The least amount of wrong, or as much right as possible?

I've done it again, I've upset the apple-cart, I talked about the rider's hand. And, as usual, I was told that I should not ride with the hand but with my seat, and that the seat is a much more important aid then the hand. I can agree for two reasons:

1. The schooled horse can be ridden with only the seat and not need the hand. The question is, how to school a horse so it can become finished? And an even more interesting question is, how to school a poorly conformed horse to a high degree of collection and suppleness? What is “a schooled horse” anyway?
2. The hand impacts the horse through the bit on very sensitive body parts, the bars and the tongue. If the hand is used badly it can damage the horse both physically and/or mentally. Therefore, only a rider with a good seat can use the hand to school a horse. Making a mistake with your seat doesn’t have nearly the same negative impact on the horse as a mistake made with the hand.

The least amount of wrong

The widespread idea in modern riding that the hand should be kept low and still in every situation originated in the early 19^th century when the cavalry needed a model for the quick education of soldiers. The hand low and fixed in all situations is the “average least bad” option. Such a hand will neither make motion easier for the horse nor school the horse, but at least the horse knows where the hand is and can adjust to this constant problem. This way of using the hand was never intended to be used to school horses, its purpose was to educate riders quickly to a low but, for the cavalry, acceptable standard of riding. The officers in the cavalry received a longer and much more extensive training including a more effective, refined technique for using the hand, suitable for schooling horses.

When writing this blog, teaching or giving lectures, I always strive to pinpoint why I see something as better or not. Just to say that something is “bad” or “good” without offering an explanation is not helpful for myself or the reader, student or listeners. By expressing in words, a mental readiness is created in our minds. This is the reason I stubbornly continue to talk about the hand and its affect on the horse.

In my way of thinking, the idea of low hands that should remain low no matter what the horse does is a way of riding where the rider strives to do the least amount of wrong. In certain circumstances this is all we can strive for. But if my aspiration is to do as much right as possible, then I need to try to understand how to use the hand to school the horse.

The most amount of right

In the Swedish translation of The Principles of Riding (Complete Riding & Driving System) (2003) you can read as follows:

”The rider has to be aware that man by nature always uses his hand to facilitate or prevent all kind of results. In riding you instead have to strive to give more and more refined signals with the hand as the weight and leg aids work better and better.” (page 73, my translation).

I agree. The hand can be used to facilitate or prevent all kinds of results. Maria has explained why in a previous blog entry: ”Thehand has access to a large part of the brain's motor and sensorycapabilities.”

The way I understand The Principles of Riding, the hand can only be used less when the weight and legs function “better”. As I see it the interesting question then is to ask what makes the weight and legs aids work, and also what makes them work better? In my experience the horse is thought to carry itself in such a balance by the proper use of the hand so that the weight and leg aids can work. The hand is the primary aid for schooling the horse. Not the weight or the legs.

To do the most amount of right with the hand is not the same thing as keeping it low no matter what the horse does. To do the most amount of right means that you are aware of the quality of the contact with the horse's mouth through the reins all the time. The contact with the horse's mouth is good when I have the weight of the rein in my hands, no more, and through the rein I can feel the gentle play of the horse's mouth as the horse softly mobilises his tongue and lower jaw in a relaxed way. These sensations are best transmitted through smooth leather reins. No special reins with “good grip” should ever be used.

Maria continues in her blog entry: “It [the hand] has all the potential in the world to be receptive, sensitive, subtle and well-coordinated, all we as riders need to do is to train it.” To educate the hand is to create in oneself a mental readiness to perceive the quality of the touch in the rein. One way of creating this mental readiness is to talk about a subject, to seek words that can describe what our hands can feel.

To have the horse light in hand is the beginning and end of all horse training. That is the core of the concept of the hand as the primary aid. Seeing the hand as the primary aid means you school the horse to respond to the bit neither by leaning nor pushing on it, and above all the horse should not fear the bit.

To see the hand as the primary aid means the rider has to be schooled 1) to follow the horse's mouth without interfering, in all gaits, 2) to refine the control of the movement of his own fingers, hand and arms in order to be able to give signals to the horse 3) to influence the horse's balance and posture through the position of the horse's neck and head.

A well schooled horse carries itself in such a balance that it can maintain a light contact with the bit in all gaits. Such a horse can be ridden with the use of the seat by a well schooled rider as long as the horse remains light in the hand.

The father of classical equitation, François Robichon de la Guérinière (,1688-1751), wrote in his book “Ecole de Cavalerie” that: “The hand ought always to begin the effect, the legs to accompany it: for it is a general principle in all the paces, as well natural as artificial, that the head and shoulders of the horse must go first ”.

What do you choose? To do the least amount of wrong, or as much right as possible?

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for checking my spelling and grammar! All other errors are my own.