Something needs to change here
Something needs to change here, the horse needs some learning, the rider needs some learning, the training needs some learning or needs to be nixed, or all of the above! Poor girl is a bit overhorsed it seems. Props to her for staying on though, I'll give her that.
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1. A horse can feel a fly land on its back. That means it can definitely feel when you so much as tense a calf muscle. The horse isn't -not feeling it,- the horse is just so used to legs flailing around without any type of reinforcement that it ignores them. Leg pressure does not inherently mean "go" to a horse. Inherently, it's something they would lean back into. Using let aids is not like pressing a pre-programmed button. Every ride is a training session. You have to REINFORCE your aids when things get sluggish, and the most important aid is INTENTION. You put that leg on, and you have to FULLY EXPECT that your horse will respond. If you use an aid thinking, "this probably won't work, anyway," you are explicitly telling your horse not to listen to that aid. Within the first few minutes of getting on something, if you use your leg and your horse backs off of it, reinforce it quickly, like lay RIGHT into them efficiently and lay RIGHT off once you get a response. This is how horses communicate with one another. It's fast, it's intense, and it's so much kinder and clearer than nagging. Get after them, and REALLY mean it, once. Then you don't have to spend your ride abusing the poor animal's ribs.
2. You should never have to contort yourself to get a response from the leg. Bringing the legs back to kick, which I see often and utterly baffles me, is actually counter-productive--a horse has less nerve endings toward the back of its barrel than it does up toward the girth area. Makes sense, doesn't it? If I gave your armpit a tickle I'm sure I'd get a more immediate response than if I tickled your waist. Also, when you bring your heel UP to jab, you are locking your hips and therefore your horse's freedom of movement through the back and actually telling them NOT to go. Likewise, when you turn your toes out and dig in the backs of your calves, your hips are locked tight. You are staying "DO NOT MOVE!" You are also telling your horse to ignore anything you do with your legs short of these contortions, at which point, they are for some reason expected to move beneath your completely locked lower body. I tell my students, "you have five seconds to get a response, using whatever means necessary." If I have a student who over-uses leg aids, I make them ride with their legs visibly held off the horse and they are only allowed to apply pressure for two seconds at a time. Brings great leg awareness and tired legs, aka incentive to MEAN every aid they give. Also, rather than striking with the legs, PRESS with the legs. A firm press for the better part of a second, like your horse is a giant tube of toothpaste and you want to squeeze some out the front. If you squeezed your tube of toothpaste, and nothing happened, would you keep squeezing for the next five minutes? No, that would be insane. CASE IN POINT.
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