Yucca Valley Equestrian Center

08/24/2026

When a Dressage Horse Is Behind the Leg — Especially With an Adult Amateur (AA) Rider

One of the most frustrating situations in dressage is a horse who is wonderfully forward and willing for the professional, but becomes behind the leg, pins his ears, bucks, or doesn't want to move forward for his AA rider.

The important thing to understand is that this isn't necessarily a “lazy horse.”

Often, the horse has learned that there are two different systems:

**Trainer:**
Leg → immediate response → release.

**AA:**
Leg → no response → stronger leg → more pressure → horse braces → resistance.

The horse learns that the AA's leg is negotiable.
But what is actually happening in the horse's body?

When the rider is asking the horse to go forward while simultaneously restricting him through the hand, seat, or body, the horse can develop an energy conflict.

The rider says:

“Go forward.”

But the horse simultaneously feels:

“Don't actually go anywhere.”

Instead of energy traveling:

**Hindquarters → back → neck → contact**

the horse can become:

**Restricted → braced → shortened stride → more leg → more resistance.**

The hind legs become less effective at stepping underneath the body and contributing to propulsion. The back can become tense rather than swinging. More weight stays on the forehand, and the horse can become heavy in the rider's hand.

This is why a horse can look “round” while still being completely behind the leg.

Round is not necessarily connected.
A short neck is not necessarily collection.
More leg is not necessarily more impulsion.

If the horse is constantly being squeezed, he can also become desensitized to the leg.

Instead of:

leg → response

the horse learns:

leg → background noise.

The rider then uses more leg, which can create even more tension.

Eventually the horse may anticipate the interaction. Ear pinning, tail swishing, bracing, rushing, kicking, or bucking can become part of the cycle.

That doesn't mean every buck is training-related—pain and discomfort should always be ruled out—but the physical and mental pattern is important to recognize.

So what's the answer?

It isn't to kick harder.

The goal is to make the aid clearer and more meaningful.

The rider should be able to say:

Light leg = GO.

If there is no response, reinforce promptly.

The instant the horse goes forward:

RELEASE.

The horse learns that responding to the first aid is the easiest option.

For these horses, I often like to temporarily take the emphasis away from the perfect dressage picture and go back to:

Forward → Straight → Rhythm → Connection → Engagement → Collection

A horse cannot truly be collected if he isn't genuinely forward.

Let the AA ride the horse in a more open, forward frame. Work on transitions, changes of direction, bigger and smaller steps, and simple forward exercises without constantly worrying about where the horse's head is.

One of my favorite exercises:

GO → COME BACK → GO

At the trot, ask for a few strides of a bigger, more powerful trot. Return to working trot. Then ask again.

The goal isn't to make the horse run.

QUICK TRANSITIONS

TROT → 4 STEPS WALK → TROT
TROT → CANTER → TROT

The goal is to teach:

My rider's leg means bigger steps.

And equally important:

When my rider stops asking, I maintain the gait.

The rider's position matters, too.

When the AA asks the horse to go, are they accidentally:

• Leaning backward?
• Gripping with the knee?
• Bracing through the stirrups?
• Tightening the reins?
• Locking the hip?
• Driving continuously?
• Holding the horse in the front while asking him to move forward?

That creates the classic:

“Go, but don't actually go” feeling.

The horse needs to feel that the rider's leg opens the door rather than pushes him into a closed front end.

The ultimate goal isn't to make the horse “behave” for the amateur.

It's to teach the horse that the AA's aids mean exactly the same thing as the trainer's aids.

When that communication becomes clear, consistent, and predictable, the horse no longer has to spend his energy figuring out how to respond to conflicting signals.

Instead, the energy can go where we actually want it:

Hind legs → swinging back → forward movement → elastic contact → connection.

That's when First Level starts to feel completely different.

Forward isn't created by more leg.
Forward is created by a leg that actually means something.

08/22/2026

07/12/2026

And what did you do on this fine Sunday morning? 

06/08/2026

As a competitor, instructor, and unrecognized dressage judge, here is what I wish people would know about how to score well in their dressage tests, particularly at the low and mid levels:

I'm talking 70%+ pure dressage (or in the 20's or lower for eventing dressage)

It's not about how flashy the horse is.
It's not about how great of a mover the horse is.

It's about correct foundational basics and consistency.

And honestly? It's about not *losing* points.

Scoring well isn't about gaining points for flashiness. It's about not losing points for poor ex*****on.
There are a couple schools of thought/training that real judges (i.e. not me) go through. One is that the horse/rider start at a score of 7 for each movement, and they can either lose point(s) for bad ex*****on or gain points for excellent work. But you start at 7. Which means as long as you maintain "satisfactory" ex*****on, you'll stay at 7, and end up with a 70%/30.0 just by default.

Here is what judges are looking for:
✅Rhythm/Consistency - nothing makes a test look more unappealing than inconsistent rhythm.
✅Consistency (part 2) - we're not looking for the perfect head carriage, but inconsistent head/neck carriage is going to make the whole package look terrible and make every score worse. It's better if a horse is slightly above/beyond the bit (but not super braced) but consistent with their carriage there.
✅Relaxation - Pretty much feeds into the rhythm and consistency, as it's hard to be rhythmic or consistent if the horse is tense.

