01/18/2026
Happy Sunday! Creating bend helps improve your horse’s balance by increasing the pushing power of their inside hind leg. Enjoy this reminder of how to best support that with your aids. 💜💙
If you pull on the inside rein, you'll do nothing more than turn your horse's head.
For correct bend, you need to use ALL your aids.
✅ INSIDE LEG at the girth.
This leg asks your horse to bend through his body, stimulating his intercostal muscles and encouraging him to shorten on the inside of his body and stretch on the outside of his body. Your inside leg also creates forward impulsion, encouraging your horse’s inside hind leg to step further underneath his center of gravity.
✅ OUTSIDE LEG behind the girth.
This leg guards your horse’s hindquarters. It prevents them from drifting outwards and keeps them on the curved line that you are following. By coming behind the girth, it also allows your horse’s ribs to expand on the outside, thereby working alongside your inside leg.
✅ INSIDE REIN asks for a small amount of inside lateral flexion.
This rein indicates the direction of bend and helps you to position your horse’s neck on the curved line. Your inside rein should not be used to turn your horse! This will result in too much neck bend and your horse falling out through his outside shoulder.
✅ OUTSIDE REIN controls the outside shoulder.
This rein helps to prevent too much neck bend, thereby helping you to control your horse’s outside shoulder, preventing him from falling out. Your outside rein is also used to control your horse’s tempo (speed of the rhythm) and give balancing half-halts.
✅ HEAD looking in the direction you want to go.
Your head should be up and looking ahead and around the circle, turn, or corner you are negotiating.
✅ WEIGHT in your inside seat bone.
You should have a little bit more weight in your inside seat bone and inside stirrup while remaining sat up straight; do not lean inwards. This small weight shift frees the outside of your horse’s body, allowing it to expand, and encourages your horse’s inside hind leg to step under your weight.
✅ SHOULDERS matching the angle of your horse’s shoulders
Your shoulders should be turned from your waist to the inside to match the angle of your horse’s shoulders.
✅ HIPS matching the angle of your horse’s hips
This should happen automatically as you position your legs correctly, as per above.
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Photo is a stock image.
