01/22/2025
Prerequisites for your horse before utilizing “Inside Leg to Outside Rein” connection!
(In no particular order and guys this is just a Facebook post- not a 1000 page
Riding manual. Please adjust expectations accordingly!)
1.) A hindquarter yield. If you can’t get the horse to move the b***y over, there’s absolutely no way you’re going to get inside leg to outside rein connection.
2.) Lateral poll flexion. If you cannot get the horse to bend both directions through the poll joint, consider in hand work.
3.) Responsiveness!  You can’t get your horse to move correctly if you can’t get your horse to move.
4.) A rudimentary leg yield.  This one might be confusing because you need good inside leg to outside rein connection to get a proper leg yield. But you need a rudimentary “move over” before you can get inside leg to outside rein. To get students started I will often have them bend towards the wall and leg yield down the rail nose out, tail in. As they start to get the idea, we do it a few meters away from the wall. 
5.) Two reins!!! Lol. What I mean by this is that you should be able to have a little connection in both hands traveling both directions. It’s very common for horses to completely avoid contact on one side.  You might feel like if you engage your outside rein at all, that you lose all bend to the inside, and/or that your horse completely shrinks their neck all up, affectively training you to not use that rein! 
6.) “Bend” (axial rotation) through the rib cage both directions.  Again, this becomes a chicken or egg conversation!  Many will say that inside leg to outside rein is how you get bend through the body, But if it’s a concept you are already sketchy on, and your horse is totally locked in his torso, you’re going to have to work on this ingredient by itself before you are going to be able to orchestrate multiple things happening together. That said your hind quarter yield and rudimentary leg yield will already be helping with this. But it’s important, so I’m also listing it separately.
I teach students to sit to the inside of the bend to help the horse swing through the rib cage. You should be able to step down into your inside stirrup and get the horse to swing the rib cage to the outside, which appears like bend through the torso.
