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Why the heavy hands?
When I started riding seriously 38 years ago, one of the top achievements of any serious rider was to develop SOFT & EDUCATED hands. Beginners rode with loose reins until they developed an independent seat, advanced beginners through intermediate riders concentrated on developing soft hands, and advanced riders were acknowledged for their soft, educated hands. In fact if you did not have soft, educated hands you were NEVER considered an advanced rider, and were spoken of just as a wannabe who ruined her horses. Of course you took stronger contact at high speeds to give your horse support, but you NEVER took a stronger contact than your horse consented to take of its own free will (and good training).
I have spent ALL my riding time during the past decades trying to make my hands LIGHTER and more responsive to the horse's mouth. As a result my horses all had light, good mouths and their mouths became better the longer I rode them. If my horse did not want to establish contact with me, then I rode with loose reins until the horse learned to trust my hands and established contact with my hands by their own free will. It does take patience, but then becoming a good rider has never been easy.
20 years ago I got my own land and stopped boarding, thereby missing the new developments in accepted riding principles (I do not show). When I finally got on the internet and started watching videos of ridden horses I discovered that everything has changed. People now seem to get the top placings in dressage classes who have hard, unyielding, and unforgiving hands. If I had ridden in any of my lessons with such hands I would have immediately been put back into the beginner classes until I had learned to be more considerate of my horses. If I had refused to lighten my hands I would have been thrown out of of the lessons, because the instructors all wanted to defend their horses from senseless abuse. There were high standards expected of all riders that wanted to ride hunt seat or dressage, and if you did not want to ride the best you could, you were not considered good material for becoming a top rider.
There are great rewards from riding with light hands. My horses and I regularly have "conversations" between my hands and their mouth through the reins and bit. My horses KNOW that I will not demand any stronger contact than what they willingly give me, so they willingly reach out with their mouths and establish contact. My horses can feel the lightest motion of my fingers, and they (when they so desire) respond to the lightest motions of my fingers. Most of the time (in the ring) I can stop my horses by twitching two fingers, and my fingers do not move more that 5 millimeters. This result does not come from my seat or legs, I just straighten up my body and twitch my two fingers at the right time. It took me decades to get this good, but then I am not a natural rider.
The reason I am writing this is that I am afraid that heavy hands are becoming the new ideal for advanced riding. I NEVER EXPECTED TO SEE PEOPLE WITH HEAVY AND UNFORGIVING HANDS TO WIN TOP HONORS IN DRESSAGE. Unfortunately young riders will see all these riders winning, and conclude that one must develop heavy and unforgiving hands to become a top rider. This can cause so much misery and pain to their horses. This can also hide the fact THAT THEIR HORSES ARE NOT THAT WELL TRAINED ANYWAY. If a horse is well trained you do not have to force the horse behind the bit to have control, if a horse is well trained you should be able to control the horse with the lightest of signals no matter how the horse is carrying its head. And as I was taught some 40 years ago, if your horse does not respond to light indications of the bit, that horse is not a highly trained dressage horse.
Heavy and unforgiving hands ruin horses. Heavy and unforgiving hands make really BAD riders. For the sake of your horses, please lighten up. Your reward will be beyond all measure, a horse that enjoys being ridden by you who obeys promptly and cheerfully.
Have a good ride.
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Comment
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Comment by Suzanne Wild on May 22, 2009 at 10:16am
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I am pleased to hear your support on this issue Jackie - I sometimes think I think things in a vaccuum...
My previous Horse Inca, a true Irish Draft show Cob, came to me with her tack - basically her bridle was a double bridle with a pelham complete with curb chain - she allegedly was a strong horse and needed this amount of control. I was a total novice at the time having come back to riding at 39 after a 25 year break, but she was sensible and big enough to carry me (I am the original Fuller Filly after all!) After a couple of months i began to question the bit, firstly, I couldn't fathom the damn thing as it was a contrived device designed to baffle novices, and secondly, I couldn't stop her anyway!
In a moment of true horse insight I decided to try a jointed snaffle on her as it seemed, the harder I pulled, the faster she got - she was running throught the bit. What do you know? It worked a treat and she Became far more maliable and open to my riding technique such as it was.
I don't doubt that in expert hands the double bridle and excessive bit worked a treat but for me, the snaffle was king and I soon lost the uneccessary extra reins too!
I made a similar discovery this week but not on a bitting or hands issue however, I would like to share!
