What would your first answer be? The Spanish Riding School of Vienna? The Cadre Noir at Saumur perhaps? Possibly the riding seen on the Iberian peninsula with Andalusians and Lusitanos? Of course you would be right in naming all these, but the answer that I'm looking for is: "Classical Riding is correct riding". It is how we really should ride every time we get on a horse. It is Horsemanship - not just knowing how to ride, but all round knowledge of the horse as a species - its psychology and physiology.

by Dr. Thomas Ritter, 2001

How can the rider gain control over the hindlegs?

That depends on the horse and rider. Main considerations are the straightness as well as the ratio of thrust to carriage of the hind legs, in other words: balance.

Most horses are naturally unbalanced in this respect when they begin their (re-)training under saddle. They either thrust more than they carry or, less frequently, they carry more than they thrust. Conformation plays an important role, and so does any prior training. E.g. horses who have very straight hind legs tend to thrust more than they carry. Horses whose hind legs are built out behind themselves will also thrust more. On the other hand, sickle hocked horses carry more than they thrust, due to the angles of their hind leg joints. The Old Masters used to say these horses overburden their hindquarters. Additionally, as long as the horse is not completely straight, one hind leg thrusts more than the other.

The practical repercussion of excessive thrust is either a very heavy rein contact or an inverted horse (sometimes both). A horse who lacks thrust, on the other hand, will not approach the bit. He will consequently feel light, but he will be sucked back. In other words, he offers a false lightness that the rider must not accept. When both thrust and carriage are equal, the horse feels honestly light.

The rider's job is to evaluate the horse in these terms and to custom design a training program that is aimed at balancing out the thrust and the carrying power in each hind leg as well as the activity level of both hind legs in comparison to each other. We should proceed by trying to increase the defective pole of the opposition, rather than diminishing the excessive one. In practical terms, this means that a horse who does not thrust enough must be ridden forward on straight lines in a fresh, big working trot. Tight turns must be avoided at that stage, as they would only invite him to suck back even more at this point. Horses like this frequently offer the canter, as their natural crookedness leads to the hind leg on the stiff side thrusting more. The hind leg on the hollow side consequently takes a longer stride, but does not stay on the ground long enough for the opposite (stiff) hind leg to reach forward. The stride consequently becomes asymmetrical, and the canter develops. When this happens, the rider rides the horse forward at the canter for a long side and then brings him back to the trot. As soon as the rider feels the transition come through, he "changes gears" and sends the horse forward again in a big trot. Care must be taken that the trot is big, not fast.

If a horse thrusts without carrying, free gaits must be avoided temporarily. Instead, he needs to be worked on circles, voltes, spirals, serpentines, and eventually in lateral movements. These horses benefit a great deal from bending exercises at the walk. The stride length at the trot and canter has to remain more moderate, thinking of collection rather than extension. If a horse like that were ridden forward on straight lines, the gulf between thrust and carriage would become even larger. The horse would become heavier and more unbalanced.

As soon as the initial imbalance of forces is evened out and about to switch, the rider has to reverse his strategy. In other words, the initially sucked back horse will start to thrust more than he carries, at which point he has to be worked in bending exercises, more moderate gaits, towards collection. The initially heavy horse will reach a point where he needs to go forward in free gaits, such as lengthenings at the trot and the canter, in order to avoid a loss of impulsion and prevent him from sucking back.

An important factor in this discussion is the vector of the thrust, i.e. the direction in which the horse exercises his thrust. Initially, this vector will have a horizontal, forward direction. In bad cases, the force seems to act in a forward-downward direction, which makes you feel as if you were riding down a slope, even when you are on perfectly level ground. The rider now has to raise the trajectory of the thrusting forces, which allows him to maintain the thrust undiminished but to increase the horse's carrying ability. This actually makes it necessary to animate the hind legs more first, so that they reach more forward. Increasing the angle of the trajectory of their force causes the horse to lift the airborne hind leg higher. It is made possible by tucking the pelvis and flexing all the joints of the hind legs.

Another aspect of this type of balance is that thrust and carriage may match at 5%, 20%, 50% etc. of the horse's physical ability. Inexperienced riders are often content with their horse working at a fraction of their capacity, because the horse feels light and pleasant, not realizing how much the horse is actually holding back. Our goal is to teach the horse right from the start to use all of his strength in a productive way during his work, without holding anything back. It has to become a habit for the horse to work close to 100% capacity all the time. This is a goal, an ideal. It may not be entirely realistic to expect to reach full capacity all the time, but we should try to get as close as possible every day. Of course, the absolute value of the thrusting and carrying forces will increase over time. The 100% energy output of a green horse is significantly smaller than the 100% output of a Grand Prix horse.

Every time we have evened out the thrusting and carrying forces at a certain level of capacity and we want to raise the general level of activity, we have to start by increasing the thrust first, which brings the hind legs closer to the center of gravity and leads to a greater articulation of the joints - if, and only if, the trajectory of the thrust is forward-upward. Any new demand requires a greater effort on the horse's part, whether it is a corner, a volte, a transition, a change of bend, a movement, or a request for a higher quality of the basic gait. It is harder work for the haunches than just cruising along. If we fail to animate especially the inside hind leg more first, the following demand will be executed poorly (or fail altogether). This cannot be emphasized enough, because it is of such tremendous importance. Yet, you see riders forgetting it all the time. The temporal delay between increasing the thrust and asking for more carriage (in essence more collection) can be as short as a split second, but it has to be there. First ask the hind leg to step under, then ask the horse to sit down on it.

Increasing the thrust will result in a temporary increase in rein contact, because the horse steps into the rider's hand with greater determination. As long as the rein aids still go through and the horse is not just leaning on the bit, that is acceptable. The rein contact will become lighter again as soon as the flexion of the haunches has increased also and matches the thrust again.

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By Dr. Thomas Ritter

It is difficult to do justice to the subtleties of riding in lightness with words.

The concept of the "fixed hand" versus the "following hand" is a case in point. Opponents of the "fixed hand" usually reject it out of a belief that it is rigid, because the word "fixed" can certainly have this connotation. However, the "fixed hand" can actually be very soft and light, and I would like to try and explain how and why this is the case.

My own position is that the "following hand" that moves visibly forward and back is by no means lighter or gentler than the quiet hand that does not move visibly. On the contrary, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to feel and affect the hind legs with any precision.

