Forward is not the same as fast

This is one I have to unpick in nearly every lesson with a new rider, and it is not their fault. They have been told to ride forward for years by people who meant something quite specific, and nobody ever said what.

So they do the obvious thing. They ask for more, the horse goes quicker, and everyone accepts that as the answer. Then the trot gets flat and hurried, the corners fall apart, and the rider spends the second half of the ride quietly trying to slow down a horse they were told to speed up.

What the word is actually pointing at

Forward describes how willingly your horse answers, not how fast he travels.

A forward horse is one who is listening to your leg, thinking in the direction you are pointing him, and ready to go when asked. His energy is available. You do not have to nag for it, and you do not have to keep it going by kicking every stride.

The consequence is the bit riders find surprising: a horse can be genuinely forward at a slow, quiet walk, and not remotely forward in a quick trot. The walk horse is soft off the leg and ready. The trot horse is running, largely because you asked him to and he did not know what else to do.

How to tell which one you have

There is a simple test and you can do it on your next ride.

Ask with the lightest leg you can manage, once. Not a squeeze that builds into a kick. One quiet, clear ask.

• If he responds, you have forward. Reward it and leave him alone.
• If nothing happens, ask again slightly more clearly, and the moment he does answer, go straight back to the light ask. What you are teaching is that the quiet version is the one that counts.
• If you have to keep asking every stride to maintain the pace, you do not have forward. You have a horse who is being pushed along, which is tiring for both of you and gets worse the longer it goes on.

The other tell is your hands. If you are having to hold him together with the reins to stop the whole thing running away, that is speed, not forward. Real forward is comfortable to sit on. It does not feel like managing something.

Why it goes wrong

Partly language, partly instinct.

The instinct is that "more" means "faster", because in almost everything else it does. Ask a car for more and it goes faster. A horse is not a set of controls, which is a large part of why this is worth learning properly.

The other half is that speed is easy to produce and forward takes preparation. Anyone can make a horse go quicker. Getting a horse in front of your leg means he understands the question, is physically able to answer it, and has been given a reason to bother. That takes a few sessions, not one.

What actually builds it

Transitions, done properly. Walk to trot, trot to walk, over and over, with a clear preparation before each one. Not "kick and hope". Half a dozen good transitions will teach a horse more about being in front of the leg than twenty minutes of trotting round.

Prepare before you ask. This is the part riders skip. You cannot make a good upward transition if you start thinking about it at the moment you want it. Sit up, gather yourself, make sure he is straight, then ask. The preparation is most of the transition.

Ride the hind leg, not the front end. Forward comes from behind. If you are looking at his head and neck to judge whether it is working, you are watching the wrong end of the horse.

Let him carry it. Once you have the pace, stop asking. Riders who keep squeezing every stride teach a horse that the leg means nothing in particular, and that is precisely how you end up with a horse who needs a bigger and bigger aid.

An honest note about your horse

Some horses find forward genuinely difficult, and it is not attitude.

A horse who is unfit, sore, badly balanced or unsure of the question will struggle to be in front of the leg no matter how well you ask. If a horse who is normally willing has gone flat, that is worth a conversation with your vet before it is treated as a training problem. I am a coach, not a vet, and telling those two apart early is one of the more useful things I do.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my horse is in front of my leg? Ask once, lightly, and see what happens. A horse in front of your leg answers a small ask and holds the pace without being reminded. If you are maintaining it stride by stride, he is not there yet.

Is a slow horse never forward? No. Slow and forward together is exactly what you are aiming at in a lot of flatwork. A collected walk with a horse who is soft, attentive and ready to go is more forward than a fast, flat trot.

My instructor says "more leg" and my horse just goes faster. What am I doing wrong? Probably nothing wrong, just an ask that never resolves. Try asking once and then stopping, rather than a continuous squeeze. If he goes, praise him. If he does not, follow up more clearly, then go back to light.

Will lots of transitions make my horse hot? Done calmly, no. Transitions tend to settle a horse rather than wind him up, because he starts listening for the next question instead of anticipating. Rushed, repetitive transitions with no preparation are a different matter.

Can I work on this at walk? Yes, and it is the best place to start. Everything above is easier to feel at walk, and a horse who is properly in front of your leg at walk usually arrives in trot already halfway there.