Basic lateral movements are some of the most important things you can work on with your horse, and I’m a firm believer that you can never do enough. I ride lateral movements in every gait, every ride, on every horse—from young horses through Grand Prix. 

Lateral work will make your horse more connected, engaged, supple and on your aids. Your horse will feel more pliable, agile and responsive, softening through your legs, hips and hands. Lateral work also helps you discover your horse’s weaknesses by how he compensates in his work, and you can help him improve those weaknesses with the lateral movements.

In this article, I’ll explain how to correctly ride the following lateral movements: leg-yield, shoulder-fore, shoulder-in, haunches-in, and half-pass—in that order. Then I’ll describe how you can build them into one another and transition between movements depending on how your horse feels in the moment.

Before starting lateral work, make sure your horse is on the bit, in front of your leg and in balance. I do lateral movements in my warm-up, starting with walk, then rising trot (once my horse is warmed up, I do the movements in sitting trot) and canter. Keep in mind, when practicing lateral work in the canter, don’t make the angles as sharp as you would in trot. As a rule of thumb, I aim to do each movement two times in both directions, but that depends on the individual horse and how he’s feeling that day, so it’s always up to the rider’s discretion.

Leg-Yield

Leg-yield is always the first lateral exercise I do with all my horses. It’s a great way to get your horse on your aids and to supple his whole body. You can also use it to diagnose if he is stiffer in one direction. In a leg-yield, the horse moves sideways and forward with his inside legs crossing over the front of his outside legs. He should be in alignment from nose to tail with the outside shoulder leading slightly.

If your horse is green, start by asking for the leg-yield from just to the inside of the rail and only for a few steps. If your horse is experienced, start from the quarter line or centerline and leg-yield to the rail. To ask for a leg-yield, use your inside leg at the girth to move his rib cage, shoulder and inside hind leg to the rail, while bending him a little to the inside. If your inside leg is too far back, you’ll move the haunches over but there won’t be a bend through the rib cage and his body will be out of alignment.

The biggest mistake I see in lateral work is riders often lose the shape of the horse. The horse has a harder crossing side and an easier crossing side, so the haunches either swing over or the shoulders fall to the outside, and the control of the sideways motion is lost. Think about staying in a rhythm and holding the shape by using your inside and outside aids together to help move and balance your horse. You want to keep a steady bend and connection with even steps throughout the whole movement. 

Shoulder-Fore and Shoulder-In

Once you are successful with the leg-yield, you can work on shoulder-fore, then shoulder-in. These are two of the most important movements because they are used so frequently in dressage training and can help prepare the horse for whatever movement is coming next. On almost every horse I ride, I ask for a little shoulder-fore in trot and canter to help align their body because most horses prefer to go down the long side in a slight haunches-in so they can avoid stepping under themselves with their hind legs.

In shoulder-fore, you’ll bend slightly to the inside like in the leg-yield. Your horse’s inside shoulder should be positioned just to the inside of the rail or his inside hip while traveling on three tracks—but only slightly. To ride a shoulder-fore, travel in a straight line on the rail, then squeeze his rib cage with your inside leg at the girth to move his hind leg to the rail. Encourage your horse to move his shoulders off the rail while asking for a little flexion by bringing your inside elbow back an inch and using the outside rein to keep him balanced. Your outside leg keeps the haunches from swinging out while maintaining impulsion.

From shoulder-fore, move into your shoulder-in, which is still a three-track movement but has more angle and requires more bend and strength from the hind legs. In shoulder-in, the shoulders come in even more with correct flexion to the inside, while the haunches stay on the rail. The inside front leg and outside hind leg are on their own tracks and the outside front leg and inside hind leg share the same track. Keep your inside leg on and push your horse’s inside hind leg toward the rail and up to your hand, while engaging his rib cage. At the same time, your outside leg and rein contain the outside of your horse and help with forward impulsion. I only ask for shoulder-in in the walk and trot. In the canter, it’s much harder for the horse to balance with that much angle and can train the horse’s muscles incorrectly.

The most common mistake I see in shoulder-fore and shoulder-in is the horse comes off the rail too much, so focus on preventing that with your inside leg and outside rein.

Haunches-In 

Once you have control in shoulder-in, move on to haunches-in. Haunches-in, or travers, is an amazing tool because it really helps you supple your horse’s body and gain more control. It’s also the foundation for half-pass. Haunches-in is a four-track movement, with each leg on a different track. The horse’s front end travels straight on the rail while his haunches come to the inside. His neck and jaw should also be flexed to the inside and feel supple—not forced.

Just like the other lateral movements, your inside leg stays at the girth and establishes the bend in your horse’s rib cage. Think of your inside leg as a solid post for your horse to bend around. Your outside leg comes back more than your inside leg to bring the haunches to the inside and around your inside leg. If your horse isn’t bending through his rib cage, don’t try to push your inside leg back further, keep trying to get your horse more sensitive to the leg aid with taps from your calf and heel until he responds correctly. Use your inside rein to flex him slightly to the inside while the outside rein stays steady and connected.

