Almost anyone can sit on a horse and lope, doing it well takes years of practice. After a rider masters keeping their butt in the saddle, not balancing on their hands, and keeping the horse from breaking, I begin to focus on leads. In the beginning it’s natural for a rider to be loping circles around the arena on the wrong lead.  The cues to ask a horse to lope are push his hip to the inside with your outside leg, and tip his nose to the center of the circle with your inside hand.  Eventually, you can cue the horse with just your leg. Keep that in mind while trying my other suggestions.

.
We retrain a lot of older horses, so they usually have problems with them getting the correct lead on a lope departure. Don’t get me wrong, counter-cantering is a great exercise but only when a horse can pick up the correct lead consistently. So if our lesson horses are always on the wrong lead due to rider error, it begins to develop into a problem. The sooner you fix the problem, the easier it is to fix.  The reason counter-cantering is such a great exercise is because it really strengthens the horses hind quarters. But when a horse already favors counter-cantering on one side he gets stronger and it becomes difficult for him to lope on the correct lead.
.
Longe line training is a great way to begin to train a horse to pick up the correct lead. It helps to gain the strength without having to carry a rider on his back. If a horse is having a problem picking up the correct lead at a lope or a canter first go back to ground training on the longe line. The fix is the same for the longe line and while riding. I ask the horse to trot, and if he does not immediately break into the trot I pull him in closer to me in the circle. I gradually pull him in until it becomes too difficult to do anything but trot. I again let him out on the circle and ask him to lope. If he picks up the correct lead, I allow him to lope a bit before I allow him to break. If he picks up the wrong lead I repeat gradually bringing him in closer to me on the longe line and then set him up to lope on the correct lead.
.
To set the horse up to lope on the correct lead I guide the horse’s nose to the center of the circle while trotting him, and when I see that he is going to pick up the inside lead I will cue him to lope. Until you are able to see that, just keep trying with trial and error because it will work.   Trot him every time he picks up the wrong lead, and only allow him to lope when he is correct.  Don’t lope him forever once he picks up the correct lead, just keep him loping a few circles to understand how it should feel and then break it down and do it again.
.
While riding, if the horse has a problem with picking up the correct lead I will just ask the rider to bring him into a small circle to do the lope departure. As soon as the horse has the correct lead, reward him by allowing him to lope on the rail in a bigger circle. A large circle is much easier for the horse to lope than a small circle and horse will always look for the easy way to do something.
.
Once you are loping, the best way to tell which lead he is on is whatever leg of the rider swings farther forward is the horse’s leading leg. If your right leg is swinging farther than your left leg your horse is on the right lead. If your left leg is swinging farther forward than your right leg then the horse is on the left lead.
.
If you have trouble feeling which lead the horse is on, have someone on the ground to help you by watching. I would suggest that you train the person to see the leads while you are longeing the horse. When I am teaching riders about leads, I always put the horse on the longe line and show them what is correct. When a horse is loping to the right, the right inside hind leg should lead. When a horse is loping to the left, the left inside leg should be leading.  A sports medicine boot on one leg really helps the rider to see the difference in legs.  If I have the boot on the right hind leg I would tell the rider to make sure the boot leg is leading. It makes it much easier to see when a horse has four legs all the same color!

.

Practice these loping and cantering basics and in no time you will be on your way to understanding leads and set up to start doing simple changes and even flying lead changes.

.

Deanna

Tags: canter, Lead Changes, longe line training, lope

5 Comments to Riding Your Horse on the Correct Lead

photogchic
July 23, 2009

I love the idea of using one or two different color medicine boots…that is genius. What a good tip!

dcastro
July 23, 2009

Awww, thanks. I am always trying to find ways to make things a little easier to learn. I got the idea from a horse that had one white back leg. It was always easier for my students to see the leads on her.

Linda
September 10, 2009

I tried some of the things that are sugested but still my 3 year old QH wont pick up the correct left lead any other suggestions?

dcastro
September 10, 2009

Linda,

Some horses need to have their nose into the center of the circle to lope on the correct lead, and some need their nose to the rail. Try both ways and see which works best.

Another good trick is to tighten up the circle, that helps the horse to get the correct lead.

Good luck!

Deanna

Ellie
October 26, 2009

This is great info! I’ve been having problems with picking up leads since I took a year off for a spinal injury, and I think this will really help. Thanks!

Leave a comment