Counter-Bend to pick up Correct Canter Leads

After reading a few blogposts today, I felt inspired to talk a bit about the counter-bend and it's usefulness in loading the correct shoulder for canter departs.  I find this exercise to be beneficial for the horse as it learns not to always go where his nose is pointing, it helps him correct his own balance and teaches him to canter off the aids rather than off a marker (like a corner). It also has the distinct advantage of teaching canter departs without anticipation and off the rail.

First, I'd like to review the aids for canter:

1. Inside Leg @ The Girth and ON at the girth (not necessarily hard, but the leg must distinctly come onto the horse's inside.
2. Outside Leg slightly back and gently on -  Swinging your outside leg back by 2 feet and squeezing should not be the aid.

And now the aids for Counter-Bend:

 With an inside bend on the first half of a figure eight followed by the second half of the figure 8 while maintaining the bend (and thus counter-bending through the second half of the figure 8).

- Both hands should move in unison and as if you are moving a book over on the shelf. An opening outside rein to encourag the horse to move in counter-bend around the circle and a light inside neck-rein will assist the horse in maintaining the appropriate bend through the counter half of the figure 8.

- Your seat should be weighted in the direction of movement and not in the direction of the bend. This is to ensure that your horse's weight moves underneath of you in the later half of the fig. 8.

Alright, so now that you have your counter-walk and counter-walk circles, your horse is light in his mouth using demi-arrets as necessary and your horse is off your leg, you can begin teaching the canter departs using the counter bend.

Say you start on the right rein with a left inside bend and trot. Go across the short diagonal and DO NOT change your bend. Simply maintain the same bend so that you are in counter bend. Once around the short side go across the diagonal again, maintaining the same bend and asking your horse ever so slightly for counter shoulder-in here. Between X and the rail, ask your horse to canter using the correct aids. Your horse will always pick up the correct canter-lead in this fashion.

Why?

Because a canter stride functions in the following way: Outside hind, inside hind-outside fore, inside fore. If you weight the outside fore in a counter shoulder-in, you have achieved freedom of the inside shoulder AND because of the counter shoulder in and the trailing of the haunch, you have achieved freedom of the outside hind, you have perfectly set-up your horse to pick up the correct canter lead diagonal. As an added bonus, you've also taught your horse the correct aids for canter.

There are many variations of this exercise and you can ask for the canter just about anywhere out of the counter-bending exercise. This exercise works on young horses as well as older horses and stops bucking in transitions as well as anticipation.

Happy Riding!

Smiles,
K

"First the mouth..." Part 2

Thank you for the e-mails and responses! Keep them coming, I absolutely LOVE hearing from you. =)

So, now that we have the theory behind mobilizing the jaw, how do we actually do this gently and so that our horse understands what we want??

This first set of three flexion is done at halt from the ground. You can then proceed to flexions 2 and 3 at the walk on the ground and then proceed to under-saddle work (more on this under-saddle stuff later).

Flexion 1: Yielding the Jaw

Stand directly in front of your horse. place your thumbs in the rings of the bit. Gently put pressure on the bit towards his ears until he lifts his head quite high up in the air and you do not feel any weight on your hands. Your horse should be softly mouthing the bit and slobering all over (don't wear nice clothes :P). Keep your fingers in the rings with very light pressure in the high neck position until your horse starts to settle and soften. Take your fingers out, walk away, take a deep breath, and flexion 1 is done. Sometimes horses will simply throw their head up in the air and completely avoid the bit. If this happens, don't frett, just do a mini version of the lift and only lift your horse's head a few inches at a time until they settle.

This 2nd flexion is taught at halt, and will eventually be translated to under-saddle work where it becomes an incredibly useful tool for bringing horses necks level with their bodies (instead of 14 feet in the air). It's also an excellent softening tool as it creates a position for the horse that is comfortable.

Flexion 2: Action-Reaction (this one's probably especially important for your horse)

Stand beside your horse (for the purposes of this description let's do it from the left side of the horse). Put your left index finger in the bit ring and put the right rein over the horse's neck and on top of the headstall so the your right hand and left hand can be one on top of the other and you're holding both sides of the bit (one directly, and one indirectly). Gently pull the bit up with your left hand and down with your right hand (a light squeeze if you will) until the horse yields his jaw as in exercise one and offers to lower his head (whereby you release the pressure but still have a very light connection with his mouth). The horse's neck should end up in a horizontal position with the jaw relaxed and the horse softly mouthing the bit. Your horse doesn't need poll flexion at this point and if his nose pokes out a bit it's ok. This is the key to stretching and releasing the back under saddle...

Flexion 3: The Neck Bend in stretch position

So stand next to your horse in the same position as flexion 2. But instead of having one rein on top of the poll, move the rein  to about 3/4 of the way down his neck. Lift the bit with your finger (remember to always move it towards his ear and never back) until  he yields his jaw and then ask him to bend away from you by pushing his head over with your hand (and walking that way) and keeping a contact with the rein on his neck by gently holding downwards. This should be a very gentle movement and at first your horse may not be able to bend very far without moving his feet. That's ok - go as far as you think is comfortable for him wait for his jaw to yield and his mouth to soften in the neck bend position and allow him to stretch downward if he so wishes and then let go and step back. Eventually you can do this exercise so that your horse is bent at almost 90 degrees with a relaxed jaw and neck, softly mouthing the bit and lowering his head to the horizontal position in both directions.

