Clarity

Clarity in riding sounds simple but can really be a hard to achieve. Many people believe that they should use only one aid at a time. For example, just a rein aid or just a leg or just some support in the riders body. The truth is that most of the time riders blend their aids and are then way more clear to their horse.

This is a big deal in young horses or a horse that is confused for any reason. In a young horse the rider may ask the horse to move sideways off their leg and as a result the horse looses longitudinal balance and then rushes an gets on the forhand. The young horse scared him or herself. The horse then thinks that moving off the leg laterally is difficult and will be resistant to doing that movement. If your young horse has a tendency to rush when asked to move sideways, the best thing you can do to help him or her is to blend your aids.

A horse that rushes when moving sideways benefits if the rider uses his or her body to post slower than the horse wants to travel to help the horse maintain longitudinal balance while moving sideways. Longitudinal balance really does help the horse stay quiet and focused on his or her job. I am not suggesting that the rider always hold the horse up. I am suggesting the rider show the horse where to go and then move out of the way. The horse learns from the softness after the balance correction, not during the correction.

The other aid to blend while traveling sideways is the rein aid. If the rein restricts the shoulder too much the haunches of the horse will lead the sideways movement which will disturb the lateral balance. If the rider leads too much with the reins the horse will lead with his shoulders and not really engage in any sideways movement. The reins really have to be blended well with the legs to keep the horse aligned and evenly bent for basic lateral movement. Again the horse learns during the release of the aid that he or she did the right thing.

The combination of a supporting rider torso and rein aids help show the horse how to balance longitudinally. The combination of the leg and rein aids keep your horse evenly bent and aligned. Alignment and longitudinal balance are critical to the horse if he or she is going to develop confidence in their work. Take care of them both and your horse will relax into the work happily.

Blend your aids for clairity. Show your horse what you want and thank him or her often by softening your aids.