So sometimes riders will come and they'll start
like leaning this way to try to get their horse to move over, or leaning to the other side, which
is incorrect. Remember, it's a leg yield, it's not a body yield. Hello everyone, In this video, we are
talking about leg yield. What is a leg yield. I'm going to help you understand the definition
of a leg yield, the aids for a leg yield, the prerequisites that you need for a leg yield, and
some exercises to help you introduce a leg yield. So also, if you want to learn more about leg
yields, if you're having trouble with them, or want to introduce them, teach them to a young horse,
check out the description below, I have a workshop on leg yields. So this is Mercurio, and a leg yield
is an exercise that is a two-track movement where your horse is going to be crossing their legs. In
the leg yield, it's important that the legs are crossing in front, and that your horse is moving
forward and sideways. In a leg yield, your horse should be just slightly flexed to the inside, but
they don't have bend in their body. So that's one difference between the leg yield and shoulder-in
or haunches-in. In shoulder-in and haunches-in your horse has bend in the body. In a leg-yield your
horse is straight from the poll to the tail, and they just have a slight flexion to the inside.
So first thing is I'm going to get my inside rein just a tiny bit shorter so I can flex my
horse to the inside. I should be able to see my a little bit my horse's eyelashes, and maybe his
nostrils on the inside, then the aids for the leg yield are my inside leg is pushing him over, I'm
sitting just slightly more on the inside seat bone, my outside leg is just slightly behind
the girth, and my outside rein is keeping him from over bending in the neck. In the leg
yield, your inside aids create so your inside leg creates the energy to move over, your inside
rein creates flexion, your outside aids receive. So your outside aids keep the horse from over
bending, and also keep the horse stepping forward. So now at the trot, same thing. My inside rein is
flexing him slightly to the inside, my inside leg is pushing him over, my outside rein and leg are
controlling the outside of his body and making sure that he steps forward. Remember that the
leg yield is a forward and a sideways movement. So now I'm going to change directions, and I'm
going to do the leg yield off of my right leg. Let me know in the comments: is it harder to
do a leg yield off the right leg or off the left leg on your horse? Every horse is a little
different, so for the leg yield to the left, off my right leg, my right rein is asking him
to flex just a little bit to the inside, my left rein is controlling that he doesn't
over bend, my right leg is the dominant aid to be pushing his inside hind leg over. So I
really want to see that his legs are crossing, and that he's staying parallel more or less
to the long side when I'm doing this leg yield. Good boy. So some of the prerequisites that are
really important for a leg yield. If you're having trouble with a leg yield, go back and make sure,
like, here I can feel, like, hey, he's not quite in front of my leg. So your horse needs to be round
and in front of the leg, where I need to be able to just trot and not have to keep them going
with my leg all the time, and have him round, and through, on the bit. Because if your horse is
above the bit, and they're not using their back, it's gonna be impossible to do a leg yield. So
if your leg yields aren't working well, just go back to your trot, get your horse in front of the
leg, get your horse round, then start the leg yield. What are the most common faults in leg yields? The
most common fault that I see is this; where the horse just over bends, the rider pulls too much on
the inside rein, and then the horse falls through the outside shoulder because I've forgotten my
outside rein and he no longer was crossing his legs, he was just kind of making a diagonal to
the side. Another common mistake that I see in leg yields is horses that either speed up or slow
down. So sometimes in a leg yield your horse will just come to the walk, and you'll be like kicking
and kicking, which I'm not doing, I'm just softly putting my leg on him, but that the horse will slow
down, and lose impulsion, or lose roundness, and the final biggest mistake that I see happen in leg
yields is riders that really lose their position. So sometimes riders will come and they'll start
like leaning this way to try to get their horse to move over, or leaning to the other side, which
is incorrect. Remember, it's a leg yield, it's not a body yield. So if you're struggling with any of
these evasions in your leg yield, definitely check out the workshop. There's a lot of great content in
there to help fix all of these problems. I'm just going to do a few different types of leg yields
so you can do a leg yield across the diagonal there, I basically turn them on the diagonal and
I'm just going to leg yield all the way across, and do a leg yield with the head to the
wall. So you're going to cut the corner, you're going to flex your horse slightly to the
outside, and you're going to travel down the rail at about a 45 degree angle. This is the same
thing, in this head to the wall leg yield, my right leg is considered my inside leg,
and I'm pushing him into my left rein. Good boy, and then the final place where you
can do a leg yield is actually on a circle. So one of my favorite exercises to work on
suppleness is the spiral in and leg yield out. I have a video that shows you the spiral in
and out exercise, so I'm going to spiral into a 10 meter circle, and then I'm going to leg yield
out, and think about pushing his haunches more out than his shoulders. So I'm really getting that
crossing over onto the bigger circle line. So that's everything that you need to know about leg
yields. It's a super fun movement, it really helps to get your horse more supple using their topline.
It also will help to improve your horse's gaits. If you have a horse that is a little bit short
and choppy in the trot, a leg yield is a really good exercise to teach your horse to take a longer
step and to get a little bit more expression and suspension in their strides. So give me a thumbs
up, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell to be notified when I post a new video every single
Wednesday, so that you can keep learning more about different dressage movements, and different
dressage terms. Thanks so much for watching! Music foreign
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