The myth of overall bend

“Bend your horse around your inside leg”. I'm sure you have heard this countless times, just as I have. What your instructor has asked of you is to bend your horse evenly from nose to tail around your inside leg.

Overall bend in the horse is explained as follows, according to official theory:

“The term 'overall bend' is used when a horse is bent throughout its whole longitudinal axis, the whole length of its spine.” (The Principles of Riding, page 88).

On the same page the explanation continues:

“A rider must avoid asking for too much bend of the head and the neck and must focus on correct costal flexion around his inside leg”.

There is, however, one major point missing in the official theory and that is the anatomy of the horse's spine. As explained in Twisted Truths Of Modern Dressage by Philippe Karl, most parts of the horse's spine have a very limited capacity for lateral bending. Specifically:

1. the five sacral vertebrae are welded together (the sacrum) = no lateral bending
2. the parts of the spine that make up the withers are strongly linked together by supra-spinal ligaments connecting the spinal apophyses, and also each vertebra are linked to the sternum via the sternal ribs = no lateral bending

There are few examples of photos showing a bird's eye view of horses performing a circle, volte or lateral movements in which, according to the official theory, the horse should have an equal overall bend from nose to tail. There are, however, photos of Harry Boldt, a German dressage rider and Olympic gold medal winner in the 60's and 70's, showing shoulder in where you can clearly see that the horse's spine is straight between the tail and the withers. Only the neck is bent, creating the movement we call shoulder in (photo from www.artisticdressage.com).

So what can I as a rider know for sure when riding a horse on a circle?

1. I can know in what direction the horse is looking (into the circle or to the outside) or if the horse is straight in the neck.
2. I can know if the horse is “falling” in the direction of motion by overloading the inside front leg (usually the horse turns faster and tighter than you asked for if this is the case)
3. I can know if the horse is “falling” to the outside by overloading the outside front leg (usually when this is the case the horse will bend more in the neck than you asked for)
4. I can know if the horse's croup is to the inside (the horse's hind feel are moving on a smaller circle than the front feet)
5. I can know if the horse's croup is to the outside (the horse's hind feet are moving on a larger circle than the front feet).

In my experience none of these problems can be solved by the rider simply pushing more with the inside leg. More efficient solutions require noticing the causes of deviations from the ideal:

1 has to do with how well the horse follows the bit (flexions)

2 and 3 have to do with where the horse has its weight and how you as the rider influence the weight distribution by the correct use of your hand (direct and indirect rein, and figure 8).

4 and 5 have to do with a combination of how well the horse follows the bit (#1), if the horse can maintain a desired weight distribution (2 and 3) as well as if the horse can maintain an equal use of both hind legs.

When you have educated your horse's mouth so that she stays light in hand with an equal contact on both reins and moves on the circle without increasing or decreasing it and maintains an equal use of both hind legs, I would suggest it then feels like the horse is bent around your inside leg. This feeling is a result of a correctly working horse, but not the way to get there.

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading!

Flexions

Flexions are a way to introduce the bit to the horse, and also a way to supple the horse. Flexions include asking the horse to mobilise its jaw, raising and lowering its neck, bending laterally right and left and flexing the poll.

Suppleness and mental cooperation

We all want a supple horse, but what does it mean? A horse is supple when there are no unnecessary muscle tensions. This means when you ask your horse to bend to the right, the muscles on the left side of the neck can relax and allow the bending to the right. The horse is supple.

In order for your horse to perform flexions well, he also needs to be relaxed and calm. A horse that needs to scratch his belly can easily bend his head all the way around to his belly. This does not mean the same horse will bend when you ask for it. If your horse does not bend when you ask, he either does not understand your request, and/or his muscles are tense. You might think your horse is stiff, but I would like to suggest it is more of a mental “stiffness”, i.e. lack of understanding or willingness to follow your hand, rather than a physical stiffness in the muscles. A well schooled horse will easily follow your signals and requests while being both supple and relaxed.

Flexion is not just a means for schooling physical suppleness, but also for mental schooling of the horse. As described by the Father of Modern Equitation, de la Guérinière, a schooled horse should follow the bit wherever the rider places it and flexions are a way to train this.

From the ground or in the saddle

You can ask for flexions either from the ground or in the saddle. Here I will describe how to introduce flexions to your horse from the ground.

First flexion: flexions of the jaw, “cession de mâchoire”

As I already mentioned, flexions are a way to introduce the bit to the horse. The horse should neither fear the bit, nor lean or brace on it. The horse should calmly move the bit with its tongue and through relaxation of the lower jaw be able to swallow. Therefore it is imperative that the nose band be adjusted so you can fit two fingers between the nose band and the bridge of the horse's nose.  

How to ask for the flexion of the jaw

Stand in front of your horse, assuming your horse can stand calmly. Place your thumbs in each ring of the bit. Lift the bit into the corners of the horse's mouth. Lifting the bit avoids pressure on the tongue and the bars of the mouth. In the best of worlds, your horse now responds by lightly mobilising the lower jaw. If not, you can try to either increase the pressure in the corner of the mouth or vibrate. Different horses respond differently so try what works best for your horse. As soon as your horse mobilises the lower jaw and the tongue let the bit drop down and hang in the cheek pieces, i.e. release of the hand. The goal is for the horse to calmly mobilise the jaw whenever the horse feels a light presence of your hand through the bit or the reins.  

Second flexion: raising and lowering of the head

The first part of the second flexion is the raising of your horse's head and neck. You begin as you did for the first flexion by standing in front of your horse and asking your horse to raise his head and neck by gentle upward rhythmic circular actions of your hands in the corners of your horse's mouth (demi-ârret). The height of the head you are seeking is the height your horse would take when looking out over an open field.

When you try this for the first time, your horse might try to back up instead of raising the head. If this happens you might have acted on the tongue or the bars of the mouth instead of into the corners of the horse's mouth, or you might have asked your horse to continue to raise his head even after he is as high as when looking out over an open field.

When the horse has raised his head to the proper height, and he is not leaning or bracing against your hand, he is standing still and calmly mobilizing the jaw, you stop doing the demi-arrêt. With correct training your horse will maintain this position, but the first time you ask this of your horse you want to completely remove your hands from the bit as soon as the horse raises his head, stands still, is light in hand and calmly mobilises the jaw.

