It takes two to pull - Developing sensitive rein contact
By Joni Bentley
Your horse can’t talk. The only way he can communicate with you is through his behaviour.
A horse who’s not accepting the bit – a horse who is unyielding at the poll and stiff through the jaw – is a horse who doesn’t trust his rider.
To counteract this resistance, many riders try to teach the horse to drop the poll and bring the head behind the vertical in order to make the horse go “round” and “give its back.” A popular technique to make resistant horses flex at the poll is to crank them in with a low restraining hand. If that doesn’t work, many people try one of the many poll-flexing gadgets. And when all else fails, you can always use a dropped noseband!
Please – don’t!
Not only doesn’t it work very well, but when the bit acts strongly on the tongue – which is a hypersensitive organ – the horse naturally defends against the pain in his mouth. Cranking a horse in with a dropped noseband or a poll-flexing aid artificially covers up problems – and often creates new problems. When a horse is defending against the pain in his mouth, he’ll start putting his tongue over the bit or out to the side.
If your horse is defending in the mouth, it’s an invitation to you to hear what he’s saying. His mouth mirrors his state of mind and body. Horses don’t lie, and your horse doesn’t spend his nights dreaming up new ways to annoy you. He just reacts to what’s happening to him – to how you feel, to the aids you give him, and to the ways you respond to him in your partnership.
This is your opportunity to become a better, more sensitive rider. How aware are you of what’s happening while you’re handling the reins and the bit? How straight is your seat? And how clear is your mind?
Philippe Karl, one of the best riders today, shakes up people’s belief systems in his ground-breaking book Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage. I spoke with him recently about how he holds the reins – which is similar to my “sensitive contact” approach, as you can see in the photo. He told me, “It makes sense to hold the reins in this way because you have more sensitive control over the reins when you put a bigger distance between them.”
And as Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, world-renowned trainer and equine veterinarian, said to me, “We need to go back to the training basics: rhythm, suppleness, soft hands that offer the bit to the horse so he takes the contact. There’s no rule saying you have to pull hard on his mouth and stiffen your horse’s back so he can hit himself in the chin with his knee! The more you pull, the more you lose the back, the more you lose the hind legs.”
As he points out, the horse’s head, neck, and back create the core structure of the horse’s movement – which can be graceful, supple, and harmonious, or disconnected, awkward, and painful.
The horse in the next 2 photos was given to us as a broken-down 9-year-old show jumper. The vet had advised his owner not to ride him because he was a wobbler and liable to fall.
To me, he looked incredibly one-sided and discoordinated. His rider and I worked with him to correct the one-sidedness, almost immediately improving his coordination and eliminating the wobbling. He’s now 22, ridden regularly, and going strong.
THE BENEFITS OF SCHOOLING NATURALLY
What better way to start schooling your horse than by taking care of his mouth with sensitive rein contact?
Sensitive rein contact allows you to ...
• Feel your horse’s mouth and understand what he’s trying to communicate to you
• Improve your hand position
• Feel when your horse is offering to stretch his head and neck out of his shoulders
• Sit up straight, with a graceful, secure seat.
How sensitive are your hands?
• Do you know where your hands are whilst riding? Are they horizontally level, or do you hold one higher than the other?
• What are your middle, ring, and little fingers doing as you hold and operate the reins?
• Is the pressure between your index finger and thumb more than on your ring finger, middle finger, little finger?
• Is the tension equal between your left and right palms?
• What are your shoulders and elbows doing? Are they level, even, and soft – or tight, raised, and uncomfortable?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you’ve missed out on what should have been your first riding lesson!
LEARNING HOW
In this photo, Emma demonstrates sensitive rein contact.
Holding the reins in this way whilst you’re learning gives you much more control and better contact. Once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be able to hold the reins conventionally with the same sensitivity.
Or if you want to ride classical in a double like Philippe Karl, you’ll be well prepared!
Here are a few more games to help you improve the sensitivity of your rein contact.
Level hands
Put your riding whip across your wrists as you ride. This gives you a visual guide to tell if your hands are level. You’ll be surprised at how often the whip tilts, especially around corners!
Cosy elbows
Hold sponge balls between your elbows and your sides to keep your elbows from straying. Make sure you always keep the reins long enough to allow the horse the full length of his neck.
As you get a more sensitive contact and the horse starts to seek the bit, you can take up the slack in the rein. See photos above.
Schooling Naturally is now available on a DVD home-study course.
This programme is very thorough and very simple to understand.
It starts with 2 DVDs packed full of clearly-demonstrated, easy-to-follow exercises for you and your horse.
The first DVD shows how you can straighten and re-align yourself.
The second DVD illustrates mounted work you’ll use to bring yourself and your horse into alignment together.
You can buy the DVD home study course with or without a one-on-one consultation with me. Assessments are based on a videotape of you and your horse (I’ll let you know what I need to see), we’ll talk on Skype or by phone. You get a personal assessment of your specific challenges and how to customise the exercises to get the results you want.
When you understand more about your own and your horse’s crookedness, you’ll also understand the effect of the crookedness the two of you have together.
Then you’ll know how to blend and harmonize with each other in a true partnership.
For more details go to my website www.jonibentley.co.uk
Or Tel 07771 811561
Up and coming workshops.
18th September Brinsbury College North Heath Pulborough, West Sussex RH20 1DL
1st October Horsemans Evening event Scunthorpe.
2nd October Training day to be help at Normanby Riding School, Scunthorpe.
9th October Willow Farm Hanslett's Lane, Ospringe, Faversham, ME13
16th 17th October 2 day workshop Duchy College Rosewarne, Camborne Cornwall TR14 0AB
23rd October Cotswold Riding for the Disabled Prestbury Park Racecourse Prestbury Cheltenham GL50 4SH
30th October Writtle College Chelmsford Essex CM1 3RR
All tickets MUST be purchased in advance. Places are limited and go quickly. Here is the price list:
Dismounted workshop (limited to 10) £57.50 - Mounted (limited to 6 riders) £85 - Watch for the day £35.