Practice these before you ride for the next few days, and I'll post the action-reaction and neck-bend exercises for under-saddle work to promote stretching. Next 'training' post will be about how to perform the french version of a half-halt to lighten your horse's mouth and get off of the forehand =)

Happy riding everyone! Hope you're enjoying the rain as much as I am (ugh).

K

"First the mouth..." Part 1

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the great response on the last few posts, a special thank-you to those of you from Peru, Germany and Sweden who have been kind enough to send me e-mails (dressage.blog@gmail.com).

I'm writing this post on the concept of 'getting the mouth first' before attempting anything in dressage (or riding for that matter) after an encounter I had with a coach a little while ago that completely revolutionized the way I ride/think about riding. Although I had been riding for quite a few years before this conversation, and understood to a certain extent that the horse's mouth was important, it wasn't until I was told (quite vehemently and with a lot of gusto) by a very cool trainer that if I didn't get my horse's mouth everything I did was basically useless and counter-productive (pretty harsh stuff really, especially if you've been invested in a riding style for many years and then are told something that makes you feel like a horrible rider/human being/coach/trainer/person - I'm a tad sensitive). As if this conversation wasn't mind boggling enough, the horse I was riding that I thought was so wonderful and light was apprently doing nothing more than (and I quote) "avoiding the bit entirely and holding his head in a 'pretty' position like a trained monkey -- you MUST get his mouth! -- He is no better than the horse which takes the bit between his teeth and pulls with all his force to avoid your hand"

The mouth is the single most important and sensitive part of the horse - it is a direct center of communication, it is the source of relaxation and it is the source of pretty much everything you need to get your horse to do just about anything. The mouth is also a very easy thing to hurt, ruin, make oversensitive and/or dull. Let's just put it this way: I don't allow any of my beginner students (or anyone with an unsteady hand or bad balance) to ride in a bit. They all go in bosals (when not on the lunge) or have the reins attached to the noseband or cavesson (when on the lunge) until I (and my horses) can trust their hands not to hurt the horses' mouths.

An anatomical sidenote here, the way the jaw of the horse is shaped is somewhat different to the way in which the human jaw is build (shocker, I know). The horse's lower jaw is rather pointed at the tips and is shaped somewhat like a 'U'. The tips of the jaw (i.e. the upper ends of the U) are narrow and pointed and therefore much more fragile than the rest of the jaw. The gum is thicker as it reaches the tips of the lower jaw and as a result the number of nerve endings and blood vessles increase towards the ends of the U. Alright, so where does the bit rest? Only a few mm away from the most sensitive and fragile point of the entire jaw. * When our hand pulls the bit downward (either through pulling or by riding with our hand in our lap/knee/anywhere lower than the bellybutton) we exert incredible amounts of force on the very fragile points of the jaw and the pressure in pounds/sq. inch becomes rather impressive. * Now, we have to remember here that when the bit is resting kindly in the mouth it is only a few milimeters away from this point, therefore just about any pulling action will case the bit to land on a very uncomfortable spot in the mouth.

Let's back up a second here. I have nothing against bits - even stronger bits (if the rider is skilled enough and the horse is well trained enough). Nor do I have anything against a hackamore, bosal or any other bitless option (albeit I tend to use these options only for beginner riders because I feel that you don't get the level of communication you do with a bit). Lastly, I don't think we should all ride in the circus with our hands above our heads and our eyes blindfolded while hoping (praying?) that our horses will stop out of their own volition.

So, the mouth is important, and avoiding the bit isn't lightness... so how do we fix this problem sans gimmicks?

1. Re-introduction to the bit from the ground using a series of flexion exercises. From what I understand many trainers use this system, but the clearest explanation on how to perform these (in my opinion) comes from a book written by Philippe Karl called Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage.

2. Re-introduction of bit and rein aids under saddle with clear definition between "action-reaction" and "demi-arret" (also adapted from Philippe Karl but present in other works by Descarpentry amongst other french classical masters)

3. Flexions under saddle.

Off to clinic 1!

Hey eveyone!

I'm off to a clinic this weekend to learn about communicating with horses via groundwork and leadership - could be interesting. Will let you all know how it goes at the end of the weekend. I'm a bit skeptical of how this is going to transfer to under saddle work, but I'm always up for a challenge - and who wouldn't enjoy teaching their horses how to bow and do fun tricks?  ;)

Have a great weekend! - Happy Riding

Dressage Person

Update: Back from clinic!

Well that was fun! =) I got a horse to lay down with me in the middle of the arena and have a snooze whereby there were 11 other horses doing bomb-proofing things like tarps and cracking whips everywhere (picture coming soon :P). Very interesting clinic, I learned a lot about bomb-proofing horses and getting them to trust you as their leader. Don't think I've ever been to a clinic where there were so many horses in one arena so chill with so many weird things going on around them. I've always wanted to know how to lie a horse down, so now I know, and it's one more thing crossed off the 'to-do' bucket list.

Two weeks from now I'm headed back up to Phillipe Karl's clinic and am seriously looking forward to it. Yay!

Happy riding everyone.