Rein in hand

In early October, I attended a lecture by Kerstin Kemlén on the topic bit and bit related problems.

Kerstin has for over three years been involved in intense email exchange with Dr. Cook, an American veterinarian and professor emeritus, who has devoted much of his professional life to studying horses and their mouth and throat health and its connection to bit.

According to Dr. Cook, there are 47 problems that can be scientifically verified to be connected to the use of bit. A part from the physical damage that bits can cause in the mouth; damages on the bars, ulceration of the mucous membranes and deformation of the teeth, there are a number of behaviors that can be associated with bits and with a scale from immobilised to flight. Kerstin has the full list, if you want to know more contact her.

During the lecture, with an audience coming from both the riding and the harnessed horse world, those who wanted to try Kerstin home made reintaking gadget were urged to do so. The picture shows the principle of the gadget (lackning round rod, I had to use my son's wooden Winchester replica). The spring balance is attached to the rod together with the rein.

Anyone who wanted to test the pressure on the reins took the reins and tried to establish the contact they usually had while riding or driving. Kerstin was reading the pressure on the spring balance and kept the value to herself. Then she got the rider/driver stand between the reins and put the bit on forearms and lean on the bit until Kerstin said they reached their previous pressure. (The picture was taken by my 4-year-old assistant, so he has time to get better at sharpness ...)

Putting the bit on the forearm is as close as we can get to the horses bars in on our body, the bones have only a thin layer of skin over them, just as the bars themselves only have a thin mucosa over the thin and sharp edge.

Those who dared to try the gadget in front of the group had a range in pressure from 15 kg to 600 g.

She who held her mighty strong horse with 15 kg in the reins found it difficult to lean into the bit with the equivalent weight because of the pain she felt in her arms.
This is perhaps not an exact scientific method, but it gave palpable knowledge to each rider and groom! Please read a previous post on the blog about pressure on the bit.

I want to remind you of the importance of avoiding bringing your hands backwards when you hold the reins in riding or driving (more difficult to completely avoid in the latter case) and if you do have to take your hands backward REMEMBER to ease off!

More hands

The hands theme continues. A rider's hands are expected to have many qualities, it should be soft, sensitive, quiet, offering horse support and much more.

Many of these qualities, can be impoved off the saddle and in third posting I'd like to give you some ideas of how you can train your perception of and in your hands. The basic idea of the Alexander Technique is that anything you are unaware of, you can not improve, and awareness is aided by the ability to percieve.

By taking a few moments each day to pay attention to what your hands are doing and how they do will refine your perception.

Take time to notice how what you are holding in your hand feels; its weight, texture, temperature. When you let your hands stroke the horse, notice how the hair, muscles underneath the skin feels and you try to register any temperature difference on the surface.

A good opportunity to exercise, that many of us have every day (and I am at right now), is when our fingers and hands move across a keyboard. How hard do your fingers press on the keys? Or when you hold a pencil, how hard do you have to hold it to write?

Become an explorer in yourself, experiment! If you can do something with a certain force, try to do it with half as much power next time. Be easier in that you do!

Take the time to rest your hand against your thigh when the opportunity arises. Avoid pressing down on the thigh, just rest your hand, that in itself encourages relaxation and is a very soft stretch of the hand muscles.

The Hand

Welcome to a "the day after" blog. Yesterday I came home at 7:00 am after a driving the entire night from Svärdsjö in Dalarna. Together with three other northeners, I have been on a five day hoof clinic with KC LaPierre and it gave lot of new input to be processed. I slept all day...

Today's post will be about our front hoof - the hand. Our hand plays a big role in our daily dialogue with the horse. We inspect the horse with our hands, we stroke it, it holds the brushes we use when grooming, it lifts the horse's legs, it holds the reins and much, much more.

I would like to hand out some tips on how we can improve our use of the hands to make the dialogue with the horse more nuanced. The hand, which I described earlier in the post The hand is dominating, occupies a large part of the brain's sensory and motoric centers. It has an amazing ability to develop fine tuned skills and sensitivity. All we need is to engage in deliberate practice.

These are three experiments for you to play with
1, Take a straw from the horse's tail or mane, put it under a page in the telephone directory. Look out in the room and let your finger cross out the page and feel hair through the paper. Add on another page, feel again. Add on another page, and another. Do this until you no longer think you can feel the hair. Then touch lightly, lightly over the paper. Can you perceive the hair?

2, Develop touch

Take an ordinary A5 envelope and hold it between your thumb and other fingers. Let the fingers "pads" rest on the envelope. Does the envelope bend? How much do you need to hold to keep to the envelope between your fingers? Can you walk with the envelope still between your fingers? Once you find a light touch you can try to replace the envelope with a paper folder, it is a bit heavier but keep your efforts as light as possible to hold the folder between the fingers.

3, Tip touch

Let the envelope rest on your fingertips, with all fingers in contact with the envelope. It can feel like it tightens in the hand. Breathe and let your fingers find their way up towards the envelope. Inhibition, to say no to any attempt to force your fingers into contact with the envelope. Direction, to know that you want your fingertips to have contact with the envelope.

Good luck!

The work on the wooden horse

Welcome to the blog autumn 2012. As Lena wrote last week, she will spend the fall writing her essay, and when it is ready, she will become an even better teacher out on riding arenas. At my home, summer vacation is over and "regular routines" have started to find their form. It is both sad and a relief at the same time! With that said, I turn to today's post - work on the wooden horse.

An important part of Alexander Technique training for riders is the work in the saddle on a wooden horse. Originally the  procedure was developed in the 60's to help an AT teacher who had had a hip injury and wanted to resume riding. In order to prepare the body, muscles and hip joints, to sit in the saddle again the saddle was placed on a specially built "wooden horse".

As a rider, there is plenty of information to retrieve from a lesson on the wooden horse. The saddle is one contact point between horse and rider. The seat of the saddle should fit the rider. If the rider is hurting while in the saddle that affects the riding negatively! Since the wooden horse stands still and is both level and straight, there is more for the rider to learn about his/her seat; is the rider crooked, rotated, skewed, leaning forward or backward. All that is possible to explore in peace and quiet on the wooden horse. 

As I lift a leg, rotate the femur in the hip joint rider gets a feeling of how "well" the body works and how if it differs in the quality of mobility and movement between left and right leg - and it often does!

It is also possible to ride the wooden horse! A rider can, for example, give the aids for reing back, and I can see if the horse back straight up, or if the rider somehow gets twisted when giving aids and thus get the horse to move off to one side as it is backing up. The rider can give the aids for canter, shoulder in, haunches out, turns - everything is going to educate the rider (but to do posted trot on a wooden horse is difficult...) 

Work on the wooden horse is designed to train the riders perception, ie, the ability to read what is happening in their own bodies, to become familiar with the habits that are established in the body and to get tools to consciously work to improve what might stand in the way of good riding.

On the wooden horse, I can also help the rider to develop their hand by simply working with the reins. A gentle hand is entirely dependent on a movable arm and it will be the theme for the next blog!

The autumn of 2012

Dear readers,

the summer here in Sweden is slowly turning into autumn. There will be some changes here on the blog since I'm taking a time out from writing here on the blog in order to finish my masters thesis about how to teach riding. Both me and my supervisor thinks it can be a very good thesis but I need time to write it. Maria will however continue to write every other week so stay tuned!

I would also like to take this opertuinuty to intive you all to the first Morning demonstration held by me and my fellow instructor-student of Ecole de Légèreté Sweden on September 29.

Hope you have a wonderful autumn and see you again next year!

Table of contents and reader's companion

Maria and I have been posting a blog entry every week for a over two years straight. That means that there are over 100 blog entries! This summer we have decided to take a break from writing here on the blog. Rest assured we will be back again at the end of August.

In order to give you, our devoted followers, something to read until then, I have prepared a table of contents, or if you will a reader's companion. I have grouped a selection of the existing entries into categories and suggested an order for re-reading the entries. Remember, repetition is the mother of all knowledge!

This reader's companion is also helpful to any new readers to get started with reading all the great material already collected here on this blog.

This table of contents does not include all entries. I have focused on the entries concerning the nature and biomechanics of the horse, as well as the training of the horse and the rider. 

Overall introduction

3 P: perception, position, precision

Nature of the horse: his mind and anatomy

Horse's nature and leadership

Leadership, something to strive for?

Is the horse's personality changed through training? Part 1, part 2 and part 3

Objectively measuring the welfare ofhorses

Natural crookedness

Notes from lessonswith Craig Stevens, part 2

The myth of overall bend

The horse's walk (video)

History

Classical riding

Klas Adam Ehrengranat (1751-1842)

Rider training

Training the physical body of the rider

Seat training (video)

It's all in the head

A rest to stretch

Self carriage and responsibility, part 2

Place your bones carefully

A seat that swings

The ability to follow

A connected leg. Part 1, part 2 and part 3

Inhibition

Side reins for riders. NOT a good idea

Schooling the eye and the mind of the rider

Directed perception

1949: overbent

Details are important, but whatdetails?

Training the attitude of the rider

Training to be a good leader: Six keysto harmony (video)

Leadership = emotional balance?

Horse training

Characteristics of a schooled horse

Educating the mind of the horse

Train confidenceand independence

Self carriage andresponsibility, part 1

The figure of eight

Educating the body of the horse

The walk – the mother of all gaits

Training chart School of Légèreté

Flexions

The horse's mouth: cession de mâchoir (yielding the jaw)

A made mouth

Resistance of force and weight

Combing the reins (video)

Perception of the position of thehorse's neck – too high, too low, or just right?

Elevation of the horse's neck (video)

Neck extension

The rein back

The counted walk

The shoulder in (videos)

Shoulder in VS. leg yield: definition (videos)

Travers, renvers and half pass (video)

Improve canter departs

Miscellaneous

Scientific comparison of methods for training

LDR, necessary gymnastics orunnecessary abuse?

Classical riding, how to

Notes from lessonswith Craig Stevens, part 1

Only one aid atthe time?

The rider´s handthe primary aid?

The hand isdominating

The least amountof wrong or as much right as possible?

How to use thehand

The hand is theprimary aid, the reversed half halt

Curb or no curb?

Inside or outsiderein?

Leg yield andshoulder in: the aids

One example: Hagens Yeats

Hagens Yeats 2008-2011 (video)

Example of practical lesson inclassical riding

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading!

New entry next week

Dear readers, some nasty germs have taken residens in Maria's throat this week and made her very sick and in need of antibiotics, plenty of sleep and fluids. This means there is no blog this week.