The purpose of this flexion is to have a signal when riding which will ask the horse to remain light in hand (not lean on the bit), and to raise the neck which will shift its weight to the hind legs.

The second part of the second flexion is the lowering of the horse's neck, known as neck extension. It is important to teach your horse when he lowers his head he should also take his nose forward, so in neck extensions the nose is always in front of the vertical.

Third flexion: lateral bending

Lateral bending is asking your horse to take his head right and left. When bending the horse to the right, stand on the horse's left side. Place your left index finger in the left ring of the bit, the right rein is placed over the horse's neck close to the withers. Hold this rein between the thumb and the index finger of your right hand. When you ask for the flexion with precision, have a light contact on both reins or if you find it hard in the beginning to control both reins you can loosen the right rein.

Prepare your horse for the actual bending by having the horse stand with a raised head as if he was looking out over an open field (second flexion) and also mobilising the mouth (first flexion). Now ask for the bending by gently pushing your horse's head to the right with your left hand. If your horse is resistant to bending his neck, most of the time, the horse will also have his jaws locked. If this happens just ask for the first flexion until the horse again mobilises the jaw. If you press too hard with you left hand or ask for too much bend (more than 90 degrees) you might cause the horse to move his feet. The goal is to have the horse bend his neck 90 degrees while standing still and gently mobilising the jaw.

When your horse has bent his neck, is standing still with the ears at more or less the same height and he is calmly mobilising the jaw, you should reward your horse by releasing the bit and taking a step back. Let your horse decide when he wants to straighten his neck. If he stays bent for a moment after you release the bit it is a good sign of suppleness.

Forth flexion: flexion of the poll

It is important that you first have flexion of the jaw (the first flexion) and the second flexion (neck extensions) well established before you ask for the flexion of the poll otherwise you risk your horse taking his nose behind the vertical. The first (flexion of the jaw) and the third flexions (lateral bending) is the preparation for flexion of the poll.

Differentiate between local and systemic effect

When you ask your horse to either bend or do a full flexion, all you want is a local effect on the horse's neck. When you apply a direct or indirect rein you want a systemic effect on the whole horse that affects the horse's balance. With a well schooled horse you can ask for either a local or a systemic effect, or a combination of the both. In practical riding this means you can bend the horse either in the direction of motion or away from the direction of motion, or bend the horse and continue on a straight line, or ask for shoulder in or half pass, renvers or travers.

I hope this will help you understand the practical benefits of flexions for refined riding. 


Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for checking my spelling and grammar! All other errors are my own.

The rein-back – To do or not to do?

When chatting with a friend at my local Swedish barn who competes in dressage, she said that the one movement that seem to cause the most difficulty is the rein back. She was talking about horses that in dressage tests perform lateral work in all gaits, counter canter and changes of lead in the canter. The rider of these horse apparently never or seldom know if their horses will rein back at all during a competition, or in what way.

I was very surprised to hear this and offered my opinion that the rein back is a more basic movement than either later work, counter canter or flying changes of lead. She agreed. After pondering this for a while I came to the conclusion that these riders likely don't practice reining-back very often. I've been told by various trainers that rein-back for the horse is a very difficult and demanding exercise and that horses perceive of it as a punishment so therefore it should not be performed too often.

But is it so? Horse's can back perfectly well all by themselves when they decide they need it, so why shouldn't I ask for it?

Mental aspect

In Natural Horsemanship, backing a horse is sometimes described as a way to inform the horse, in a way the horse could understand, that I want to be the leader. Leadership between horses, and also between human handler and horses are determined through movement and territorial dominance. So when you have you horse back away from you, and in so yielding the territory he/she just stood on to you, you have in fact informed the horse you are the leader again today. As I see it, first and foremost there seem to be a mental aspect to backing the horse: establishing leadership and communication with the horse.

When mounted

When reading Reflections on equestrian art by Nuno Oliveira I found this statement about rein back: “The practices of rein back is useful for certain horses who push against the bit and who weigh heavily against the hand.” Here I can only agree, rein back when mounted is an excellent tool for controlling the horse's balance. In this regard rein-back is not just mentally affecting your horse, but it is also a good overall gymnastic exercise if done correctly, and with this I mean there should be no pulling on the reins from either you or your horse.

How to

Official theory would like us to use our legs to push the horse forward, then letting the hand convert the forward energy into a backward movement. To use the legs and the hand in this way, is as far as I'm concerned not a good idea. Most likely the only thing you will achieve is to teach your horse that your legs doesn’t really mean go forward.

Another theory for the cues for rein back is to use only the hand. One argument for this is that “In terms of balance and locomotion, forwards movement and the rein-back are diametrically opposed. Common sense therefore means that the aids that ask for them must be strictly opposite” (Philippe Karl Twisted truths of modern dressage). As I already mentioned, this does not mean you should pull your horse backwards with the reins, but instead use a circular lifting action of the hand (the classical half halt as described by de la Gueriniere in School of horsemanship) to rebalance you horse so that he moves backwards.

In my experience rein back, both from the ground and when mounted, is a very useful exercise that I practise with all horses I handle, and that I teach all my students. It is not a exercises you need to, or should wait to ask of your horse until he/she can do flying lead changes a tempi. 

Classical riding

Last week I took Yeats with me to the first clinic of this year in ”Ecole de Légèreté”. 

The first day I showed that all his foundation is still there after the very long winter break:

1. Yeats is calm, attentive and can focus on the task at hand
2. Yeats is light in the hand and to the legs
3. Yeats is giving his mouth
4. Flexions a) high, b) to the right and to the left, c) neck extension d) of the poll

Lightness to the hand

Being light to the hand means the horse neither leans on the bit, nor withdraws from the contact. This lightness should be present when the horse is in a high position, in neck extension, in a lateral flexion or flexing the poll.

Lightness to the legs

Lightness to the legs means the horse is responding with forward motion from a very light touch from the leg. Think “draught of the boot”. Lightness to the legs also means the horse continues with whatever gait and tempo I have asked for on his own without constant use of my legs.

Specially for Yeats

Since Yeats has a long back and since his croup is higher than his withers, neck extension is important for him. He should be comfortable in neck extension in all gaits as well as in upward transitions and changes of direction. “Important” in this case does not mean I only ride in neck extension. I also raise the neck with or without flexion of the poll, but I should always be able to ask Yeats to return to neck extension at any moment.

