Post by Elaine on Sept 7, 2007 8:59:00 GMT
How can I get 'on the bit' nicely and easily with no gadgets, side-reins, double bridles or over bending and without needing arms of steel is a very common question.
‘On the bit’ isn’t just one thing. It’s actually lots of small things. When you put them all together then you get the rounded back, the engaged hindquarters, the vertical head flexion and the softness and suppleness and ease of movement that all come together under the ‘on the bit’ catchphrase.
The big question though before you begin, is why do you want to go on the bit?
Do you want your horse to look pretty? Do you want your horse to resemble a picture in a training book? Do you want to do it because people expect you to?
Or do you understand that to go ‘on the bit’ is really about developing an equestrian athlete who is physically prepared to be as successful as possible in your chosen equestrian pursuits?
Train your horse so he can do his job to the best of his ability while minimizing the risks of injury. Prepare him physically and mentally to be a top class athlete, whether you hack out with friends or compete internationally.
Your horse is an athlete.
To prepare an athlete you first need to make sure his whole body is soft, supple and flexible, and ready for your chosen equestrian discipline, whether it’s western, hunting, jumping, dressage, polocrosse, etc.
Imagine your horse is a gymnast. Before every performance, a gymnast needs to warm up their muscles and make sure every part of their body is flexible. It’s the same for horses.
For the best results when you are in competitions, riding for pleasure or practicing at home, first start by checking if your horse’s body is soft and supple all over.
Can you move his head and neck on their own? Can you move just the back legs? Can you move just the front legs? Can your horse take a step back? Can your horse take a step forward? Can your horse take a step sideways? And can your horse do all of these things from the lightest of cues showing softness through his body, without any arguments, braces or tense muscles?
It may sound complicated, but all of these things are the basics any horse should be able to do before you go for a hack, compete in your local dressage competition or hit the road for the national showjumping championships in Dublin. And the good news is that they are all pretty easy to do.
I teach all of these on the ground first, but if you know how to teach them in the saddle that’s fine too.
1. Lateral flexion – head and neck turned to one side - groundwork.
When riding on a circle, your horse’s head and neck should follow the arc of the circle. You can practise this on the ground first to get it right by asking your horse to turn his head a little while he is standing still. Don’t over bend, just ask for a little.
2. Hindquarter yield – groundwork.
A hindquarter yield involves moving the back legs in a circle around the front legs, which remain relatively still. Working properly on the bit means you need a soft flexible horse all over. The first thing you need to do is teach your horse to hindquarter yield on the ground. This also encourages the horse to step his hind legs under himself, similar to what you will be looking for soon. Hill work is also good to get the hind end engaged and working under the horse.
3. Forequarter yield – groundwork.
A forequarter yield involves moving the front legs in a circle around the hind legs, which remain relatively still. It is very good to loosen up your horses shoulders and take the weight of the forehand.
Imagine your horses back is long and straight like a dressage whip. Someone is standing in front of you holding both ends of the whip. You place your hand on the middle of the whip and press lightly downwards. The middle goes down, and both ends go up. If this was a horse, his head would be up, his shoulders would be tense and stuck, his back would be hollow, and his hindquarters wouldn’t be under him.
Now look at that straight dressage whip again. Put your hand under the middle of it and press upwards. Now the middle is raised and the ends are lower. If this was a horse, his head would be down, his shoulders would be free moving and raised and his back rounded, and his hindquarters would be underneath him.
A horse which is tense or defensive or stiff will often have both front feet stuck into the ground. This means the shoulders will be braced and the head will be up. It will be very difficult to ask a horse like this to backup or to turn his front end.
If you can get the front end moving independently then the forelegs won’t be stuck into the ground any more, the shoulders will free up and the back will be physically able to round. You’ll also find you are getting much longer steps with the two front legs. Your horse will cover ground more economically (fewer strides) and it will be more comfortable for the rider.
4. Backup (reverse) – groundwork.
Backing up is a very good exercise to get weight off your horse’s forehand, and is also very useful as part of training a horse that very light pressure on the reins means slow down. Like the forequarter yield, if your horse’s shoulders are braced or locked you’ll see this immediately when you ask them to take a step backwards from a light cue.
