It’s important now that we become very aware of just how much we have been using our reins. Hopefully you have been conscious of not relying on your reins by practising the Pinch Test programme of positive reflexes in all of your rein positions from Lesson 7. This should be paying you big rewards, by teaching your horse to listen to your seat and focus, leaving you free to offer a more understated and yet advanced communication through your reins.
Effectively, this should mean that you are able to move your horse in all six directions with just your focus, seat and legs. As you progress through your contact riding in Level 3 and beyond, you will want to use the reins for more refinement and accuracy of movement so it will pay for you to start to be aware now of the concept of using your lower body to guide, steer and communicate with your horse’s hindquarter and your upper body and hands to guide, steer and communicate with the front end.
To assist you to do this, it may help to realise the versatility of your seat. When you ride your horse, are you just sitting like a sack of potatoes, expecting your horse to know what you want and pulling on the reins to correct him when he doesn’t understand, or are you using your seat efficiently to clearly communicate your desires? By ‘seat’ we refer not just to your backside on the saddle, but also to your focus, legs and hips.
Your backside has at least six points when sitting on your horse, each able to aide in steering, guiding and communicating. We call these your Seat Points. There are three points each on the left and right, in sets of pairs; front, middle and back. If you wanted to go backward, you would ride backward by getting your weight off of the two front points, rolling your hips and shifting your weight back and pushing on the back two points in a backwards direction. Like pushing your back pockets onto the back of your saddle. When going sideways to the left for example, you would shift your weight on to the right middle point, freeing up the left middle as an open door or comfort spot for your horse to go toward. If your horse was going sideways left and kept drifting backward, you would shift your weight onto the back right point a little to shut that door and open up the front left one as a ‘too comfort’ spot. If he were drifting forward, you’d shift your weight to the right front point, again to shut that door.
Already through the Lessons you have been using these points, perhaps subconsciously, when riding your horse. In a right indirect rein, you would push on the right back point; to the left the back left point. In a right direct rein, you would tip your weight to the left and offer an open right front point. The opposite to the left.
To keep your horse going freely and openly forward, it’s important to learn to sit down and relax in the middle of your saddle and take your weight off of the front two points. Tip your weight up and forward and you are asking your horse to go forward fast because, as we discussed in the Footfalls article in Lesson 8, when your horse gallops his weight goes mostly onto his forehand. If your weight is heavy and down on the two front points, you can actually jam up your horses forequarter and block his forward. Some people who have difficulty picking up a particular lead may discover that they actually ride more to one side than the other. Being left or right-handed can also make us a stronger rider on one side than the other, ultimately making us and our horses one sided. As well as ensuring that we become more ambidextrous, as we discussed in Lesson 7, it’s important to take note of how we sit on our horses and just what our weight is communicating to them.
Read More Road To Horsemanship articles.
- By Meredith Ransley, Quantum Savvy.