Priorities

One new exercise for me and Yeats was a 10 m volte in canter with an outside bend. This exercise was difficult for Yeats so I had to really ask for it. Since my small hand and weight aids were not enough to convince him to do a 10 m volte I had to be clearer by opening the left rein wider and tapping with the whip on the right shoulder. Yeats responded nicely, but in order to be able to do the smaller volte he raised his head and neck so he could use the wonderful balancing pole that the neck and head is. This is of course perfectly fine. I will continue to allow him to raise his neck until he is strong enough and coordinated enough so he doesn't have to use the neck and head to stay on the 10 m volte in canter. At this point I can ask him to stay round in the neck with flexion of the jaw and the poll.

Yielding of the jaw

Yeats is yielding the jaw, i.e. he is moving the lower jaw now and then. He could do this more often, so this is one of the things I should improve upon. If you have ever felt the difference between riding a horse with a soft, yielding jaw and one that does not have it you know why it is so important. Suppleness and lightness to the hand start with the yielding of the jaw!

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for checking my spelling and grammar! All other errors are my own.

The least amount of wrong, or as much right as possible?

I've done it again, I've upset the apple-cart, I talked about the rider's hand. And, as usual, I was told that I should not ride with the hand but with my seat, and that the seat is a much more important aid then the hand. I can agree for two reasons:

1. The schooled horse can be ridden with only the seat and not need the hand. The question is, how to school a horse so it can become finished? And an even more interesting question is, how to school a poorly conformed horse to a high degree of collection and suppleness? What is “a schooled horse” anyway?
2. The hand impacts the horse through the bit on very sensitive body parts, the bars and the tongue. If the hand is used badly it can damage the horse both physically and/or mentally. Therefore, only a rider with a good seat can use the hand to school a horse. Making a mistake with your seat doesn’t have nearly the same negative impact on the horse as a mistake made with the hand.

The least amount of wrong

The widespread idea in modern riding that the hand should be kept low and still in every situation originated in the early 19^th century when the cavalry needed a model for the quick education of soldiers. The hand low and fixed in all situations is the “average least bad” option. Such a hand will neither make motion easier for the horse nor school the horse, but at least the horse knows where the hand is and can adjust to this constant problem. This way of using the hand was never intended to be used to school horses, its purpose was to educate riders quickly to a low but, for the cavalry, acceptable standard of riding. The officers in the cavalry received a longer and much more extensive training including a more effective, refined technique for using the hand, suitable for schooling horses.

When writing this blog, teaching or giving lectures, I always strive to pinpoint why I see something as better or not. Just to say that something is “bad” or “good” without offering an explanation is not helpful for myself or the reader, student or listeners. By expressing in words, a mental readiness is created in our minds. This is the reason I stubbornly continue to talk about the hand and its affect on the horse.

In my way of thinking, the idea of low hands that should remain low no matter what the horse does is a way of riding where the rider strives to do the least amount of wrong. In certain circumstances this is all we can strive for. But if my aspiration is to do as much right as possible, then I need to try to understand how to use the hand to school the horse.

The most amount of right

In the Swedish translation of The Principles of Riding (Complete Riding & Driving System) (2003) you can read as follows:

”The rider has to be aware that man by nature always uses his hand to facilitate or prevent all kind of results. In riding you instead have to strive to give more and more refined signals with the hand as the weight and leg aids work better and better.” (page 73, my translation).

I agree. The hand can be used to facilitate or prevent all kinds of results. Maria has explained why in a previous blog entry: ”Thehand has access to a large part of the brain's motor and sensorycapabilities.”

The way I understand The Principles of Riding, the hand can only be used less when the weight and legs function “better”. As I see it the interesting question then is to ask what makes the weight and legs aids work, and also what makes them work better? In my experience the horse is thought to carry itself in such a balance by the proper use of the hand so that the weight and leg aids can work. The hand is the primary aid for schooling the horse. Not the weight or the legs.

To do the most amount of right with the hand is not the same thing as keeping it low no matter what the horse does. To do the most amount of right means that you are aware of the quality of the contact with the horse's mouth through the reins all the time. The contact with the horse's mouth is good when I have the weight of the rein in my hands, no more, and through the rein I can feel the gentle play of the horse's mouth as the horse softly mobilises his tongue and lower jaw in a relaxed way. These sensations are best transmitted through smooth leather reins. No special reins with “good grip” should ever be used.

Maria continues in her blog entry: “It [the hand] has all the potential in the world to be receptive, sensitive, subtle and well-coordinated, all we as riders need to do is to train it.” To educate the hand is to create in oneself a mental readiness to perceive the quality of the touch in the rein. One way of creating this mental readiness is to talk about a subject, to seek words that can describe what our hands can feel.

To have the horse light in hand is the beginning and end of all horse training. That is the core of the concept of the hand as the primary aid. Seeing the hand as the primary aid means you school the horse to respond to the bit neither by leaning nor pushing on it, and above all the horse should not fear the bit.

To see the hand as the primary aid means the rider has to be schooled 1) to follow the horse's mouth without interfering, in all gaits, 2) to refine the control of the movement of his own fingers, hand and arms in order to be able to give signals to the horse 3) to influence the horse's balance and posture through the position of the horse's neck and head.

A well schooled horse carries itself in such a balance that it can maintain a light contact with the bit in all gaits. Such a horse can be ridden with the use of the seat by a well schooled rider as long as the horse remains light in the hand.

The father of classical equitation, François Robichon de la Guérinière (,1688-1751), wrote in his book “Ecole de Cavalerie” that: “The hand ought always to begin the effect, the legs to accompany it: for it is a general principle in all the paces, as well natural as artificial, that the head and shoulders of the horse must go first ”.

What do you choose? To do the least amount of wrong, or as much right as possible?

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for checking my spelling and grammar! All other errors are my own.

Leg yield and shoulder in, part 2: the aids

The way I see it, the aids are the same for leg yield and shoulder in. In both movements the horse goes sideways with more or less angle, and with more or less pronounced flexion of the neck (see my previous post).

