“Proper steady contact is more important than the stretch. If it changes every stride you cannot even call it a contact.”
“You are giving before you even have a contact. It has to be measurable – that’s why it’s called contact. When he moves the head around it is because he is not on the aids. Place the bit and let the horse come onto it. If you’re giving too much you’re not placing it. Drive him onto the bit and let your hand wait. Low hands, no fiddling, no helping out. Drive. No flexing. You’re doing too much. Put the bit in one place and make sure he’s dealing with it from behind.”
“Before you worry about long and deep and flexion, you have to have steady contact. Before that you cannot even use your aids.”
“Steer him like a boat with the rudder in the back, not from the front like a steering wheel in a car…”
Stefan had his pupil riding with one hand, and it worked! “That is contact. Keep the hand in the middle of the wither. Don’t try and help him. Let him deal with things. Let him muddle around a bit.”
“You can interfere as much as you want with the leg, but not with the rein. The rein should be boring. The hands should be constant on either side of the neck so the neck can stabilise. The leg should tighten the rein. Work on the leg producing contact. That’s the whole point of it; riding from behind to the bit. The hand is just the counterpart to the leg. It doesn’t produce anything.”
***Note – Stefan is not the only trainer to use one-handed riding to give his pupils the feeling they want, pics are from other Clinics…
