There is an expression in English that, I'm sorry to say, has no equivalent in Swedish. The expression I'm thinking of is ”a made mouth”. This expression means a horse that with a light touch follows the bit and the rider's hands, wherever the rider places the bit.
Simplifying slightly, a horse can react in three ways when the rider takes touch on the reins:
1)in a schooled way and also use her head and neck to balance her body in a correct way
2)negatively to the bit and move her head in a way that puts herself out of balance (using her weight in a negative way)
3)she can fight the bit and the rider's touch (using her muscles in a negative way)
The first of course describes a horse with ”a made mouth”. As I said, this is the reaction of a schooled horse, which means the horse has to be trained to have ”a made mouth”. Of course all horses can be trained to have a made mouth, you don't need a special breed or an expensive horse.
The horse that uses her weight in a negative way, as in the second case, will either lean on the bit and/or move at a higher speed than requested by the rider, and also be difficult to stop. To counteract this the rider can use the classical half halt. This half halt is done with only the hand, the rider's legs are not involved. The aim of the half halt is to help the horse in using her neck to regain her proper balance, which in this case means the horse has to raise her neck.
The horse that uses her muscles in a negative way, the third case, will for instance pull on the reins by locking her jaw, or even try to pull her rider out of the saddle. To solve this problem the rider needs first of all to stop pulling on the reins. All backwards movements by the rider's hand will have the horse defending itself by locking the jaw and/or pulling the other way. Secondly the horse has to release the jaw by lightly chewing on the bit and swallowing. The goal is to have the horse release the jaw as soon the rider takes touch on the reins.
As Maria wrote last week, touchmeans that neither horse nor rider lean or pull on each other.
A horse with a made mouth is a horse that with a light touch follows the bit and the rider's hands, wherever the rider places the bit. A horse trained in this way is a horse that is a true pleasure to ride.
Tuesday 27 July 2010
Tuesday 20 July 2010
When did grammes leave the scene?
During my 18 years as a riding school student countless lessons has started with the command "take the reins" and I have picked them up. Then followed the instructions; take up a contact with the horse's mouth, have support on the outher rein, be light, give and take with the reins and so on.
As I recall, nobody talked about the way I should pick up the reins, what quality I should strive for, how I should give aids with the reins and what exactly the aid of the reins would mean to the horse.
For my own part, it resulted that I either held the reins too hard or didn’t hold them at all, I oscillated between full contact and no contact, the register in my hands were absent.
In my quest to get a better contact I switched out "take the reins" to "give the horse my hand" and felt that it helped me to become less rigid. And then I met Craig Stevens (Snohomish, WA), who said "Establish Touch" and it threw my equestrian world up side down - touch the horse's mouth!
To relate to rein aids as touch made it easier for me to explore a sliding scale, from the feather light touch to the robust and firm grip.
In a study by Cavallo magazine in 2004 they measured the contact between the horse and the hand. They used electronic sensors on the reins and registred the force on the rein at the transition from canter to halt. They studied riders riding Western style and traditional dressage style. The figures I remember are those concerning the dressage riders. A half halt showed values ranging from 8-10 kg in each rein and at the moment of halt the pressure level in the reins rose to 12.5 kg in average. Anyone who has ever been grabbed the arm by harsh strong hands knows the discomfort it creates.
The study by Cavallo gives me a clue to why riders today feel they have to build up their muscular strenght. Having the idea that you need to pull with 12,5 kg in each hand every time you'd like to bring your horse to an halt is daunting. Especially since halt is something you do more than once each time you ride.
But as refered to in the post from June 23 nowhere in older litterature is strenght a requirement in riding. Not strenght in connection with rein contact anyway.
So, when riding instructions and instructors go astray? When did the definition of contact became equal to kilogrammes and not gramme?
