PARTICIPANTS

Our study session on Sunday was with Annalise and her new horse, Em. Em is a Hispano-Arabe mare (Andalusian/Arabian), 9 years old, and competed in dressage by a previous owner at 3rd level. The mare was purchased with the understanding that she was well-educated and could soon be competing at 4th level, but Annalise is discovering that although the mare is sensitive and responsive, there is an undefined ‘disconnect’ present under saddle. She had ridden the mare at the seller's home and found Em’s reactions to be quick to the aids and responsive to the seat, yet after a few months she now suspects that the mare's ‘lightness’ isn’t that at all. What is she feeling? Annalise recently had the opportunity to ride some advanced horses, which she described as feeling 'at one' with her, 'lifted', easily 'maneuverable'. She wants to understand why these feelings are lacking in Em despite the mare's obvious body sensitivity and gain more clarity on what 'lightness' in riding is all about. ​

 

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A FEW POINTS ON LIGHTNESS

True lightness can’t be present without collection--and false lightness always indicates a horse not in true collection. The way to achieve collection is to educate oneself and one’s horse to demonstrate biomechanical markers of collection (collection not being the topic today, we'll leave that there); the way to true lightness is to progressively liberate the horse from the aids used to ask for collection, and allow the horse to move in complete freedom.

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A simple definition of 'lightness' (often called by the French word, 'légèreté') is a horse biomechanically collected in body, maintaining its own carriage, ridden in a release of aids by the rider, the movement through space feeling pleasantly effortless and centaur-like. Since this is, in essence, the feeling of 'nothing' resisting/contracting the experience, the rider who seeks to train a horse to lightness has to be able to perceive what this pleasurable nothingness feels like. A knowledgeable rider will recognize and perceive false lightness, but a less knowledgeable rider can be fooled if they haven’t the experience to feel the common contractions and evasions a horse demonstrates counter to lightness.

 

Some riders believe a 'light' horse is one who has body sensitivity or quick reactions, and Annalise had this impression when she purchased Em. It’s important to realize that a horse that is responsive and sensitive in its body doesn’t mean it’s unified with the rider in the partnership and liberated from the aids in the specific way that lightness in riding necessitates. We can believe our horse is light under our body, in our hand or to our leg because it feels that way, but simultaneously the horse can be heavy and imbalanced in another part of its body without us being aware of it. This is because sometimes we can become so accustomed to riding a horse that bears or pulls or evades through inertia (yet is still reactionary) that we become numb to it and only realize its lack of lightness was present when it’s eradicated. In some cases, it's simply because we've not ridden a truly 'light' horse before--we just don't know what we don't yet know. In the case of Annalise, it was the experience of riding advanced horses who truly were light, and feeling an undefined myriad of shockingly pleasant feelings doing it,  that she realized Em's 'lightness' just wasn't the same.

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So how to recognize the paradoxical 'lightness' in riding? 

 

The more we ride, the more we study, the more time we spend trying to put theory to practice—the easier it becomes to define the things we feel in our body and the horse’s body, to define the things we perceive directly through the physical act of sitting upon the horse and indirectly through the mental focus we give to the act of riding itself. The key to recognizing what is true and correct—and riding that way--is study, practice, experimentation. This puts lightness in riding within our grasp, attainable to any rider who perseveres and any horse sound of body and mind.

 

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OBSERVATIONS

We took time observing Em’s movement and behavior at liberty, on the longe line, and then under saddle. Annalise had been asked to research forms of 'false lightness' and find online videos that represented these examples, and to come to our session prepared to talk in detail about her issues with her mare. She wrote a short essay of her findings and brought questions to explore. 

 

Although there are many ways a horse can present as being 'light' without truly being so, the following examples were the ones we discussed potentially pertaining to Em:

 

• The horse that will come behind the vertical, the legs appear to be underneath the horse but in fact the horse is lifting the back through the shoulders, resulting in a roundish hunch. It can feel light and be slow in movement, and incorrectly perceived as collection. 

• The horse often seen in dressage competition, with the neck shortened and compressed by the hand; the horse has no connection through the spine to the hindquarter, demonstrated by not lengthening its neck and searching to the giving hand.

• The horse with the fixed neck position whether from being taught to hold its neck so or because of conformation paired with constant alertness. The tension present disallows the back to swing and the hind legs to carry well forward.

• The horse who has been asked to elevate its neck too soon in training. The horse learns this posture, can feel light to the hand in spite of the dropping of the chest and neck into the shoulders.

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So what was Em’s most obvious issue? Obviously, if any of the above are present, Em wasn’t just demonstrating false lightness, but also false collection--a whole lot of things were going on.

 

Annalise decided the most prevalent thing she was observing on the ground and feeling under saddle was a tightness or tension in the forehand despite Em being responsive to seat, hand and leg; she decided the likely culprit was the 4th point discussed above, i.e., too much elevation of an already-high-set neck. My first perception when riding Em was the feeling of an anchored and sunken chest, unable to lift due to the neck posture she assumed on her own. But I would also add the 3rd point above, as Em demonstrated an unstable back, a clear feeling of her hind legs stepping behind the point of mass, and uneven rhythm in movement. In addition, the tenseness of her forehand made it difficult to bend well in either direction, not just her natural 'crooked' side. However, to the (very) giving hand, although it took a few times, Em demonstrated an inclination to lower her posture which led to some remarkably clear moments of lifted back and hind-leg freedom,  but for the most part she really didn't seem as if she knew how to do it.

