With Dr Andrew McLean
The horse must travel in-hand and under saddle free of any constant rein or leg pressure, otherwise he will switch off to them.
At first, the concept of self-carriage seems simple enough. It means that the horse self-maintains his own rhythm, tempo, stride length, straightness, outline and rein and leg contact and engagement. It therefore implies that he mustn’t occasionally or constantly quicken, slow, drift raise or lower his head, lengthen or shorten his neck, lean or drop the bit, squirm away from the rider’s leg contact or fall onto the forehand. For the horse to truly carry himself, it is not just about his outline as most riders imagine. And neither is it about the rider constantly maintaining the horse in all the qualities required – it’s about the horse being trained to maintain them himself. Self-maintenance of the horse’s own responses to the aids is a centuries old requirement of equitation that is central to classical and academic riding. Above all, it is also central to the horse’s mental wellbeing. In today’s dressage it tends to be more of a dream than a reality, because there is little agreement about lightness and the extent to which the horse should carry himself. Yet self-carriage is fundamental to successful performance in most equestrian disciplines. Even in horse racing, particularly over distance, it is always better if the horse self-maintains his own speed and line, rather than being constantly wrestled to stay in cruise control or being constantly hauled on one rein with a lugging bit.
Contact
Where dressage differs from practically all other equestrian disciplines is in the constant contact of hands and legs to the horse’s mouth and body. This contact is necessary to maintain direct connection for subtle changes in mobility and has a relaxing effect if trained correctly, because rein and leg are nor suddenly applied in a surprise attack. Instead the flow of signals allows for movements within the natural quadrupedal rhythm of the animal, and always begins with a light increase in pressure (the light aid).
How much is too much?
How much contact is too much? To explore this we need to see it from the horse’s point of view. Mouths are very sensitive organs, and even more so for a discriminative grazer such as the horse. Because the rein and leg aids are learned in an entirely different way from the seat and weight aids (the former by negative reinforcement and the latter by classical conditioning) for very important reasons it is critical that the process of negative reinforcement or pressure release is learned correctly in the first place. It is not a problem that brief moments of stronger pressure are used in the early stages of training the rein and leg responses, bur it is critical that these are released instantly the horse gives the correct response. These processes of pressure release with rein and leg responses are central to training self-carriage. For example if the horse quickens it is slowed and the rein pressure is reduced to the level of contact when the horse is at the correct speed. The same process trains straightness and outline. However if mistakes are made during training and the horse is left maintaining a stronger contact, or if the reins and legs are maintained together in too strong a contact, both stop and go deteriorate and the horse is left in a state of constant pain, from bit and leg (spur).
Conflict behaviour
Constant pain in animals, as opposed to mild discomfort, is never tolerated without a price being paid somewhere in the horse’s behaviour, mental wellbeing and even in his physiology. The horse begins to express what are known as conflict behaviours. In short-term conflicts the horse may become tense and/or show defensive behaviours such as rearing and bucking. It may begin to shy or show other behaviours that riders mistakenly perceive as naughty. However when the pain is long-term, serious assaults on the horse’s health occur. The animal’s digestive system may be challenged and ulcers and colic are more common in performance horses than trail horses. What is rarely understood is that the price of constant pain can be expressed in behaviour totally out of its original context. The horse may begin walking its fence line (trying to flee the stressful situation) or showing increasing separation anxiety (insecurity). It might even self-mutilate by biting its sides or shoulders or it may bite objects. All of these can occur because the horse is ‘worried’ by its training at a deeper level than the conscious.
Putting up with pain
In animals there is always a grey area where mild discomfort merges into increasing pain. In the early stages of training, contact is mildly uncomfortable bur soon the horse habituates to the feel of the bit in the mouth and the rider’s legs on its sides. There are no negative welfare consequences associated with accepting contact at the correct level of pressure. The same is true for girth pressure- the horse soon gets over it. Pain is a different matter altogether and cannot be habituated to without continued stress. This state is known as ‘learned helplessness’ and studies show that affected animals withdraw into themselves. They give up trying to offer new responses in training. Horses with constant mouth pressure from severe bits, and those tolerating constant spurring are in clear states of learned helplessness. In training, therefore, it is therefore a matter of viral importance that horses are not expected to become used to pain. Contact of rein and leg (including spur) should therefore be defined as lower than an animal’s pain threshold.