5. Sidepass and soft ribs – groundwork.
The sidepass is when the horse walks sideways. You get this by doing the hindquarter yield and the forequarter yield at the same time. The sidepass is very important. Your horse needs to start to understand that a little pressure with one leg while you’re riding means that he needs to wrap his ribs around that leg.
Often times when you start doing this with a horse, if you put on one leg your horse will start to go faster without bending his body. Instead we need to train your horse that while light pressure from your two legs do indeed mean ‘go faster’, light pressure with just one leg means ‘go sideways’.
So when you’re circling if you want to go from a walk to a trot, put on two legs briefly until you’re in trot. Then take them off again as its your horse’s job to maintain this gait, not yours. Then when you want that bend in his body like the circle, just put on your inside leg lightly and your horse will stay at the same pace, but gently arc his ribs around your inside leg.
This is also known as ‘soft ribs’, and is crucial to be able to do in order to work towards ‘on the bit’. Lateral flexion (bend in the neck) plus soft ribs (bend through the rest of the body) performed together, is the final step you do before going on the bit.
6. Repetition.
Repeat these in the saddle, until each is good, soft and easy on both reins. Conformation plays a small part but every horse has potential.
7. ‘On the bit’.
To be able to go ‘on the bit’ as it’s known locally, all of the things above need to have been done already. You should now be riding a horse who you can hindquarter yield, forequarter yield, backup lightly, sidepass, and circle on both reins with his full body (from poll to dock) arced in the same way as that circle. In the beginning you can work on very small circles. If you can do a small circle, the big circles will be easy.
The next step is teaching your horse how you want him to carry his head. Soft ribs and lateral flexion equals vertical flexion. To work on this walk your horse in a circle, maybe 10 or 15 metres.
Because of your inside leg, his ribs are soft (practise your sidepassing), causing him to arc around your inside leg from shoulder to hindquarter.
Your inside hand is gently asking for his head and neck to turn towards the inside. Your outside leg and hand do nothing at all.
There is a light contact on the inside rein as you maintain that inside flexion. Every now and again your horse will reposition his head either up or down slightly as he moves around. If your horse repositions it upwards, just keep that little bit of tension in the inside rein. If he repositions it downwards, loosen that inside rein. You are rewarding this behaviour with an immediate release of pressure.
You are teaching your horse that if he lowers his head a little, you are going to loosen that rein. If he keeps it where it is, or puts his head up, that rein is going to stay as it is. Remember, this is all just done in the walk. You’ll end up really concentrating waiting for the next split second when he gives his head a little. It’s actually quite fun!
Once your horse has started to figure this out, you can refine it a little and only release the rein totally when his head is lowered, and his nose is perpendicular to the ground. At the beginning it’s a great idea to have a friend watching who can tell you each time he does it, as it can be difficult to see it from the saddle if you’re not used to how it feels.
8. The final result.
Your horse’s shoulders are free, so his back is able to round and you have lovely athletic long strides.
Working on the circle, his body is arced around your inside leg, and his head and neck are flexed slightly inwards.
Your horse has started to figure out that if he drops his head a little and brings his nose in a bit, that you release pressure on the inside rein (you're not using the outside rein at all). Now he is inclined to do this by himself, dropping his head in, rounding his back, and his hindquarters have started coming in under him a lot more than before.
From your perspective, light pressure with your inside leg automatically results in an arced horse. A light cue from you on the inside rein will result in your horse adjusting his head position to where you want, which is followed immediately by a release of pressure by you on that inside rein. When your horse comes down ‘on the bit’, you’ve actually got no weight at all in your hands.
While I say ‘on the bit’ you can actually do all of these things bitless. Keep it simple and you’ll have a relaxed, balanced, supple, soft horse who floats over the ground.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you've got this far
also worth a read (it's short!) is this (ridden softness):
irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation&action=display&thread=406
‘On the bit’ isn’t just one thing. It’s actually lots of small things. When you put them all together then you get the rounded back, the engaged hindquarters, the vertical head flexion and the softness and suppleness and ease of movement that all come together under the ‘on the bit’ catchphrase.
