...The hand should be primary, and the rider must understand the hand before she begins to incorporate her legs. The ideas about the use of the leg can be very seductive for the rider.

Because the horse will typically tolerate a greater degree of activity in the rider’s leg without taking offense, the use of the leg has become the ideal choice in modern equitation. Most modern riders consider directing the horse with the legs to be superior to directing with the hand, correctly pointing out that overusing the hand is objectionable to the horse. The fumbling of the legs by an inexperienced rider rarely presents much difficulty for the horse, where the fumbling at the mouth would not be tolerated. The rider can press and push the horse with the leg without vexing it nearly as much if she pulls with the hand.

Thus, in modern riding many riders see the legs as the primary aid and consider riding based on the leg as higher equitation. The custom of using the legs as primary began in the 19th century as a logical and practical development of military equitation and cross country riding, and the trend continues to the present day.

In the prevalent understanding of riding, the legs and the hand are used in opposition, to collect the horse. The rider’s legs are used to drive the horse forward while the hand is used to restrain and direct the motion, with the idea that directing that forward energy upward collects the horse. Legs and hands are considered opposites of each other. 

In low level dressage the typical instructor or judge looks for great rapidity in all movements. Modern dressage riders of necessity must be obsessed with increasing forward motion. The litany in every teaching barn is the same: “Push him forward! Leg, leg, leg!”  The rider has to have the horse very forward so that as the horse encounters the fixed hand the residual impulsion keeps the movement within an acceptable range. The ideal hand is perceived as being like side reins, a fixed point. There is little understanding of activity in the hand. The fixed hand acts in opposition to the movement of the horse.Very few horses can make it to high level work through modern training because, fundamentally, the method most riders and trainers now use contradicts the nature of the horse. There is a different approach to the leg.

The legs, though they are not the primary aid, are indeed the foundation of all the aids. Without the legs no control is possible. However, the foundation of the aids is not the rider’s legs. That foundation is the horse’s legs.

...It should be noted here that if the horse’s education is complete, there’s virtually no need for the rider’s legs to send the horse forward. The properly trained horse has been taught to go forward on his own. There becomes no need for the rider to use her legs: the use of the leg becomes more a function of simple presence than of activity. The legs of the rider primarily keep a kind of surveillance on the movement. The more common practice of constantly using the leg causes a loss of effectiveness of these aids.

mail any questions or comments to Mary Anne