PREPARING TO RIDE FLYING CHANGES

      Upper level dressage horses executing a quick sequence of flying changes of lead at the canter appear to skip or dance across the arena. Properly executed tempe changes demonstrate not only the horse's athleticism but also the precise, subtly nuanced communication that is possible between horses and their riders. Dressage horses, however, are not the only equine athletes whose performances require flying changes. Reining horses, barrel horses, and working cow horses do them. So do hunters and jumpers. Clean, balanced, correctly executed flying changes of lead provide the winning edge in a wide range of equestrian competitions.
     Horses and riders must each master a basic set of skills before they are ready to attempt either simple changes of lead through the trot or flying changes at the canter. These skill sets might be described as "advanced intermediate" stages on the training tree and riding tree. The following benchmarks can help riders evaluate whether they and their horse are ready to attempt simple or flying changes.

• Can the rider follow the horse's motion and feel the individual beats? The outside hind touches down for the first beat of a canter stride, followed by the inside hind and outside fore touching down together. The third beat occurs as the inside fore touches down, followed by a short period when all four feet are suspended beneath the horse's body. The rider must be able to feel each of these separate beats in order to correctly time the application of the aids for a flying change just before the moment of suspension. Following the horse's motion is a prerequisite for feeling each individual beat.

• Does the horse have a balanced, three-beat canter on both leads? The rider should hear and feel three distinct, even beats at the canter on both leads. A horse that is balanced and straight should not feel as though it is leaning to one side or the other. Although the canter creates a rocking motion, the rider should feel as though she is moving on a level plane, not riding downhill. A horse must canter in balance in both directions in order to smoothly change the sequence of its footfalls during the moment of suspension.

• Can the horse stay in rhythm at the canter? The horse's canter strides must be rhythmic in both directions and the rider must be able to set and keep a steady rhythm. She must be able to maintain contact, ride in balance, follow the horse's motion and keep the horse on the aids.

• Is the horse responsive to the rider's aids for a canter depart on either lead? Like people, horses tend to have a dominant side. Riders need to work to make their horses ambidextrous and equally responsive to the canter aids in both directions.

• Can the rider send the horse on and bring it back at the canter? The rider should be able to maintain the horse's rhythm at the canter while asking the horse to extend or collect its strides.

           When the horse and rider have mastered these benchmarks, they are ready to move on to flying changes. Riders should not attempt to teach horses flying changes until they have an independent seat and the ability to influence the horse by following its motion and coordinating their aids. Until they've reached that level of riding skill, they should learn how to ride flying changes by working with a good schoolmaster horse.
Timing the application of the aids is critical to correct flying changes. The aids must be applied just before the moment of suspension so that the change can occur during the moment of suspension. For example, the rider would apply the aids for a change from the right lead to the left lead just as the horse's right front foot moves forward to touch the ground.
         The rider initiates the flying change by giving a half halt and straightening the horse. This alerts the horse that a new request is coming and begins the process of rebalancing and changing the horse's bend. Then she positions her new outside leg slightly behind the girth and positions her new inside leg at the girth while at the same time repositioning the horse's bend with the new inside and outside reins. Finally, she applies back, seat and leg aids to ask the horse to move forward into the next stride on the new lead.
Horses and riders new to flying changes should first learn to make simple changes of lead through the walk and trot. The horse transitions from the canter to the walk or trot, the new aids are applied and the horse resumes the canter on the new lead. The rider just beginning to do flying changes should work on maintaining balance and rhythm while continuing to follow the horse's motion. Correctly timing, coordinating and applying the aids for a change of lead takes time to learn. Be patient and do not rush from riding simple changes into riding flying changes until the simple changes are smooth and the ability to coordinate the aid changes has become part of "muscle memory."
           Horses just beginning to learn flying changes also need time and practice to understand the question being asked and to develop the muscles necessary to athletically respond. Flying changes require that the horse first reposition its hind legs (the hind leg that is "leading" must change) then reposition its front legs (the "leading" front leg changes). Start by practicing simple changes across the diagonal and from circle to circle in large figure eights. As these become confirmed, gradually reduce the number of trot strides until the horse is making a lead change without any trot strides at all. Going from a counter canter (a canter on the "wrong" lead in terms of the direction the horse is moving in the arena) to a "true" or "correct" canter lead is another gymnastic exercise that helps the horse learn how to adjust its balance during a flying change.

