Connection Article 2

It is second nature for humans to try to do everything with their hands. This means it is very difficult to train your hands to be still, and not busy fiddling with the horse’s mouth as you are riding.

If your horse is travelling along nicely, working over the back into a nice contact but periodically you lose it and his head comes up or he sucks back and loses contact with the bit, it is instinctive to try to correct this with your hands. As the lost connection is due to lack of thrust from the hindquarters (horse not travelling forward sufficiently), this will achieve nothing, other than training your horse to go behind the bit and avoid working his hindquarters. 

Any action on the mouth will have no effect on the hindquarters until the connection to the bit is secure. Until this is the case, rein aids will only inhibit the hindquarters from coming forward and hinder the activity of the back muscles. 

Whenever you feel that you lose the connection, it is necessary to drive forward with stronger seat and legs aids, while keeping your hands passive, until the horse comes onto the bit. 

You should practice pushing the reins forwards (as if they are sticks in your hands) while driving energetically forward to lengthen the horse’s neck. It is easier for the horse to keep his head close to his body as his head is heavy and requires work from the upper neck muscles to hold it out in front of him, but we need to build up strength in these muscles to ensure a solid connection to the bit. 

When we have this solid connection, we have control of the horse, and can control the hindquarters via half halts to increase collection and suspension in the gaits. Also, when we have this connection, the back muscles will be working properly and the horse will be easy to sit. As soon as the connection is lost, his back will become hard to sit. It is then necessary to use your driving seat and legs aids to regain the connection to the bit. 

If you can keep your hands quiet and still as you drive the horse forward up the bit, and don’t act backwards with your hands to influence the head and neck position, the horse will start to trust your hand and reach for it. 

On the other hand, if a horse is too strong in the contact, his hindquarters are pushing his weight onto the forehand and he is not engaging his hindlegs under the body. This is not a true connection as the rein aids cannot reliably control the hindlegs.

Here it is also necessary to use strong seat and leg aids to drive against a restraining hand, immediately releasing if he softens even slightly, then repeat if he continues to lean on your hands. He must learn that this is uncomfortable, and it will be much more comfortable if he submits to bending his haunches and carrying with his hindlegs. It is important not to get into a continuous pulling match with your horse, as he will win, and you will only succeed in giving him a hard mouth. It is important to release immediately he softens even slightly so he starts to understand. Often in this situation riders are tempted to try using a stronger bit to fix the problem. This is not addressing the root of the problem which is weak, or stiff hindquarters. The horse may back off a harsher bit if it hurts his mouth, but he still won’t engage his hindquarters until effective seat and legs aids cause him to engage his hindlimbs and step up to the bit, making subtle rein aids effective.

If the horse is leaning more on one side of the mouth than the other, this is due to natural crookedness. The horse usually (it can be the opposite way round) is bent in his spine to the right. This means he pushes more with the right hind leg in the direction of the left shoulder and leans on the left rein. It is difficult to get him to bend to the left and pulling on the left rein just makes matters worse. The right hind leg is held stiffly out to the right so doesn’t engage under the body. It is even more difficult to get it to engage when the rider hangs on to the left rein. 

In this case we need to take a firmer contact on the right rein and use the right seat and leg to control the right hind and push it under the body, while easing off on the left rein. Once the horse engages his right hind, it will be possible to bend him to the left, while taking care to keep control of the right hind to stop it escaping again.

Crookedness can be overcome by riding forward. If the rider has a good seat and can urge to horse on with both legs and seat, engaging both hindlimbs under the body, the horse will be straight and work into a connection. However, this connection is hard work for an untrained horse. When he starts to tire he will stop pushing as much with one hind leg and will revert back to the crooked position which makes a true connection impossible. 

Depending on his conformation and temperament, (or mood at the time) he will either suck back behind the bit, or start to lean on it.  If efforts to regain the connection by riding forward energetically are unsuccessful, it may be time to quit for the day or get off and give the horse a short rest. 

If you liked this article, please like and follow my FB page, ANGELA MCLEOD EQUINE VETERINARIAN and keep an eye out for future articles and videos.