Order of priorities
When you teach your horse a new movement, or for that matter, when you introduce a new exercise to a rider you should follow this order:
1) The horse must be light in the hand (free to place its head and neck any way it wants), the rider must not hang or pull on the reins
2) The horse puts his feet more or less where you want (you have influence over the horse's balance), the rider can control the placement of the horse's feet
3) The horse, through the yielding of the jaw and relaxation of the poll and neck, lets its head fall into a more or less vertical position (the horse is in the form), the rider does know how to ask the horse for this yielding of the jaw and relaxation of the poll and neck

The hand is the primary aid
What I mean by the statement “the hand is the primary aid” is that the attention to the quality (ie lightness) in the contact between the rider´s hand and the horse´s mouth is always the top priority. It comes before everything else. To see the hand as the primary aid does not mean that I try to force the horse around with large uncoordinated gestures. Not at all, quite the opposite. To see the hand as the primary aid is to acknowledge that lightness between my hand and the horse's mouth is the main indication of the movement's quality in general.

I have previously written about how to educate the horse´s mouth and also how to influence the horse´s balance by the use of the hand.

The legs
Since the word “leg” is present in “leg yield”, it is of course easy to assume leg aids are necessary to perform the movement. Since only the angle in which the horse is travelling seems to differ between leg yield and shoulder in, the same could be true for the latter movement.

You can of course use your leg to ask the horse to move sideways. If you do, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
1) when you use both legs at the same time, it is a signal to the horse to move forwards
2) a single leg tells the horse that it will move sideways and not forwards
3) when using your legs, either together for forwards movement, or to move the horse to the side, the horse should not lean or push on the bit

A single leg can be used to ask the horse to move sideways. Spontaneously, I think most of us imagine that an increase in pressure from one leg will cause the horse to move away from that leg. This is one way to train the horse. But how much pressure is needed? A horse can feel a fly crawling on its skin, so the answer must be "not very much". Instead of focusing on increasing the pressure in the leg that is on the horse, you might be better off easing the pressure with the leg that the horse should move towards. If you pay close attention, you can feel the horse's barrel lifting your knee up in one sequence of the horse´s foot fall when stepping sideways. You can very easily lighten the contact of you leg against the horse´s side by aiding in the lifting of your knee at this very moment. Do not hold your leg up, but let it sink when the horse's barrel sinks and then lift it again in time with the horse's movements. If the horse does not perceive or understand your cue, stimulate the horse gently using a whip on the opposite side. And, of course, pay attention that your horse does not start to lean or push against the bit.

The weight
If you want to help your horse by using your weight, you want to place your weight in the direction of motion. This means that in a right shoulder in on a straight line where the horse moves to the left, your weight should also be placed to the left. Using your weight as an aid is done by extremely subtle means and it is easy to do too much.

Do nothing
Remember, when the horse does what you asked for, it is your job to do nothing, ie to be the best, non-interfering passenger you can be to your horse.

Thank You
Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for checking my spelling and grammar! All other errors are my own.

Combing the reins

”it is easy for the reader to see that a horse that is obedient to the hand is one who follow all of its movements and that the movements of the hand through the reins cause the bit to act in the horse's mouth.”

This is a quote by de la Guérinière. It is from chapter 7 in his School of Horsemanship where de la Guérinière discusses the rider's hand as the primary aid.

For the horse to follow the rider's hand, the horse can not fear the bit nor withdraw from it. The horse must, as the popular saying goes, seek the bit. Now, the perfectly schooled horse should never lean on the bit, resist a small lifting action of the rider's hands, nor hesitate to follow the bit forward, down and out. The horse should follow the bit both up, to the left, to the right as well as down.

Some horses do however withdraw from the connection with the rider's hand, which may cause the horse to either go behind the bit, or nervously throw it's head up. In both cases I have had great success with a technique called “combing the reins”. This technique teaches the horse that the rider's hand is nothing to fear. It is quite easy to do but hard to explain so Maria volunteered to demonstrate it on her three year old gelding Amaretto. If you look closely you can see that Maria is currently introducing Amaretto to the mysteries of being a riding horse using a bitless bridle but the technique is just the same weather you are using a bit or not. Look at Maria's hands, she is gently combing the reins with relaxed fingers and when Amaretto stretches forward, down and out with his nose, head and neck she lets the reins slide through her fingers.



For this technique to work you need to have plain leather reins. You should take care not to grab hold of the reins no matter what the horse does with its head (unless the horse takes off, of course!). Start out in standing still like on the video, and progress to walk. For some horses this work is best introduced when walking back to the barn after a nice ride out doors. Since most horses have a tendency to walk energetically towards home, it is usually easier to have them take contact with the bit and the rider's hand in this situation. Praise your horse when he does what you want, and take care he doesn’t start pulling the reins out of your hands! Too much of any one thing is not necessarily better.

Travers, renvers and half pass but mostly travers

Travers is the English term for when a horse moves sideways and look in the direction of travel. More precisely travers is one of three different terms for this. In Sweden we like to keep it simple and call all sideways movement where the horse looks in the direction of travel for “sluta” regardless of where in the arena the horse performs this or if it is on a straight or curved line. Not so in English. A “sluta” either by the wall or on a curved line where the horse have the head to the wall or to the outside of the circle is called a travers. A “sluta” either by the wall or on a curved line where the horse have the tail to the wall or to the outside of the circle is called renver. And a “sluta” on any diagonal line is called a half pass. Since the videos below show me riding travers (head to the wall and the horse looking in the direction of travel) I will from here on in this particular blog entry just say travers.

The short summary of the perfect aids for the perfect travers are: none! When the horse is executing the task it has been asked to do my job as the rider is to be the best, non-disturbing passenger I can be.

The hand is the primary aid according to the father of classical equitation de la Gueriniere and the unquestionable minimum requirement for the relationship between the rider's hand and the horse´s mouth is that neither the rider or the horse is pulling or leaning on the bit. The contact have to consistent of only the weight of the rein.

There is also a whole bunch of cool stuff about how to balance the horse with the reins (see for instance the blog entry about the figure of 8 and inside vs outside rein) but I will not go into that in any more detail here in regard to travers becasue this blog entry would turn into a smaller book then. You can not see how I balance the horse with the use of my reins in the video but believe me when I say I do.

I will however mention something about the seat and the weight as an aid since I touch upon this in my comments. In all sideways movement, if I choose to use my weight as an aid it should always be in the direction of travel. So in the video where I ride right travers I strive to have my weight to the right, and the other way around, in left travers I strive to have the weight to the left.

Right travers means the horse's right shoulder are on the inside of the bend, and the horse is also traveling to the right. And of course it is the other way around for left travers. Here is a simple drawing of a horse seen from above in right travers with little horsy ears and little horsy feet:




To make it so much more interesting, all horses are from birth crooked either to the right or to the left which causes the horse to easier perform either right or left travers.