First of all, I would like to point out that all the classical schools seem to ride with a "fixed hand". If you watch videos of the SRS, the Cadre Noir, Egon von Neindorff, the Real Escuela Andaluza, and Nuno Olivera, you can observe that all of these riders hold their hands very still in all three gaits. The movement of the hands is minimal, especially front to back. Yet, in spite(or because) of this "fixed" hand the horses are light, supple, energetic, and collected, all of which would be impossible with stiff hands. The agreement of all these schools with their different traditions is very significant.

This may seem like a contradiction at first sight. However, a closer look shows that there is no contradiction at all. Egon von Neindorff repeats several times in each lesson: "The hand stands still, and yet it moves." Nuno Oliveira paraphrases the very same thought as: "Immobile hand, mobile fingers." Both masters refer to the same concept. While the hands themselves should not move visibly, the wrists and fingers have to be elastic and mobile enough to prevent the rein contact from becoming dead.

When a rider tries to stop following the horse's mouth with his hands for the first time, he will most likely experience resistance and rein contact that goes from nonexistant to taught and back with each stride. This is of course not what we want to achieve. So, how do we reconcile quiet hands with a soft, unconstricting rein contact? It is again Nuno Oliveira who gives the answer quite simply (Notizen zum Unterricht von Nuno Oliveira, 1998, 33, the translation is as usual my own): "Follow the horse's mouth by means of a supple back." He says it even more concisely on page 35: "If you want to accompany the young horse's walk, do it with the lumbar back and not with the hand."

Charles de Kunffy teaches very much the same philosophy. He has all of his students tuck their elbows against their hips so that the hands become quiet, instead of moving forward and back.

Here is how it works. By keeping the elbows or forearms in close contact with the hips, the rider's hands become extensions of the seat bones. Whatever the seat bones are doing is what the hand is doing. In other words, if the seat bones are following the horse's back, the rider's hands will automatically follow the horse's mouth *without* visible movement. If the seat bones resist the grounded hind leg for a split second, the hand will automatically apply a half halt on the same side in support of the seat. The rider's pelvis and seat bones are controlled to a large extent by the muscle ring above it. Otto De La Croix (Natuerliche Reitkunst, 1910, 75, translation: TR) discusses the same principle and sums it up in these words: "The hand can therefore not exist without the abdominal and back muscles. If the latter yield, the hand also yields eo ipso. Without good use of the abdominal and back muscles, a good hand is unthinkable." That's why Oliveira says you should follow the horse's mouth with your back, not with your hand.

Keeping the elbows connected to the rider's hips and keeping the hands still has very interesting repercussions. It does not allow the rider to cheat with his hands any more. In order to apply half halts, to steer, etc. and maintain a good rein contact at the same time, the seat has to do the majority of the work. Eliminating the possibility of cheating brings out and underscores even the smallest shortcomings in the training of horse and rider. It's a wonderful diagnostic tool. This means that if the "fixed" hand results in a stiff, constricting rein contact, there is something wrong with the seat.

Most riders are too wobbly in their waist, which compromises the stability of their seat. The problem is almost always compounded by a less than perfect distribution of the weight (especially leaning forward). The lack of balance and stability forces them in turn to compensate by gripping with hands and legs. This can be paraphrased as a rule of thumb. The more deficient the muscle tone is in the midsection, the greater it has to be in the extremities - to the point of stiffness. On the other hand, the greater the muscle tone is in the rider's midsection (without getting rigid), the more the arms, hands and legs can relax.

In my own experience, elbows that are disconnected from the hips create a gap in the energy flow. The same thing goes for a waist with insufficient muscle tone, leading to collapsing either laterally or forward. They are comparable to false bends in the horse's spine. The energy from the hind legs exits the horse/rider unit in these locations, instead of travelling all the way to the mouth, and all rein aids get stuck in these locations as well, instead of being passed on to the hind legs. This is a point that is all too often neglected. Teachers talk about false bends or breaks in the horse, but they usually don't dedicate as much attention to these false bends or breaks in the riders. The result of these holes in the energy flow is always a loss of true lightness, suppleness, balance, self carriage, permeability, impulsion, and collection.

When the elbows are taken off the hips, the hands often develop too much a life of their own that is no longer synchronized with the seat. Whereas when the elbows remain close to the hips, the upper arms lend additional stability to the torso, and the hands automatically assume a subordinate role to the seat. This touches on what Steinbrecht (Gymnasium of the horse, English translation, 1995, 38) means when he says: "By weight aids in general, the rider can restrain or reinforce every movement as desired. It is understood, of course, that in all these weight aids, hands and legs must participate correspondingly, but the less such participation is required, the greater is the perfection of the dressage training." The seat is the aid with which the rider controls his horse first and foremost. Legs and hands are merely supporting aids.

After quoting Otto De La Croix concerning the dependance of the hands on the seat, I also want to give you a quote that establishes the subordinate nature of the leg aids under the seat (Natuerliche Reitkunst, 1910, 67, translation: TR): "The calf aids are, in short, never the main aids but have to be considered merely supporting aids. They must originate in the correct seat, adapt to it and subordinate themselves to it. They must be given in the awareness that they are even worthless by themselves and without their correct exploitation through the seat."

To return to the original discussion of the fixed hand; the preceding paragraphs should have made it clear that a fixed hand is perfectly reconcilable with lightness and gentleness, since the quality of the hand depends entirely on the quality of the rider's seat. The same thing can be said about the legs and the purity of the horse's gaits.

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By Dr. Thomas Ritter

There are days when we feel we have forgotten completely how to ride, when we feel that we can't do anything at all. We have all had days like that, and I think that as long as we ride, we are never completely safe from experiences like this. Fortunately, the incidents seem to become fewer and farther in between, the more you learn. - Or maybe you just don't take bad rides as personally any more, because you know that you will have another good ride again soon. Just like you know after a good ride that there will be more difficult ones waiting for you in the future.

Riding is as much physical as it is emotional, mental, and psychological. To become a sensitive, effective, and tactful rider, one has so much to learn, and not just limited to the technical components of riding, but also how to deal with problems, difficulties, frustration, and all of the other challenges that await us on the path.

There will always be good rides and bad rides, and it is necessary to find a balance between the two. Sure, it would be NICE to have ALL good rides, but it is unlikely. We all go through the bad rides, or even worse: the bad spells, and when we persevere through them and learn the lessons they have to offer us, we become all the better for it.