In the book "Fundamentals of Riding" Sir Charles Harris writes “…If you can ride at each gate with rein contacts between 20 and 100 grammes – you have a light hand…”
We ride an animal capable of sensing a fly landing on its skin with kilogrammes in our closed fists. I rode with gloves because of the blisters and wounds I'd get between my little finger and ring finger if I didn't wear them. But the horses I rode at that time had nothing to protect them from blisters and wounds in their mouths...
As I recall, nobody talked about the way I should pick up the reins, what quality I should strive for, how I should give aids with the reins and what exactly the aid of the reins would mean to the horse.
For my own part, it resulted that I either held the reins too hard or didn’t hold them at all, I oscillated between full contact and no contact, the register in my hands were absent.
In my quest to get a better contact I switched out "take the reins" to "give the horse my hand" and felt that it helped me to become less rigid. And then I met Craig Stevens (Snohomish, WA), who said "Establish Touch" and it threw my equestrian world up side down - touch the horse's mouth!
To relate to rein aids as touch made it easier for me to explore a sliding scale, from the feather light touch to the robust and firm grip.
In a study by Cavallo magazine in 2004 they measured the contact between the horse and the hand. They used electronic sensors on the reins and registred the force on the rein at the transition from canter to halt. They studied riders riding Western style and traditional dressage style. The figures I remember are those concerning the dressage riders. A half halt showed values ranging from 8-10 kg in each rein and at the moment of halt the pressure level in the reins rose to 12.5 kg in average. Anyone who has ever been grabbed the arm by harsh strong hands knows the discomfort it creates.
The study by Cavallo gives me a clue to why riders today feel they have to build up their muscular strenght. Having the idea that you need to pull with 12,5 kg in each hand every time you'd like to bring your horse to an halt is daunting. Especially since halt is something you do more than once each time you ride.
But as refered to in the post from June 23 nowhere in older litterature is strenght a requirement in riding. Not strenght in connection with rein contact anyway.
So, when riding instructions and instructors go astray? When did the definition of contact became equal to kilogrammes and not gramme?
In the book "Fundamentals of Riding" Sir Charles Harris writes “…If you can ride at each gate with rein contacts between 20 and 100 grammes – you have a light hand…”
We ride an animal capable of sensing a fly landing on its skin with kilogrammes in our closed fists. I rode with gloves because of the blisters and wounds I'd get between my little finger and ring finger if I didn't wear them. But the horses I rode at that time had nothing to protect them from blisters and wounds in their mouths...
Sunday 11 July 2010
How to use the hand
Since I'll be sitting by the ocean next week, I post this blog entry early:
In modern dressage the idea that the driving aids are more important than the hand is often voiced. But it is so? All the aids, particularly the rider's hands, are there to communicate with the horse, not to physically control her. If you have the horse's attention and she understands your request, how strong do you have to be? In my blog two weeks ago I wrote about why the hand is seen as the primary aid in classical riding. What does it really mean for how the hand should be used?
Never a backward action
The most basic technique is never to take your hand backwards. You simply should not pull on the horse's mouth. Horses are six to seven times faster in their reactions than humans, and stronger. If you start a wrestling match you will lose sooner or later. And above all, a wrestling match will give both you and your horse unnecessary and incorrect muscle tension.
Direct instead
Then what to do? You can raise your hands, bring them forwards or sideways. In doing this your hand can redirect and reflect your horse's energy through the bit and reins. Your goal is to get your horse to shift its weight on its four legs so that she takes the position she needs for the movement you want to do without you getting any pressure in the reins.
Up
If you use your hands by lifting them upward, following by a lowering you'll perform what the old masters called a half halt. For this you don't need any legs just a simple raising of your hand, followed by an immediate lowering. The response from your horse can be divided into four stages: 1) she raises her head, 2) she slows down, 3) she stops, 4) she backs up. The raising of the horse's neck and head makes the horse re-balance itself by putting more weight on its hind legs. This is the beginning of collection.
