How to make my horse turn?

Question

My teacher told me to use my legs as well as the rains when im turning.

say i want to turn right - i pull my right rein and i place one leg behind the girth however the otheer one stays still. My question is - which leg goes BEHIND the girth and which one stays still?Best answer gets 10 points =]

Answer 1

Like people are saying; horses respond to pressure by moving away from it. So if you want to turn left, kick (or give pressure) with your right leg(heel).

My horse is different though,

if I want to turn in a circle to the left, I kick her with my left leg.

Weird isnt it?

Just the way she was trained I guess(:

Answer 2

nisshoku's right.  However, if you're riding english, and your instructor is trying to get you to bend your horse through a corner, he'll tell you to slide your outside leg back and keep your inside leg at the girth, so the horse bends around your inside leg.  Also, to look in the direction of the turn, as this shifts your weight appropriately, and to turn your shoulders in the direction of the turn.  Is this confusing?  You ought to ask your instructor to describe exactly what aids he or she wants you to use.  PS, "outside" means, if your going/bending to the left, the outside is the right side, and the inside is the left side. Outside/inside is always in reference to the bend and has nothing to do with the arena fences, etc.

Answer 3

To turn in any direction, you want the horse to bend their body around the turn in response to your leg, keeping them along the rail so as to not cut corners. At the same time, however, you would like to use dual signals with your reins: not just pulling the rein in the direction you would like to go.

If you would like to turn to the right, You would use your inside (right) leg squeezing the horse and your outside leg lying calmly against the side of the horse. Pressing with the inside leg will cause the horse to bend his or her body around it. This will not completely do the trick with most horses. Pull just so on the right rein, turning the horse's head inside.

If turning along a rail (and sometimes not, since this makes turns prettier!) with your outside (left) rein, pull the horse outwards. Do not pull back, pulling back will make the horse stop. Pull to the side. Right leg in, right rein back, left rein out.

Answer 4

When turning to the left, use your right leg to put pressure against the horse's right side.  The horse will move away from your leg pressure and go towards the left for you.  Conversely use your right leg pressure to move the horse away from your right leg in order to turn towards the left.