The good rides are the ones that make us feel like we're flying on top of the world. Those are the rides that make you feel like you can RIDE, they give you confidence, and they give you hope. The bad rides make you feel like you are hopeless, they break apart the ego, and they show us that we still have so much more to learn.

Personally, although I really dislike the bad rides when they happen to me... in some respects, those rides are the most valuable because those are the rides that teach me so much. And it's often not what I learn IN that particular ride or lesson, but what I learn in the rides that follow. In the bad ride or lesson, you are made aware of all of your inadequacies. You become aware that what you thought was acceptable is not only NOT acceptable, it is terrible. You become aware of where all the holes are in either your own riding or the training of your horse. However, the beauty of it all is that you are also shown exactly what you need to work on. What better learning opportunity! So, in the rides that follow, you cannot help but address those things that were so unsettling in your bad ride. Whether you realize it or not, no matter how incompetent and hopeless you felt in your bad ride or lesson, you DID learn quite a bit, if you paid attention... and it often takes a few days or even weeks to mature.

I read something in a zen book somewhere that you can apply very well to riding. Just because you had a bad ride or made a mistake does not automatically make you an incompetent rider, a hopeless case. On the other hand, winning a prize and public acclaim does not automatically make someone a great rider, either. In the big scheme of things, these are all just small pieces of the puzzle that make up the totality of our experience, and we have to take them all in stride, without being affected too deeply by any one of them. It is easy to get wrapped up in a single event. A bad ride can leave us feeling devastated, ready to give up, whereas a good ride, or praise can overinflate our ego, leading us to think we are better than we actually are. That's why it is good to take a step back after an exceptionally good or bad experience alike, in order to put it into the proper perspective, without the momentary emotions attached.

Sometimes I think that the greatest masters are probably not necessarily the most gifted individuals, but the ones who went through the most difficult rides/lessons, and who had the inner strength to turn these (perceived) defeats and hurtful experiences into triumphs by learning the lessons they offer. Just as in Aikido each punch of an attacker is received as a gift, according to George Leonard (The way of Aikido. Life lessons from an American sensei, Plume 1999), we can actually try to see "bad rides" that leave us feeling defeated and incompetent as learning opportunities, whereas we don't learn nearly as much from fabulous, successful rides. They just make us feel good. For a balanced evolution we need both. Without the hard lessons, we would never get out of mediocrity, and without the elating, "perfect" rides, we would probably lose the courage to continue the journey.

It seems that in the course of training the horse, but also in learning how to ride, we go through cycles where we focus more on one aspect than others, not that the others are ignored, but one aspect takes precedence. As the level of acceptability of that one aspect improves, we become suddenly aware of all of the other things that suddenly need to be worked on. They were always there, but they had previously taken a back seat while we addressed something more important or more obvious. This is the prioritization within the training that has been mentioned before. As we cycle through the various elements, the overall quality level improves. The horse (or rider) becomes better and better. Our own learning is much like this, too. Sometimes when you focus on one thing for awhile (example: suppleness), in time, the quality of that aspect far surpasses the quality of the other aspects. Suddenly, everything else looks so much worse. It really isn't worse, but the contrast of that first aspect (in this example, suppleness) compared to everything else makes the differences in quality level all the more apparent. Your standards have been raised and the discrepancies suddenly bother you. This can cause such frustration. Without your realizing it, you HAVE improved, but now you are aware more so than before of what still needs to improve. In your mind, you will think that you are hopeless because... just look at all the things that need so much work. You have lost perspective on the situation. This is when photographs or videos of your riding can REALLY help. Sit down and compare your riding 6 months, a year, two years ago with your riding now. Often we have forgotten how much worse things really were. We have forgotten how far we have come.

There are also times when nothing seems to go right. Sometimes these are due to major reconstructive changes in our riding, and sometimes they are just a bad day. When we have built up years of bad habits, it is like layers of paint on a wall. First you have to peel back the layers so that you have a clean surface to start anew with. This process can be incredibly frustrating and so humbling. You are stripped of everything you thought you knew, even things you didn't realize you knew. Sometimes it means starting over at the longe-line. And, stripped down of all of your bad habits, bad excuses, and ego, it can be terribly frustrating. You thought you at least knew how to do "whatever" and now you're finding out that even THAT was wrong? You feel like you can't do anything right. But, once all of the "old paint" is gone, you can finally begin the process of building back up again. Hopefully this time with good habits in place of the bad habits.

Sometimes when you make changes in your position, they will become so disorienting that you feel like you can't do anything at all. You have become so accustomed to being crooked or whatever, that when you are straight, your body doesn't know how to use itself. This passes in time and with practice. But in the meantime, it makes you feel so hopeless.

Also, sometimes when you focus on one thing too much, you lose touch with all of the other elements. For example, the risk of focusing on impulsion can be a loss in relaxation. These are the balances we learn that we need to find. But, I think this is all in the course of learning. I think this is when you learn how things work together. For example, riders will struggle to get their leg stretched back, at the expense of their upper body tipping forward off of their seat bones. When they address their upper body and correct its position, the legs will tend to slide forward. This is a necessary process, and the balance between the two will continue to go back and forth until eventually the muscles surrounding the hip have stretched enough to accomodate both. In the end, you learn not only where the balance lies between the two, but also how the two work together and the influence each has on the other. This goes for MANY things in riding.

Just when you feel like you have a grasp on something, you discover there is a whole new layer there to discover. You realize that what you thought you knew was just the beginning.

These are the many frustrations we face, as riders learning how to ride. We all go through them. Some of us deal with them better than others. Some of us need to learn how to deal with them better... perhaps that is the lesson within it all?

I think you have to be a little crazy in order to really learn how to ride. Everyone I have met who really excelled in his field (whether it was an art, a science, or horsemanship) was more or less crazy in one way or another. It takes a certain one-track mind, a certain tenacity to solve the problem in front of you, instead of shrugging your shoulders and moving on to something else that is more entertaining.