Notice what those first three involve? Yeah, the first two steps of the dressage training pyramid.
Those three on their own will get you right about 30.0 (eventing)/70% (pure dressage) as long as you have some semblance of decent ex*****on of the test movements themselves.

That's it. Having your horse relaxed, rhythmic, and consistent will get you a 70%/30.0.

Additionally, to take it into the sub-30's/ 70%+:
✅Correct balance - the horse needs to be in balance, not on his/her forehand. They don't have to be elevated and ready to piaffe. They just need to not be on their forehand and/or rushing.
✅Accuracy in ex*****on - 20m circles should be 20m circles. Not 15m circles. Not 20m x 13m ovals.
✅Accuracy in ex*****on part 2 - Transitions should happen where they are supposed to happen. (Although caveat: better to have a good quality transition slightly early/late, than a bad quality transition accurately.)

Those 4/6 items were how I got my mare (pictured, from probably 2013?), who was basically an "average" mover in the grand scheme of her competition, to consistently score in the 20's, many times mid/low 20's, and almost exclusively winning the dressage every time out.
She was SO rideable and SO consistent that it allowed me to be extremely accurate and execute the test as it's supposed to be ridden.

Do you want to score 70%+/sub-30?
Of course you do.

So here are your action items:
✅Ride an accurate test. Geometry, location.
✅Train your horse to be consistent in their gaits and in their body.
✅Focus on establishing a consistent rhythm.
✅Corners are corners. Circles are circles. Circles are not corners. Corners are not circles.
✅Straight lines are straight lines.
✅20m circle is 20m. And a circle.
✅If your horse gets tense in a competition environment, figure out how to improve that. More schooling shows or even just excursions to new farms to ride. Change your warmup routine. Figure out what works to help your horse find relaxation at a competition.
✅Ride quality transitions (all the time). Transitions not only set you/your horse up to perform the next movement well, but they also can make/break the impression. AND at the lower levels, the transitions themselves are many times scored separately from the preceding/following movement.
✅Bonus - This will come from relaxation, but having a relaxed walk will rack up some points. It's multiple movements in most lower level tests, and sometimes with a double coefficient for the free walk.
✅Practice your halts. This is something easy and low-impact you can do. But you need to be consistent about it in order to train it correctly. Don't get lazy and accept bad halts at ends of rides. All halts, at the end and practice halts in the middle, need to be straight and square-ish. The ability to halt straight and mostly square will not only put you above most other horses on your halts (2 of them if you are pure dressage), but will also leave the judge with a good final impression that may bump your collective remarks up a half point.

This all starts at home. You have to train your horse well at home to even have a chance of performing well at a competition.
Most people lose their chance at performing well by being sloppy, inconsistent, and not diligent in staying on top of these basics at home.

Scoring 70%+ or Sub-30's is not about how flashy your horse is. It's not about getting 8's and 9's on every movement. It's about consistency and not *LOSING* points. A decently executed, consistent test is going to be a 70/30. The better you can show the ex*****on and consistency, that will bump your scores to 7.5/8's and get you into the 70s/20s.

Scoring well at the lower levels is all about not losing points. Have a good foundation and basics.

70's/20's tests typically don't look the flashiest. They look the most consistent and well-executed.

They're organized. In control. Comfortable in the ring and owning the ring.

06/05/2026

A good turn doesn’t happen at the corner. It happens several strides before it.

One of the biggest faults I see in the arena (or anywhere else) is the "last-moment adjustment." The attempt at executuon without sufficient prepapration, taking the horse by surprise, and leaving the rider desperate with their aids.

One example is when we wait until we reach the corner to ask for the turn, and then we wonder why our horse falls out through the shoulder or braces against the bit. Whether this is an actual corner or the "edge" of our described geometry off the track is all the same.

We are essentially asking them to make up for our lack of planning.

When you plan your lines with intention, knowing exactly where you are starting your turn, how you are preparing the bend, and where you are exiting, you create a "safety net" for your horse. They stop scrambling and stressing over what’s coming next and start focusing on how they are carrying themselves through the work.

Geometry is the map, and your intention is the compass.

The next time you enter the arena, identify your "preparation point" for each corner. Instead of waiting for the corner to start, start your preparation (like your half-halt or your shift in weight or your sest adjustment) several strides before the corner actually begins. Notice how much more "quiet" and balanced the turn becomes when the conversation starts early.

🐎 Give this a try this week and let me know... does your horse feel more "with you" when you give them the roadmap early?

__________
🐴 Our focus this month in the 𝘼𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘾𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 is "Arena Navigation and Geometry." Be sure to look back over our recent posts and stay tuned for more on this subject all month long.

06/03/2026

The canter depart, aka the transition into canter, is one of the most diagnostic moments in riding. It tells you immediately what the rider actually has and what they do not yet have in terms of balance, timing, feel, and preparation. A clean balanced canter depart on the correct lead does not happen by accident. It happens because the rider prepared the horse correctly, applied the aids clearly, and had the balance and core stability to stay with the transition rather than getting left behind it. Here is what goes wrong and how to fix each one...

1. The horse picks up the wrong lead.
This is almost always a preparation problem rather than an aid problem. The horse picks up the wrong lead when it is not balanced and bent correctly before the aid is given. Before the canter depart, ask for correct bend through the last corner or circle, confirm the horse is soft on the inside rein and connected to the outside one, and then ask. A correctly prepared horse picks up the correct lead far more consistently than one that was surprised by the transition from a straight or incorrectly bent position.

2. The horse runs into the canter.
A horse that accelerates at the trot before breaking into canter is a horse that was pushed into the transition rather than lifted into it. The aids came from the leg alone without a half halt first to rebalance and engage the hindquarters. A half halt two to three strides before the canter aid rebalances the horse, lightens the forehand, and creates the engagement that makes a clean upward transition possible. Without it, the horse falls forward into canter rather than stepping under and up into it. Teach your students to half halt first, every single time, before the canter aid is applied.

3. The rider gets left behind.
A rider who tips forward or gets launched out of the saddle at the canter depart lost their position in the transition. This almost always comes from one of two places, either bracing against the transition instead of following it or not having enough core stability to absorb the moment the canter stride begins. The fix for bracing is feel work such as lunge line transitions where the student focuses entirely on softening into the upward transition rather than stiffening against it. The fix for core instability is progressive no stirrup work and two point at the canter before asking for the depart itself. A rider who can hold two point through a canter transition has the balance and stability to stay with a depart without getting thrown.

4. The horse ignores the aid entirely.
A horse that does not respond to the canter aid is a horse that has learned it does not have to. This is almost always a rider problem that has become a horse problem over time. Repeated unclear or uncommitted aids train a horse to wait for a bigger signal and eventually the escalation becomes the normal aid. The fix starts with making sure the aid is clear deliberate and applied once before escalating, not a series of squeezes that the horse has learned to ignore. If the horse does not respond to a clear aid reinforce it immediately and consistently every time. Inconsistency in the response to the aid is what teaches a horse to test it.

5. The depart is correct but falls apart immediately.
A clean depart that breaks down within a few strides tells you the horse was not genuinely in front of the leg or balanced before the transition and that the rider got lucky on the depart itself but there was nothing underneath it to sustain the canter. The fix is the quality of the trot work before the depart. A horse that is forward off the leg, genuinely connected, and balanced through the corners will maintain the canter after the depart because the energy that created the transition is still there. A horse scraped into canter from a flat disengaged trot has nowhere to go but back to trot.

Here are some exercises that actually fix canter departs...

- Transitions on a circle. Ask for the depart at a specific point on the circle such as at the top, at the side, etc and ask for a downward transition back to trot after four to six strides. Return to the same point on the circle and ask again. Repeated short canter transitions on a circle develop the horse's balance in the depart and the rider's feel for preparation and timing without the pressure of sustaining a full canter around the arena.

- Trot to canter over a ground pole. Place a single ground pole on the track and ask your student to trot over it and pick up the canter on the landing side. The pole encourages the horse to step under and lift through the transition and gives the rider a clear preparation point to work toward. A horse that rushes to the pole is a horse that needs more half halt work before the exercise. A horse that steps over calmly and picks up the canter cleanly has found the right balance for the transition.

- Canter from walk. For more advanced riders a walk to canter transition bypasses the rushing trot entirely and requires genuine engagement of the hindquarters and clear preparation from the rider. It is harder than a trot to canter depart and fixing it fixes the trot to canter at the same time because the aids and preparation are identical but just more obvious in their absence at the walk.

A clean canter depart is not luck and it is not natural talent. It is preparation timing and balance built through correct progressive work. Fix the preparation and most canter depart problems fix themselves.

What is the most common canter depart problem you see in your students and what fixed it?

05/29/2026

One of the biggest problems with incorrect training is people mistake “working the face” for collection.

A horse with its nose tucked in is not necessarily collected. In fact, many horses that appear collected are actually moving completely on the forehand, hollow through the back, disconnected behind, and carrying themselves poorly. The headset fools people into thinking the horse is soft and balanced when mechanically the horse is doing the opposite.

True collection starts from behind.

The hind legs step underneath the horse, the back lifts, the horse carries more weight on the hindquarters, and the front end becomes lighter as a result. The face and poll reflect what the body is doing, not the other way around.

That is also why I believe a lot of people spend too much time flexing, softening, and working the neck before they ever teach the horse how to truly engage the hind end. All that early focus on the face often creates the illusion of collection long before the horse has developed the mechanics for real collection. In many cases it actually makes true collection harder to develop later because the horse learns to give the face without learning to round the back and engage from behind.

You cannot pull a horse into collection with your hands.

In reality, a lot of riders are simply teaching the horse to give its face while the body remains strung out and heavy. That is why you see horses with pretty headsets but poor stops, poor transitions, heavy shoulders, front-end soreness, and little true self-carriage. The rider is teaching a shortcut that creates an illusion of what is correct instead of developing the horse correctly.