In a perfect world the horse is connected to us through the reins, meaning that the contact we’ve established on the reins serves as the ultimate communication tool. There is no tension, simply touch and with it the power to execute energy through the horse at a moments notice.

What this means for us as riders is that the legs become quiet and are used primarily as a balance point, but please don’t misunderstand and think I mean balance through squeezing or holding on with the legs. There is a large issue of overusing the legs as it compromises your balance, creates tension upwards into your seat, can radiate into your hands and promote pulling on the reins not to mention add confusion and complication to your communication with the horse. The less that we have to use in order to let the horse know what we want, the better.

Contact on the reins can only be appropriate if the horse is pushing/propelling himself forward from the hind legs calmly, while also maintaining the proper bend. Without these our ability to communicate through the reins is compromised at best, though often worse – disconnected.

The magic happens quite brilliantly however when these elements are all in concert with one another, as you can orchestrate collection in the horse, gait transitions and spectacular lateral work that is forward, light and graceful primarily through the reins. The legs working secondary to the hand in providing support. On the other hand, to rely upon the legs primarily the hands are left to working in excess to either contain the anxious energy created by the overuse of the legs and force position to create second rate lateral work and dull transitions.

While at the Midwest Horse Fair this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, I was asked about correcting a gaited horse who would no longer gait. My first horse was a Paso Fino, and over the years I’ve played with a variety of gaited horses. To me, they are intriguing and fun, playful and energetic, and at the same token widely misunderstood in developing the gait. I was happy to offer to play with the mare, rarely wanting to pass up the opportunity to learn something from the horse itself.

I want to reflect that, it wasn’t the gait which was at fault. The mare was perfectly capable of gaiting, given the right conditions. This is normally the case, and it is then left up to us as the rider to know how to enable the right conditions for that gait to not only occur but to flourish.

This particular mare, from the get go, lacked any understanding of proper bend, or a sense of any elevation at the base of the neck from the inquiry of the reins. I messed with her in her stall for a short time before heading out to the arena. In the arena I worked her in hand for some time, setting up the foundation for elevation at the base of the neck, and establishing a sense of bend. She lacked forward quite severely, and with every change in her mental attention followed a slowing or stopping of her feet. Bend cannot follow in a horse whose energy is not correctly forward. Why I refer to it as energy rather than feet moving forward, because a horse whose energy is aligned with forward can maintain the proper bend while at the halt or backing, whereas a horse whose energy is not aligned with forward will not maintain the proper bend while moving briskly at any gait.

Touch is an intimate thing, and somewhere in the course of this mare’s training, she had learned to accept touch like an annoying friend – enjoyed only when her ‘sweet spots’ were being scratched, and otherwise ignored unless aggravated enough to push the friend away. Establishing touch with a horse like this is a process not won immediately, it takes time, but more importantly it takes focus on your own actions, energy and mental focus. It is easy to get distracted with the inconsistent movements of the head, but if the mind can be focused on something consistent, your actions will follow and so will the horse.

I worked with the mare on basic bending, elevation, half halt. Worked on developing a pattern of rhythm, like dancing, like dancing with someone who has two left feet and is slightly inebriated… haha. On her back, I began by explaining to my human companions what I like to do at the beginning of every ride, before I ever ask for a single step forward from the horse. I establish the half halt and the bend, which can result in a step or two backwards, naturally occurring from a correct half halt. From there, I have set the foundation for engagement in the first steps of walk under saddle.

It can be easy to get the horse to lift their head, to make the ‘appearance’ of the first step of half halt, but it isn’t so much the elevation of the head, as the elevation of the base of the neck. That proves the connection of the whole body. How this happens is that the lifting of the base of the neck will inspire flexion of the cervical vertebrae, directly translating to the thoracic, and creating space for the flexion of the horse’s pelvis – leading to a narrowing of the base of support by bring the hind legs closer to the front – collection.

First steps of walk with this mare were slow, needing much more forward. So we worked on forward, establishing and maintaining the bend, and half halting where necessary. She began to carry herself more freely, her gait relaxed and her stride lengthened. She also calmed considerably from the first minutes in the arena which were met with her nervousness and distraction at all the surroundings.

Overall, her gait was not an issue, but rather the necessary communication needed to ask for that gait. And in summarizing, forward, bend, half halt, forward, bend, half halt. Three necessary ingredients..

The bend I refer to is that of specifically the neck and generally the entire body. The bend is one of four factors I consider in the working of the horse, that are rules so to speak and guidelines. When something is not functioning properly, i.e. a movement isn’t as correct as I would like, then I defer to checking on the four guidelines. They are, in no specific order, Bend, Posture, Speed and Balance.

Why bend is so important is because it is the basis of posture, and posture is how you direct the horse’s movements. Posture is also how you affect the horse’s speed and balance. So you can see they all go hand in hand. Bend comes before posture, because if you lose the bend or are obtaining it through force (and with force comes resistance on the part of the horse) and then attempt to create the posture to then direct the horse, it will not work as efficiently or may not work at all.

There are particular instances when straightening, and thus losing the bend, is appropriate. In between lead changes for example. If the horse has changed the bend away from you, he places you at a distinct disadvantage and in danger if you are on the ground. From the saddle you lose your ability to influence him with the reins in a predictable manner. It becomes more clear why the bend is so important as we look at the dangers.

Bend controls the direction the horse travels in, affects your ability to posture the horse which controls the speed that the horse moves forward, sideways or backwards, and the horse’s balance.

Bend cannot be forced or coerced from the horse, but rather finessed. It takes tact, patience, timing and rhythm to develop and maintain the bend. It is the basic of rein aids and can be trained before the horse is ever ridden.