Philip Kapleau describes in his book "The three pillars of zen" how students struggle with the zen koans. One of the masters tells a student that he has to "eat, sleep, and drink" the koan. He has to spend every waking minute thinking about it, absorbing himself in it, in order to solve it. It has to be the last thought on his mind when he goes to sleep at night and the first thought on his mind when he wakes up in the morning. There have been times in my riding experience that were just like that. I was faced with a problem that I could not solve, no matter how I tried to analyze it. Eventually the solution came to me, after I had obsessed about it and immersed myself in it long enough. I don't know about koans, but in riding the solution is always contained in the problem. The answer is always contained in the question. If you can see through the superficial symptoms and recognize the root, you have found the way (or at least ONE way) out of the dilemma!

©1999-2001 ClassicalDressage.com  All Rights Reserved

RELEASES
by Dr. Thomas Ritter, 2000

In teaching lessons I often see that students apply their aids somewhat half heartedly. The aids have no clearly defined beginning or end. This probably originates in a certain insecurity. The student is not sure whether they are applying the right aid, or if they find the right timing, or the right intensity, or the right coordination with other aids. So the aid becomes wishy-washy, unintelligible, because the rider is afraid of making a mistake or of hurting the horse.

Consequently, the horse can neither understand nor process the aid very well: The aid does not go through. Because the aid does not go through, and there is no success, the student does not release. Some students may also have the old adage in the back of their mind that the rider should give when the horse gives. Since the horse doesn't give, the student doesn't give. Conversely, since the rider is not giving, the horse begins bracing more and more. Horse and rider thus end up very quickly in a tug of war that nobody can win. This tug of war is not always carried out with heavy aids. In some cases, the mutual bracing is carried out with just a few ounces of rein contact. Yet, the result is very much the same as if the contact could be measured in many pounds.

Therefore, one of the things I emphasize in many lessons is that each aid has to be clearly recognizable as an informational unit. This is only possible, if it is isolated by a release, a moment of silence, before and after. In this respect, the release is like the graphic signals that separate words, clauses and sentences from each other in written texts: blank spaces that isolate words, sentence initial capital letters, periods, commas, and semi-colons that visually isolate clauses and sentences, new lines and indentations signaling the beginning of a new paragraph, headings as graphic reflections of new chapters, etc. Without these markers, a text would be very difficult to read, because information unit boundaries would not be immediately obvious.

The horse who is barraged with an incessant stream of aids is in the same situation. He does not know where one aid ends and the next one begins. He furthermore has no time to execute any one command. So he will either give up trying to understand the rider and ignore him in frustration, or he will get angry and rebellious. This usually leads the rider to intensify his aids, which sends horse and rider into a downward spiral of deteriorating communicative effectiveness.

The way out is to deliberately preface each aid for a new transition, movement, or turn with a clear pause. It can help the rider to draw a deep breath while he is releasing his legs and hands. This pause alerts the horse that something new is coming. It is very much like the conductor of an orchestra tapping on his note stand with his baton, before the orchestra starts playing. Since the release alerts the horse, the ensuing aid can be very small and delicate.

This isolating release is every bit as important as the active aid. You could say that the active aid derives its meaning and emphasis from its recognizability. The more the aid stands out in front of its background, the more clearly the horse can perceive it, and the more compelled he will feel to react to it. If the aid blends in with the background, the horse will not notice it. One very important aspect in this context is that the rider is able to sit absolutely still *with respect to the horse*. It is a supple, mobile stillness, that is an optical illusion, generated by the elastic participation of all joints in the rider's body in absorbing the motion of the horse's back.

If the rider's legs are noisy, banging against the horse's sides with every stride, the horse will tune the incessant banging out as meaningless chatter. How is he going to recognize the occasional aid that the rider is trying to give? He does not, he cannot recognize it, even if he wanted to. The same thing goes for hammering hands and bouncing seat bones.

When the rider has learned to follow the horse's every move with a soft contact of his seat bones, legs, and hands, he is able to modify this contact by either decreasing, increasing, or even interrupting it temporarily. This invites the comparison with music again. The rider's aids become musical notes. They have a certain temporal value (such as full notes, half, quarter, eighth, etc. notes), a certain intensity/volume (from pianissimo to fortissimo), they are set in a certain rhythm (2-beat trot, 3-beat canter, 4-beat walk) and tempo of the gait (from largo to presto), and they are separated by pauses. Each aid (each hand, knee, thigh, calf, seat bone, etc.) has its own score, it plays its own song. Yet at the same time, all the aids are coordinated in the same way that the various instruments in a symphony orchestra are coordinated.

The combination of all these variables enables the rider to communicate with his horse with an infinite number of nuances in his aids. The skillful utilization of all these nuances with their respective full range of possibilities also contributes to winning and keeping the horse's attention, just like a good actor can rivet an audience by making use of tempo, volume, and pauses in his delivery. Sometimes whispering can get an audience's attention more effectively than shouting. Sometimes a pause can do the same. Monotony puts human audiences as well as horses to sleep, whereas dynamic changes in one or more of the parameters can rouse the most lethargic audience.

Pauses also have another advantage. They give the rider time to evaluate the result. In this respect, the rider can be compared to a painter who is working on a large canvas. In order to apply a brush stroke, the painter has to be so close to the canvas that he cannot see the entire painting. After each brush stroke, he has to take a step back, in order to see "the big picture". This enables him to see what is still missing from the painting. After the assessment, he steps closer and adds more brush strokes, followed by stepping back and evaluating the result. The rider does the exact same thing. He has to assess the effect each aid has on his horse. The result of this evaluation tells him how to proceed, i.e. whether the aid was successful or not, or whether it was only partially successful. The rider also has to keep an eye on the "big picture", i.e. the long term development of his horse. He has to keep track of the development of all the different areas. Occasionally, the rider has to make a compromise in one area in order to be able to make progress in another area. E.g. the impulsion may temporarily have to be sacrificed to some extent in order to improve the horse's relaxation and trust in the rider. When these have been sufficiently established, impulsion and collection can be targeted as new goals. On the other hand, trying to obtain impulsion and collection before relaxation and trust have been established would only lead to tension and fear.

In summing up the relevance of releases as pauses, you can say that the release is the counterpart that lends meaning to the active aids. In our conventional thinking we tend to focus entirely on the active aids, while we forget that it is the release, the pause that enables the aid to come through. Often the horse cannot respond to the aid until it is released. The conclusion that every rider has to draw from these observations is that it is not the aid that gets the job done, but the combination of Release - Aid - Release. This combination has to be seen as the most basic communicative unit. Notice how this most basic unit consists of TWO releases and only ONE active aid. This in itself should highlight the importance of the release.