TRAINING MYTHUNDERSTANDINGS: KEEPING A HORSE'S ATTENTION

       There are probably as many jokes about getting a mule's attention with a two-by-four as there are pickup trucks in Texas. When you are teaching your horse to heed, you must keep bringing its attention back to you. But you don't want to use a two-by-four. You don't want to do a lot of exciting or loud things that will cause the horse to do a lot of exciting or loud things. You want to use body position and body language that is noticeable to the horse to keep its attention or send it in the direction you want. I call this "heeding."
For example, stand at the horse's front legs with your belt buckle facing its shoulder as you scratch the horse. Continue to keep the line through your shoulders parallel to the horse's body all the time you are scratching and rubbing him. If you find a place the horse really likes being scratched, you have his attention on you. Your goal is to captivate the horse, to keep the horse heeding everything you do, paying attention to everything you do. And everything you do, you do in a perceivable pattern with a calm attitude.
Horses only pay attention to one thing at a time. Their eyes are out on the sides of their head to see any approaching attacker and their instincts tell them to constantly look out for those attackers. This superb peripheral vision is what makes it so easy to get horses to heed your body position. They can see all the way to the back of their hindquarters with just a slight tilt of their head. But what gets their attention keeps changing all the time.
      When their attention goes away from you, your goal is to get it back. When something in their environment puts a question in their mind and diverts their attention, you want them to come back to you for the answer.
     The younger a horse is the more it perceives anything sudden or unusual as dangerous because there is less information in its memory bank. Natural defense mechanisms and instincts are more likely to control its behavior. So if you're teaching a really baby horse to heed, its attention just normally darts all over the place. It will shift its attention from one thing to another suddenly. It will jump quickly if it notices something it didn't see before. It will stop to observe something carefully, to take it in completely, before it's ready to give its attention back to you or something else and move on.
With a baby horse, your plan is to get noticed at least half of the time and eventually the horse will develop the habit of bringing its attention back to you. Which means that it will start coming back to you for the answer of how to respond to that last thing that grabbed its attention.
When your horse trusts what you are saying with your body language, heeding becomes a sort of auto pilot system. You are calm, your horse heeds the fact that you are calm, and the horse takes its cue from you. When you change positions, it indicates a change in how things should be and the horse will change position with you.
After your horse has learned to heed your body language, he will not only heed you, but also anyone who speaks the same language. Everything you do, as far as your position, should be horse logical. For example, when you have your shoulder line parallel to the horse's side then turn so your shoulder line runs through his shoulders and step forward, the horse will automatically step with you. You don't have to force the horse to walk and pull him along. You also won't have to jerk on him because he's walking too fast. He'll just start walking at the same speed you do because you have taught him to heed your body in a horse logical manner.
      There's a corollary to having the horse pay attention to you. You must pay attention to your horse at all times and create a calm working environment. If someone comes along that you want to talk to, finish with your horse, put your horse away and then talk. Don't take your attention off your horse.
When you are cleaning the stall, you still have to pay attention to what your horse is doing. If your horse bites, put a drop noseband around his mouth. You can also attach a lead rope to him and lead him around with you as you clean. Or you can put him in a keeper stall. You must make the horse feel like doing something you suggest without making a fight about it. That is how you gain mental dominance.
Teaching heeding builds a communication link between yourself and the horse in the horse's language. That is why it does not require strength to take horses to the highest levels. There is a MythUnderstanding that men are the best trainers because they are stronger than women. In reality, training has nothing to do with strength. It is about mental games. Horse training is a mental game played in a physical medium.
Your primary objective as a trainer is rhythm and relaxation. What the horse needs to achieve this is steady, physical work at a mental level that you create which is alert enough to pay attention to you but not frightened and not tense. You have to be open minded and calm in order to study and understand. And it is exactly the same situation with the horse.
       An awful lot of people think that if they do something to the horse that makes it act more excited, that the horse is going to learn faster or respond better. The truth is that the horse may not be responding at all. It may just be reacting. Reacting is overdoing. An aid that gets a reaction instead of a response has been avoided just as effectively as if the horse didn't respond at all.

