From: Ann
Dear Jessica, my horse is almost four years old. He is mostly Thoroughbred and one-fourth Arabian. I ride him mostly at the walk and he is very good at the walk, nice and smooth and always obedient. My problem is that I want to work him in trot also, but he isn't very good in trot. He pulls on my hands and wants to lean his head forward. My instructor has told me that I need to play with my hands a lot, pulling and releasing right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand. This will make him put his head in the right position and not pull on the bit, and then when his muscles develop they'll help him stay in the right position. It does seem to work, but one of my friends says that this is called "seesaw"ing and that it's bad riding. She has a different instructor who doesn't come to my barn. When I play with my reins all the time, my horse has a good neck position and a light mouth. When I don't, he pulls and leans, and it's more than the ideal five-pounds of contact. But my friend is a really good rider so I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Can you tell me that? And please can you tell me some things I can do to get my horse developed if I'm not playing with the bit? I want him to have an active mouth and a pretty neck! Thanks very much, I will be waiting and hoping for your answer to my questions. I don't want to do anything wrong to my horse. Yours sincerely, Ann
The horse's mouth should be active, yes, but only quietly active -- a gentle mouthing of the bit, showing a relaxed jaw and poll, is what you want. You can't get this by playing with the reins -- which, by the way, is not PLAYING from your horse's point of view! From his point of view, you are always pulling and hurting his mouth. See-sawing the reins is never appropriate. It hurts the horse and forces him to tuck his head in toward his chest to get away from the pulling, and this won't develop his muscles in any good way. The kind of active mouth that IS appropriate will come only if the rider's hands are still and quiet, there is only very light tension on the reins, and the horse can move the bit a little by moving its tongue and jaws.
Contact is something that the horse has to control, not the rider. Let your horse tell you how much contact is comfortable and appropriate for him at his stage of training and development. Your horse is very young, and should be worked quietly, at walk and a little trot, with a long, stretched neck. Your main concern should be with teaching him to respond to your leg aids by stepping well forward from behind -- you really shouldn't be worried about his head and neck, except to be sure that they are both comfortable!
Five pounds of contact is not the ideal, it's a very heavy, painful pressure on your horse's mouth. If you want a specific weight to think about as an ideal, three ounces would be much better. If and when you can work your horse whilst maintaining a consistent, quiet, steady, three-ounce pressure on the reins, you and the horse will both be much happier. Your horse won't be in pain, and you won't feel that riding is a sport that requires immense biceps!
If you want to help your horse develop, take him out for hacks, and do a lot of transitions, both between walk and trot, and within the walk and trot (longer strides, shorter strides). Don't stay out for too long, though -- remember, you're riding a baby. And when you work in the arena, twenty minutes at a time is plenty.
In another year, when he is more mature, you can start working him longer, and focusing on ring figures, especially on trot circles and trot spirals. This will help him engage his hindquarters, reach under and across with his hind legs, and balance his weight without leaning on the forehand. Walk-halt transitions and good walk-trot and trot-walk transitions will also help him balance, and will start to prepare him for half-halts, which in turn will help him shift some weight to his hindquarters.
The best advice I can give you is this: Don't be in a hurry! At his age, the best aid to development would be turnout in a hilly pasture with other youngsters. I know that you want to ride your horse, and you can, but be patient -- keep it slow and easy, and don't ask for too much too soon. It's not time yet to be thinking about keeping the horse in an outline; he hasn't got the physical development or the understanding to sustain a rider-imposed outline!
It might help quite a lot if you could get lessons from the same instructor who is teaching your friend. If that instructor doesn't teach at your barn, perhaps you could trailer to the barn where your friend has her lessons. Your instructor may very well be a most charming person, but I am worried about her ability to teach well. Based on what you've said in your letter, you are being taught to ride front-to-back, see-sawing the bit to put the horse into a false frame. This is BAD RIDING, pure and simple. The long-term results of this are to create a bad rider and a damaged, unsound horse -- and those are not results that you want. Is there ANY chance that you have misunderstood your instructor, and that s/he actually does NOT want you see-sawing, pulling hard, and focusing on the front end of your horse? If so, you may be able to explain that you really do want to learn to ride correctly and well, and that you would like to be taught well. But if you've understood your instructor perfectly, and these are the things that s/he actually wants you to do, you're going to need to find someone else to teach you. Your friend's instructor might be a good starting point.
Good luck!
Jessica
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