As my body changes due to my Multiple Sclerosis I often loose the "feel" in my hands.  I usually don't pick up on it immediately since everything feels normal to me, but the horses do!  First the horses try to adapt, raising their heads a little, just enough to turn the steady contact into intermittent contact.  Often this is enough to make everyone happy for a while, but if my hands deteriorate further the horses get more emphatic, either refusing to move into contact altogether, or by starting to toss their heads when I give a hand aid, or by curling up and dropping the bit.  Then I switch to a milder bit (Mullen mouth or Wellep) and the horses pick up contact again.  If my hands deteriorate too much more I switch to bitless, it isn't the horses' faults that my hands get bad and I want to keep their mouths light and responsive (by not using the bit) until my hands get better.  I ride Forward Seat, and the prime tenet of establishing contact for FS is that the horse, in response to the driving aids (legs), voluntarily reaches out and establishes contact.  When the horse is in contact my hands belong to the horse's mouth, the horse decides the where it wants its head, and the horse decides how much contact it wants.

 

The past few years I have gotten the impression from the horses that when they are telling me that my hands are getting worse that they think that the way I use my hands is RUDE.  Rude, impolite, inconsiderate and disrespectful.  The horses get quite peeved with my rudeness.  Here they are, expecting good riding whenever I mount, with skilled use of my hands and all of a sudden my hands change and I am no longer using my hands up to their exacting standards.  This year Mia got through to me exactly HOW she thought my hands were being rude.  As I thought about what the Mia was telling me about my hands, it occured to me that horses had been telling me these things all the years I've been riding, when my hands are good the horses cheerfully reach out to establish contact and promptly obey well timed aids, when the horses think my hands are being rude the evasions start.  Then I realized that most bit evasions probably come from hands that the horse thinks are rude, inconsiderate and painful.  

 

So, this is what Mia "told" me about the rudeness of my hands:

1)  Roughness.  Mia thinks my hands are too rough when I misjudge the strength of my hand aid.  When my hand aid is too strong the horses, instead of giving me a mouth flexion on the side of my hand aid, stiffen their whole mouth, lower jaw and tongue.  If I persist in giving too strong hand aids the horses either invert, start flinging their heads up, or they "dive" their heads down hoping to jerk the reins out of my hands.

2)  Abruptness.  Mia thinks my hand aids are too abrupt usually when I miss starting the hand aid at the proper point of her stride and I try to make up for it by applying the hand aid faster hoping to get it in when it can still be effective.  I am allowed ONE abrupt hand aid, if I give more than one  the horses invert and stiffen their lower jaws and tongues.  By the third one the horses are usually thoroughly pissed off at me and make sure that I know it!  All cooperation disappears and the horses start refusing any contact, often by going behind vertical.

3)  Heaviness.  Mia objects to my hands when I forget that my hands belong to my horse's mouth.  My whole arm stiffens up, shoulder, elbows, wrists and fingers in a futile attempt to coerce cooperation.  When my hands are heavy they do not move enough to keep a smooth contact when the horse moves its head at a walk or canter.  Depending on the horse it either curls up going behind vertical or it inverts, often with a gaping mouth, while refusing to stride out freely. The horses think that ANY normal contact beyond a few ounces is too heavy, this is why horses go behind the vertical when riders think that 5 pounds is the proper strength of contact.  I consider strong contact as an emergency measure, to be released promptly.  Constant strong contact numbs the horse's mouth which means the hand aids have to be even stronger.  This is how hard mouths are made. 

4)  Unyielding.  The horses I ride think that if they are yielding promptly to my hands that I should relax my hand aid immediately after I give it so that they can obey my aid in comfort.  If I keep my fingers stiff and my hand back after giving the hand aid the horse is effectively punished for trying to obey my hand, running into harsh, unyielding fingers.  In return the horse's lower jaw and tongue suddenly resemble a thick bar of iron, totally unyielding, and the horse becomes quite heavy on the forehand.  My unyielding hand causes an unyielding mouth and I end up feeling like I am trying to rein in a locomotive.  Horses consider unyielding hands as hard, harsh, painful, too strong, and unbearably rude. 