TRAINING MYTHUNDERSTANDINGS: APPLIED HEEDING: LOADING THE SCARED HORSE

           Loading a horse into a trailer is a test of how accurately the horse responds to the step cue you put on him by heeding. Trailer loading isn't a separate skill you and your horse must learn. It's just applying the step cue you taught your horse with basic heeding to a specific task. When the horse understands your step as an cue, meaning he is to follow each of your steps with a step of his own, you can use that cue to ask him to enter the trailer with you.
Horses that have had bad experiences remember trailers as scary things. If your horse is scared of the trailer because of previous bad experiences you must treat it like a new piece of equipment. All new equipment must be presented slowly and in a calm working environment. You reintroduce the trailer slowly, in a relaxed manner, with rhythmic use of your heeding cues.
         If your horse is very afraid to even go near the trailer, do calm and familiar things beside it. For example, you can heed the horse in large circles next to the trailer because the circle is a familiar shape and you always want to be directing the horse what to do.
What you do with a horse that is terribly afraid of the trailer because of previous bad experiences is just calmly get him working on your step cue and walk him up to the trailer. The truly scared horse has a tendency to rock back on its haunches with his attention locked on the trailer as he approaches it. Gradually, you'll heed him closer and closer till you get him right up to the ramp. Then he'll literally try to go up the ramp into the trailer on his toes as he walks in beside you. So take some familiar-smelling bedding from his stall and cover the ramp and trailer floor about 6 inches deep so there's no chance he'll slip and slide when he first tries to tiptoe inside.
        When you are reintroducing trailers as good things, you don't want the horse to be afraid to escape. So if he wants to escape, you let him. Stop at the point where he begins to hesitate and acts like he wants to escape. Let him investigate. Make sure you reinforce your friendship with the horse. Groom him, scratch him, talk nice and don't apply any loud pressures. Do this over and over until the scary spot gets closer and closer to the trailer.
Heeding makes the horse feel safest at your shoulder. A lot of times, the horse will be perfectly willing to stay next to your shoulder but he won't be relaxed and will therefore want to escape (with you) when things start getting scary. So you must achieve rhythm and relaxation during each stage of introducing this "new" trailering equipment. Most horses will not be this fearful, however. Horses that are very afraid are usually horses who have been beaten into a trailer before and are afraid that they will be beaten again. You must be very patient and calm with these horses and give them time to trust you.
If your horse gets excited, stay as close to the shoulder as you can. Your body there will calm the horse. And if the horse gets scared, it is even more imperative that you remain in position at the shoulder. Leaving the shoulder in a time of crisis is like the pilot of an airplane running to the back because he thinks the plane is going to crash. You have to consistently stay in position alongside the horse's shoulder so that the horse starts to realize that he can rely on you whenever you're in that position.
You must make your horse calm at all times when he is next to you so that if he gets scared, he comes to you. If your horse is AFRAID of the trailer, you must stay at the shoulder so that he has somewhere safe to be and before you know it, he is trusting you and walking with you into the trailer.
      You must give him all the time he needs to get comfortable with the trailer. Do not force the issue. Let him check it out. Give him time to be curious. Keep him paying attention to the trailer and to you. Don't let his head go to the outside or behind you. If he backs up, stay at his shoulder, and ask for back. Make it your idea. Let him calm down by giving him something to do that he already understands and can be successful doing. Then walk forward again. Show the horse what to do. By backing and walking forward again behind the trailer, the area that the horse is comfortable in will get larger and larger until he is also comfortable walking into the trailer.
        Getting the horse into the trailer is not the big goal. The big goal is getting the horse to willingly go with you anywhere, to follow your step aid accurately and willingly. If the horse will not go somewhere with you, you must fine tune the heeding and earn more trust.
Never hit a horse that's afraid of the trailer with your whip to get him to go in. The object is to get the horse to want to get in the trailer, not to trap him in the trailer. He should go in because he trusts you and because he feels safe next to your shoulder, not because you have whipped him in. But if you start a fight or force him into the trailer, you will only make the situation worse.
       