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An effective, deep seat in the saddle will lead to an effective, sensitive leg.

We are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of a good posture while sitting, walking, jogging, etc. And we are aware of the harmful effects of a bad posture. Fitness and health experts advise us of walking with our backs straight and shoulders square. Rounding the back and dropping the shoulders causes muscle strain and back problems. A person with a stiff hip joint may walk from his knees- i.e. bending the knees without much movement from the hip joint. Since the human skeleton is all connected through joints and ligaments, a rounded back restrains the hip joints from moving to their full potential. Their full potential, however, is not necessary for a good posture. Gymnasts, ballet dancers, circus acrobats, and many others are able to use their muscles and skeleton to their full potential. As riders, such degrees of suppleness are not required of us to sit correctly and in harmony with the horse.

To reach a fair degree of suppleness in the hip joint, a good posture in the ground would be essential. Walking from the hip joints, rather than from the knees, can help supple the area. Maintaining a good posture on the ground will lead to a naturally good seat on a horse. When standing or walking, keep your back straight and your pelvis in its upright position. Keep in your mind the checkpoints that connect the vertical line of gravity, as it applies both on horseback and on the ground. As mentioned previously in The Classical Seat section, the line of gravity begins on the ground, and is carried on to place you in the correct position on horseback.

After ensuring that you are sitting deeply in the saddle (by lifting the thighs away from the saddle), bend your knee and bring your heel up to hold it in your hand. Hold your leg in this position for a few seconds to stretch your hamstrings, then slowly drop it. This should place your leg in an almost straight position. Now, as subtly as possible, shift your thigh only a very small distance forward, and relax your leg. Repeat the exercise with the other leg. Provided that your pelvis is upright and your back is supporting itself, you should now be seated in the classical and most ideal position. Your legs should be bent slightly at the knee, not stretched uncomfortably straight. Your stirrups can aid in keeping you in this position but being just long enough to rest the ball of your feet higher then your heels. Riding without stirrups will help the legs hang longer, which will result in lowering the stirrups a couple of holes. It may help to watch grand prix dressage riders, as their legs appear to be longer than they actually are, while they are only letting them relax in the most natural position.

"Spreading the buttocks to form as broad a base underneath  you as possible is very important as it will allow the leg to hang unconstricted.. ready to embrace the barrel of the horse."

Sylvia Loch, The Classical Seat.

The main function of the upper leg is, working in conjunction with the pelvis, helps keep you in the proper position. Since we have, mentally, already separated the trunk from the pelvis, it is time to connect the pelvis to the upper leg, imagining that they have both become part of the horse. Beware that a sensitive horse will be able to detect the slightest tensing of muscles, therefore, it is not favored to contract or tense up the thigh muscles to provide a secure seat. If the thigh is in the position described above, its mere weight will be enough to maintain the secure and deep seat. It is amazing to know that it is quite possible to hold a piece of paper between the thigh and the saddle without any gripping from the rider if he is seated correctly!

The function of the upper leg has been identified. Now the lower leg has to work independently from the upper leg. The lower leg's purpose is the application of the aids. The lower leg should also lie closely against the horse, but contracting the calf muscle to do so must be avoided. In fact, tensing the calf muscle will cause the knee to turn outward, which will, in turn, lead to loss of contact between the thigh and the saddle. The same principle applies to the lower leg, gripping contradicts the classical seat, and therefore the legs must lie closely yet relaxed around the horse. The foot is to 'rest' in the stirrup without any conscious effort. Be careful of pushing down with your heel to keep the stirrup, as this has a tendency to shift the lower leg into the chair seat position (leg forward). The weight of your leg is sufficient to keep the heel lower than the toes, thus, the stirrup can be regarded as a foot rest.

The aids provided by the lower leg can be summarized in the words of Sylvia Loch in her book, The Classical Seat:-

"As well as activating, the lower leg also supports, directs, limits, controls, encourages, allows, and makes possible every variation of turn and of forward, lateral, backward, and, in haute ecole, even upward work of the horse in all gaits."

An aid should be viewed as a helping hint, instead of a command. Leg aids should be in the form of a caress. Kicking, nudging, and squeezing for prolonged periods will make a horse less and less responsive, eventually growing numb to your aids. A horse can feel a fly on his belly. Violent aids are not only uncomfortable for the horse, but are tiring for the rider, confusing for the horse, visually disturbing for the onlooker, and limit the variation of aids provided by the lower leg.

The leg, applied just behind the girth, asks for impulsion. In the shoulder-in, the inside leg applied in this manner allows the horse to bend around the leg and maintain impulsion. In the half-pass, it serves the same purpose. When stationary, a slight pressure from the thighs can move the horse into walk. To trot, a gentle caress with the lower leg should be all that is necessary. For a proper transition into canter, the inside leg activates the forward motion.

Applied approximately three inches behind the girth, the leg asks for sideways movement. A single caress, however, merely supports the hindquarters from swinging outwards. For instance, for the half-pass, the inside leg is applied on the girth, and the outside leg behind the girth asks the horse to step laterally. In association with shifting the weight to the inside seat bone, the horse will bend around the inside leg, step away from the outside leg, and move his center of gravity under your new center of gravity (the inside seat bone).

It is said that the pressure applied behind the horse's elbow (just before the girth) frees the elbow and encourages the horse to swing his forelegs forwards actively to extend the pace, provided that impulsion is already achieved. The aid should given with the toe, and the leg must return to its original position once the horse responds.

The Leg aids should always be applied with empathy and understanding. Remember that you should relieve the pressure as soon as the horse responds as this serves as a reward for his stimulus.

Copyright © D Anwar, 1999-2002. All Rights Reserved.

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Have you ever been on a well trained horse only to be frustrated by the fact that he seems to be ignoring your requests, even for something as simple as a change of direction? While at other times there seems to be no question in his understanding of what you want. Or perhaps lateral movements in one direction feel natural and are easy to do, but going the other way they are practically non-existent? In the past this has been an occurrence that has happened to me far too often, on far too many horses. Finally I came to the conclusion that the horses were really not having "selective hearing," but in some way I was communicating, through my body position, something completely different than what I THOUGHT I was asking.

I am very fortunate to be able to take clinics with Dr. Thomas Ritter and he guides me on what I should be doing to improve my riding skills. However, ultimately it is up to me to solve the riddle of my own asymmetry problems. Many of which are such well kept secrets, that only my horse can tell me when I finally become balanced in the saddle so there are no contradictions between my weight and rein and leg aids. That, along with learning how to isolate and activate individual muscle groups without other parts of my body interfering, has been the answer to my horse's prayer for clearer communication from me.

