The posting trot is such an effective tool for riders. It lightens the load on a young horse’s back while they are building strength and coordination, it saves the rider’s seat on long distance rides, is a necessary step in developing your position for jumping, and much more.
What are the purposes of enclosing the horse’s mouth in Dressage or English riding? The employ of a tightened caveson, or flash, or other arrangement of noseband in the riding of the horse has long been purported as necessary to help the horse accept the pressure on the bit. To help develop the horse’s mouth. But what does it truly support?
This leads me to think of an action talked about recently about stopping the horse in a way not necessarily understood as to it’s working but that it does in fact work. To raise one rein upwards and taking the other directly back. It has been rolling through my thoughts unable to pin down exactly what I know it’s usefulness derived from, until yesterday. I was working with my lovely gelding, Tanjobi, when I thought I would experiment with it some. Not using it in quite the same way, while the direction of the reins was the same, the pressure was that of experimental value (read – very light). The action opens the horse’s mouth. It breaks the clenching resistance that comes when a horse attempts to run away with the rider. When the horse locks the mouth, grabs the bit, and runs. It also combines the elevation element inherent to the half halt.
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.