Alfie is a plod - he is the antithesis of Inca! But he is gorgeous and cuddly and kind and i love him however; if he ain't in the mood to trot riding can be hard work! I don't use a whip apart from to clobber cars that get too close but found something called a 'swish' - imagine 12" of horse tail on a whip handle. I'm guessing it reminds him of his mother and how she used to move him around becuase one swish of the tail and he goes like a rocket...well, let's say he goes...so much kinder and perfectly natural - he understood what it meant immediately.
don't try to train your horse - let him train you; observe and absorbe and try out different things thinking always "what is the least I can get away with" and you won't go far wrong!
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Comment by Jackie Cochran on May 22, 2009 at 9:26am
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Thanks for the comment.
You are so right about the effect of the bit. I have spent a lot of time riding on loose reins while finding exactly the right bit, trying one bit after another. I am beginning to think that it is not so much the right bit for the horse's mouth (except for size) as the right bit for the rider's hands. Personally I get much better response using a Dr. Bristol snaffle, and this has carried through on as many horses as I can find a properly sized bit. Put properly on the bridle, this bit seems to cushion the effects of my ever constant tremor, however if I put it on upside down on the bridle, the horses totally refuse to take contact.
And I must say that it is so nice that I can still count on the British for good horsemanship!
Give your horse a kiss from me, please. He sounds absolutely wonderful.
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Hello Ladies!
here in the UK I am glad to say that 'light contact' is still the goal; when I got my daft lump of a horse, Alfie my Instrucotr told me that "for a Cob he has a good soft mouth - don't ruin it!" Over the years this has come to mean more and more to me and I have adjusted a natural urge to hang on (thanks to 7 lessons on the lunge without either reins or stirrups - great for developing an independant seat!) to a point where I don't need reins at all to either steer or stop.
I seem to attract teenagers and my young friend Lauren , who rides a 'hack' type pony was inspecting my Clydesdale x Alfie all tacked up; "how on earth do you stop him in that?" she gasped looking at his cambridge snaffle (also called a magic snaffle). I stopped and thought for a while and answered honestly that I could stop him in a headcollar (which I can, I just say "whoa" and stiffen my seat).
There is a point here - 'light contact' is a combination of the bit and the hands - you can have light hands but if the horse is resisting a particular bit type you are wasting your time; if we could all get down to snaffle and 'giving hands' our horses would all be a lot happier!
Of course, I am blessed with the daftest, kindest lump of a Cob ever known to man...part nature, part nuture...100% my prince!
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Comment by Nora Robinson on May 21, 2009 at 11:20am
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Yes, they are sensitive and I really came to appreciate that after getting on my friends Percheron/WB cross. Whew.....what a difference!
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Thanks for your comment, Nora.
I find that Arabians are very sensitive. As long as you keep on trying to correct what is uncomfortable to her, she should keep on improving.
Good work on finding a good instructor. Enjoy your lessons!
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Excellent post......especially for someone like me who has always depended on my reins for balance! I have never had any training, which I have come to regret.....but I am starting now (at the age of 53). I have a lovely little arab mare who is very sensitive and has a soft mouth. Although we have been together for 2 years, we only recently got a nice saddle that is fitting quite well. I was always in a bad position in my other saddles, and constantly worried about hurting her back. Since we have had our new saddle....we are both going much better. She isn't running around with her head up in the air with short choppy gaits that were so hard for me to ride. She is working more into contact and getting more propulsion from behind. We still are somewhat inconsistent....but it does seem to be getting better each time we ride! I am having to retrain my body and brain.....and after 10-15 minute warm up....I am able to "find my groove" and my muscles relax and we can find a nice rythm. I am very concisous of my hands though, and still feel that I am not as "elastic" as I would like to be. We are both learning and somewhat out of shape.....so we usually have a good 20 minutes of "working" and then the lack of fitness starts to come in. Once my body starts fatiguing....I can revert back to my old style.....so we cool down, and try to end things on a good note. I am lucky, because the trainer/owner of my barn is a very nice dressage rider, and very considerate of the horses. She is very light and balanced, and it is an inspiration to watch her.
So I can say that I think that there are still people out there who believe and train as you do. I will be lucky to be getting my training from someone who knows how to establish the "light" kind of communication you are speaking of. There is always an opportunity to learn a better and kinder way to ride a horse......but, I guess the willingness and openess have to be there first!
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