Leg-yield is the most basic lateral exercise and can be taught to horses from an early stage of their training. Leg-yield is where the horse moves forward and sideways simultaneously, with a slight flexion away from the direction of travel.
There are many benefits of incorporating leg-yield into your training regime. It promotes suppleness, develops straightness and balance. It is also a powerful tool for enhancing engagement and strength in the horse's hindquarters.
For the rider, leg-yield is an exercise in precision and subtle communication. It requires a delicate balance of aids, with the inside leg asking the horse to move over, the outside rein and leg guiding direction and impulsion, and the seat and core of the rider maintaining rhythm and flow.
Practicing leg-yield can also have unexpected benefits in other situations. For instance, if your horse spooks, you can ask for leg-yield to redirect the horse's attention and regain control.
The Anatomy of Leg-Yield
Anatomically speaking, the leg-yield engages multiple muscle groups and joints in the horse's body. As the horse moves forwards and sideways across the arena, it's the inside front and hind leg that cross in front of the outside front and hind. This requires coordination and balance from the horse. The movement initiates from the horse's hindquarters, where the power is generated, and flows through the body to the forelimbs, which guide direction.
The horse moves forwards and sideways by
Moving his legs across the midline of his body in adduction
Moving his legs out and away from the body in abduction
Leg-yield in walk
Riding leg-yield in walk allows more time, both for a young horse to learn the movement and for the rider to practice and perfect the timing of the aids. Also, because there is no moment of suspension in walk, there will be more back and rib movement than in trot or canter. This makes performing leg-yield in walk a superb suppling exercise.
There should be some lateral flexion through the neck away from the direction of travel, and this helps the horse open up through his leading shoulder.
The rib cage will be positioned more towards the direction of travel. It will still swing side to side as in walk, but it swings more to one side than the other. You can see this if you watch the horse leg-yield from behind. The greatest lateral deviation of the rib cage occurs when the inside hind limb is fully protracted and adducted underneath the body.
Understanding the biomechanical relationship between rib movement and the position of the hindlimb can really help the rider improve the quality and range of movement in the leg-yield. It will also help refine the timing of the aids - applying the inside leg aid as the rib cage starts to move towards the direction of travel encourages the rib swing and therefore the hindlimb adduction.
Consider the movement of the widest part of the pelvis, the tuber coxae throughout the stride cycles. Notice how it moves both forwards and backwards and up and down in a cylindrical motion. This indicates that lateral flexion and rotation will be occurring in the back. This lateral flexion and rotation, together with the rib swing, highlights the benefits of leg yield as an exercise for suppling the back.
Leg yield is also an effective exercise for improving lateral stability. Strong lateral stabiliser muscles are vital for achieving good balance, a stable hind limb when turning improving performance and reducing the risk of injury, the lateral stabiliser muscles are particularly active when the limbs are in abduction.
Learn more about the lateral stabiliser muscles in the book Posture and Performance, the on-demand webinars: The Biomechanics of Lateral Work, Poles for Posture and Pilates for Horses.
How to Leg-Yield
Always begin any new exercise in walk. This will give you and your horse time to work it out. Begin with a good, active walk. Your horse should be responsive to your aids and listening to you.
Ride onto the quarter or three-quarter line of the arena. This will be your starting point for the leg-yield – the aim is to leg-yield back to the track.
Put slightly more weight onto your inside seat bone. Use your inside leg (the leg on the side you're moving away from) just behind the girth to ask your horse to move sideways. Your outside leg (the leg on the side you're moving towards) guards the hindquarters and maintains forward momentum.
Your outside rein controls the direction and prevents over-flexing, while your inside rein asks for the slight flexion at the poll. It's important to keep a light and even contact on both reins throughout the movement.
Keep a consistent rhythm. Start with just a few steps and gradually increase as you and your horse become more comfortable and confident with the movement.
Practice riding leg-yield in both directions to develop even suppleness and flexibility.
Once you’ve both mastered leg-yield in walk, give it a go in trot.
Common Challenges and Tips
Straightness is one of the most common issues riders struggle with when riding leg-yield. It's important to remember that this movement is sideways and forward, not just sideways.
Rhythm can be tricky to maintain when you first start riding this movement. Always focus on the quality of your horse's steps rather than the quantity and gradually increase once you both get the hang of it.
Pulling on the inside rein is another issue. There's a fine line between the correct amount of flexion and too much bend. Your horse should not be bending through their body, there should only be slight flexion at the poll away from the direction you are leg-yielding in. If you have too much bend in the neck, you horse will fall out through his outside shoulder rather than leg-yielding.
The advantages of leg-yield as a lateral suppling, stabilising and training exercise for both horse and rider, cannot be over emphasised.
Canter Leg-Yield
The large moment of suspension and the asymmetrical nature of canter makes performing leg-yield very different compared to walk or trot. Naturally, in canter, there will be some actual flexion through the spine, the direction is dictated by the canter lead. In right canter, leg-yielding to the right, the horse will naturally have slight lateral flexion through the spine to the right. But in right leg-yield, the horse is required to bend away from the direction of travel – to the left. This makes leg-yield across the diagonal quite a challenging exercise in terms of coordination and balance. However, it is very good for developing suppleness and strength.
Online Resources to Boost Your Knowledge
If you would like to study the biomechanics of leg-yield and other lateral movements further there are a few online resources that you will find really interesting.
In this on-demand webinar Gillian explains the biomechanics of lateral work, bringing it to life with her signature anatomical painted horses and slow-motion videos. This is a unique opportunity to study this subject in great detail and gain an understanding of exactly how your horse creates sideways movement. This will help you ride lateral movements more effectively and harmoniously.
Anatomy in Action is a detailed comprehensive study of horse movement from the anatomical perspective to improve your understanding of equine locomotion and biomechanics and ability to assess horse movement.
Leg-yield and other lateral movements are covered in the book and brought to life in the Anatomy in Action Video Course where you will gain a thorough understanding of how the horse creates these movements, thanks to the use of slow-motion and Gillian's expert commentary.
Come and see us in Action
Lateral work is something that is covered at our live painted horse lecture demos. Why don't you join us and discover more about how your horse moves and functions. Our next lecture demo is at Moulton College, Northants on Saturday 21 September. These evenings are always great fun, interactive and educational. You will go home with lots of new exercises to try to improve your horse's way of going and comfort - plus lots more.
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