return to something we love has given you insight into riding PROPERLY. For me relearning to ride properly has helped to straighten my crooked spine immensely, but I have to undo a lot of things I was told in the past. Inside rein to outside leg has been one of them. I look forward with interest to your observations and advice. >
LikeLike
Hi Debby – Ah yes, the broken body and the strong mind!
I think that sometimes we riders make it harder on ourselves — and certainly on our horses — than it has to be. Yes, it is difficult to be balanced and tactful and to apply our aids and wait for a response…and most of all, perhaps, to understand that our horses must learn a new and foreign language from us, and it is our goal to make that process of learning not only simple and straightforward but also kind.
So often if we don’t push and fight and just try to understand how to better communicate with our horses instead, we find that — miraculously! — they can do what we thought they couldn’t or wouldn’t. Helping riders achieve that goal is what brings me such tremendous joy as an instructor. Thanks for your contributions to the discussion!
LikeLike