True enough, that what one animal may perceive as pain, another might perceive as mild discomfort – there are differences between individual animals according to their sensitivity. However the difference is probably not as far ranging as most people would imagine. Any horse that is enduring constant pain will most likely be expressing some dysfunction in its behaviour pattern that will involve raised anxiety levels. For this reason judges must be trained to be acutely aware of signs of stress and anxiety including tail swishing and teeth grinding. There ought to be precise objective deductions for losses of relaxation. We need to be aware that as the sport of dressage evolves, (and nowadays movement receives higher rewards than training) that we do not become increasingly blind to and tolerant of tension in the horse. In fact the FEI codes of conduct explicitly state that the horse’s welfare is paramount. Loose swinging rails, soft mobile and attentive ears and physical looseness are clear signs of relaxation.
How much weight?
So when does contact become painful? There is little hard data on the amount of rein pressure the horse endures during riding and even less on the amount of leg or spur pressure. Strain gauges are being developed in various universities throughout the world by equine scientists to investigate this question. Commonsense however would dictate that the ideal amount of rein contact is when the bit has contact with the lips and tongue of the horse and perhaps a light communication with the skin that covers the jaw (but surely the jaw itself). This results in the weight of the feel of the reins ranging up to about 200 grams of weight including the weight of the reins. Anymore than this constitutes the onset of an aid and the horse loses some amount of his response to that rein and/or leg aid. The question of how much weight constitutes correct rein contact must be decided in dressage. The French (and Baroque) view of lightness is derived from the academic principles of 18th century riding and researchers, Professor Frank Odberg and Dr Marie- France Bouissou commenting on the high wastage rates of performance horses called for a return to these principles because of the disappearance of lightness.
There are simply no grounds for opposition to this view that have substantial merit.
Short necks
Another problematic aspect of contact concerns the tendency of many horses to shorten their necks because they find the pain of the bit so aversive, yet they remain light. The riders are duped into thinking that there is no contact problem because the horse is light. Shortened necks are a particularly enduring problem in dressage that judges and trainers alike are concerned about. When necks are shortened to avoid bit pain, the neck also suffers some neck pain – the neck kinks or ‘breaks’ the C3 joint. The break can be so sharp that the neck loses its gentle curve and instead has a peak. The mane of the horse may, as the horse shortens its neck suddenly twang to one side. Bony changes occur at the C3 junction itself and frequently the pain is chronic.
The correct amount neck length can be easily determined even at the advanced stages of collection: the distance from the bit to the rider’s hand should never be shorter than the distance from the horse’s ear to the rider’s hand. The correct amount of contact is also important in maintaining the clarity of the aids and responses. This clarity is also essential in the horse’s mental well-being. If you think of contact as being a neutral stimulus, then anything beyond it is an aid. If contact is too much on and off or too invasive into the area where the amount of pressure would normally be an aid, then the horse begins to develop conflict behaviours. So when rein and leg pressures are inconsistent or applied together, the horse not only becomes confused but the stop and go signals are dulled. This is why, to keep it clear for the horse, the rein and leg signals should not be used for responses that do not include their original purpose- i.e. decelerating and accelerating.
There are no naughty horses, just confused ones
Through my articles in this magazine over the years I have been trying to convey that there are no naughty, bad, mean or dirty horses. None. There are only horses in various stages of confusion. Naturally, generics determines that some horses will be more trainable than others, but the end result is entirely in your hands. We have a huge responsibility in using animals in sport for our personal gratification, and at the very least we owe it to them to apply the ‘innocent till proven guilty’ law to their behaviour. We should accept that maybe we have trained the wrong response sometimes. We all do our best, but loading the horse with responsibility for his own behaviour sends us down the wrong track in fixing problems. The ‘respect’ argument has also been taken much too far. The horse that walks all over you isn’t being dominant (I used to think otherwise) or lacking respect. He is simply demonstrating that hasn’t been trained to lead straight, and nor does he stand still. Thinking in terms of ‘respect’ is not only scientifically incorrect, (of the 20 or so equine ethologists I know around the world, not one supports it) it also encourages corrective, punitive measures that are out of the context of the original expression of the problem.
It is a positive step that Australia has now adopted in some dressage tests the proof of self-carriage through the rider releasing the reins for a couple of strides. In fact at any level and during any movement the reins and legs should be able to be released for a couple of strides or steps to demonstrate self-carriage. Self-carriage is like peace: you can’t have a bit of it- either you have it or you don’t. Facing up to the true meaning of self-carriage is the biggest hurdle judges, trainers and riders have before them. The stakes are high: improved mental and physical health of the horse, far less behaviour problems and improved safety for riders.
Next we look at the ‘fear principle’. Here I will explain what the flight response does to the horse, how he learns it and how to avoid it.
Originally published in the January 2004 edition of The Horse Magazine