Below are two short videos with me riding my horse Hagens Yeats (a 14 year old Connemara gelding) in right and left travers. I've also added my comments for you to read.

Right travers



So what am I doing with my head? I've forgot to lift my chin and let my breast bone come up. I also have just to short reins. If I remember correctly I was busy enjoying my talented, focused and supple pony:). The just to short reins cause my elbows to be in front of my torso instead of hanging relaxed from my shoulders. The inner leg is slightly forward as it should and dangles more or less relaxed with the movements of my horse. Almost half way through the video I raise my inside hand. I do this in order to ask Yeats to keep the round outline of his neck. It dosen't really show but Yeats should have given his mouth, softening in the jaw and lifting the bite with his tongue in response to the presence in the corner of his lip. As a result of this soft mobility he also softened in the neck which restored his relaxed and round neck. At the end of the movie Yeats responds perfectly when I give with the hand and he is stretching his neck forward and his nose down and out in what in the School of lightness is called ”neck extension.

Left travers



Here I would like to tell myself to sit over more to the left in order to be more with the movement instead of behind it. My upper arms falls relaxed straight down so that my elbows are resting lightly against the sides of my torso. The careful observer can see that the right leg is slightly drawn back (the heel is a bit more lifted than on the right side) and that the leg is more quiet than the left, this leg is the positional leg, ie the leg that the horse moves away from, not because I press with it but because the horse feel its presence more since I've limited the movements in my knee. The left leg, on the other hand, is swinging freely with the horse's movement and enables the horse to move freely move sideways to the left.

Inside or outside rein?

I remember from my time as a child at the local riding school here in Sweden that I was told to use the outside rein to get the horse back on the track by the wall. This never worked very well for me. Normally the horse would just turn his head to the outside and walk further away from the wall.

Many years later I met Craig Stevens, a master rider who turned many of my ideas about riding upside down. He told me to use a so-called indirect rein on the horse's inside to bring the horse back to the track. It worked much better!

Why does the inside rein work so much better? For my part, it was not just about which rein I used, it was also the way I used the rein. In my days as a beginner rider, I probably pulled a lot on the rein. Nor had I mastered the skill of timing my signals to the horse's balance, weight distribution and biomechanics. Now I can do that it makes a big difference. So when I once again received the instruction to use the outside rein from Bea Borelle to return the horse to the track, it worked splendidly.

The reasons I could not get it to work when I was an inexperienced rider were two fold: 1) I was pulling backwards, and 2) I could not coordinate the use of my two hands. When Craig asked me to use only the inside rein and ignore the outside rein, I had the opportunity to develop the feel of when and how I should influence my horse. Without this practice I would not have managed the task of coordinating my hands.

In addition, today I can choose to do it either way, depending on the situation and what kind of horse I'm riding. And that is not a bad thing!

The indirect rein on the inside will get the horse back on the track by the wall by shifting the horse's weight to the outside rear leg. This will unload the forehand and make it easy for the horse to move the forehand back to the track. When you use the inside indirect rein, the horse might also bend to the inside. The horse can do this since he is no longer leaning on the inside shoulder. A horse cannot bend to the inside and "lean" to the inside at the same time.

However, most horses often have one side which they don't bend so easily.

On this side it is not at all certain that the horse responds to the indirect rein with bending. The horse can still move away from the indirect rein, but it is quite possible that the horse won't bend towards the indirect rein as well.

In this case, you may need to coordinate the reins. You bend the horse by turning the inside hand and then raising it. You can then shorten the rein and lower the hand and the horse should remain bent without you having to take the hand backwards.

In short, the hand that bends the horse dose not move sideways or horizontally, only vertically. The hand that influences the balance, and thus where the horse is going, is moved horizontally (direct or indirect rein). When I have set the bend and the horse accepts the bend, that is he is not pulling on the reins, then I can choose to use a direct rein on the outside, or an indirect rein on the inside, to keep my horse on a straight line. But if my horse for some reason do not accept the bend, then I need to use the inside hand to ask for the bend by turning the wrist and maybe even raising the hand, in combination with the outside direct rein to ask the horse to remain on the track. With this division of use of the inner and outer hand, and between effects (hand sideways affects balance, hand used vertically to set the bend) it becomes easy to bend the horse either to the inside or the outside and to follow a straight or curved line.

Try it!

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading! All remaining errors are my own.

Notes from lessons with Craig Stevens, part 2

You can read part 1 of my notes from lessons with Craig Stevens here.

The horse should use his muscles to perform a movement, not his weight. Resistance of weight means the horse's legs are not underneath him. The horse “leans” in one direction. Resistance of force means the horse is tightening his muscles.

Turning by the use of weight



The horse puts weight on the inside shoulder (here the right shoulder) and its head to the outside. The horse turns by “falling”, that is the horse is running to catch up with its own weight.

The horse is out of balance and has a hard time controlling the speed in the turn.

This is not desirable.


Turning by the use of muscles



The horse uses the outside diagonal (here left front and right hind leg) for carrying his own and the rider's weight. The inside front leg is relatively lighter than in the case above, which makes canter departs easier.

This is desirable.

All correct and easily executed movements by the horse are proof of balance. Balance means the horse is using his muscles, not displacement of his weight, to initiate movements.

First give the horse the position and balance it needs for a movement, then let the horse execute the movement without disturbing him.

Precision in timing
Use a direct rein when the front hoof on the same side is on the way down or on the ground. Use an indirect rein when the front hoof on the same side is off the ground.

Attention
If you lose the horse's attention, tap with the whip.

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading! All remaining errors are my own.

Elevation of the horse's neck

There have been several comments made about my Swedish version of the blog entry about ”LDR”. Thank you to all of you who took the time to send me your opinions. This blog is based on my thoughts in response to these comments.

One comment was “I believe caution should be exercised with all extremes, even the one I have seen you [student's of Philippe Karl] perform when you ask the horse to stretch its neck to the extreme in the other direction! That is not natural for the horse either!” (My translation).

First, before I address the philosophy behind the training technique of elevating the horse's neck, I would like to argue that if something I do is considered ”extreme” or ”unnatural”, that in itself is not an argument for other extreme methods of training, like rollkur. These are separate ways of training and should be discussed and analysed separately.

