Training & Rehab Exercises: Lateral Flexion from the Leg

Lateral Flexion from the leg follows on from lateral flexion from the halter or bridle. I recommend making sure you have this going well before moving on to using the leg, since you will need the rein to help teach the horse what the leg means. You can find the tutorial video for lateral flexion below here in this series of training videos.

There are several reasons why we might choose to teach lateral flexion from the leg. Such as:-
Acceptance of the leg
Encouraging softness and response from the leg
Improving natural vertical flexion
Using the leg for direction thereby relying less on the hand such that the reins become a refinement tool
A big step towards bridle-less riding for those with that in mind
It also improves flexion and softness of the ribs when working on the ground

Every time you ride and ask for a circle, turn or bend, you should be asking with the inside leg behind the girth - pushing the ribs to the outside. This is a far more natural way of riding and I find it makes much more sense to the horse than having the inside leg “on the girth” and the outside leg “behind the girth”.

For a horse to bend left the ribs must move out of the way to the right, and for a horse to bend right then the ribs must move out out of the way to the left.

That’s natural biomechanics right there - so why change it.

Happy Trails

Viki x (Tom-ah-toe)
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