So be patient and be his friend. Keep going back and heeding around the trailer, maybe even do some lunging near the trailer. Keep the situation calm, keep the horse working in rhythm and relaxation until he realizes that when he is with you, the trailer is not scary.

“Do any students go into Meredith Manor with little riding knowledge or experience?” Student responses include:

“Do any students go into Meredith Manor with little riding knowledge or experience?”

Student responses include:

• "I actually think it was beneficial for me because I didn’t come in with any bad habits that I needed to change and the instructors really worked with your level of experience and helped you progress."
  Nichole
• "I don’t feel I’ve learned any slower than other students that came in with horse experience, I just didn’t have any preconceptions that I might have to change."
  Lisa
• "I don’t feel like not having any experience hindered me in any way, it kind of left things as a blank slate for the instructors to be able to fill in, and there’s less for them to have to fix."
  Angie

TRAINING MYTHUNDERSTANDINGS: ADVANCED GROUND CONTROL: HEEDING

           Ground control precedes horse control. If a horse doesn't heed its handler on the ground, it is never going to listen when that person swings into the saddle. A lot of horse people mythunderstand ground work. They think it just means snapping on a lead rope and pushing or pulling a horse from the barn to the arena or from the stall to the crossties or hopefully into a trailer. One of the ways to make people think you're magic with horses is if you can control the horse from the ground constantly and consistently for the purpose you want.
Teaching your horse how to heed makes it possible to tell him not only what direction you want him to move but also how long to make his strides and how quick you want the strides to be. Heeding teaches the horse that when we apply a pressure, it has a meaning. The pressure is never an attack and the horse learns it will go away as soon as he moves way from it. Heeding takes all of the big, exciting individual episodes out of training. It makes training a step-by-step development of an understanding between you and the horse.
In the last two articles, we talked about how we start teaching our horses to heed by playing with them and why it's important to work the horse in a corridor of pressures or aids. When have the horse on a lead line and you get to the point where he stops consistently as soon as you turn in, start using your corridor of pressures to back him. In starting to back the horse, you have to be careful not to do anything off balance because that will signal the horse to turn. If you do anything too loud, he will become afraid.
Create a corridor with the wall on one side and you on the other. Stand facing toward the rear of the horse and hold your whip just in front of the horse's chest so you can touch either of the horse's shoulders easily. Whichever of his feet is the farthest forward, push gently on the corresponding shoulder with the whip handle until he picks the foot up. When the foot picks up, take the whip handle away immediately. When he sets it down, put the whip on the other shoulder and repeat the sequence.
           Remember to take the pressure away as soon as the picks his foot up. That is because you want every pressure to have a meaning and we want the horse to understand that if he simply moves away from a pressure slowly, it will go away. Removing the pressure is his best reward. So you are teaching him to reward himself while doing what you ask. Remember to move your corresponding foot at the same time he moves his. Eventually you will be able to just face backward, walk toward him and he will back up in the sequence of steps your feet direct him to.
As your lessons progress, you want to teach the horse to heed from both his right and left sides. Practice transitions from halt to walk, walk to trot, halt to trot and all the reverses of all those. As the horse becomes better, you'll be able to remove one side of the corridor and work him in the middle of the arena without things falling apart. If they do, go back to the wall and repeat some of the basics. Don't get bossy. Accuracy comes from doing the same thing over and over, not louder and louder. The horse learns from repetition, not retribution.
In the heeding process, you can get a lot of refinement and accuracy in the horse's movements if you keep refining what you do to ask and then trusting it will work. Eventually, you don't need to do huge movements to get the message across. For example, once the horse understands the game is to stay by your shoulder, you don't need to turn your shoulders parallel to his body anymore to get the halt.
             Similarly, when people start to train their horses to heed, they get to using their knees a lot. To be really accurate, however, you want to step forward rather than up. So you point with your toe rather than popping your knees as a signal to the horse to move. In time, all you will need to do to let the horse know that you are about to step forward is to lean one shoulder forward.
          After time, heeding becomes an auto pilot system. The fact that you are calm will cause your horse to heed the fact that you are calm. As you change positions, it indicates a change in things and the horse will change with you. If your shoulders are lined up with the horse's shoulders, the horse will move with you anywhere. If you back, the horse will back with you. If you move forward the horse will walk forward with you. And if you stay on that line and go out and turn, the horse will turn around you. If you break the line between the shoulders and face the horse, the horse will stand because now you are not asking it to move. The habit will become so complete that there will never be any panic involved.
If you pay constant attention to your horse, the horse will pay constant attention to you. And if the horse is paying attention to you, it is not paying attention to anything else, since all horses have a one track mind. This gives you a kind of control that is not obvious but is complete.
Heeding takes all of the big, exciting individual episodes out of training. It makes training a step-by-step development of an understanding between you and the horse. It creates a horse-logical system you can use to lead the horse, longe him, put him on a trainer, stand him for the vet or farrier or even for a mare in the breeding shed.

