09/19/2025
AN AID OR CUE FOR HORSES
February 19, 2025|DRESSAGE / FLATWORK, LEARNING TO RIDE A HORSE, TRAINING HORSES
An aid (cue) is a signal (stimulus) to the horse to do something
There are four natural aids when riding:
Seat, center of balance; most effective
Legs, squeeze with a part of the leg or heel, kicking; strongly effective.
Hands, reins to the bit or pressure on a point of contact with the horse strongly effective.
Voice; weakly effective.
An additional natural aid is body language when approaching or working around a horse.
Mechanical aids are such things as:
Whips and crops (short whip).
Spurs.
Martingale, draw reins, etc.
A trainer will normally want a horse to respond to the lightest aids possible.
An aid when first used may need to be fairly strong to get a response.
A trainer will practice exercises, rewarding better and better responses, with the goal of having to apply the least aid possible.
Timing of aids is critical.
Aids given too early or too late can result in weak, no response, or resistance.
There are occasions when significant force of an aid is needed.
Such as a strongly moving horse may need over 100 pounds of rein pressure on occasion.
Such as kicking hard to move a horse forward in an emergency situation, etc.
You virtually never see great riders use aids with violent force because they took care of issues before they became significant.
Rapid positive reinforcements increase the effect of an aid.
Timing again is critically important.
Sometimes releasing an aid before the horse has reacted actually opens the door for the horse's positive response and becomes a powerful positive reinforcement.
The horse learns to expect a rider to yield an aid application and respond sooner in anticipation of the yield.
Positive reinforcement well after a response has no meaning to the horse other than that you are a pleasant person.
Negative reinforcements given at the wrong time will damage your relationship with the horse and make cooperation more difficult.
A negative reinforcement must be done exactly as the horse acts.
Good timing means the negative reinforcement can be minimal.
Late punishment is useless and damaging.
Great riders and trainers often look like they are doing nothing to create a horse's performance when a lot of communication between them is going on.
Unseen aids are lightly given at just the right moment.
The rider is reading how the horse feels and what he may be thinking.
The horse closely listens to the rider's aids which results in a harmonious performance.
RIDING LESSONS HORSE BOARDING HORSE LEASING HORSE TRAINING