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Em's biggest trigger appeared to be her reaction to the hand. Merely picking up the rein caused a nervous flapping/mouthing of the bit in contact, then an abrupt shift of her neck upwards where she kept it, at this point dropping contact so thoroughly that the feeling in the hand was complete nothingness---one thing that Annalise had mistaken for lightness. Although Em could move forward in this pseudo-light contact and was sweetly responsive to the leg and direct action of the reins, she’d been taught to elevate her already high-set neck like this while moving willingly forward in all gaits by a trainer who perhaps wasn’t able to feel that Em's back was hollow and her hind legs had insufficient carry-forward freedom or power to perform to their true capacity due to this posture. Em could perform lateral movements and lengthen/shorten her strides in an uneven appearance of extension/collection, but tension was present throughout her body and the ability to turn with ease and lift her chest with her hindquarters was absent, among other more subtle issues. 

 

To determine if Em was experiencing an issue with the bit itself, we changed Em’s bridle to the riding caveson which exerted influence upon the skull rather than the mouth. Em demonstrated the same evasion once more---nervous mouth movement (less the bit), jutting her neck up high and tight, dropping contact to the hand completely, yet content to move forward in this disconnected posture at all gaits.

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SOLUTIONS

Em is a gorgeous young horse, healthy and sound, with no glaring conformational faults that would prevent her from achieving advanced dressage work, which is the goal of her owner. In her earlier education, however, too much attention has been paid to her head and neck to promote a false frame, resulting in a horse whose gaits aren’t pure and a faulty posture that negates her athletic potential.  It’s not enough to simply work on lowering her neck and re-educating her reaction to the hand/bit; the whole horse must be re-educated, teaching her a new comprehension of aids, reshaping her body, replacing reactions, optimizing her gaits by showing her how to reach her biomechanical potential. Annalise and I discussed a complete re-start of her training with the most basic exercises, beginning with learning to search for the hand, stepping under her point of mass, gaining influence to the inside then outside hind legs in order to communicate to Em how to achieve correct work in true collection—all this through handwork in the caveson, the bridle, work on the longe, and under saddle, every element reflecting the other and building progressively upon a new way of reacting and moving. 

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The greatest challenge of a situation like this isn’t always the long-term work required, but rather the willingness of the horse’s owner to stay committed to the process itself.   

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Today we did a little work with Em to get started:

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* Observing Em at liberty, she showed us her preferred and natural posture when relaxed, which was a good deal closer to horizontal than the posture she purposely assumed under saddle. However, when we came close to her, she shifted into the very-high posture as if ready for work. After time spent loving on her, giving her treats, playing and more petting, Em again relaxed her posture and began to move with more freedom in her body as we gently 'drove' her at walk/trot around the arena. She could benefit from several sessions a week doing just this--hanging out and relaxing with her human.

 

* Em has an excellent work ethic. The moment she's bridled, she’s all business and willing to interact. This is excellent, with the exception that Em believes work—and her rider standing near her--equates with that high/tense posture—the raising of her head and neck, tension coming to the forehand, hollowed back, her gaits losing their natural freedom. In spite of this, I think she's a prime candidate for a successful rehabilitation as she seeks a partnership, listens and tries to do what is expected of her. If Em wants to 'come to attention' to her human on sight, the fact that she quickly began to show us a relaxed posture when we gave her some lovin' leads me to believe she can be easily convinced to change her habits--i.e., to relax when we stand next to her, not stiffen. In other words, her willingness to learn and interact in addition to her sweet temperament may make it unusually easy to eradicate the past poor training habits. 

 

* Working on the ground with the short lead in the caveson at first confused her, as it does with every horse confronting their natural asymmetries. Petting and treats convinced Em to drop her head and after several stop/go/confused moments and many ‘pretty girl’ compliments, she gave a great sigh, relaxed her posture to show us her preferred frame of minimal self-carriage, then proceeded with stepping-under her point of mass with her hind legs far better than during work under saddle, her back lifted, shoulders more free free, spontaneous and good flexion/relaxation of the jaw with no bit in her mouth, and much improved tempo and rhythm in her gaits (walk/trot)---bingo! She was a happy mare.

 

* Annalise will be continuing her study in academic horsemanship focusing on the groundwork with Em for the time being, with no-pressure short sessions to keep the work fresh and the horse enthusiastic. This will include—as in the exercise described above--teaching a new reaction to the hand, shaping her posture in a lower frame, seeking tension-free self-carriage, learning to influence the hind legs separately and then together to step under her mass, encouraging the carry ability of her hind legs, etc., all in good relaxation and rhythm. Although when learning this for the first time 'pieces' of the horse will have to be influenced separately, as soon as possible the goal is to be working to affect all these changes to the whole horse to establish unity in body as the new norm.

 

The next step will be to re-introduce the same work under saddle in the riding caveson; as Em gets accustomed to moving in a new posture on the ground, Annalise will also be learning how to ride her in this way so the two are in harmony and not working against each other’s efforts. Another session should be spent entirely on re-introducing the bit and studying her reactions to it. It’s a long road, but I think Em is possesses both the body and brain to be a great success.