by Danica Yates
(reprinted with permission)
What happens when you ride your horse and give with the inside rein? Next time you ride, try it out. At any gait, establish contact and softness and then reach your inside hand forward towards his ears to release pressure. Does your horse’s head swing away from that hand over toward the remaining outside contact? Does he stiffen and have his head bounce up? If so, this is a red alert indication that your horse is not properly ‘through’(soft and engaged through his topline) and carrying himself as he can. Let’s work on riding from the inside leg to the outside rein so that you can pet him with your inside hand and maintain good connection.
Getting your Horse ‘Through’
The first step in helping the horse carry himself comes back to the basics: bending and softening to get your horse round and engaged through his topline. The topline runs from the top of his tail all the way up to his poll between his ears. Often we see horses with their necks round- but the horse’s neck is an extension of his spine and to be properly through we must engage his spine from tail to poll. Here are a couple bending and softening techniques to engage his topline and get him through.
In an exercise to bend the horse around our inside leg, let’s put him on a 20 meter circle and thoroughly work one side at a time. We should flex him down and round, riding from the hind end and encouraging him to stretch toward the bit. Here we must use an indirect rein: opening the hand away from the horse’s neck to show him the direction in which we wish his head to bend. To encourage the horse to stretch and soften, we keep our arms light and soft and we play the rein- softly squeezing and messaging with our fingers to ask him to be soft. Opening and playing, that’s all the inside hand must do. Primarily, we are using our inside leg to ask him to bend from his ribcage around the leg and we are using our outside rein to support that side of his body and prevent that shoulder from popping out. Inside leg bends the horse’s body, outside rein balances and supports.
In an exercise to soften the horse’s neck and back we can message any stiffness out of the system through changes of direction and transitions. Let’s bend the horse around our inside leg using the same techniques as before now on a smaller circle. Then we will do a mini figure 8- changing the bend and riding right into a small circle in other direction. We need to watch that the horse’s head does not come up during our change of direction which would indicate stiffness in the back and lack of true through-ness. As we change the bend, we need to play the fingers, maintaining softness in the arms and continue to ride boldly with the leg. In the figure 8, make a downward transition as you are approaching the change of direction, more forward in an upward transition as you move into the new direction. In the downward transition, we want to close our leg and take the horse a little deeper in the frame, in the upward we want to maintain soft connection and play the reins- encouraging the horse to use his back, neck and hind end. These bending and softening techniques help in creating the basis for a truly through horse.
The Inside Release as an Indicator
When your horse is properly carrying himself it is time to try the release and see if the good contact and self carriage is maintained. The release with one or both hands is factored into dressage tests at third level and in the young horse tests. The movement is designed to show the judge that the horse is well balanced, through and carrying himself. Thus, this movement is not a ‘trick’ per se, but a demonstration of the horses good (or bad!) training. When you are riding and would like a clear indication of your effectiveness in getting your horse through, reach forward with one or both hands. If your horse reacts abruptly, you know you must work him over his back and off the inside leg more. If he carries on smoothly, you know that you are on the right track.
The goal is true balanced self carriage. The test is giving with the inside hand and maintaining even self carriage. Another exercise to establish true through-ness, is the leg yield. We have all heard of the ‘spiral in, spiral out’ exercise; let’s focus on the spiral out part. Horses naturally move away from pressure. On a medium circle, apply the pressure with the inside leg and ask the horse to move away. We want him to step away, or sideways, so half halt evenly on both reins if he tries to run forward. We don’t want to get carried away with running sideways either, so ask him to take steps evenly sideways and forward to spiral out on the circle. We balance the forwards and sideways by maintaining a steady feel on the outside rein. When we have executed a proper leg yield, the horse will be honestly off the inside. Test it: can you soften or release with your inside hand and have him stay through?
“Pet Him,” Bringing the Release into Daily Practice
Have you ever felt your horse pulling lower and lower down into the bit? There may be a number of reasons for this behavior, but the first thing to check is: are you pulling on him? If so, it’s time to factor in the release to lighten up your feel on the reins. When you apply pressure to ask him to do anything and he responds, lighten to reward. When he has responded just right, pet him. Often as riders, we tend to try and ‘hold our horses up’ with the reins. Perhaps you have heard that ‘if you pull on the horse he will pull back.’ This is very true and sometimes riders do not even feel like they are even pulling, but are unconsciously locking into pressure on the reins trying hard to maintain the desired carriage. When the horse feels this unrelenting pressure, he often will tighten his jaw and dig his head lower. Even if a rider is not consciously pulling on the reins, to the horse’s soft mouth continual pressure may feel like pulling.
The technique of ‘petting him’ is important to create a softening release and reward when the horse is responding. One thing we defiantly want to avoid is dropping the connection or collapsing altogether and loosing what we just succeeded in developing. Instead, we use the ‘inside leg to outside rein’ basics and always pet him by using the inside hand going forward on the neck and releasing. The rub on his fur is nice, but it is the giving of that rein that is primarily the reward. The rider can practice releasing with both hands as well, maintaining connection through the legs, seat and upper body position. If the rider is effectively riding from the leg and the horses is through, this practice reveals that the horse is balanced and carrying himself well.
In the end, the goal is maintaining softness. We can use the ‘pet him’ technique to teach ourselves as riders to give and create a lighter more dynamic contact. In dressage we want a steady feel or contact on the reins but a dynamic one. The amount of pressure in each of the reins at different moments as you ride, especially in a horse’s early training, will vary. If you maintain a pressure on the reins and never give and lighten to reward, you will find that the horse will give you the same steady pressure downward, dropping his head in a manner that nobody loves. When we ride the horses through their topline and they respond to what we ask, we respond, reward and “pet him.”
This horse’s neck may appear round, but he is not truly through and is disengaged in the hind end, falling on his forehand as Megan releases with the inside hand.
This horse is maintaining good self carriage, through-ness and impulsion from behind as Megan releases with the inside hand.
Danica Yates is a sport horse trainer in the Portland, Oregon area. FEI and European experience, open to all breeds and disciplines. Visit www.danicayates.com for more information.
