Part 5: The Magic of the Outside Rein
Now we have control of the horse – legs, seat and hands. The time has come to make use of it. We want to do exercises to supple and strengthen the horse.
We will leave the horse long while we do these exercises. As the horse gets stronger, he will, in due course, offer the jaw to us, and go ‘on the bit’. The horse’s spine is stiff by nature, therefore bending the spine is difficult However with consistent training the horse can be made to be supple.
With each exercise we must always ask ourselves: “What am I going to achieve?” Exercises must be executed properly otherwise they do not improve the horse at all and are of no value. To build some logic in the exercises we must each time establish the goal – the finished product .
In our first exercise – the circle – the goal is that the horse is bent according to the arc of the circle.
Straight and True:
A horse is straight when his hind and front legs are behind one another in one line. The horse is true when he is bent according to the arc of the circle. We are able to draw a line through the horse and the outside legs are on the outside of this line and the inside legs on the inside.
The rider must try to make the horse bend according to the arc of the circle. The stiff horse will usually swing the quarters out. This can be seen from the ground; the inside hindleg crosses in front of the outside hindleg. How the rider feels this on horseback will be discussed later in this article.
It speaks for itself the arc of the 20 metre circle is more shallow than the arc of a 10 metre circle or the corner (this is a quarter circle). Let’s discuss the progression of the way we ride the circles from the beginning of the training of the horse or rider, to the more advanced horse and rider.
Most riders, without access to proper instruction, turn the horse like a bicycle on a circle. They pull on the inside rein and push the outside rein forward. Some even push the inside rein over the withers to the other side. Although the horse is often looking in the direction of the turn, his body is going the other way. He pushes over the shoulder away from the direction the rider wants to go. This often happens if the rider wants to turn away from a group of horses but finishes amongst them. This all happens because these riders have not discovered:
The magic of the outside rein.
To turn the horse correctly we must adhere to this Golden Rule: Our hands must always be level. The hands must never be behind one another. Our contact will also be even. Turning the horse must go as follows: Let us say that we want to turn right With the hands level, we take the right ‘inside’ hand away from the central position to the right. This in turn will take the head and neck a little to the right. The horse will follow his nose and turn with such a simple request. Our hands are level, therefore the left (outside) rein becomes a little too short as it were, and becomes firmer on neck and starts to push.
Now there are two reins saying the same thing. The left rein firmly on the neck will have a limiting effect: It prevents the horse drifting to the left over the shoulder The opening of the rein while maintaining contact with the outside with even hands can always be reverted to when the rider is in trouble. The nice part about this way of training is that there is no force involved. It is a pleasant request and the horse will have complete willingness to obey.
All horses have a good side and a bad side. No one seems to know the reason but the majority of horses are more supple to the left and stiff to the right. Some experts seem to think this is because of the way the foal lies in the mare’s womb. The fact is that we cannot let this stiffness remain. When we ride the circles, we encounter problems both ways.
Let’s assume our horse is stiff to the right. Although we are using the right technique the horse will fall to the centre of the circle. It does not work because the horse does not want to bend the body to the right and support himself with his inside (right) hindleg. We overcome this problem by making little facets. Make a little turn, then a straight line, another little turn again… and so on.
When we make many little turns, we don’t give the horse the opportunity to overbalance and fall to the centre. After a while the horse will become more supple and stronger, and we can continue on the circle.
To the left is a difficult problem, the horse wants to overbend (make a bend in his neck). He is bending his neck but not his body. This causes him to drift to the outside over the right shoulder. Now we must put the limiting effect of the outside rein into effect. The rider must close the outside elbow into the body and push his outside (right) hand towards the centre of the horse. The rider may also make half halts with the outside rein. He makes little squeezes with his right hand as the right front leg goes forwards and stops when the desired result is achieved. This is a simple way of riding our circles.
The novice rider should start this simple exercise and progress from here. Just to keep an even contact left and right is not as simple as it sounds! As the rider progresses he will have to use all the tools he has available. Reins, legs and seat. Let’s analyse what effect each of these have on the performance of the horse.
