Steering

[piebald]

Feeling stupid, my dd seems to have funny ideas about how to use leg aids to change direction--the more i think the more muddled i get.
How do i explain to her how to use legs and which leg to use.

How old is she?

We use opening and closing the gate.
When you want the pony to go left, close the gate on the right, (put rein to neck, put leg on). Open the gate on the left,(take leg off, move right rein out) opposite to go right. The pony can only go where the gate is open.

She is 11 and dosent like me telling her anything!

Oh I thought you were going to say she is 5 or something

In that case she should be able to understand what you and her instructor are telling her but maybe at 11, like you say, she just doesnt want to hear it.

Have you told her to imagine she is riding a circle? Tell her to think about what leg she should use to keep the horse on that circle and how her own body should move.

Im not a fan of too much hand movement.

So do you say inside leg on the girth and outside behind it, i seem to remember being taught that but is it right? She dosent really have an instructor so learning by feel really.
My tired old brain cannot fathom the gate system Saggy-thankyou though i will go away and concentrate on it !
Too fuddled for anything i can feeel a complete mental block building up about this--

I'd depends on how advanced she is. The gates thing is great for novices, (still works for me TBH!) now DD is doing well, and has a good understanding, she says, inside leg on girth, inside rein, which gives bend, and in her case keeps her nappy pony from falling in on it's shoulder. You could use the outside leg behind the girth to help with the bending, basically, you want the pony to curl round the inside leg.

I think what you are asking is what are the correct instructions for turning the pony so you can tell your daughter? So inside leg stays on the girth for pony to bend around, inside hand opens slightly to invite pony to bend, outside leg goes back slightly behind the girth to control the bend of the hind quaters and outside hand stays steady and near to the neck (even though has to give slightly if the turn is tight obviously). Practice weaving in and out of cones/tyres and remember to check she is looking where she wants to go and her shoulders are slightly turned in that direction! Hope that helps

Well done dappleton! I think that is exactly what op was after ( I was watching this thread as I always get confused too - although I did think pressure was on the inside!)

I'd get her some lessons to be honest, piebald, they tend to listen better to instructors than parents! My GD has just grudgingly acknowledged that I can ride a bit now that I'm helping her bring on her new pony.

Yes--Thanks everybody, that has cleared it in my mind, Thankyou Dappleton you have confirmed that i havent lost my marbles as much as i thought as that is what i thought!
I will get her some lessons but it is tricky where we live, I have been wondering about sending her on a riding holiday with lessons.
I was beginning to question my own riding too--off to play in some cones now!