It is a delightful discovery how sensitive and willing a horse can become when the rider is symmetrically balanced and can use the aids correctly!

Here is a list of problem areas that plagued me, some I have worked out and some I am still struggling with. I might note that the list is always evolving, and as I work through one difficulty sometimes an underlying problem will emerge that I wasn't even aware existed! Perhaps there will be something here that you might recognize as a problem in your riding as well.

• Conflicting weight and rein aids (seat says to turn one direction - reins say go another direction).
• Inability to advance inside hip forward and still use inside leg to activate inside hind leg.
• Inability to keep seat relaxed and fluid while using leg(s)
• Keeping enough muscle tension in the midsection so as not to collapse over one hip, all the while keeping the seat bones "plugged in" WITHOUT tension in your seat.
• Recognizing the second the horse is off the aids. If you can not keep your leg stretched back and down so that it is in contact with horse's side you will never be able to feel the moment when he doesn't step under. If you do not have him on the leg, you will not be able to guide him your seat.
• Make sure that your body is actually doing what your mind is telling it to do.

A few simple tests to try on the ground - stand with your feet on the ground about one foot apart, advance your right shoulder forward, then your left while keeping your torso as a unit. Does your right then left hip follow your shoulders? Mine did not! It felt natural only to move my hips in one direction. Another exercise - sit on the floor with legs stretched out in front of you. Without using your hands to help, can you advance your seat bones and *walk* across the floor on your bottom? Again it was almost impossible for me to move my left seat bone forward.

The good news is that with practice I have been able to strengthen my weak side and it is showing positive results in my communication with my horse, he is no longer showing "selective hearing".

The important thing to realize is that we are all different with different natural abilities and weaknesses. Riding is VERY personal and it takes some deep insight to recognize what it takes to own and operate our respective bodies, but with awareness, practice and perseverance it can happen!

Kathy Donahue

"I'm just someone who opened her *ears* and listened to what her horse(s) were trying to tell her all along, and decided that there might be others out there that might benefit from my experience"

THE HALF HALT

Half-halt in canter. Horse is attentive but is a little short in the neck. Photo from 'Dressage Masterclass with Dane Rawlins.'

 The half-halt is often a confusing term. Most of us know its purpose, and many of us ask for it their own way. Back in my riding school days, my instructors used to ask me to half-halt, telling me to ‘almost halt, then go’, ‘urge with the legs and restrain with the hand’. But is that all there is to the half-halt? As I recall, the horses didn’t seem to like it much. They leaned on my hand and dragged the rear end behind. So there must be another way to do it because experts use it all the time effectively. And in order to learn how to achieve it, we have to look into all the details and aspects of it.

What is the half-halt?

The half-halt is a call for attention. Of course, it has to be much more subtle than it sounds. When we ask the horse for a half-halt, we ask him to generate energy ‘upwards’ - that is, elevate, become rounder, balanced, and lighten the forehand without changing the rhythm.

What purpose does it serve?

It’s a balancing tool. It tells the horse to prepare for the next movement. It helps him organize his footsteps so that he doesn’t stumble when you ask for the next move or transition. It allows him to bend his hocks and step underneath, therefore preparing him to strike in balance. Summarized into two points, the half halt:-

• Balances the horse, and
• Asks the horse, "Listen, something’s coming up."

When it is useful?

You can use the half-halt before transitions from one pace to another and within the pace, before corners, before lateral movements, and before changing the bend. It can also be used after movements to re-balance the horse.

The Big Question: How?

To begin with, lets summarize the aids to the half-halt before we get into details. The half-halt begins in the rider’s seat, back, and legs. These run the engine (i.e. the hindquarters) allowing the horse to animate his steps. The rider’s hand receive the energy and channel it accordingly. If that sounds confusing, the points below should clarify it.

The back, seat and legs:

• Upper body erect, tall, and proud, shoulders relaxed, chest open, stomach leading.
• Elbows bent, relaxed and heavy at your sides.
• Breathe in and expand your diaphragm.
• Broaden your hips and turn your hip joints fluid with suppleness. Soften your seat.
• Think of leading with your hips by very slightly tilting your pelvis. Lighten the pubic bone but don’t raise it off the saddle. Don’t lean back, compress your stomach, or collapse your shoulders. This is your energy generator.

The hands:

• Hold the inside rein. ‘Hold’ does not mean restrain, pull or sponge. It merely implies that you should close your fingers around the rein. This supports the horse’s neck.
• Close, then open the outside rein. This is your active rein aid and should last no more than a stride or two.
• Think of asking the horse to stay in rhythm with your hands.
• Soften both reins instantly and equally after the half halt. The release should be towards the horse’s mouth.

Tip: If you are still confused, have someone read out these directions to you while you are on your horse at halt. Practice your aids and your position.

The Half-Halt in Practice

If your horse is not familiar with the half halt, your aids may not be as effective as they should be. Of course, all horses need time to learn, so give your horse a chance to understand what you are trying to ask of him.

After warming up and loosening your horse, perform many walk-halt-walk or walk-trot-walk transitions. Besides collecting your horse, these will help him anticipate a transition.

When the horse begins to anticipate a downward transition, you should only think of making the transition and the horse will respond. In other words, you’re telling the horse to prepare to walk and when he almost does, tell him that you changed your mind and would like to keep going at a trot. My instructors were telling me this all along, except that I didn’t know how to ask for it.

The rider must understand, however, that this is an exaggerated effect. Ideally, the change in pace during the half halt should be very subtle and the horse should stay in rhythm. Use your body as explained above to help your horse, and only half-halt when necessary. Do not half-halt every few steps or your horse will begin to lock up and become rigid. Eric Herbermann said in his book Dressage Formula the following:

"To half-halt as often as necessary does not mean that we should fiddle endlessly and aimlessly with the hand; that only makes the mouth insensitive, as a result of which ever more and stronger aids need to be given to achieve any effects. The half-halt should only be used deliberately, when necessary, not just for good measure."

Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• Don’t block your horse with your hand. The reins are your refining aid.
• Generate the energy from your seat. If the horse is not responsive, bring your legs closer against the horse’s sides to encourage him to step forward.
• Don’t half-halt excessively. Use it occasionally to balance your horse.
• Do not actively hold both reins at the same time. Use the inside rein to support the horse’s neck, and the outside rein to ask to horse to stay in rhythm and take the energy upwards instead of forwards.
• Yield with your hand after the half halt.
• Do relax because any tension in your body will cause tension in the movement.
• Do use the half-halt before transitions as this will lead to a clean transition and better strides at the next pace.

One last note I would like all riders to be aware of is to understand the essence of the half-halt - the cycle of activity. It should always be ‘drive > receive > lighten > drive > yield with the hand’.

Drive - seat.

Receive - hands.

Lighten - horse.

Drive - seat.

Yield- hands. 

Re-printed courtesy of:Duaa Anwar

By Dr. Thomas Ritter

I want to address something that has been bothering me for a long time. What I am talking about is the concept of "trapping" the horse. I have heard this term used by two different professionals now, one of them an Olympic hopeful. It takes one of the gravest mistakes the rider can make - maybe *the* gravest mistake - i.e. holding on to both reins in front without giving, while simultaneously driving behind, and elevates it to the status of a riding or training principle. What is baffling is that the Olympic hopeful warned against using this "technique" on young horses, because they could flip over backwards. Apparently, she never made the connection that there is something fundamentally wrong with the "technique" as such, if it can provoke such a severe reaction in the horse. As for the other professional, I have retrained a horse that she had made dangerous (bucking, rearing, spinning around, etc.) with this method.

Trainers who advocate methods that are in such blatant violation of the laws of nature demonstrate a sad lack of understanding of the principles of horsemanship as well as a complete absence of compassion and love for the horse. I realize that many, if not most, of our students and frequent website visitors don't need this reminder. But there are probably a few who are still new to dressage, who have to rely entirely on their trainers for guidance. This article is really addressed to them. If you are looking for a trainer and you come across one who talks about trapping the horse between hands and legs - keep looking. If you have the misfortune of riding with one - find somebody else asap. Your horse will thank you for it.

Rein contact is one of the elementary concepts that are included in the training pyramid. The German word "Anlehnung" is etymologically derived from the verb "to lean on", which, as you can imagine, has given rise to innumerable misconceptions about what constitutes proper contact. The English term seems more adequate, as it does not have the connotation of leaning, which automatically implies heaviness.

In the classical philosophy, rein contact is something that the horse should make, not the rider. One way of describing it, is by following the first elements of the training pyramid. You start by establishing a regular rhythm and tempo. This regularity leads to a mental and physical relaxation. The relaxation lets the horse drop his neck forward downward where the rider's hand can receive it in the form of a light rein contact.

It's not so much that the rider "gets to 'make' contact", but if the hand is within reach for the horse's mouth, the horse will automatically make contact. Of course, the horse will only attempt to make contact, if the rider's calf aids ask for movement, and the seat aids channel the movement forward towards the bit. In other words, the rider has to make his hand available for his horse, that's all. If the reins are on the buckle, there is no way the horse could ever reach them, unless he stretches all the way forward and down. This stretching is valuable and desirable, of course, but not all the time. There is a time for stretching forward-downward, and there is a time for arching and elevating the neck out of the withers. The difference is communicated to the horse by the rider's seat and legs, and the bit can be considered the forward-most point of the rider's seat - if the seat is stable, balanced, and connected. Otherwise the bit is just a separate piece of equipment whose influence is limited to the mouth alone. If the seat is connected, on the other hand, everything the rider does with the bit travels through the entire horse's body, all the way into the coffin bone of the hind leg on the same side. The rider's hands then become extensions of the seat bones. This is how the rein aids are integrated into the orchestra of the aids in a meaningful way.

The influence of the bit is not supposed to be limited to the horse's mouth. The rein aids are not even intended for the mouth (as De Kunffy says: "The mouth is for eating only."). The rein aids must produce a more elastic flexion and extension of all the joints and muscles in the horse's body, all the way down to the coffin bone of the hind leg on the same side. If they don't travel all the way back, it is because there is muscle tension somewhere in the hind leg, the back, the neck, the poll, or the jaw, which acts as a road block for the energy and the aids. Just as the energy of the rein aids must travel back to the hind legs, the rider must also be able to feel the energy impulse from the hind leg travelling forward into his hand, i.e. he should feel not so much the horse's mouth in his hand, but the hind leg. This is only possible on a supple back mover. If the rider cannot feel the impulse of the hind leg in his hand, it is because there is tension somewhere in the horse's body as well. This is why Neindorff says in his lessons that the horse has to step into the bit with his hind legs ("Das Pferd muss mit dem Hinterfuss in das Gebiss hineinsteigen"). When I heard him tell us that for the first time, a lot of things became much clearer, and for the first time I had an inkling of what a correct rein contact should feel like.

Another way of describing it is this: When the hind legs begin to thrust, the horse will stretch his neck out as he starts to move forward (unless he has been "trained" to coil up behind the bit). This communicates itself to the rider's hand, which merely has to be there to receive it. The horse's head and neck have a considerable weight, and the horse utilizes this weight in balancing himself. In very simple terms, the faster the horse runs, the more he stretches his neck out horizontally in order to throw his body mass forward. When he wants to bring his hind legs more forward underneath the body mass, without necessarily getting faster, he will stretch his neck as well, but in a rounder outline, either forward and downward or forward and up. The more he wants to collect himself, the more he will generally raise and elevate his head and neck.

These are still very rough sketches of how to establish rein contact, but they capture the basic underlying principles. From here you can go into more and more detail.

E.g., an interesting experiment you can make is to let the horse stretch with and without contact. Most horses will get stuck in a horizontal neck position with a dropped back and no poll flexion, if the rider gives up the contact completely. They stop seeking the contact. They stop following the bit, because they lose interest, as the rider has stopped communicating with them through the bit. However, if you keep a light feel on the reins, without restricting the movement of the neck, the horse will remain curious about the bit and the rein contact - and he will follow the bit until his nose is on the ground, with a raised back, a flexed poll, and engaged haunches. This is not as easy for the rider to execute in practice as it sounds on paper, but it works.

