Chris Irwin
Have you ever heard the equestrian term of using our riding “aids” when describing the use of the seat, legs, spurs, hands, whip, bridle, etc, etc, with regards to control of the horse? At first, it seems a bit far-fetched, perhaps just another sugar coated contradiction of terms to refer to someone as “aiding” a horse when we see them using various means of “pressure” to control a horse. In fact, whether a rider uses his or her various body parts and tools of the trade as “aids” or as “weapons” depends entirely upon their knowledge and skill with regards to how they “get through” to the horse and what the message truly is that they are sending to the horse.
Take for instance the quintessential image of both dressage and reining. Of all the myriad of spokes on the wheel of horsemanship no two disciplines are more obsessed with creating specific “shapes” in a horse then dressage and reining. Why? Well, in an ideal situation the truly enlightened dressage or reining rider knows that the body and the mind of the horse are literally, meaning physiologically, connected as One. In other words, how a horse thinks, feels and behaves is directly related to the shape and gestures found in the body of the horse. Hence, the way to the mind of the horse is through the body.
The old expression “frame of mind” speaks volumes when defining the nature of the horse because it refers to the mind as a “shape”. What I’m getting at here is that the ideal shape of true “collection” as it is defined in classical dressage and reining is directly associated with a horse that feels calmly confident and assertive with a relaxed but intensely focused work ethic.
Having said that, before I go any further, it should be noted that just because someone wears full-seat breeches that does NOT mean that they are riding a calm and collected dressage horse and just because a rider wears a cowboy hat and chaps does not mean that their reining horse is supple and confident. Too often when riders want to “collect” their horses they are riding what coaches often refer to as “backwards” and/or they do not have a “seat” and they are either “ahead” or “behind” their horse. It is impossible to define each of these terms within the confines of a column but if we look at riding from the metaphor of driving a car with a standard transmission then we can say that there are those riders who are good with a clutch and there are those who are not. Too often a rider either “pops” the clutch on the horse or is “grinding the gears” of their poor horse. If a rider truly is good with the clutch of the horse then the rider can “aid” the horse into moving with a frame of body that makes the horse feel more wonderful while being ridden then it ever feels on its own.
A rider who is good with the clutch (the “back to front” relationship between the seat and legs into the bridle) is “user-friendly” to the vertebrae of the spine of a horse and can create shapes in the horse such as a “long and low” frame or a “well rounded” frame, and both of these shapes aid the horse by creating endorphins that soothe the naturally nervous and stressed equine mind. On the other hand, a rider who is hard on the clutch of a horse by pulling on the bridle in a manner that causes the back of the horse to drop while the neck and the head of the horse are elevated (in what is often referred to as an “inverted” or “upside down” spinal column), is a rider who is inadvertently creating a shape in their horse that produces adrenaline and will immediately trigger behaviors in the horse such as fear, anger or defiance. Another metaphor that applies here is that the rider is a sculptor using the aids to shape the animated clay (body) of a horse into shapes that hopefully relate to feeling good instead of feeling bad.
The concept that the body and the mind of the horse are one and the same is why I titled my first book “Horses Don’t Lie”. Our horses tell us exactly and honestly how they feel about everything, including how they feel about us and how well we ride them, by the shapes and gestures of their body. So, keeping this in mind, it can be a bitter pill for some people to accept that the behavior of a horse is directly proportionate to how we shape them into feeling. Or, to be blunt, the behavior of your horse = the way you make it feel. This can be a big ouch for some people and send many riders into tailspins of blame and denial but, again, Horses Don’t Lie.
So, if your horse doesn’t want to be “caught”, or your horse has issues taking the bridle, or standing still for saddling, or if your horse can’t stand quietly and always needs to move, or if your horse won’t engage and become as forward as you want, or too forward and will not stop, or will not jump, or cross water, or is “barn sour” and refuses to let you take it on a trail ride, or your horse bites, kicks, or strikes, or any and all vices and issues that people become frustrated and want to “fix” in a horse, please remember that your horse has a clutch and this particular vehicle, unlike your car, also has a mind and emotions. If there is anything about the behavior and performance of your horse that you don’t like then please don’t blame your horse. Your horse does not conspire against you, he or she simply reacts to how you affect his or her body shapes and how those frames of body make them feel.
In closing, remember, knowledge is power. I believe that if we all learned how to find just the right feel for the clutch of our horses then we could truly aid them into moving in such a way that they only feel better when we are with them and never feel any worse for the wear. If it was every riders goal to have their horses become addicted to how good we can make them feel then there would be no more frightened, angry or shut down horses. Instead we’d truly have calm and collected, focused and contented partners who appreciate how we make them feel and in return they reward us with affection and loyalty. It sounds too good to be true but there are indeed riders who can walk the talk of aiding their horses into being the best that they can be. So please make it your goal to ask not what your horse can do for you but instead ask what you can do to aid your horse.