TRAINING MYTHUNDERSTANDINGS: HORSE-LOGICAL COMMUNICATION STARTS WITH GROOMING

                 A lot of amateur trainers MythUnderstand what the training process is all about. They think that training involves dominating a horse, showing him who's boss. They approach training as though it were a battle in which one party wins and the other loses.
Good training is not about confrontation. It's about building a horse-logical communication system. As trainer, you do your talking as a non-hunting predator just walking through the herd or in the role of lead mare in your little herd of two. But you don't ignore the horse's side of the conversation.
To understand the horse's side of the conversation means learning horse-speak--how horses say things to one another. Then you use that knowledge to say things back to the horse for your own purposes. You want to communicate to the horse that you like it, that you're glad it's there, that you like to be around it. You're not going to just grab the horse and beat it into submission. In terms of horse-speak, grooming can be a powerful influence you can use to gain control and trust.
Wild horse survival requires strong herd instinct. Mutual grooming expresses camaraderie among horses and helps wild ones bond into a herd. Horses love to be groomed. Use this to your advantage to make friends with a horse when you first start working with it and to study how your horse communicates things to you.
For example, if the horse is totally relaxed and looking around and sometimes looking back at you then you got some good quality time going on. Pay attention as you groom the horse to see where it's sensitive areas are and where it really enjoys a good scratching. Horses often signal their pleasure by screwing up their upper lip or by arching or stretching their neck when you hit an itchy spot. If the horse pins its ears, swishes its tail, or threatens a kick, it's saying "back off." There are horses with very thin skin who dislike coarse brushes but if you groom them properly without sudden moves using soft brushes and a degree of pressure that agrees with them, there should be no problem.
When you are grooming, the horse will naturally want to return the favor because that's what it would do if you were another horse. If the horse starts chewing on you, do NOT slap it. If a horse tries to chew on you, you should have seen it coming if you were paying total attention to your horse. Grooming is not just moving a brush with your hand while you daydream about tomorrow. You should be thinking about now, about this horse. So if the horse wants to groom you in return, interrupt it unobtrusively. If the head starts around, and you've been paying attention and have a plan, you'll just put hand up near the neck to stop the head turning without making a big sudden attack on the horse. You interrupt the undesirable behavior without changing the horse's attitude, excitement level, or interpretation of what's going on.
The safe place by any horse is beside the front legs. If you are standing beside the front legs and have some way to control the head, you won't get kicked, bit, or tromped on if everything turns into a can of worms. So you start grooming where it is safe--at the shoulders--and you just keep working both directions. Take your time and keep working slowly to the back and find all the places. Keep making your safe bubble bigger and bigger. And by the time you and the horse speak the same language, the entire horse will be available to you and things will rarely if ever fall apart.
If, when you turned it loose, you saw that this horse did lots of kicking, you would never go to the back of the animal without taking the lead rope with you. That way, you can swing the horse's hindquarters away from you by pulling the head toward you if the horse tries to kick.
