Self carriage and responsibility

Self carriage is a good characteristic for a horse. But what does it mean? Wilhelm Müseler in ”Riding logic” (1973) describes it like this:
”By self-carriage [or self-collection] we mean the apparently automatic maintenance of the position which the rider has requested the horse to assume. The expression does not refer in any way to a particular degree of collection or a certain outer form. A horse which is properly put to the aids will, with progressive dressage, very soon arrive at this self-collection; it will get there all the sooner the more subtle the rider's aids and the more subtle his rein influences. The opposite of self-collection is the horse leaning heavily on the bit.”

A horse that leans on the bit is not in self-carriage since the horse, if he is leaning on the bit, does not carry his own head! As a rider, you should not have more than the weight of the reins in your hand, otherwise the horse is not carrying its own head.

But "self-carriage" can be about more than just the horse's posture. McGreevy and McLean, two scientists specialising in horses and the horse's welfare, say that self-carriage also means that the horse on his own continues with the behaviour you asked for. This applies to signals from both the hand and legs. Once you have asked the horse to move forward from the legs or hand then the signal should cease once the horse starts to move forward, and the horse should be left alone as long as the horse continues to move forward. The same applies if the horse should trot, canter, rein-back, perform shoulder-in, stop, go on a circle, stand still, piaffe and so on.

De la Guérinière (1731) called this the "descente de main" and "descente de jambe" in French. "Descente de main" is when the rider lowers his hand and opens his fingers so that the contact is lightened. The horse's job is to continue with whatever it was that he was asked to do. "Descente de jambe" is when the rider relaxes her legs and lets them hang like wet towels along the sides of the horse while the horse continues with whatever it was he was asked to do.

Ehrengranat (1836) writes about three degrees of “descent de main”. The first degree gives freedom for the horse's head, the second to the horse's neck and the third opens up for steps to be extended. The first degree of freedom means that contact between the rider's hand and the horse's mouth eases but nothing else happens. Ehrengranat continues "If the horse has followed the aid, it should cease, so that he [the horse] will be left to himself, for as long as the movements in their fullness still continue, no longer."

To me, self-carriage is to hand over responsibility to the horse to maintain speed, direction and posture. I should not have to hold the horse together or support him just in case he will not maintain speed, direction and posture. If and when the horse ceases to do whatever I have asked for, then and only then, should I remind him of what we were doing.

PS Thank you to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship magazine for proof reading!