Revisiting Your Hands

I just re read my entry from March 2010 entitled "Carry Your Hands". It was about my experience with Dawn Ruthven at a CR clinic and at that time she emphasized "helping" your horse by not allowing them to lean on your hands. Using your center and keeping the natural position of your arm falling from the shoulder and the bend of your elbow, you create a buttress that Sally Swift describes so well in her book. During the next 2 years I worked on correct position of the hands, but somehow lost sight of the need to use the buttress with my horses to keep them light on the contact. With forward motion and a gradual lift of the shoulders, the horse will become strong enough in his back with a rider  for "self carriage". This is when the horse is balanced and maintaining himself without needing the support from the rider's hands. A horse does not PULL the reins out of our hands, he pushes with the weight of his head and neck forward and down. When we feel that heaviness as a pull, the horse is no longer in self carriage.

Not wanting to pull on the horse's mouth and hurt him and thereby create tension in the horse and in me, I simply allowed my horse to walk and trot with just enough contact to let her know that I was there but with no real communication. I guess it would be like being on the phone with someone and every once in a while you would hear them say "uh, huh". You know they're still on the line, but not really contributing to the conversation. For horses unable to balance and maintain themselves at faster gaits or with more bend, this can be disconcerting. My horse Chanty tends to push into the bit and race forward when she is off balance, which would normally create tension in me that leads to more pulling. But is pulling the answer? Dawn, at the March 2010 clinic I mentioned previously, talks about raising the outside rein until the horse feels weightless in your hand or you can use the inside rein with a slight turn of the hand and small lift to flex the head and neck while keeping the outside rein steady. There should be a deep centered feeling and a soft contact with the hands as you close your fingers. The contact will then be on the corners of the mouth instead of the tongue. The lift is slight -gathering more rein may be necessary to keep the contact and create small changes, rather than allowing you, the rider to tip off balance onto the front of the pelvis.

With that in mind I found the information at a Philipe Karl clinic, I attended in July, to be quite helpful. Karl has started the "School of Legerete" (lightness) and is now training riding instructors all over the world. The clinics in Chase, British Columbia are the first of a series that have come to the North American continent. There will be another series beginning in Pennsylvania and his top instructors, including Bertrand Ravoux who conducted the clinic I attended, will travel through the states sharing the philosophy and teachings of this phenomenally dedicated and experienced international horseman. While it is true that the work presented is drawn from the teachings of classical riding and dressage, he emphasizes that this  information can be shared with riders of all disciplines and horses of all breeds. At 65 years young, he has been around long enough to see the dressage world become tainted by those interested only in outcomes and prizes, willing to sacrifice the mental and physical well being of the horse on the way to high achievements including shortcuts in the form of excessive use of side reins and draw reins to create extreme poll flexion.

Karl uses his knowledge of what comes natural to the horse to guide their training and feels that the beginning of all communication with the horse begins at the mouth, the most sensitive part. The correct use of the hands on the mouth results in better control of the head and neck as long as the mouth and jaw remain soft and relaxed. Karl believes that using the reins with an action on the corners of the mouth in an upward motion, with a high position of the head, and the "sternohyoid" bone vertical and stretching, results in relaxation and mobilization of the tongue and jaw.

I have taken all of this to the arena and my own riding as well as in my instruction with students. It is vital that I remain centered, balanced and vertical over the horse with awareness of my own position with soft eyes and breathing. I have been able to use the lift of the rein to connect better with the horse and ask for more lateral flexion as well as neck extension. I have to remind myself and my riders that the reins and the contact we have with our horse's mouth will never be light if we do not follow the 4 basics. We can only lift on the corners of the mouth and ask for relaxation of the jaw if we have TONE in our body, from correct engagement of the psoas, breathing that keeps our muscles free from tension and awareness of our own posture with each change in the horse's movement.

While Karl and his instructors are adamant that the hands are the most important aspect of training and communicating with the horse, I think it is short sighted to forget how quickly the rider's own balance and position can change and adversely affect that line of communication. At the clinic, I was able to watch many riders practice using the reins with a lifting action and what I saw happening in the riders was mirrored in the horse. Those who were tense in their shoulders, holding their breath and hollowing their back had horses who either slowed or stopped or raced forward to avoid the imbalance and discomfort of a tense and off centered rider. Those who were centered, well balanced, breathing and looking ahead with soft eyes, had horses who moved fluidly and responded beautifully to the small corrections made by their rider.

It is important to take each morsel of new information and incorporate it into your education (and your instruction) with a critical but open minded approach. The horse will inevitably tell you if you are doing it right, if you are willing to listen and learn from them as well.

NEXT ADVENTURE: Liberty Clinic with Robin Gates August 16-19