What aids does the rider use to maintain counter-canter and how are they different from the aids for normal canter?

The aids for maintaining counter-canter are a specific and somewhat counterintuitive arrangement that riders must learn deliberately, because the natural aid position for the direction of travel is different from the correct aid position for maintaining the counter-lead. In normal correct-lead canter, the inside leg is at the cinch to create impulsion and maintain the bend, the outside leg is behind the cinch to prevent the hindquarters from swinging out, and the inside rein provides a slight opening while the outside rein contains the pace. The aids align with both the direction of travel and the lead simultaneously. In counter-canter, the aids align with the lead rather than the direction of travel. If the horse is on the left lead while traveling to the right, the left leg is at the cinch — the lead leg is the inside leg regardless of the direction of travel. The right leg is behind the cinch to prevent the hindquarters from falling in toward the actual inside of the turn. The right rein provides slight opening toward the direction of travel while the left rein — the rein on the side of the lead — contains any tendency to drift or speed. The most common rider error in counter-canter is reverting to direction-of-travel aids — putting the right leg at the cinch and the left leg behind when traveling right, regardless of the lead. This aid position encourages the horse to change leads rather than maintain the counter-lead, which defeats the purpose of the exercise. Warwick Schiller emphasizes that the rider's weight should be slightly to the side of the lead in counter-canter rather than to the inside of the turn. If the horse is on the left lead traveling right, the rider's weight should be slightly to the left — the lead side — even though the turn is to the right. This weight position signals to the horse which lead is being maintained and prevents the horse from reading the direction-of-travel cues as a signal to change.