On the bit

[Willem vd Mescht]

My biggest dislike about English riding is the "On the bit" thing. Back when I was still taking lessons I was constantly told to take the reins shorter, take it shorter and that just didn't feel right to me and also unfair to the horse. It didn't make sense, you want the horse to go forward, yet you're constantly holding him back. Fortunately after chatting to my instructor she told me that there is an alternative and she started teaching me about Western riding and Natural Horsemanship. Today I can hop on my horse, Frosty, anywhere on our property and ride her to where ever I like without having a single peace of equipment with me, except sometimes I need a rock to get on  . Ideally I would like to someday ride her out of the property like that too, but that will still take some time.

Now I know this much, that with a horse that is truly "on the bit" that, that contact should come from the horse and not from the rider and I was privilege enough to once been able to ride a horse for a few minutes that made contact like that. That is only one out of many horses I've ridden in my life. Not being used to it, I attempted to give the horse slack in the reins, but every time I extended the reins a little, the horse would just stretch out further to make contact again. He eventually had his head almost on the ground.

@Kelly Fick - My question to you is, how do one teach a horse to make contact like that, so that it comes from the horse and not from the rider. I believe there should be a way of doing that, but without having to hold the reins tighter and tighter yourself, but till now I could not get anyone to explain to me how you would teach a horse that. Most books for beginners, assumes that you have a well trained school horse, but what I need is a book that deal with a green horse that would explain step by step how to go from completely un-backed to lets say a beginner class English dressage horse. No need for any advance stuff, just basic foundation training. Any suggestions?

I know how to back a horse, done a couple, using Natural Horsemanship and then advancing to Western riding, but would like to be able to do it the English way too, but without feeling that I'm doing the horse an injustice.

[Kelly Fick]

Hey Willem

Ok, this is quite difficult to explain....but I will try my best. I'm going to start from the bottom, if you are doing something or sitting correctly then your horse will respond a lot better.

First of all....
You need to have a good position. 

HANDS:
Hold your hands over the pommel of your saddle (make sure your thumbs are facing up and not inside or outside, there should be a 10-15cm space between your hand and the pommel, now keeping your hands at that height put them about 10-15cm forward from the pommel.

SEAT:
Sit back on your bum, not perched forward with a hollow back. Put your shoulders back. Take a deep breath, notice how you relax and your chest goes up? Now you need to be sitting like that, with a relaxed mind and body and with your chest raised (Make sure you take deep breaths while you are riding). 

LEGS:
Place your legs slightly behind the girth with your heels down. MAKE SURE YOUR TOES AREN'T TURNED OUT!!! keep your toes forward, you might find this difficult at first so just practice that a bit, don?t expect to do it right the first time, it will take a while.

NOW FOR THE RIDING:
once you have a good position (all of the above should be done relatively well, hands, legs and seat play a part so none of them are more important than the others) you need to start right from walk. In the beginning most of the work will be done by you (don?t expect your horse to catch on immediately! It takes time...), lift your outside hand by about 2cm and with your inside hand 'Sponge', I?ll try and explain this You can do this by loosening your pinky and tightening it again, don?t do it to fast or tighten too much, by tighten I mean pinky back in its normal position... Think of this as if you were squeezing a sponge
Put your leg on to move him forward (not heels, leg, heels stay down and out of the picture, you use leg muscles so squeeze, not kick), at the same time you are holding him, not holding him back with short reins, it is all about contact, contact is when your reins aren't like hanging washing lines but not pulled tight either,  it is when you just feel your horses mouth but you are not hanging or pulling on his mouth, it will take some time to figure this out, but you should get it. Keep on sponging when you have your contact and while you are pushing.  I like to think of this as contact and not holding coz I?m not holding him back but he knows that he is not to go any faster.   The squeezing of the leg makes him use his hindquarters, when he uses his hindquarters correctly without going into trot then he will starts to carry himself (I don?t really like bits so if you are using bitless you can say 'in a frame' or 'carrying him/her self'), he needs to be moving forward in order to do this not ambling around like a plaas pony there needs to be some 'spring' in his step, if you know what I mean? once he is doing this he is listening to you and respecting you so you give him about 1in of your rein, let him 'take' it, he will stretch his neck down but he should keep the contact as he is 'taking' the bit of extra rein and turning it into contact, slowly give him for rein, inch by inch. after a while (as in days to weeks to months, some horses pick up on things quicker than others, the only thing that will help in training him is patience ). do this every day until he gets it.

I hope this will help you, I?ll go through this again and see if i missed out anything, I?ll post again if I have missed something
...oh I?m terribly sorry for my spelling in my previous posts as i was on the phone and get the letters jumbled up


Kelly