So, the bit is used as a communcative device that helps the rider to convey his requests to the horse, and it allows the horse to give feedback to the rider. This is only reliably possible, if the line of communication is open all the time. That means the rein contact has to have a certain consistency. A rein contact that vascillates between tight and non-existent is like a bad cell phone connection. An ever elusive contact makes effective communication impossible. However, consistency does not mean the rein contact should have the solidity of concrete, either. If the intensity of the rein contact surpasses a certain limit, it begins to be painful for the horse and becomes a punishment. If the rein contact is furthermore dead and rigid - even if it is "light" - it does not allow the horse to use his neck as a balancing pole, which has serious repercussions for the efficient use of his body. To be more specific, relaxation/suppleness (Losgelassenheit) and balance are instantly destroyed, and without them impulsion and collection are forever out of sight.

The bit can also help the horse to find his balance under the rider. If you picture yourself balancing on the toes of one foot, facing a railing (or something comparable), you will be able to rest your hand on the railing without leaning on it, as long as you are balanced. You can even take your hand off, without falling. As soon as you start to lose your balance forward, however, you will instantly reach out with your hand, touch the railing, and push yourself back into balance. When your balance is re-established, you can let go again with your hand. For the horse, the bit can fulfill a similar function as this railing. When he loses his balance, he can momentarily seek a stronger contact, which lightens up immediately when he regains his balance one or two strides later. As all comparisons, this is an oversimplification. In reality, the horse does not rebalance himself on the bit, but rather on the rider's seat, because it is the rider's seat, in particular the stable midsection, the connected elbows, and the stretched legs that anchor the bit and lend it the stability that is necessary for the horse to be able to rebalance himself with the help of the rider. If the seat lacks this stability, the horse will merely pull the reins out of the rider's hand, the rider will fall forward onto his thighs, and there will be no effect on the haunches or the horse as a whole.

What is important in this comparison, however, is the passive role of the railing. It is within reach, should you need it. But if you don't need it, it won't bother you. This is exactly the way the bit should work in this respect as well. It has to be within reach, so that it is available for communication (or in case the horse loses his balance), but otherwise it should remain unobtrusive, out of the way.

The logical conclusion from this description is that the rider's hand remains supple and relaxed in all its joints (plus elbows and shoulders), holding the weight of the reins, without slack, waiting for the horse to make the first move. In this position, the rider can feel each hind leg in his hand on the same side, as the hind leg advances and touches down. It is a pulsating feeling, a certain ebb and flow. At the very instant the impulse of the hind leg is perceived by the hand on the same side, the fingers close for a split second around the rein, followed by an immediate return to the previous neutral position. This squeeze may have to be supplemented by a slight tuck of the elbow against the hip, or by a tightening of the abdominal and shoulder muscles, depending on how much weight the horse places into the rider's hand. It is of the utmost importance that the hand neither adds to, nor subtracts from, the weight the horse tries to place into it.

The exact amount of weight depends on the ratio of thrust to flexion of the hind legs. The greater the thrust and the smaller the flexion, the heavier the rein contact will be. Conversely, the greater the flexion of the haunches and the smaller the thrust, the lighter the contact will be. If you continue this train of thought, you will realize that not all types of lightness are good. If lightness is the result of a complete absence of thrust, the horse may be light, but he is behind the rider, which is at least as bad as a horse who is heavy because he thrusts much more than his haunches can flex and carry.

In the prototypical warmblood, the development of the thrust usually stands at the beginning of the horse's training, followed by the development of the flexion of the haunches. Depending on the individual conformation, some baroque horses can start out with excessive thrust in comparison to their carrying ability. In their cases, the rider has to develop a certain amount of flexion of the haunches first, before it is productive to further the thrusting ability. The more balanced both forces are, i.e. the more evenly the flexor and extensor muscles are developed (regardless of whether they are both strong or both weak), the lighter and more balanced the horse will feel for his level of training. That's why even a relatively green, but correctly started, horse can feel very light and responsive. The more the two forces diverge, the more unbalanced and less responsive the horse will feel in every respect.

These considerations show that it is not possible to give the correct rein contact for all horses in ounces, or pounds, as some people do. Even for one and the same horse, the contact will vary throughout his career, and to a lesser extent even throughout each and every ride. That means that the rider has to learn to feel how much contact is too much, and how much is too little. In other words, how much weight does the hind leg really put into the hand. If the rider receives more than the horse places into his hand, this is the equivalent of pulling on the reins and leads to unbalance and tension. If, on the other hand, he does not receive everything the horse places into his hand, the energy flow is interrupted, and the energy that is created by the haunches cannot return through the rider's seat and the horse's back into the haunches anymore. The result is an unbalanced, strung out horse. The line between too much and too little can sometimes be so small that it is difficult to find, especially for as yet less experienced riders. The more experienced and tactful a rider becomes, the easier it is to find always just the right amount of rein contact, as with all other things in dressage.

One more thing needs to be added that was briefly touched upon above. I mentioned that the rider has to feel each hind leg in his hand. This is a crucial point. If the rider does not feel the motion of the hind leg in his hand in spite of an appropriate rein length, the horse's back is not transmitting the energy. The horse is a leg mover.

Since I just mentioned the appropriate rein length, I should probably say a couple of words about this as well. The appropriate rein length depends on the degree of the horse's engagement and flexion of the haunches. The more the hind legs step under and the more they flex in their upper joints, the more he will round his spine, which leads to a shortening of the absolute distance from rider's hand to horse's mouth. The top line, however, needs to remain relatively as long as possible at the same time. When the top line is shortened, the horse can no longer use his neck as a balancing pole, and has to invert as a result. The further repercussions are a dropped, suppressed back and suppressed haunches. The achievable degree of engagement and collection depends on the horse's training level on the one hand and on the rider's skill level on the other, which is why highly accomplished riders can always get away with riding with a shorter rein length than their students. This also shows why the popular "shorten the reins!" does not work in most cases. In order to be able to shorten the reins, the student has to be able to engage and flex the horse's hind legs first via seat and leg aids. But this ability is generally still lacking, so that the rider actually interferes more and more, the more he shortens the reins. Most of us have probably experienced the inevitable downward spiral that follows.

The shortening of the top line that I mentioned can be avoided if the hand is passive-receptive, and makes a point of releasing immediately each time it receives an impulse from the hind leg. The rider should have the feeling as if the horse is stretching his top line a little with every stride, so that the neck grows wider and taller out of the withers with each stride. This way, back soreness is avoided, and the back increases in suppleness and strength, although (or, rather, because) the poll remains the highest point.

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