When I go out to practice our pivot for showmanship my horse always uses his outside leg. Does anyone have some advise on how I can get him to use his inside leg when pivoting? Thanks.
It is because you are not using forward motion.
When you are asking him to pivot, I would assuming you are also pushing him backward somewhat, in an effort to keep his weight in his butt. When you do that, he is going to use his outside leg.
Instead, don't shift his weight backward. He'll need to learn to pivot instead of walking forward, but you need to just move his to the side ONLY and not put any backward pressure on the lead. So, stand at the head as proper. Let's say we want a pivot to the right. So you move toward his head, put your right hand away from you and toward where you want him to go.
His front legs should also cross over one another (if we are doing a right turn) so that his left foot crosses in front of the right foot.
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This same concept can be applied to spins in reining. You need forward motion to spin on the inside leg, even though you are moving in a circle. If you try to pull back on the reins and spin, you do not have forward motion and he will pivot on the outside (wrong) leg.
You need to slightly pull her ahead every 1/4 turn/90 degrees so she will bring that foot forward and be forced to use the other foot.
My horse does that too! I just leave him pivot off the wrong foot, because if I make too much of a fuss, he won't pivot at all.