Reins:
We have already discovered that by using two reins we have become more efficient. We looked at the outside rein as a limiting rein, but it can also push the horse sideways. Anything that gets pushed won’t slow down. Now we look how it is possible to ride a circle without the use of the inside rein; but mainly on the ‘pushing- power’ of the outside rein. Close the outside elbow onto the body, keep the hands low as we want to push the horse’s body over. With a low hand the rein has an effect on the shoulder. We don’t worry if the horse does not look in the direction of the turn yet, but mostly they do even though we are not asking anything with the inside rein.
Legs:
A stiff horse does not want to bend his spine. He will swing the quarters out and doesn’t want to place his inside hindleg under his centre of gravity. To prevent the horse from swinging the hindquarters out the rider must place his outside leg a little behind the girth. The inside leg must not slide forward. It must stay at the girth. At the girth means that the rider’s lower leg and heels are under his seatbones and head. His legs are placed in the centre of the horse which is some 20 cms behind the position of the girth of the saddle. Confusing, isn’t it?
I prefer to say; the inside leg is in the centre of the horse. The inside leg is at that point so the horse can bend around it, and it is ‘there’ that the rider’s leg supports the inside hindleg of the horse. The inside hindleg of the horse must be activated to make him step more forward and therefore it encourages him to take his hip forward. When the horse swings the quarters out a lot, the rider must be active with his outside leg (behind the girth) and tap the horse quite firmly in the rhythm of the outside hindleg of the horse. The inside leg must not be forgotten however, otherwise the horse will make a circle with his quarters in. The rider must play the firmness or the massaging effect of his legs at each moment.
Seat:
When the rider sits correctly the horse will position himself under him correctly. Once more we look at our goal: The horse must be bent according to the arc of the circle from his tail to the poll If the horse is bending correctly we will be able to draw a line throughout his hips and shoulders and they will converge in the centre of the circle.
The inside hip of the horse is forward and the inside shoulder is back. Our body must follow the body of the horse! Our inside hip should be forward. If we sit correctly the horse will try to find harmony with us. He will also take his inside hip forward. When the rider puts his inside hip forward correctly he will increase the weight on his inside seatbone. This increased weight, another seat aid, will also encourage the inside leg to step more under and take the hip forward.
The rider’s shoulders must follow the shoulders of the horse. The rider does that when he looks in the direction of the turn, no more is needed. By looking he will know if he is going in the right direction but, it will also place him correctly in the saddle. This again, will make the task of turning easier. The activity of our legs in their correct position, our weight distribution, the position of our hips and looking in the right direction (which has an effect on our shoulders), the pushing effect of the outside rein, all helps to tum the horse.
You may have noticed that I started at the back and worked forward. This is how you should ride a circle:
From Behind Forwards.
It is time now that we come to think of the inside rein. We don’t need it anymore for steering except when we are in trouble. We use the inside rein for flexion.
Flexion is bend at the poll, whereas bend is throughout the body. Flexion makes the horse look in the direction of the movement. When on a curved track the horse must always be flexed and bent onto the circle. Flexion we achieve with the inside rein. Bend we achieve with the outside rein, leg position and their activity, and the correct seat. To achieve flexion we raise our inside hand a little while keeping the inside rein against the neck.
The inside rein must stay on the neck otherwise a sideways curl may develop in the neck. The horse must not place his head too much to the side or he loses balance. Flexion and bend throughout the horse is what we seek to achieve, not a break in the base of the neck. A horse with difficulty accepting the bend will make it difficult for us to stay in the correct position. He will push our outside hand, our outside hip and shoulder forward. We are, as it were, twisting off the horse. The rider must in this case correct his position every two strides.
Remember, if the rider sits correctly, the horse must work correctly. He can’t do it wrong!
Without force we are making the horse work correctly. The magic of the outside rein is its limiting and pushing effect.
In the trot, being a diagonal pace, the activity of the inside leg will connect with the outside front leg and this energy will flow into the outside rein. (The same will happen in the canter). It can be appreciated that if the outside rein is too allowing the horse will push himself onto a larger circle. By resisting this outward push with a limiting rein, the horse will go on a curved track. When we ride the horse from behind forward he will always be true, and we truly start to ride the horse.
Have a nice ride.
More articles in this series here: