A Little Less Squeeze Please!

One of the more misunderstood parts of riding, I am noticing more and more, and the apparent difference between good riders and the really great ones, is the application of the aids and how to relate them back into something the horse understands. This of course has plenty to do with feel and being able to understand what the horse is doing underneath you, translating it back to him and talking back to the horse in a way he understands. Seat is an aid that I see as the cherry on top – when you really GET IT. And that takes time…. And mileage…. And lots of practise…. What I am seeing though is a difficulty at a more basic level. Hands and legs.

For years and years instructors, like myself, would absolutely drill into our pupils – less hand and more leg – it became our mantra. For every bit of hand you use you should be using twice as much leg…. Ride from inside leg into outside rein…. Give with the hand…. Drive with the leg…. What we seeing more and more is a loose, flapping contact and legs that grip and grind at every stride. No hand and all leg. Of course what I love to see is hand, leg and MOSTLY seat!

As a good example, I went off to go try a young Friesian cross as a potential purchase for a friend and was told in no uncertain terms that I would need a crop as the horse was just absolutely dead off the leg. I politely refused the crop, firstly because the horse was very young and seemed a little unsure of humans and my gut said to just get on first. Once on the youngster, I realised quickly that this horse was by no means dead to the leg – it was dead to the grip! Any young horse starting out will be a little unsure, a little off balance and will favour comfort above all. If you applied a leg aid to the horse he would listen for all of a split second but if you kept asking with the leg, he would tense up, stop breathing and that would slow him to a crawl as he tried to figure out how he was going to keep moving, hold himself together and still try to focus on the task at hand. If you took your leg away from his sides and just stay with him for the first few strides, he was able to let go, breathe out and started striding out with much more confidence. Eventually, he started to relax mentally and a horse that was absolutely switched off to being ridden so early in his career already began to breathe, relax and pay attention.

Horses don’t like having someone’s legs wrapped around them in a vice grip. It is essential that the leg hang relaxed next to the horse’s side and ONLY is used in a small sharp tap and let go movement when something is being asked of the horse. We are seeing too many riders banging away at their poor long suffering horses in an attempt to create impulsion and go, when in fact they will only achieve the opposite. Forward movement starts in the mind, then the body - from a relaxed state and a desire to want to work, being sharp off the rider’s aids and being rewarded by a quiet conversation. I always tell my riders when I teach them about aids that when I am speaking to them loudly and I suddenly speak in a soft voice, their first instinct is to…? LISTEN HARDER! The same can be said of the aid, especially the leg. When you go quiet in the saddle the horse will instinctively try to work out what you want and listen harder. At first that can be very difficult, especially with a horse that has been used to tuning out the rider. When I first began work with Pee Wee, it took spurs and two crops to keep him going, but I decided early on that I was not going to use the same method and began to use less and less leg. In the beginning it was terrifying – his walk (never his best pace) would feel as though he was going to grind to a halt any second if I stopped tapping but guess what? He never did! I had to let go of the idea of pushing him forward into every stride so that he could decide to move himself and start finding a new confidence in being able to control his own body again.

The other problem I see so often with this all leg and no hand method is that riders will try to work a horse on no contact at all. Many younger riders I find are scared of the feeling of a contact as they fear they will hurt the horse’s mouth, but in truth, if there is no contact the horse will never be able to carry himself correctly and all his ridden work will just be wasted mileage on his legs and mind and have no purpose.

A horse needs to work over his body into a steady contact. When you ride your horse you make constant conversation with him through the hand. You ask, he talks, you answer and so it goes. Your rein is like a fine wire that goes right into his soul as it were – I realise how ‘hippie’ that sounds but that is the only way I can describe it. Where the leg guides, the seat controls, the hand communicates. Without a contact, the horse is lost – talking to himself. The rein aid is so sensitive that you should imagine yourself carrying razor blades inside your fist as you ride. That is how subtle the aid should be, but never loose. You should always have the horse at the end of your contact. An easy way to explain contact is while riding long and low. Too often you will see a rider asking the horse to work in stretch by simply throwing the rein away to the buckle. The horse usually responds by planking out the neck and settling into a sleep-walk. From there any instruction would be ignored until the rider snatches up the rein, the horse in shock at being awoken from his slumber breaks off into trot and the rider is left puzzled as to what the aim of such a seemingly pointless exercise could be. When you ride a stretch in long and low, you slowly let the bit go forwards and you allow the horse to follow the contact to the point where you want him. The walk stays active and the horse must stretch out over a raised shoulder. So I would collect up the walk slightly to increase hind leg activity, lift up the shoulder and balance the horse and from there, allow the contact to move forward. The horse is still on my aid. We are still communicating with each other and the way I know my horse is working correctly through the stretch is that in long and low, I can change rein on a figure of 8 and he stays on my aid where I want him. I can proceed to trot; he stays right there with me. I can canter out of walk on a long rein and he will easily slide into canter, keeping himself low and his frame intact. I can then halt out of that canter with him still long and low and he is active, engaged and listening to my aid. That is rein contact. Not a blind sawing, sponging and general flurry of activity, but rather a steady and consistent pressure that is electric with chatter.

An aid is only applied when needed. Then you stop asking. Having a busy rider on board must feel to the horse like being a passenger on an airplane seated next to a loud chatty Cathy. After a while you tune out her voice and nod your head absently while pretending to be interested in anything she is saying and praying that the flight will be over soon.

The point of this article, then, is to make the rider and instructor aware that sometimes a little MORE rein and a little LESS leg will go a lot further than endless kicking and sawing on a long rein while the horse prays that the ride will end soon and he can retreat to some quiet space. Let the horse move, let him breathe and let him decide to move while you guide and whisper and he will thank you for it!

Training Woes...

Or, rather, a little observation from my side!

As a part of my horsey life, teaching and showing and training my horses and those of clients, I get to sit on many horses to get a feel of what they are doing. I am constantly amazed at the difference in what the rider tells you and what the horse tells you when you sit on it. Not that the riders tell you all good or all bad things mind you - sometimes they can be quite complimentary about their long suffering steeds. Once you get on, however, the story can change quite a bit. This tells me a lot about FEEL. That elusive gift that all good riders possess and that all riders strive to develop. Being able to sit on a horse and just feel what it is doing is a gift that I find leads me to developing a training schedule for the horse that will not only yield positive results, but usually they come quite quickly.

One of the most common issues I deal with on most horses I ride is educating the shoulder. When you control the shoulder, the rest follows. Not very easy to do! The horse needs to learn to lift the shoulder so that he can bend correctly, take a bit of weight through the back onto the hindquarter and stay in control of his body. The bigger, short coupled horses find control of the shoulder a lot easier to develop than their more lanky cousins. Where they often struggle is in relaxation and softness through the body however they more than make up for it because once the shoulder is controlled, they find long and low quite easy which will supple and soften them in no time at all. The longer coupled and tall horses will often be more supple but not as strong, so they can really struggle with the strength that is required to lift the shoulder. They will often fall over themselves through corners or lose balance in transitions. one of the important factors when it comes to teaching the horse to use his shoulder is by using the outside rein. Too many riders pull their horses around on the inside rein not realising that bend needs to be maintained with the outside rein first. as soon as the horse is pulled onto the inside rein, it falls onto the inside shoulder, losing his center of balance and the purpose and use of the bend is lost.

Long and low work is vital in the development and training of any horse. I use it daily to relax, stretch and supple the horse. When you advance in your horse's training, work in long and low at different paces and through transitions is a fantastic way of progressing your training. the big issue I see with riders in long and low is that they simply throw the reins at the horse, who will typically 'plank out' his neck and run along on the forehand. That is not true long and low work! The horse should lift the shoulder up, extend his neck over and out to the front and most importantly, stays on the contact throughout. you can ride simple lead changes in long and low, for example, because the horse is still carrying hihimself and is still on your contact. The horse should follow the contact when you ask - but should still stay between your hand and leg. I do walk trot halt transitions through long and low, canters with simple changes and so forth. The most advanced work in long and low that is quite a powerful tool but is very hard work is long and low over cavaletti. The effort of lifting the legs combined with stretching over the back and neck is monumental.

The second issue I often encounter with many horses is that they are never allowed to move! Many training hurdles people encounter is that the horse seems stubborn, won't move off the leg or remains stiff. This is mostly because the horse has never been allowed to actually go forwards. I find this true for many of the really big horses - the really wide ones - the ones that really can actually move! When you sit on a horse in canter, come down the long side and say, "Ok! Now you can go!" this horse will go "huh?" and stay shuffling along. The horse is not dead to the leg (ok, yes they are in a way i guess!) they are dead in the HEAD! These horses need get out - long rides out where they are allowed to just move and have canters out and just have fun. At some point they will suddenly realise that there is something more fun than a shuffle down the long side of the arena. These horses have often been worked to death in the arena and have no more inclination to even try to enjoy their work. Working outside is also a great opportunity to add litttle training exercises like lateral work, halts, transitions etc which the horse will find playful and will benefit from. The big training problem with these horses is that the rider is usually a bit nervous and wil often try to solve the problem with even more schooling inside which just makes the problem worse. Another thing that i do with my horses is to take them out on non-show excursions. going out on a fun adventure with no pressure to behave! All my horses get to go out to training eventing courses to have a gallop, take some small jumps and just have a chance to pig around. We travel to outride venues, go on hunts and keep them busy with all sorts of excursions. These trips keep things fresh, keep them forward thinking and really develop rider horse relationship.

Clients are often surprised when I tell them that riding should not be hard work. Sure, there is some work involved, but if you are finishing a 30 min ride sweating, huffing and puffing, and your horse has barely broken a sweat, something is wrong! The less you do with your body, the more responsive your horse will get and the bigger pleasure he will be to ride!

So if you are a bit stuck with your horse, or he is just not progressing - give these things a mull over and maybe you will find something you can do to get your training on track again!