Perception is subjective
We can try to use conclusions from scientific studies to determine what is right or wrong in terms of how to ride, and how horses perceive our requests. But in the end it's still a subjective assessment that affects both the scientific results and my personal decisions in my everyday life . I have previously written about "directed perception" here on the blog.

”Directed perception” means that I see that what I expect to see. It also means that I interpret what I see according to a previously established pattern. The challenge with directed perception is to try to understand, to see, my own patterns of directed perception. What I want to do in this blog is to explore why I am OK with raising my horse's head. I have already talked about why I do not think it is OK to place the horse in the rollkur so I will not spend more time on that subject here.

What I personally think is OK to ask for from my horse is to a great extent based on my gut feeling. I think I ask more of my horse when I ask him to go into the trailer (he has been very afraid of the trailer. Even if, after much work, he is OK with it now, he is OK but still stressed) just because I want to travel to a Philippe Karl clinic, than when I ask him to raise his head for balance and gymnastic purposes.

Why raise the horse's head
Why do I raise the horse's neck and head? It's all about balance. A horse that carries its head and neck at the height of the withers, has 60% of its body weight on the front legs. In order to transfer part of this weight to the hind legs, the head and neck have to be raised.

The order for educating the horse according to Philippe Karl
The order for educating the horse according to Philippe Karl is 1) mobilise the jaw, 2) raise the neck, if that is what that particular horse needs. Depending on the individual's conformation and use of self when moving, the individual horse might need to raise or lower the neck in the beginning of his/her education. All horses must ultimately be able to both raise the neck (for collection, for example piaffe) and lower the neck (eg in order to increase stride length but move slowly) according to the the requirement for balance as required for a particular movement, 3) bend the neck to the right and left in high and low positions, 4) flexion of the poll which means the horse drops his/her nose, but retains a high neck. This way of educating the horse in how to relate to the bit is called flexion.

In order not to put pressure on the horse's tongue – the most sensitive part of the horse's mouth, the rider has always to act on the corners of the horse's mouth. This means the rider has to raise the hands when the horse's head is high. Also the hand should never act backwards.


A picture says more than a thousand words
Since I included a film clip showing rollkur in my last post, I wanted to include a film clip of flexion here. After some searching on the internet I found this clip on Youtube with a short sequence of flexions at a lesson with Mr. Karl.




Why so high?
How high the individual horse can or should raise the head and neck is due to how the horse carries himself and his rider. If the horse puts pressure on the bit (either due to resistance of weight or resistance of force) the horse has to raise the head and neck in order to be light in hand and to be in balance and self-carriage.

I say "must" here since it is all about the influence of gravity on the horse's body (a body on four legs with a front lever arm, the neck, that affects the weighttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifht distribution between the front and the hind legs). I wrote earlier that everything is subjective, but the gravitational pull on the horse's body is not subjective, it can be measured objectively.

The effect on the horse of the elevation of the head and neck
In my experience this way of training will make the horse light in hand because he/she balances him/herself better, bearing more weight on the hind legs with good use of self which will allow suppleness. This will in turn result in the development of all its gaits, including the walk. This is why I am OK with this training method.

What is your reaction to the video clip showing a rider learning the high flexions?

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading! All remaining errors are all my own.

The rider's hand the primary aid?

I have previously written about the rider's hand as the primary aid in classical riding. Here I have quoted the master horseman de la Guérinière .

But is the hand the primary aid? Is not my mind the primary aid to communicate with my horse? Riding and handling horses works so much better when I'm present in the moment and use visualisation to present myself to my horse. Body language, and my seat when I'm sitting on my horse, are also very useful tools.

But there are two prerequisites needed for the horse to be able to respond to light and subtle aids from my seat when I ride.

1) I need the horse's attention.
2) The horse needs to be in self-carriage

I have time and again witnessed riders who claim they don't ride with the hand. They say they use their seat to communicate with the horse instead. Interestingly enough, these riders very often also use either cranked nose bands pulled tight so the horse cannot open its mouth when the rider pulls, or they use sharp curb bits. If the hand is not the primary aid, why do they use a bridle at all?

There are of course some who ride their horses without anything on their heads, for instance Pignon from France. I saw him in a performance in Sweden a few years ago. Very impressive.

What I find really interesting is that he trains all his horses with bridle and saddle. But always with the goal of removing them. According to Pignon, the most difficult piece of equipment to remove is the bridle.

So what is so special about the bit, bridle and the horse's mouth and head?

First of all, the horse's head is attached to its neck. Obviously. But think about this for a minute. The horse's neck is like a rudder, or a balancing pole. By influencing the horse’s neck I can control the horse even when I don't have its attention. This is why western riders use what they call a “one-rein-stop”, or if I elevate the neck I cause the horse to stop.

This is my first argument for why the hand is the primary aid.

That the hand is the primary aid does not mean that the horse or the rider should hang on to or pull on the other. The contact between the rider's hand and the horse's mouth should be only the weight of the rein, that is approximately 400 g.

My other argument for why the hand is the primary aid is that the bit placed in the horse's mouth will give the educated rider a very effective tool to influence the horse's posture. I don't think this can be replaced with either body language or visualisation.

According to Philippe Karl the hand is a very important part of classical riding:

”Anthropologists accept that during his evolution, man had developed his brain in synergy with the morphological evolution of his hand (all of this related to standing upright). Without this intelligent hand he would not have invented, written, drawn, painted, sculpted, produced music... or developed equestrian art. Any training approach that only gives the hand a subordinate role will be forced to use coercive and vulgar solutions. It becomes sidetracked and leads to cultural regression.” (Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage, 2008, page 73)

What do you think?

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading!

Resistance of force and weight

This week I want to write about something that I perceive is a central idea in French classical riding: how force and mass affect the horse's movement and co-operation with me as a rider.

All movements, both in horses and humans, is controlled either by muscular force or the impact of gravity on our bodies, or more likely a combination of both.

When you lose your balance it is suddenly gravity that determines how you move. Movements like this that are initiated and controlled by your weight (and not your muscles) are more or less out of your control. This also applies to horses. There are two clear examples of occasions when the horse allows its weight to control its movement.

One is the racehorse. When the racehorse is going at full speed (and it is insanely fast! I have tried at the local race track) she uses her weight to obtain and maintain momentum. You could say that she throws her weight forward and run to catch it again. So no matter how tired the horse is when passing the finish line, she has first to gain control over her own weight and then she can stop, which might be half a lap later.

The second example is the young or uneducated horse that puts her head to the outside when she turns. When the horse does this, she "loses" her weight in the direction of motion. When turning she will have to run after her own weight, she is out of balance.

When the horse's movement is under a strong influence of her body weight, the movement is thus to a great extent uncontrolled by the horse herself. Looking at movement in this way, it becomes logical to train the horse not to use her weight to bring about movement. A horse that uses her weight to move is often heavy in your hand and you have a hard time controlling speed and direction. What you as a rider need to do is get the horse not to hang on the bit. For this reason you apply the proper half halt where you raise your hand so that when you lower your hand, the horse is rebalanced and is light in hand.

A horse that rebalances herself in this way raises the neck and head, and by doing so transfers more of her weight to her hind legs.

The horse moving mainly due to muscular force is therefore what we strive for. But to not make the challenge of riding too easy horses can also use their muscles in a way that does not make it easy for us to ride. A horse can tense its muscles and, for instance, not bend to the right when you ask her to. The horse can have tense muscles due to stress. Tense muscles may also be because the horse has the habit of moving with tense muscles when riding. For example, if you use your hand backwards to give signals to the horse, the horse will most likely tense in order to protect herself.

What can you do if the horse is calm but still has tension in her muscles? You can lightly vibrate the reins to make the horse yield the jaw, or train the horse to taste the bit as if it were a piece of sugar when you take light contact with the bit. This is what I wrote about last week and what the French call "cession de mâchoir".

These thoughts, to define in what ways the horse can make it difficult for the rider to have a precise influence on its posture is called "resistance of weight" and "resistance of force" in English.

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading! Any remaining mistakes are all my own.

Exercise - something we do or just allow?

Our body is made to move, so it is not surprising that exercise has become almost sacred in our part of the world, where so much time is spent sitting. Not so long ago, everyday life was filled with intense physical work, and Sunday was the sacred day of rest and contemplation.

Movement is manifested through our muscles, they consist of three groups of fibres: red, white and mixed (pink) muscle fibres. In short, red fibres performes the ongoing work to keep us upright. The white is quick, swift as that move when we, with precision, sweep away a wasp on the arm.

Muscles are affected by exercise, running slow and for a long time affects the red fibres and strength exercises builds up the white. Weight lifting fairly quickly increased muscle strength in response to exercise. In studies, scientists have seen an effect known as SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands). This means that people get better on the specific training they perform but the effect on other activities is small. It may be that the strength is associated with a set of particular machines in a gym, change machines or gym and you feel weak!

Fitness training focused on strength increases the amount of white fibres at the expense of the resilient red, increased strength leads to reduced endurance. It is therefore a fit person can still find it cumbersome and tiring to sit at the computer.

The force that trains us more than any other is gravity, you stand and you train! Balance is a measure of how well we deal with gravity. A good posture and gravity strengthens our red fibrous postural muscles, we become stronger and more capable to keep our balance.

Once you know how to place yourself with regard to the vertical line when in the saddle, you no longer keep your balance through the reins, or squeeze with your legs. You can rest in your red muscle fibres and allow the whites to act quickly and with precision when required. That increases the possibility that it will be riding with quality!

The horse's mouth: Cession de mâchoire

In my experience there are a few concepts that are central to classical riding which I have so far to encounter in other contexts. These are:
*) the made mouth of the horse
*) resistance of weight and resistance of force
*) the rider's hand as the primary aid
*) the counted walk
*) using the whip to calm and direct the horse's focus
*) the difference between the rider's leg when it allows movement and when it moves the horse sideways

What we choose to talk about is very important for our perception of the outside world. How we interpret what we see and feel is largely controlled by the language we use. The world around us is so complex that we literally do not see everything that surrounds us. Our brains are filters that sort and select the impressions for us. This filter is affected by the language and concepts that we use. The language gives us a mental readiness to interpret what we see, or in other words to see something as something.

For instance Maria, with her training as an Alexander Technique teacher, will not just see that the rider is on the horse, but will instantly “see” the rider's posture and use of self. I, on the other hand, with my training as an instructor will at a first glance ”see” how the rider is communicating with the horse. My father, who is not used to horses, might ”see” that the horse looks nice in general, or completely miss the horse and see the tractor instead.

Therefore the language and concepts we use direct our perception of the world around us.

In this post I want to write about a French expression, ”cession de mâchoire”, which in English literally translates to "yielding of the jaw". The French expression has a very specific meaning, namely that the horse gently moves his tongue, for example by lifting the bit, tasting the bit as if it were a piece of sugar, and then also gently moves the lower jaw.

When the horse is allowed to use her tongue and her lower jaw in this way it means she relaxes not only the tongue and the muscles in the lower jaw, but also the muscles of the lower part of the neck and chest. Herein lies the key for the rider to position the horse's neck easily: raising, lowering, right and left. So no more tightened noseband! At least two fingers between the noseband and nose, if you are at all in need of a noseband that is.

A horse that is light in hand in this way can be said to have ”a made mouth” which also includes how the horse is relating to the bit and the riders hand with the rest of her body.

Does your horse have a made mouth? Is she playing with the bit using her tongue?

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading!

The figure eight

In my last blog I wrote about the characteristics of a schooled horse:
1) calm
2) attentive
3) educated mouth
4) suppleness

Here is a deceitfully simple exercise that will school the two first items on the list above if done correctly. I've learned this exercise from Craig Stevens, a master in classical dressage.


Calm and attentive
Calmness and attentiveness go hand in hand. If the horse is not calm you will most likely not have its attention either. So if your horse is stressed, anxious or just full of energy and has its focus on everything other than you, here is what you can do: ride a figure of eight. Depending on the horse I ride this either on two 20-meter circles or on two 10 meter circles. By repeating the figure of eight over and over a stressed or anxious horse will become calm since the repetition in itself becomes familiar and almost hypnotic. By using a light touch on one rein you draw your horse's attention to this one aid which in itself will help the horse to stay focused, instead of trying to listen to five aids at the same time.





This exercise is therefore done using one rein. The goal is to have a big loop in the other rein so that you know for sure that your horse is listening to the rein that you are using. Use your common sense, if your horse is far from calm, focus on turning using only the direct rein since the direct rein will always work (if your horse takes off you can always turn using a not-so-light touch on the inside rein. This is what Western riders call a “one rein stop”). You can then let the circle control your horse's speed. The indirect rein is a trained aid. For it to work you'll need your horse's attention.

