Carry Your Hands, Carry Your Hands, Carry Your Hands

Over the weekend I had another opportunity to work with an amazing teacher, Dawn Ruthven, a Level 4 Centered Riding Instructor . What did I learn from this clinic you ask? You got it! When was the last time you had to think about carrying your hands? Well, frankly, when there is a horse’s head at the end of those hands! But, it turns out when you use your elbows flexed at about 90 degrees heavy enough to “dig post holes” you don’t have to worry about it. Your hands should be floating, with a light quality, light enough to write your name. The elbows support while the hand gives the aid that you need.


Does your horse always feel light in your hands?-well, maybe for a short time and then for awhile he may ask you to hold him up. Your job is to support your horse, to give him something to balance on. So, raise the outside rein until he feels weightless in your hands, hands that should be like a sponge, elastic and playful. Keep the thumbs tented to allow flexion at the wrist. Your pinky fingers should be closer that the index fingers. You should be able to look into your hands.

When the elbows are NOT doing their job, the hands become heavier. Anytime you feel weight in your hands-remind your elbows to take up the weight, which lightens your hand. And, when there is activity behind, the hands will lighten, so keep the engagement of the hindquarters with a lower leg long and shaping the horse’s body. If you keep the connection in the elbow, your horse will develop greater SELF CARRIAGE, as he strengthens his hindquarters.

This all must start from a quiet, relaxed attitude from the moment you begin your ride. We must get organized and comfortable and “find our elbows”. Don’t forget to explore your position and contact. You are responsible for the quality of your horse’s pace, so remain steady on the outside rein for support while using the inside rein to flex and lower the head and ask your horse to step forward. It is the anatomy of the horse’s muscles in the neck that allow the horse to drop his head when it is flexed to the inside.

It all becomes a balancing act between support in the front and energy from behind. Imagine going through a stream on slippery stones and instead of getting a steady arm from your friend to keep you from losing your balance and falling, you instead find shaky and inconsistent contact with what should be a supportive hand. It would be distressing and that’s exactly what your horse experiences every time you drop your hands. Give the support he needs and he will use himself with energy. Impulsion comes from the hindquarters, so remember to not let the horse start off from his front end. That seems contrary, but try it by kneeling and “walking” on all fours and then pulling yourself with your “front legs” (hands). It leaves the “back legs” dragging behind and feels very awkward. Instead, initiate the forward movement with your BACK LEGS. Don’t drive the front end away but energize the hind end. It is the ENGINE that drives the horse and it is in his hindquarters!

When your horse is balanced, tracking up with his nose just in front of the vertical, there should be no tension in your back or his. Tension will lock the muscles. Keep equal weight in both stirrups and as you post, don’t push off the stirrups. Come up at the post, centered over your horse, and imagine “dropping the ball” from between your knees-this will lower your center of gravity to keep the weight over your horse’s center. Falling forward will only put you and your horse off balance as the posting gets faster and faster, followed by your horse increasing his pace to keep up with you.

This all became very clear to my students this week, when, fresh from my own learning experience, I presented this information to them. I really like the image of helping a friend or spouse (two of my students happen to be a married couple) through a stream of slippery rocks. I took them to my favorite park and had them go up and down hills, all the while, maintaining contact with the horse's head flexed at poll (which means the back is up,the hindquarters are taking the weight) with soft, quiet and controlled pace. The more unbalanced a horse is, the more they need our help "crossing the slippery rocks."

It was a fantastic clinic and I am looking forward to going back in May for another opportunity to work with Dawn and show her how well I can CARRY MY HANDS!
MOST OF ALL: HAVE FUN and ENJOY YOUR HORSE EACH AND EVERY DAY!


4/5/2010: Dawn wrote me after reading the YHM newsletter and this blog and said, "Thank you for your very kind remarks ,really happy that you got such a
good feel.just keep reminding yourself that the elbow is the natural
buttress,the hand the communication center,through the communication the
hand becomes a love affair".cheers Dawn

"Habitual Tension"

Just that phrase, "habitual tension" sounds uncomfortable. Who would make a habit of being tense or why would you allow it to continue day in and day out? As a health care professional, I see the results of "habitual tension" on my patients. People with headaches, stomach pains, heart palpitations or racing hearts, pelvic pain, sleep disorders, and on and on. At first they don't connect their physical symptoms with the stress that triggered it. But, the more I delve into their history including work and home life, as well as their own personal and family health history, the more it becomes apparent that their physical symptoms are part of the big picture, which is stress and tension. Sometimes, they become so accustomed to the feelings in their neck, back, stomach or head that it becomes "normal." They may take medication to dull the sensations, until nothing works and it affects their daily life. What may seem like something new in their health history, may have begun months or even years earlier and living with it has simply become habit.