Towards and away from the horse
When you direct your horse's energy out and away from the horse (this is almost the same thing as performing a small leading or opening rein) this is called a "direct rein". The effect is that the horse either makes a wide arc in the same direction as your hand moved or a turn on the forehand. Which one you get depends on the horse's degree of collection. A direct rein asks the horse to put her weight on the front leg. If you do a direct rein with the right hand your horse should put her weight on the right front leg.
If you instead direct your horse's energy into the horse's body (this is comparable to a neck rein in Western riding), this is called an "indirect rein". The effect is that the horse either makes a wide arc in the opposite direction, or a turn on the haunches. What movement your horse will perform depends, again, on the degree of collection. An indirect rein asks the horse to put weight on the diagonal hind leg.
The principles are very easy, but not always so simple to do in reality!
In modern dressage the idea that the driving aids are more important than the hand is often voiced. But it is so? All the aids, particularly the rider's hands, are there to communicate with the horse, not to physically control her. If you have the horse's attention and she understands your request, how strong do you have to be? In my blog two weeks ago I wrote about why the hand is seen as the primary aid in classical riding. What does it really mean for how the hand should be used?
Never a backward action
The most basic technique is never to take your hand backwards. You simply should not pull on the horse's mouth. Horses are six to seven times faster in their reactions than humans, and stronger. If you start a wrestling match you will lose sooner or later. And above all, a wrestling match will give both you and your horse unnecessary and incorrect muscle tension.
Direct instead
Then what to do? You can raise your hands, bring them forwards or sideways. In doing this your hand can redirect and reflect your horse's energy through the bit and reins. Your goal is to get your horse to shift its weight on its four legs so that she takes the position she needs for the movement you want to do without you getting any pressure in the reins.
Up
If you use your hands by lifting them upward, following by a lowering you'll perform what the old masters called a half halt. For this you don't need any legs just a simple raising of your hand, followed by an immediate lowering. The response from your horse can be divided into four stages: 1) she raises her head, 2) she slows down, 3) she stops, 4) she backs up. The raising of the horse's neck and head makes the horse re-balance itself by putting more weight on its hind legs. This is the beginning of collection.
Towards and away from the horse
When you direct your horse's energy out and away from the horse (this is almost the same thing as performing a small leading or opening rein) this is called a "direct rein". The effect is that the horse either makes a wide arc in the same direction as your hand moved or a turn on the forehand. Which one you get depends on the horse's degree of collection. A direct rein asks the horse to put her weight on the front leg. If you do a direct rein with the right hand your horse should put her weight on the right front leg.
If you instead direct your horse's energy into the horse's body (this is comparable to a neck rein in Western riding), this is called an "indirect rein". The effect is that the horse either makes a wide arc in the opposite direction, or a turn on the haunches. What movement your horse will perform depends, again, on the degree of collection. An indirect rein asks the horse to put weight on the diagonal hind leg.
The principles are very easy, but not always so simple to do in reality!
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Beginner or re-ginner
There is a big difference being a beginner compared to being a “re-ginner” in many ways.
As a beginner, you are a clean sheet, everything you do, you do from the beginning and provided you have a good teacher you can quickly and easily acquire new skills. I remember an adult beginner that in a relatively short time learned to ride and with great enthusiasm during a lesson exclaimed .- Do I make a passing now?! (referring to a side pass) He had everything to gain and nothing to loose, it's the novice privilege.
As a re-ginner you have to face challenges on several levels.
To re-learn is more difficult than learning a new because you have to struggle with your acquired reflexes or so called habit. Since you already have some knowledge of the subject, you have to put up with reflexes that allow you to automatically act when something happens.
Sometimes you are aware of your reflexes, sometimes you are unaware of them and the latter can cause problem. I saw a lesson where the riding instructor wanted a pupil to raise the hand and the hand rose but it was simultaneously brought backwards. - No, the riding instructor said, not that way. I want you to just raise your hand. The rider made another try, doing the same as the first time. At that point the riding instructor walked over and showed the student what actually happened to the hands. –Oh, I see, the pupil said and at a new request the hands were raised without pulling the reins backwards. You can only change the things you are aware of, you need to become aware of yourself and what you are actually doing.
