In this excerpt from her book The Athletic Equestrian, Sally Batton (head coach of the Dartmouth College Division I Varsity Equestrian Team for 30 years) teaches us a little trick to change the way we use our bodies while riding so we correctly prepare our horses for downward transitions.
Photo courtesy of Horse & Rider Books.
Never forget! Horses are rear-wheel drive, so they need to do both upward and downward transitions from the hind legs first. But what does this really mean? Imagine you are riding a bicycle extremely fast, then apply only the front brakes to bring it to a stop. Worst case scenario, you flip over your handlebars and, at a minimum, you are likely to get whiplash when your front tire stops suddenly while the back one keeps spinning. Horses are the same way: if you just pull with your reins, it is akin to slamming on the front brakes of your bike.
Proper use of the seat helps prepare the horse to use his hind legs during the downward transition.
Try This Exercise: Finding the “Drop Down” Point
Our horses do not always make it easy to ride correctly with our whole body. When a horse pulls or gets heavy in his downward transitions, many riders revert to using their arms instead of their seat. There is a spot right below the shoulder blades where the rider needs to “drop down” her weight in order to stay balanced and prevent the horse from pulling her out of the tack. To help a rider find this spot, I stand in front of the horse, hold the reins right behind the bit, and tell her to prevent me from pulling her out of the saddle. Usually, she resists purely in her shoulders and fists, and I am able to pull her out of the tack. I then place my hand right below her shoulder blades and ask her to put her weight into my hand without leaning back.
Most riders don’t figure out how to do this until I tell them to use what I call the “ice-cream-scoop mechanic”: in order to replicate the “forward swing” feeling of an engaged seat, think of your tailbone as an ice cream scoop. Use your abdominal muscles, without slouching over, to pull the ice cream scoop forward. If you try to push the tailbone forward with your gluteal muscles, you will become stiff and tuck the tailbone too far under.
Pulling the “scoop” with the lower abdominals engages the core and drops your weight down into the saddle. Riders should use their ice-cream-scoop mechanic in every downward transition they ride.
Try This Exercise: Walk-to-Halt Transition
Let’s break down one of the most fundamental downward transitions: working walk to halt. The essential elements of this transition will apply to those coming out of the faster gaits as well, but in the working walk-halt transition, riders have more time in the movement to fully recognize what each aid is (or isn’t) doing.
Start on the rail, encouraging your horse to proceed in an active working walk. Use alternating leg pressure while maintaining a following seat and a steady 5 pounds of weight in each hand. Pick a marker ahead of you at which to execute the transition to halt. As the horse approaches the marker, focus on engaging the seat by employing the ice-cream-scoop mechanic.
This will draw the pelvis forward and add depth and weight to the seat, stilling it in the saddle. Keep the shoulders stacked over the hips but maintain relaxation in the upper back. Close the fingers on the reins, applying a slight increase in pressure, and hold the elbow still. The horse should halt with his hind feet first.
If the horse doesn’t halt right away, or pulls a bit on the reins, or your aids are a little mixed together at first, don’t let it upset you. For many riders, applying clear, consistent aids for the transition between working walk and halt is a new challenge, and it will take some practice to get the timing, coordination, and response correct. Simply send the horse back into the working walk, review the steps in your mind, and try again.
This excerpt from The Athletic Equestrian by Sally Batton and Christina Keim is reprinted with permission from Trafalgar Square Books (www.HorseandRiderBooks.com).