For a horse who’s just learning to do haunches-in, he may get confused and think that you’re asking him to canter. Keep asking him to trot and bring his haunches in while keeping his head and neck straight or a little flexed to the inside. Or, he may be struggling to do everything at once. Sometimes it can be hard for a horse to bend, or it just takes him a while to figure out how to coordinate his legs. 

If your horse is struggling, start with shoulder-out to help him better understand what you’re asking. Ask for a shoulder-out by keeping your outside leg on and the haunches in while keeping his head and neck facing the outside. Think shoulder-out, haunches-in, and that will help you establish your outside leg, which will bring the haunches in. You’ll know it’s OK to try true haunches-in when he moves off your outside leg easily. At that point, you can add the inside bend by slowly flexing the jaw to the inside by squeezing your ring finger repeatedly until he supples. Ask him to stay in that position while encouraging him forward. You may need to go back and forth between the lateral movements and being completely straight until your horse figures it out and builds strength and coordination. 

Half-Pass

Now your horse is really stretched, and you’ve built up suppleness, strength and forward momentum. He should be ready to move laterally the instant you ask, listening to both legs and hands, which means he’s ready for a shallow half-pass.

A lot of times riders overcomplicate the half-pass. For the most part, a half-pass is haunches-in on a diagonal line with varying angles. Start in shoulder-fore, then establish haunches-in and find a shallow diagonal line, keeping your horse’s shoulders on the line, while bringing the haunches to the inside of the line.

Compared to haunches-in, horses usually get wobblier in the half-pass and tend to lead too much with their front or back ends or may push their rib cages to the inside and lose the bend. Focus on your position, and sit on your inner seat bone, even though your body will want to fall to the outside of the horse to move him over. This will only lead to losing the shape and control of the movement.

For a horse learning half-pass, keep it very shallow and easy. I like to start on the quarter line with all horses because it gives you a little space to play. Think about the diagonal line going from the quarter line to the center line, so about five meters or even less, and do two to three steps of half-pass. It’s better to have a few great steps than a lot of bad ones. Once you get a few good steps, go straight for a couple of steps, then go back to moving sideways. As your horse becomes more advanced, you can increase the difficulty by making the half-pass steeper, longer and with more collection and impulsion. 

Putting It All Together 

Once you’ve practiced all the lateral movements one at a time in both the trot and canter, you can work on going from one lateral movement to another while keeping the rhythm and making the transitions between movements seamless. 

You might ask for a leg-yield, and then move into a shoulder-fore, and then a shoulder-in. If your horse isn’t really off your leg in the shoulder-in, that means he’s still pushing or falling too much against your leg, so ask for another leg-yield. Then ask for another shoulder-in. If you get an honest shoulder-in, then you can try haunches-in. If he struggles, go to shoulder-out and balance him and try haunches-in again to see if he’s improved. It’s all about building, not about getting the first step perfect. Stay patient and quiet. 

Pay attention to what side is harder for your horse and when he is unbalanced or falling in one direction so you can use another lateral movement to counteract it. For example, if your horse is in a right half-pass and is falling too much to the right, go to a shoulder-fore or shoulder-in to help correct it because it makes you put your inside leg on and use your outside rein. If he’s still falling to the right, leg-yield away from the right leg. Then repeat a right half-pass and see if he’s improved. If it’s getting harder for him, go back to something easier. You’re doing little lateral adjustments all the time to help your horse regain balance and suppleness.

I use all the lateral movements to build into upper-level movements. In the Grand Prix, I’m always moving my horse, whether forward or sideways, and my horse needs to be on my aids. If I don’t have bend in the rib cage from haunches-in, my half-passes, zigzags and pirouettes aren’t going to be correct. Or, if I don’t have the ability to create a good shoulder-fore or shoulder-in, I have no control over setting up each movement and making small adjustments in them.

By regularly working on lateral movements, you’ll learn you can access them at any time to influence your horse in the moment—even if it’s simply moving the rib cage slightly or getting the hind leg to cross over an inch.

For More:

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About AnnA Buffini

AnnA Buffini comes from a family of world-class athletes. Her mother was on the 1988 U.S. Olympic volleyball team, and her father, a native of Ireland, was a national collegiate soccer champion. AnnA initially pursued her own Olympic dreams as a gymnast but switched to dressage around age 9. In 2016, she became the first rider to win both the championship and reserve championship titles in U.S. Equestrian Federation Young Adult Brentina Cup Dressage National Championship. AnnA has competed for the U.S. in five major international Nations Cup competitions and is a two-time World Cup finalist with FRH Davinia La Douce. She runs a teaching, training and sales business based in San Diego, California. 

This article originally appeared in the summer 2025 issue of Practical Horseman.