The big question though before you begin, is why do you want to go on the bit?
Do you want your horse to look pretty? Do you want your horse to resemble a picture in a training book? Do you want to do it because people expect you to?
Or do you understand that to go ‘on the bit’ is really about developing an equestrian athlete who is physically prepared to be as successful as possible in your chosen equestrian pursuits?
Train your horse so he can do his job to the best of his ability while minimizing the risks of injury. Prepare him physically and mentally to be a top class athlete, whether you hack out with friends or compete internationally.
Your horse is an athlete.
To prepare an athlete you first need to make sure his whole body is soft, supple and flexible, and ready for your chosen equestrian discipline, whether it’s western, hunting, jumping, dressage, polocrosse, etc.
Imagine your horse is a gymnast. Before every performance, a gymnast needs to warm up their muscles and make sure every part of their body is flexible. It’s the same for horses.
For the best results when you are in competitions, riding for pleasure or practicing at home, first start by checking if your horse’s body is soft and supple all over.
Can you move his head and neck on their own? Can you move just the back legs? Can you move just the front legs? Can your horse take a step back? Can your horse take a step forward? Can your horse take a step sideways? And can your horse do all of these things from the lightest of cues showing softness through his body, without any arguments, braces or tense muscles?
It may sound complicated, but all of these things are the basics any horse should be able to do before you go for a hack, compete in your local dressage competition or hit the road for the national showjumping championships in Dublin. And the good news is that they are all pretty easy to do.
I teach all of these on the ground first, but if you know how to teach them in the saddle that’s fine too.
1. Lateral flexion – head and neck turned to one side - groundwork.
When riding on a circle, your horse’s head and neck should follow the arc of the circle. You can practise this on the ground first to get it right by asking your horse to turn his head a little while he is standing still. Don’t over bend, just ask for a little.
2. Hindquarter yield – groundwork.
A hindquarter yield involves moving the back legs in a circle around the front legs, which remain relatively still. Working properly on the bit means you need a soft flexible horse all over. The first thing you need to do is teach your horse to hindquarter yield on the ground. This also encourages the horse to step his hind legs under himself, similar to what you will be looking for soon. Hill work is also good to get the hind end engaged and working under the horse.
3. Forequarter yield – groundwork.
A forequarter yield involves moving the front legs in a circle around the hind legs, which remain relatively still. It is very good to loosen up your horses shoulders and take the weight of the forehand.
Imagine your horses back is long and straight like a dressage whip. Someone is standing in front of you holding both ends of the whip. You place your hand on the middle of the whip and press lightly downwards. The middle goes down, and both ends go up. If this was a horse, his head would be up, his shoulders would be tense and stuck, his back would be hollow, and his hindquarters wouldn’t be under him.
Now look at that straight dressage whip again. Put your hand under the middle of it and press upwards. Now the middle is raised and the ends are lower. If this was a horse, his head would be down, his shoulders would be free moving and raised and his back rounded, and his hindquarters would be underneath him.
A horse which is tense or defensive or stiff will often have both front feet stuck into the ground. This means the shoulders will be braced and the head will be up. It will be very difficult to ask a horse like this to backup or to turn his front end.
If you can get the front end moving independently then the forelegs won’t be stuck into the ground any more, the shoulders will free up and the back will be physically able to round. You’ll also find you are getting much longer steps with the two front legs. Your horse will cover ground more economically (fewer strides) and it will be more comfortable for the rider.
4. Backup (reverse) – groundwork.
Backing up is a very good exercise to get weight off your horse’s forehand, and is also very useful as part of training a horse that very light pressure on the reins means slow down. Like the forequarter yield, if your horse’s shoulders are braced or locked you’ll see this immediately when you ask them to take a step backwards from a light cue.
5. Sidepass and soft ribs – groundwork.
The sidepass is when the horse walks sideways. You get this by doing the hindquarter yield and the forequarter yield at the same time. The sidepass is very important. Your horse needs to start to understand that a little pressure with one leg while you’re riding means that he needs to wrap his ribs around that leg.