5)  Ill-Timed.  If I give a hand aid at the wrong moment of the stride the first one is usually ignored, but by the second one the horse starts getting irritated.  If I give a hand aid at the wrong time the horse is unable to obey it promptly because its legs, head, and back are in the wrong position for prompt obedience.  If I do not mend my ways the horses end up really resenting my hand aids because they are uncomfortable and do not make any sense.  If I am stupid enough to punish the horse for its "disobedience" either the horse gives up and becomes unresponsive to my aids or I am faced with a battle as the horse protests the injustice of my actions.

6)  Not releasing.  If I do not relax and open my fingers right after giving a hand aid I am acting against the horse's motion.  If my fingers are stiff the horse becomes unyielding, if my fingers are relaxed the horse tries to drop contact.  When I do not promptly release my aid it denies the horse reward for prompt obedience.  The strides become cramped, the horse twists into a pretzel, the mouth becomes either becomes hard or the horse tries to drop the bit, and the horse is unhappy with me.   

 

Ever since I started riding again my instructors have praised my hands because the horses obey me promptly and easily and show no signs of discomfort.  On my first independent ride since I was diagnosed with MS I amazed my teacher when her horse, normally very resistant to slowing down and halting, cheerfully stopped to "invisible" hand aids the first time I asked.  Whenever possible I ride without a noseband so that the horse is perfectly free to open its mouth whenever it thinks my hands are too harsh.  I concentrate on keeping my fingers, wrists, elbows and arms soft and yielding and on giving my hand aids at the proper time in the horse's stride.  So long as I do this the horses forgive me my hand tremors and unsteadiness and reach out confidently for contact.  Of course I am also using my legs a good bit to keep the horse reaching out to the bit, but when the horses think that my hand aids are rude it does not matter how hard I use my legs, spurs or whip, the horses absolutely refuse to give me good contact with a soft mouth.  I don't blame them since my hands are the reason for their disobedience, and until I get my hands right there is no way that the horse will give me what I want.  The horses patiently put up with my imperfections for a little while when my hands lose "feel", but after a certain point they convince me that I either have to ride on sagging reins (still giving well timed aids) or switch to riding bitless until my hands work better.  In return, when my hands start working better, the horses "tell" me it is all right to go back to the bit and working on contact and they cheerfully cooperate with my hand aids again.

 

When the horse shows its displeasure with my hands I immediately loosen my fingers and let the horse lengthen the rein as much as it wants to.  Then I work at the walk or trot on sagging reins until the horse starts reaching forward with its nose.  When the horse strides out freely again I shorten my reins, use my legs, and when the horse reaches forward to take up contact I make sure my fingers are very relaxed and that my hands follow any movements of the horse's head.  Unless my hands are really bad this usually is enough to re-establish cooperation. 

 

When my hands are good the horse's mouth is relaxed and the horse carries the bit on its relaxed tongue.  The more my fingers follow the motions of the tongue (which moves a good bit even at the trot) the more responsive the horses become to my hand aids.  And I do mean responsive, when my hands are good I can move my little finger a millimeter and I get a good response and prompt obedience.  When my hands get bad I loose this gentle connection with the horse's tongue.  As the horse inverts it slides the bit back to its molars and stiffens its tongue and if I do not back off on the pressure the horse's mouth gapes.  No cooperation is possible until I can convince the horse that it is safe to lower its head and reach out to the bit.  When the horse curls up and goes behind vertical the horse stops carrying the bit on its tongue and I would have to move my hands back to get a feel of the mouth.  Now this feel of mouth of a horse who is behind vertical is not what I consider true contact, the horse is not reaching forward with its nose to pick up contact while carrying the bit on its relaxed tongue, instead the horse is dropping the bit.  I do not care if it feels like I have contact, if the horse is behind vertical I know that the horse is trying to escape my hand. If I do not give with my hands and get the horse in front of vertical the horse ends up on its forehand, my hand aids do not work properly, and my hands lose all influence on the movement of my horse's hind legs.

 

The more I ride the more I wonder how people expect to get good results from their hand aids when the horse thinks that the aids are too rough,abrupt, heavy, unyielding, ill-timed and not releasing enough.  Horses do not appreciate rudeness any more than people do.  Horses will resist people they think are rude even more than they resist weak seats, bad balance, incoordination, and just plain sloppy riding.  When the rider's hands act with rudeness the horse loses all desire to cooperate with its rider and every motion becomes an attempt to escape the rude behavior.  

 

Please, for your horse's sake, if you ride with a bit be polite with your hands.  The rewards are beyond compare, a cheeful and cooperative horse that moves properly.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran

         

 

 

 

             

         

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