Riding the back of your horse.
Volume 1
When we begin riding, we as humans often think of steering as we do riding a bicycle. Turn the front wheel in the direction of travel and pedal. Soon we find out that in order to achieve our objectives in the discipline of dressage we must change our way of thinking , primarily because taking the rein and pulling it so your horse’s head points in the direction of desired travel is not really an effective way of maneuvering our mounts. Horses don’t necessarily follow their noses. Eventually, we figure out that change of direction has something to do with our weight distribution and the horse picking up on that.
As well, it is a very common expression “your horse’s hindquarters are his engine”, and while this is very true, it is also true that we are asking our horse to move his center of gravity gradually back towards them and thereby carry more weight. Why? Because this also gradually allows the shoulder to be elevated which makes it increasingly easier for your horse to perform the collected and lateral movements. In fact, without this shift, these movements really can’t be performed.
So, while we now have a basic understanding of this intellectually, how is it we come about understanding how to use our bodies more effectively to achieve the above? Well, we learn to listen and influence with our seat. The sooner the better.
Exercise 1: Steer with your seat. (not your hands OR your legs!)
Sit in the saddle, with a long rein (to insure your horse is relaxed in the back) at a halt. Make sure you are weighted evenly in both seat bones and ask your horse to move forward at a walk. As you are walking, gradually increase the weight in your right seat bone by turning your shoulders to the right while lengthening your right leg into the stirrup (be careful not to lean to the right). If your horse is truly relaxed over his back he should turn to the right to some degree, typically the degree to which you turn your shoulders. If he responded appropriately, straighten your shoulders, weight your seat bones evenly and repeat going to the left.
Challenge: Perform the exercise with contact getting the same degree of response.
A simple exercise, however the degree and immediacy of your horse’s response will tell you how effective you are in using your seat laterally and how relaxed and sensitive your horse is to your seat.
Exercise 2: Find your horse’s hind legs
Here is an exercise in finding, using and influencing your horse’s “engine”.
Sit evenly in the saddle, with a long rein at the halt. Ask your horse to walk forward while keeping even weight in your seat bones and hips relaxed. Follow the movement that your horse gives you. You should find this pattern: Forward to the right, back, forward to the left, back. Continue just following that movement until you feel that you and your horse are completely in sync. Can you tell which hind leg is coming forward and when? I’ll give you a hint; as you are moved to the left, it is the right hind leg coming forward and visa versa. Now, emphasize the movement by following bigger (not tense). Your horse should respond by taking a bigger step. To decrease the length of his stride (without creating tension in his back) decrease the amount of movement (but don’t stop following!).
Again, the challenge is to perform this exercise to the same degree of responsiveness with contact. This ironically is a HUGE challenge. Why? Because it is human instinct to stop moving and tighten our hips when we take up the reins, effectively asking our horses to stop moving and tighten theirs as well. And yes, this is also a “simple” exercise, but until you learn to feel your horse’s hind legs at the walk you simply will not be able to do so at the trot or canter. If you cannot feel, you cannot influence.
PS: I only received one response regarding last week’s blog! I decided to move on……..
JW
August 26, 2008
The leg yield. What is it and why do we do it?
I have been asking this question for some time. Here in the US you will notice it is in our first level dressage tests. In the rest of the world, it doesn’t exist, at least as a movement in any dressage test…
What it is.
A “lateral” movement, performed at the trot (or walk) in which the body of the horse is straight however the poll is flexed counter to the direction of movement. (Yikes! Who came up with THAT?)
The name of it, leg yield, would indicate that the objective of the exercise is to teach your horse to move away from pressure from your leg. My objection to this is that we do not necessarily want our horses to move away from our leg. We DO want our horses to respect our leg as a boundary, and this can only be done with passive resistance on our part to be truly effective, because any tension in your lower leg is going to create tension all the way up into your seat. My other objection to this is that in every other lateral movement we are teaching the horse to bend his entire body, and follow (not move away from) our seat. Think shoulder in and half pass…..there should be no pushing involved, only leading on the rider’s part.
I have also heard that this is an exercise to improve the horse’s suppleness. That may be true, and if the theory of how the exercise is implemented were sound, I would suggest that it be introduced and ridden at or before training level. As much as it is an exercise to supple, it also places the horse somewhat on the forehand (oops!) the opposite of what we are trying to achieve ultimately.
Traditionally in Europe the first lateral movement introduced is shoulder fore, which leads to shoulder in. So then why, right before we are teaching our horse to do shoulder in (actually if you are showing at first level, you should already be well into schooling second) would we ask our horse to perform a movement which is counter to the balance and understanding of the aids we will be asking of him soon?
I say, let’s skip the leg yield altogether and start the way the rest of the world does.
JW