Once you become aware of what you do "when you do what you do" you will face the next challenge.
You need to find out what your new habit is going to consist of.
So intellectually, you are in the game but your body is unable to go for the new. It feels as it is resisting. If it is any comfort I have heard that it takes 10 000 repetitions to consolidate a habit. If the habit turns out to be something we need to address later on in life, it takes 10 000 reps to work it off and 10 000 to consolidate a new habit.
It is the stubbornly and tirelessly saying no to the first impulse (your old habitual response) and giving yourself direction for your planned new route that brings about change. Being bewildered, clumsy and wrong belongs to that part of the task. To make it easier and to give yourself the space needed to change it is great if you can blur the paradigm of right-wrong within your mind and instead see your chosen path as an experiment. Were the results of your experiment the expected? How well did you keep to your new direction? At what point were the urge to do as you usually did the strongest?
Once you know what you want, have a clear vision of how to do it and manage to prevent yourself from getting stuck in some old habit - then it is possible that what you want to achieve is done by you and for you almost without effort.
And if you can ease the demands of perfection on yourself with some good humoured self criticism and accept that being a re-ginner is going to make you feel lost and stupid at times, then you have given yourself a fair chance to succeed.
"If you stop doing the wrong thing the right thing does itself."
F.M Alexander
As a beginner, you are a clean sheet, everything you do, you do from the beginning and provided you have a good teacher you can quickly and easily acquire new skills. I remember an adult beginner that in a relatively short time learned to ride and with great enthusiasm during a lesson exclaimed .- Do I make a passing now?! (referring to a side pass) He had everything to gain and nothing to loose, it's the novice privilege.
As a re-ginner you have to face challenges on several levels.
To re-learn is more difficult than learning a new because you have to struggle with your acquired reflexes or so called habit. Since you already have some knowledge of the subject, you have to put up with reflexes that allow you to automatically act when something happens.
Sometimes you are aware of your reflexes, sometimes you are unaware of them and the latter can cause problem. I saw a lesson where the riding instructor wanted a pupil to raise the hand and the hand rose but it was simultaneously brought backwards. - No, the riding instructor said, not that way. I want you to just raise your hand. The rider made another try, doing the same as the first time. At that point the riding instructor walked over and showed the student what actually happened to the hands. –Oh, I see, the pupil said and at a new request the hands were raised without pulling the reins backwards. You can only change the things you are aware of, you need to become aware of yourself and what you are actually doing.
Once you become aware of what you do "when you do what you do" you will face the next challenge.
You need to find out what your new habit is going to consist of.
So intellectually, you are in the game but your body is unable to go for the new. It feels as it is resisting. If it is any comfort I have heard that it takes 10 000 repetitions to consolidate a habit. If the habit turns out to be something we need to address later on in life, it takes 10 000 reps to work it off and 10 000 to consolidate a new habit.
It is the stubbornly and tirelessly saying no to the first impulse (your old habitual response) and giving yourself direction for your planned new route that brings about change. Being bewildered, clumsy and wrong belongs to that part of the task. To make it easier and to give yourself the space needed to change it is great if you can blur the paradigm of right-wrong within your mind and instead see your chosen path as an experiment. Were the results of your experiment the expected? How well did you keep to your new direction? At what point were the urge to do as you usually did the strongest?
Once you know what you want, have a clear vision of how to do it and manage to prevent yourself from getting stuck in some old habit - then it is possible that what you want to achieve is done by you and for you almost without effort.
And if you can ease the demands of perfection on yourself with some good humoured self criticism and accept that being a re-ginner is going to make you feel lost and stupid at times, then you have given yourself a fair chance to succeed.
"If you stop doing the wrong thing the right thing does itself."
F.M Alexander
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