Actions and body language are the only things that make up horse-speak. Save your vocalizing for later. If you use vocal commands at the horse, you will leave out the horse-speak, and if you leave out the horse-speak you will be very frustrated with why the horse won't listen to you. If you always apply a methodical and directional pressure to create a shape that the horse feels and understands, then put a word or signal along with that methodical pressure, the horse may notice it or may not. However, over a period of time, the horse will begin to notice it and pick it up as having a meaning that it feels at that moment. But it is unenforceable.
If you want to talk to yourself, or hum, or sing to yourself while grooming, however, it is fine. Anything that will keep your rhythm and relaxation will keep the horse's rhythm and relaxation.
There are times when you go into someone's barn and all the horses in there will be in a depressed state because they don't like where they are and they don't like what goes on and they don't like anybody. The horses won't make any fuss, they'll just be mopey and down. Horses that have a happy thing going on are going to communicate with you as soon as you go through. One may stick its head out and tell you that you have no business going by without coming over to visit. One might try to get you into a game of duck and bite. But they are all going to be active. They will be doing anything they want. If you go into a barn and the horses get up immediately, you know that the horses are definitely afraid of the people. When you watch people around horses you will find out very quickly whether or not they understand horse-speak and have the knack for "nice-ing" the horses into submission. That is the skill that a lot of people don't understand.

UNDERSTANDING REIN AIDS

             Beginning riders often 'mythunderstand' rein aids. They initially view them very simplistically in the same purely functional way they view the steering wheel and brakes on their cars. And, to be fair, that is all many new riders can manage in the very beginning. However, as they move up the riding tree and finally gain the holy grail of an independent seat, they learn how to apply rein aids properly as far more than simple indicators of direction and speed. When they can use their seat and leg aids to shape the horse in the direction of travel, to indicate the gait, to set the rhythm, and to regulate the horse's speed and impulsion, they can use their rein aids to manage the subtle coordination of all of these performance parts. Until they have that degree of control over their own bodies, they can work on the 'parts' of applying rein aids correctly until the two come together.

For starters, the rider's hands must be in the correct position. Hands should be close together on either side of the horse's withers. As the rider looks down, the thumbs should be the highest point and the pinkies should be closer together than the thumbs. When the hands are in this position, there will be a straight line from the knuckles through the wrists to the elbows. The line of the wrist should neither break toward nor away from the rider's body nor down or up relative to the forearm. The hands should slightly in front of the saddle. Their height above the horse's withers will vary depending on the horse's conformation and frame but the line from the bit to the elbow should never break. The elbows should rest relaxed at the rider's sides. Keeping elbow joints relaxed allows elastic rein contact.

Secondly, a steady grip on the reins is essential for steady bit contact. For that reason, I require all my riders wear gloves, especially in hot weather when hands can get sweaty. While the decision to wear or not wear gloves may be an individual one, riders must achieve 'grip' without 'gripping.' If they tense their hand or forearm muscles in order to keep the reins from slipping through their fingers, they cannot achieve the soft, elastic contact that is the ultimate goal. Riders can experiment, if necessary, with reins of different widths or different materials to find a set that allows them to grip the reins comfortably without the kind of gripping that tires muscles and interferes with an elastic feel of the bit.