What does this have to do with our horses and my recent trip to a Peggy Cummings clinic? Well, actually, a lot! We've all heard of horses who have colicked or developed ulcers from stress and if you've seen the physical signs in person, you know how uncomfortable the horse appears; rolling and pawing, standing with stomach bloated, reaching back to poke at their belly as if to say "what is that I'm feeling and how can I make it go away?" But, what about stress and tension in our horse that presents as something subtle like walking with stiffness in a left front shoulder, not turning or bending on a lead rope either towards you or away from you? How about swinging their head toward you back and forth while standing or walking next to you. Is this disrespect, is it resistance or attitude or is it our horse's way of saying, something hurts, please help me?

Unlike the human patient, we can't elicit a detailed history from our horses, and may never pinpoint the exact moment when it began, but what is now apparent to me after spending the weekend watching Peggy Cummings "connect" with horses, is that much of the tension that we see and feel in our horses starts the minute we put a halter on them. What? That would mean that even as early as the first day of imprinting, if you are so inclined to engage with your foal in this way, you may have begun to create tension in your horse.

But how the heck can you handle a horse, move them from point A to point B or direct their movement, if you can't put that physical restraint on them? Well, apparently, it isn't the rope and halter that creates the tension, it's the "jerk" at the other end. (chuckle, chuckle). Seriously, if you've been around horses long enough, you've either personally pulled on a horse or seen someone else do it. Many "natural" horsemanship trainers advocate quite a bit of pulling and jerking, especially if the horses behavior includes running, turning, kicking or lifting themselves off the ground in response to their handlers' requests. I thought that it was necessary to show the horse who was in charge and because they were big strong animals, that it couldn't be that painful or harmful. But, it begins a pattern of tension and resistance that can occur even when there is no direct pull on the horse.

Horses know what happens before what happens happens, which is to say, they are able to anticipate something about to happen, once they recognize the event that occurs just before that something. So, if every time you walk into your horses area with a halter and lead rope, you then put it on them and pull them or take them out to the round pen, arena, trailer, etc, the horse soon learns to anticipate the activity outside his stall with the lead rope and halter in your hand. If the experience is one of physical stress and strain to the horse or their handler lacks the confidence and skill to create a sense of safety and comfort for the horse, it learns to associate those experience with discomfort or even fear. Muscles tighten, the head and neck recoil, the acids in the stomach flow, tension builds. Now you add riding and you put a poor fitting saddle on the horse with a rider who has little or no balance and a whole lot of her own tension. Day after day this scenario is repeated and "suddenly" you've got a horse who is difficult to handle, lame or shows problems under saddle. If they could talk and drive themselves, they'd be in my office looking for help.

That's where wonderful people like Peggy Cummings can help. Her methods of "Connected Groundwork" use soft, slow techniques that create a way to release tension and overcome bracing. At first, it seemed as if she was holding a horse too close to their face and head on a halter with fleece cushions that would encourage leaning and pushing, but when done correctly, it gives the horse the skills to carry himself and connects the hindquarters which create the power, to the rest of his body. It was subtle and elegant. There was a dramatic improvement in several of the horses, most evident in a big warmblood, whose tension in the neck and poll had created a very dangerous habit of swinging his head rapidly and vigorously towards his handler. Peggy very calmly explained that he was looking for a place to push against to release the tension. Skeptical, I couldn't stop thinking that this horse was using his head to push Peggy away and avoid being asked to move his body, which is true, but it was because he felt tension and pain. He was perfectly happy to move, once the brace and tension was out of his body. With just two 15 minute sessions, Peggy accomplished exactly that. BEAUTIFUL!

The riding just flowed from these wonderful beginnings and now I have yet another way of enriching the relationships I have with my horses and the horses of my students. If this has helped me to relieve some of the tension in their lives as they've helped me relieve stress in my life, then it will be a fair exchange. Breaking a habit is not easy, but the first step is in recognizing it and doing something different, hopefully improving on the situation. Next time your horse acts up, resists, pulls to the right, trips, moves out slowly or any host of "issues", ask yourself, where is the tension? What is my horse trying to tell me?

P.S. One thing that was not addressed was the horses feet. Several of the horses were shod and both shod and unshod horses showed signs of heels that were too low, toes too long in the front with obvious low coffin bones and subsequent toe walking. The effect this has on their knees, shoulders and back cannot be minimized and creates its own tension and resistance when left unchecked. Assessing hoof health is another part of the "big picture". C.M.