This has been a hard essay to write. I had a sleepless night re-writing it over and over in my head. I don’t seem to find the clarity of words to make, what I believe, are very important points. I hope you’ll give these ideas some consideration despite my failure to be as clear as I wish.
How do you explain complex things to horses?
It begins by explaining simple concepts to horses and then gradually building on those concepts.
Let’s look at an example.
I know folks who have green horses. I know many of these folks ride circles using rider aids meant for seasoned educated horses. Inside leg, outside leg, inside rein, outside rein, pelvis, core muscles, shoulders, etc all are used to explain a circle to their green horse.
However, despite most riders best intention to explain to their horse how to execute a circle, they use these aids to block a horse from doing inaccurate circle rather than using them to explain to a horse how to ‘go with’ a feel and perform a precise circle.
Recently a student told me they had a light bulb moment at one of my previous clinics. She had a light-bulb moment that gave her the clarity of what it meant to connect her feel to her horse’s mind. When I asked her what that moment was she said, “It was when I rode my horse and you asked me to use only my left rein and step his hip to the right. Then use the same rein and step his forehand to the left. Then use the same rein to ride a circle to the left. Then use the same rein to leg yield him to the right with a left bend. All with only the inside rein. The left rein.”
She said it was a clear realization of what it meant to connect to a horse’s mind. It was a ‘wow’ moment for her.
Many people believe that directing a horse’s movement involves a concoction of aids - using the reins, a rider’s seat and their legs in a very specific manner. And it can be. Especially if you want to be picky about the quality of movement. If you are training for Olympic quality instead of paddock quality, all the parts might make a difference.
However, nothing is more important when directing movement than a horse’s mind. If it is the horse’s idea to perform a movement it’s easy to make the parts come together. If it is not the horse’s idea it is hard because there is conflict between the horse’s idea and the rider’s aids. The horse is being dragged kicking and screaming into a half pass or a sliding stop or around a jump course against its will. And I will add that this “kicking and screaming” is the most common form of training I see in every discipline.
If you need the outside rein to block your horse from drifting to the outside when riding a circle, you are in an argument with your horse. If you need your inside leg to block your horse from falling into a turn, you are in an argument with your horse. If you need to use your outside leg to block the hindquarters during a shoulder in, you are in an argument with your horse. You get the picture. The list goes on.
So while a rider’s seat, legs, and rein aids can direct the minutiae of how a horse organizes its body during a movement, the beauty of a movement comes from directing the horse’s mind.
When my friend abandoned all aids except one single communication device (only a single rein) she was able to direct her horse’s mind to yield a hindquarter, then a forehand, then both together in either circle or in a leg yield. Nothing more than a slight adjustment for an inside rein to create all those movements with softness and fluidity. No use of an outside rein. No use of her legs. No use of an active seat. Just a single rein in communication with her horse’s thoughts.
I wish I had a dollar for every time a horse comes to a clinic that does not understand how to be in an agreeable conversation with its rider. The rider uses a concoction of aids, such as the inside leg and outside rein, to perform simple and everyday tasks like a turn or a circle. It begins almost with the first ride after the horse comes home from being started. Yet, none of those horses can follow a simple aid with their thought. None of them know how to yield away from the inside leg or change their idea when a rider uses an outside rein. They are green broke. Yet people ride them as if they came with a step-by-step instruction manual.
I’m not suggesting there is no benefit to using seat and legs and outside rein. I use them myself to aid in precision and accuracy. But I am saying those things come later. They become important after my horse and I can converse and agree to how to respond to a simple aid like an inside rein. If you we don’t agree about what we both want, using more aids to make it happen is not a fruitful path to beauty and harmony.
Until your horse can yield its thought to a simple aid like the inside rein, there is no benefit to applying other aids, signals, and pressures to your horse to block what you don’t want. It is just fuelling the conflict. The most important change worth having is a change of thought.
Duchess’ in the early learning of a leg yield. I am using my left rein to direct her thought (and feet) to the right while at the same time I am using it to flex her to the left.