Finally, when horse and rider are in motion, riders must hold their hands steady. This means the hands move neither up nor down, nor side to side, relative to the horse's withers. The steadier the rider's hands, the steadier the horse will move. If a rider's hands wander around chasing contact with the bit as the horse moves its head, the horse will never learn to seek that steady, elastic contact that allows clear communication between horse and rider. Again, the hands should be slightly in front of the saddle and raised above the withers at a height that maintains a straight, unbroken line from the bit to the elbow.

Riders cannot achieve truly steady hands until they first achieve an independent seat. That means they are relaxed, balanced over the horse's center of gravity, and can follow the horse's motion at every gait. As they work on that independent seat, however, beginning riders can make a habit of checking their hand position from time to time, especially when making up and down transitions, until they are sure they can 'feel' when it is correct. They should glance down with their eyes rather than tipping their head down which changes their body position and balance. Arena mirrors are useful here. And, as always, feedback about hand position and steadiness from an instructor or friend on the ground is invaluable.

With the correct hand position and an independent seat, riders can modify their steady, elastic connection with the bit in four ways: keeping, taking, resisting or giving. A keeping rein aid is a steady connection that allows whatever the horse is doing to continue. The degree of connection (sometimes referred to as 'weight in the reins' or 'pounds of pressure') is highly variable depending on the horse's conformation and the horse's frame. In a stretching frame the horse stretches the neck forward and down to the rider's hand. In a working frame the horse stretches the neck forward and out to the rider's hand and in a collected frame the horse stretches the neck forward and up to the rider's hand.

The amount of 'weight' in the rider's hands when keeping contact not only varies from horse to horse due to conformation but also varies from frame to frame. The 'weight' feels heaviest in a stretching frame, becomes lighter in a working frame and becomes even lighter yet in a collected frame as the horse now 'carries' himself (self carriage). The lighter feel of contact in a collected frame occurs because the horse's impulsion is more 'up' than 'forward.'

The rider must learn to accept the contact from the horse as he moves into the hand. Riders sometimes 'give' the rein as soon as they feel the horse coming to their hand. If they do this consistently, the horse will never be able to step to the contact. I tell my students to feel for the horse stepping to their hand. Then they must be sure to keep a steady hand that 'accepts' the contact and closes the circle of aids. If riders give away the connection at the same time they are asking the horse carry more weight on his hindquarters and come under himself, the effect is like squeezing a toothpaste tube with the top open. All of the horse's added energy runs out the front and the horse never achieves the rounded frame the rider wants.

A taking rein aid interrupts what the horse is doing. Ideally, riders move only a little finger (or both little fingers) closer to their body. If this is not enough to influence the horse, however, then the 'take' occurs by moving the elbow back. The wrist should never change when taking with a rein. Breaking at the wrist is a common mistake.

The degree of pressure on a taking rein will be relative to the response of the horse. The rider will always try to use the least amount of pressure but if the horse does not respond then the pressure will increase. A resisting rein aid follows a taking rein aid and simply means that the rider does not immediately follow the taking rein aid with a giving rein aid.

A giving rein aid removes the resistance applied by a taking rein aid. The little finger that moved back in a taking aid now moves away from the rider's body and back into a keeping aid position (or the elbow moves forward again). The amount of giving will be in direct relation to the amount of taking. The taking and giving usually last just a stride until the horse moves forward and back to the keeping rein.

Using steady, elastic rein contact to communicate with the horse is far removed from the concept of reins as a steering mechanism. But it takes many, many rides to develop the necessary feel and timing to apply rein aids properly. Pay attention to the successful tries until they become more and more habitual and just keep riding.