The Art of Riding
A SERIES OF ARTICLES BY BERT HARTOG

 

Part 2: Forward for the legs
Some horses appear to go freely forward as if they are almost dancing, without effort of the rider. Often one sees quite large horses performing brilliantly for quite small lady riders. It can't be brute strength! There must be another way. The answer is the rider must find harmony with the horse; find out what the horse is doing underneath the rider. How and when is he moving his legs forward? Once we know when the horse moves his legs forward, we can influence the horse at the most effective time.

To push - or not to push? The word 'pushing' seems to indicate a fair amount of effort. Especially when the instructor shouts 'P-u-u-u-u-s-h!' this almost invariably results in the student squeezing the horse for a long tune with his lower legs. Often when we ride a lazy horse we tend to squeeze longer and harder to make the 'lazy so and so' go more forward. Most of the time we don't really feel if the horse is doing anything more - even though we are working so hard.

The fact is: Almost all horses slow down in response to a continuous squeezing action.

The word pushing also seems to indicate that if we tap the horse with our lower leg, and he goes forward for next to no effort, we must be doing something wrong. Pushing surely means more effort However it is possible to ride the horse forward with quite light leg aids.

The secret is in the timing: When the hindleg (the motor) leaves the ground we give the leg aid. When we are standing on the ground it is easy to see when the legs leave the ground. However when we are in the saddle we have to rely on senses other than our eyes. We have to learn to feel the motion of the legs of the horse with our seat and legs.

Let us now study a horse and see what body movement he makes when the alternate hindlegs move forward. When we sit on the horse, these movements will have a reflection on our body movements. Begin with the horse standing still and square: As he starts moving forward, his left hindleg moves forward first. What happens? As he breaks in the stifle and the hock, the support of the hip goes away and the left hip drops down. When he moves the leg forward, he takes his leg hip forward with it. This causes the spine to bend and the ribcage on the left side contracts (falls inward). When he takes his right hindleg forward, the right hip falls down. The right hip is taken forward and the right side of the ribcage falls in a little. When we look at a dog walking we can clearly see this movement in the spine and ribcage. Fortunately the horse does not have such a large movement of the spine.

With a friend leading your horse for you, stand behind him and look! Allow your friend to lead the horse slowly; the movement is easier to follow that way. I deliberately did not describe what occurs to the leg that is going back. That is too confusing at the moment. We are only interested in the leg that is going forward because when it is 'off' the ground we can influence it. We can ask the horse to take a longer, more active step, or perhaps, to step sideways.

Now mount the horse and see if you can feel in your seat and legs what you just saw. Our body feeling of the movement of the horse's legs goes like this: The left leg of the horse goes forward; his hip drops; our left seat bone drops. When his left leg goes forward, his hip moves forward and our hip moves forward. The ribcage on the left falls in; our left leg falls into the horse. On the right side, our seatbone is down, our right hip forward, and our right leg falls into the horse.

All the movements follow one another quite quickly, so to feel them better make the horse go really slowly. Our legs fall alternatively onto the horse like a pendulum on a clock. We will try now to improve the quality of the walk by alternatively tapping our legs onto the horse. We exaggerate, as it were, the swinging movement of our legs. We give the horse short taps on his ribcage. The taps must be short and sharp like a knock on the door.

Long drawn out squeezes do not encourage the horse to take a more active step. Rather they slow down the horse because they are not 'in' the movement. When the horse is going actively forward, we leave him alone. We only use the legs again when he starts to lose impulsion. If we keep using our legs continuously, finally they will mean nothing and we have to do more and when we need to give the horse a forward aid again. After all it is a reward to stop the aids when the horse obeys our request.

Our main concern usually is to keep the impulsion once we are working. We find that on the straight line the impulsion is most of the time maintained. It is on a curved track, such as circles or through corners, that the horse finds the going somewhat harder. It is then especially, that we have to help the horse keep his impulsion. It is best to assume that the horse will slow down in the corners, so help your horse with your legs tapping right/left as the hindquarters are going forward. This creates energy, and often we can freewheel all the long side before we need to build up the impulsion again.

At the walk and trot the hindlegs are moving evenly forward. It is more difficult to feel the hindlegs in the sitting trot because the legs move faster in the trot, but with a little practice you should be able to do so. If we want to use our legs alternatively in the rising trot we must use our outside leg when we go down in the saddle and our inside leg when leaving the saddle (assuming you rise to the correct leg). You must also realise that there is a new outside when we change rein.

The canter is a three time beat followed with a moment of suspension. The two hindlegs follow one another closely. In the right canter, it is left, right (third beat and moment of suspension)... left, right.., left, right.... Our legs follow the horse left, right, followed with a moment rest; left, right, moment rest and so on. By finding harmony with the hindlegs we are able to maintain the impulsion. The horse goes forward with enthusiasm, without apparent effort of the rider.

Have a nice ride.

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"Hi, I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Let me tell you; they are just a point of view. I did not invent horse riding or dressage. I wrote them to share my experiences in training horses with other riders. Tell me what you think!"

My email address is bhartog@horseridingcoach.com