Anja had told me to get my horses’ hind legs quicker. It seems clear, but I had no idea what to do with it. I carried the question around for months, and at the workshop I finally asked her. She answered from the saddle, on Diego.
She rode the first long side in half pass and leg yielded Diego back to the track, which is how you rebalance a horse that leans on the inside rein. On the second long side she did it twice, there and back, and halfway along she called out: “This is, Michaela, what makes the legs quicker. Look.” I looked, and the trick was quickly changing directions. For the first time I knew what quicker legs meant.
📽 Anja Beran on Diego da Silva at the 2026 workshop
I took it home in an easier version. Leg yield away from the track, then leg yield back, in both directions. The first few times it wasn’t fluid. She staggered a little at the change of direction, which she wasn’t expecting, and lost her balance for a step. After some practice it got smooth, and now it feels light and fun, so it goes into every warm-up. I’d rather get the hind legs quicker first, before I ask them to carry.
📽 Blondie: Double leg yield
After the warm-up we go back to the walk-trot transition in shoulder-in. I wrote about it in an earlier email. We are still on it.
This next clip is from the same ride as the leg yields. What I like about it is that she goes from walk to trot and nothing in between. When we started out there were always a few steps that Anja jokingly called “Moon walk“, half walk and half trot and neither. But she is still a bit long, which is what’s left of the pulling forward. Eventually I want her to carry more with her hind legs, where the engine should be.
📽 Blondie: Shoulder-in transition
Before the transition I ask for a flexion in a shoulder-in position, which keeps her shorter. When this works, I can ask for the same transition straight.
The next clip is from a later ride. Same transition, a bit further along. I share three trials. In the first she goes against the rein, another one of those phrases nobody explains. What I see is her bracing against the rein while she tries to pull herself forward into the trot with her front end. I’d like her to push from behind.
The second trial has two attempts. She doesn’t trot on the first. I don’t try to squeeze the trot out of it, I reset and ask again. On the second she trots and her head stays calm, but she doesn’t push from behind either. The third is better. I have the feeling of a little more bounce. On the video it’s there, but only just.
📽 Blondie: Three trials
At the beginning I clicked any transition to trot. Then I raised the criteria, and the click came when she could move into the trot without tilting her head and pulling on the rein. That is where we are now, and I have my eyes on the next step. Alex used to say you can expand to the next criterion when it is already occurring on a consistent basis. What I am looking for is that bounce, the feeling that she lifts into the trot from behind.
Half of this is my seat. I noticed that asking her to slow down before the transition helps, you can see it in the clip. And I need to stay vertical so I don’t add my weight to her shoulders. What I want is a small shoulder-in, just enough to shorten her, without making the trot hard to start. How I sit in that shoulder-in decides which transition I get. I am still figuring it out.
Michaela
Happy horses make happy people!