Direct rein
A direct rein is when you move your hand away from the horse's body. More precisely, you make a small action with your hand away from the horse. Your horse will shift weight to the front leg of the same side and thus turn to that side. As soon as your horse start to shift its weight and turn you cease the signal. If you continue, your horse will either do exactly as you say, that is turn more, or start ignoring you, that is not turn at all. It is the pauses between your signals that will make the horse attentive to you.

In the picture I've started with going to the right (1). If our right direct rein was too strong and thus made the horse turn too much, you'll have to compensate and use an indirect rein to get back on track.

Indirect rein
When you reach the point where the two circles meet you steer the horse onto the new circle using an indirect rein, still using only the right rein (2). Remember to cease the signal as soon as your horse stops turning so that your horse doesn't turn too tightly or, worse, start to ignore you.

An indirect rein is a movement towards the horse's neck. More precisely it's a small action towards the neck (never crossing over it). This will cause the horse to shift some of its weight to the diagonal rear leg and so the horse will start turning away from the rein.

If you've done too much you'll have to use a direct rein to get your horse back on track. If your horse starts going straight you'll have to make an indirect rein to keep the horse turning. If the horse is following the circle you concentrate on being the most agreeable passenger you can by not interfering (3). When you again reach the point where the two circles meet you direct your horse back on the first circle using a direct rein.

When you and your horse can do this on the right rein, you of course do the same on the left. When you train your horse you are really training two half horses. A straight horse is a horse that can use both its halves in an equal manner.

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading!

Only one aid at the time?

What aid or aids do you use to ask your horse to turn to the right?

Do you use five aids simultaneously? Perhaps you put your weight to the inside, open the right rein, bend your horse around your inner leg as the same time as you with your inner leg activates the horses inner hind leg, with the outside rein you allow the bend but are ready to resist if the bend gets to much plus use it to keep the outside shoulder in place, and use your outside leg to make sure the haunches are kept in place. Oh, and don't forget to look in the direction you are going!

Or do you open the inside rein and that is it?

Do you really need five aids at the same time?

I don't think so. If the one aid is not working, why should more aids work better? Horses are not stupid animals, but at the same time not intelligent like humans (I have so far not meet a horse that have written a book about riding, although they seem to have read them all!). Compared to humans horses have a different kind of intelligence, and the simplest way to communicate with the horse is to use one signal at the time. If the horse understand, he will perform the task you ask of him.

To use one aid at the time is not only the simplest way to communicate with the horse, but also a flash of genius regarding the education of the rider. To develop equestrian tact, you have to find the quiet place where you don't give aids to the horse but listen to the answerer from the horse. If the horse don't turn to the right you know what aid didn't work. The one you used. You then have the opportunity to train the horse to that one aid.

When I have established aids to ask the horse to turn to the right (one aid to ask the horse to perform the turn with the weight on the forehand, and one aid to ask the horse to perform the turn with the weight on the haunches), turn left (also here two separate aids), move his weight to the rear, and one aid to ask for forward movement, then I have the language I need to train my horse to do whatever I can dream about.

When you use five aids at the time, you also make the assumption that you as the rider know better than the horse himself how he needs to use his body. When you use one aid at the time you open up for the horse to use his body as he needs to.

Who do you think have best body control and awareness? You or your horse?

ISES 2010: "directed perception"

As Maria wrote last week, we both attended the International Society for Equine Science Conference (ISES) at the beginning of August. Sadly I'll have to agree with Maria about the impressions from the day at Strömsholm.

Some of the research presented was however very interesting. I will share with you the studies I found most interesting, but that will be for later. Now I will do something completely out of character for a Swede and first share with you the result of my study.

In my role as a master student in didactics, I had submitted an abstract and after review and approval from a scientific committee, I was invited to give an 10 min talk. The title of my abstract was “Learning to ride a horse – A study of concepts and thought styles in three textbooks from three centuries”.

I have read three books:
1)”School of Horsemanship” by F. R. De la Guérinière written in French 1733, translated to Swedish in 1828.
2)“Ridskolan eller ridläran” (“The riding school or the principles of riding”) by A. Ehrengranat (1836)
3)“The Principles of Riding (Complete Riding & Driving System)” by Miesner et al. Swedish translation from German in 2003.

In these books I've identified the concepts used for describing how to teach a beginner rider. I've seen these concepts as the result of the common thought style. A thought style can be explained as “directed perception”. What this mean is that we, you and I, don't see things simply by looking. We need a mental readiness to notice objects and processes. What this means in practical terms is that whatever your teacher talks about, this is what you will learn to notice. From that point of view, I've analysed the way that the teaching of the beginner rider was described in these three books.

Teaching a novice rider includes teaching the seat, the aids and equestrian tact. All these areas were included in all three books. No surprise there. What is interesting is how concepts used in these areas where explained.

In the 18th and 19th century literature, the focus for the seat is the position of the upper body. The placement of the rider's legs are said to be the result of correct posture and position of the upper body. In the 20th century literature the starting point is the placement of the rider’s legs.

Regarding the aids, the 18th and 19th century literature emphasises the rider's hand and states that this is the primary aid. The reason for this is that in all gaits the horse's head and shoulder come first. In the 20th century literature it is stressed that all aids should act together. The driving aids, here defined as the legs and the seat, are seen as more important than the hand. One reason for this is, according to the authors, that it is the nature of man to use the hands for all different kinds of purpose. Therefore the rider should focus on using the legs and seat instead

The most hands-on explanation of equestrian tact is presented in the 19th century literature. Here it is stressed that it is the rider's ability to register how the movements of the horse affect the rider's body which is the foundation for equestrian tact. The focus here is on the rider paying attention to what goes on in his or her own body,

In the 20th century textbook equestrian tact is described as “The ability to give aids at the right moment and with the correct interplay between the legs, seat and hands”. Here the focus is on the rider giving aids.

In the 19th century textbook it is said that the rider cannot receive information from the horse and give aids at the same time. I think this is the core difference between these two different thought styles. As a rider, are you foremost concerned with registration of movement (the movements in your body as a result of the movement from the horse), or on giving aids to the horse (using your own body to create impressions on the horse's body)?

My abstract is included in the conference proceedings (page 36), which you'll find it here >>