Fancy is the age to graduate from a snaffle bit and go into a curb bit. I have been setting up the Wonder bit as a snaffle. Today I changed where the rein fits on the bit and poof, she is wearing a curb bit. Yee Haw! I self-graded C- to C at keeping my one hand grip on the reins. It’s very tough to cast aside one entire arm. The used arm gets upset as it is being asked to perform precision light handling of the horse’s mouth through the reins. The unused hand feels slighted, hurt and rejected. It asks. “Why are you using all that effort to keep my elbow bent and me still? Why aren’t you letting me help with Fancy?”
People think we neck rein, but that isn’t how we tell the horse where to go. It’s complicated. Here are the body cues:
- Belly button is the pointer with shoulders held even. Shoulder dipping is a natural but forbidden position.
- Eyes or what we call FOCUS. Look where you are going. “Laser Eyes”.
- Seat position. Which cheek has the weight when asking for a turn? Seat position weight back when the front legs are cued to move. Seat position weight forward when asking the back legs to move.
- Calf presses against the horse’s side
- Inside foot pressure against horse’s side
- Heel pressure against horse’s side
- Foot position on horse’s body. There are 4 different spots to press the inside of your foot or your heel.
Can you imagine what the horse thinks about all this when the human’s cues are sporadic, too much pressure, too light pressure, and different for the same move? It takes a while to build a communication system with your horse! Many humans don’t have a trainer to coach them on building a complex communication system and both horse and human suffer.
Long long ago, my father and I was watched Mr. Smith ride his high level dressage horse. After he did amazing things, I asked him how he “did all that”. Knowing an eight year old child would never understand, he replied, “Oh, just a little bit of this and a little bit of that.”
I hope Mr.Smith and Mr.Todden (my trainer as a youth) are watching me and smiling as I go through Horsemanship Kindergarten AGAIN!
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