If we want our horse to do something softly for us, we first must cause him to think softly. If his mind is soft (mental fitness) then his emotions will be soft (emotional fitness / impulsion). If he his mentally and emotionally soft, chances are his body will also be soft. If his body is not soft, you can guarantee his mind and emotions are not also. His hindquarter is a good gauge of where he is at mentally and emotionally. Why does a horse lock his hindquarter? To prepare for flight or fight. Why does he prepare for flight or fight? Because he feels vulnerable, threatened or endangered in some way. If you cannot disengage his hindquarter easily even in movement, he is braced and you will have no soft feel. So you’ll need to loosen up his hindquarter to get him thinking and relaxed again. Your approach and offer are crucial.
If you look at the principles of Natural Flexion, you will see that hindquarter softness, excellent sideways from an offer, your back up and lateral flexion are all key factors in obtaining soft feel and later on vertical flexion. For your horse to travel softly sideways, or bend softly laterally, he needs to pick himself up and balance his weight evenly so that his feet are underneath him to enable him to do so. If your lateral flexion is heavy, you may find that your horse is standing with his weight over his forehand. Tip his weight back a bit and then see what happens.
The better your lateral flexion is– the better your vertical flexion will be
In order for your horse to flex vertically and offer soft feel - which takes a reasonable amount of suppleness - your horse’s body needs to be soft. For his body to be soft, his mind and emotions must first be soft. The test for this would be to check out your lateral flexion.
Throughout the Quantum Savvy programme to this point, we have set up some simple and consistent patterns for you to encourage you to work on your lateral movements and hindquarter yields. Exercises like; transitions on the rail in your follow the rail programme, spiralling in on-line and ridden, sideways around the cone, simple lead-changes, changing flex to flex on the circle, have all been working toward better lateral movements and softer hindquarters.
If your horse gets heavy and pushes on the bit when you ask for soft feel, try taking your hands wide in a butterfly position with your little fingers facing out, as explained in Lesson Nine. As soon as he softens bring your arms back to your sides again. This technique should be used as a reminder for your horse only. If he repeatedly pushes on the bit, go back to some lateral work to soften his hindquarter and sideways. This will bring the softness back again. If it doesn’t, you have probably held him in soft feel for too long and asked too much. Go back to some freestyle ‘no contact’ riding for a while.
Understanding that lateral flexion leads to greater vertical flexion will mean that one day you will be able to perform all of your contact riding without the need for reins. When you are riding and you come to attention, your horse will come to attention. He will understand what is required of him to perform the manoeuvres you ask and he will offer the softness and flexion to you.
“If your horse is heavy on your hand, he is not yielding from your leg.”
Read More Road To Horsemanship articles.
- By Meredith Ransley, Quantum Savvy.