Often times when you start doing this with a horse, if you put on one leg your horse will start to go faster without bending his body. Instead we need to train your horse that while light pressure from your two legs do indeed mean ‘go faster’, light pressure with just one leg means ‘go sideways’.
So when you’re circling if you want to go from a walk to a trot, put on two legs briefly until you’re in trot. Then take them off again as its your horse’s job to maintain this gait, not yours. Then when you want that bend in his body like the circle, just put on your inside leg lightly and your horse will stay at the same pace, but gently arc his ribs around your inside leg.
This is also known as ‘soft ribs’, and is crucial to be able to do in order to work towards ‘on the bit’. Lateral flexion (bend in the neck) plus soft ribs (bend through the rest of the body) performed together, is the final step you do before going on the bit.
6. Repetition.
Repeat these in the saddle, until each is good, soft and easy on both reins. Conformation plays a small part but every horse has potential.
7. ‘On the bit’.
To be able to go ‘on the bit’ as it’s known locally, all of the things above need to have been done already. You should now be riding a horse who you can hindquarter yield, forequarter yield, backup lightly, sidepass, and circle on both reins with his full body (from poll to dock) arced in the same way as that circle. In the beginning you can work on very small circles. If you can do a small circle, the big circles will be easy.
The next step is teaching your horse how you want him to carry his head. Soft ribs and lateral flexion equals vertical flexion. To work on this walk your horse in a circle, maybe 10 or 15 metres.
Because of your inside leg, his ribs are soft (practise your sidepassing), causing him to arc around your inside leg from shoulder to hindquarter.
Your inside hand is gently asking for his head and neck to turn towards the inside. Your outside leg and hand do nothing at all.
There is a light contact on the inside rein as you maintain that inside flexion. Every now and again your horse will reposition his head either up or down slightly as he moves around. If your horse repositions it upwards, just keep that little bit of tension in the inside rein. If he repositions it downwards, loosen that inside rein. You are rewarding this behaviour with an immediate release of pressure.
You are teaching your horse that if he lowers his head a little, you are going to loosen that rein. If he keeps it where it is, or puts his head up, that rein is going to stay as it is. Remember, this is all just done in the walk. You’ll end up really concentrating waiting for the next split second when he gives his head a little. It’s actually quite fun!
Once your horse has started to figure this out, you can refine it a little and only release the rein totally when his head is lowered, and his nose is perpendicular to the ground. At the beginning it’s a great idea to have a friend watching who can tell you each time he does it, as it can be difficult to see it from the saddle if you’re not used to how it feels.
8. The final result.
Your horse’s shoulders are free, so his back is able to round and you have lovely athletic long strides.
Working on the circle, his body is arced around your inside leg, and his head and neck are flexed slightly inwards.
Your horse has started to figure out that if he drops his head a little and brings his nose in a bit, that you release pressure on the inside rein (you're not using the outside rein at all). Now he is inclined to do this by himself, dropping his head in, rounding his back, and his hindquarters have started coming in under him a lot more than before.
From your perspective, light pressure with your inside leg automatically results in an arced horse. A light cue from you on the inside rein will result in your horse adjusting his head position to where you want, which is followed immediately by a release of pressure by you on that inside rein. When your horse comes down ‘on the bit’, you’ve actually got no weight at all in your hands.
While I say ‘on the bit’ you can actually do all of these things bitless. Keep it simple and you’ll have a relaxed, balanced, supple, soft horse who floats over the ground.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you've got this far
also worth a read (it's short!) is this (ridden softness):irishnhsociety.proboards41.com/index.cgi?board=usefulinformation&action=display&thread=406
mean to take anything away at all from previous poster who writes so well - but from a classical point of view the first step was skipped. And "classical" does not only refer to dressage really, but is the time honoured proven way for the welfare of a horse's wellbeing in ridden work. 
. He also rode for Nuno Oliveira and is a friend of a close friend of mine and is coming to Ireland to teach us. That to me is like winning the lotto!!! And in the autumn I am going to audit Phillipe Karl in Sweden. 
The whole point of this board is to share ideas from everyone!!! Everyone on this board is a very valued contributor, with different backgrounds and perspectives & experiences. You sound like you've a lot you can share so I look forward to your future posts!!!