So why do you think almost every rider has a problem with their left hand? Think about it this way: many horses are right footed, i.e. they fall on their right shoulder as the right hind leg is weaker, and as a result the left flexion is not supported by a free outside shoulder. The horse feels less supple on the left rein (even though he might bend more easily to the left). A rider's first first instinct is to try to fix it with the left hand and even before that, without thinking, he blocks against the block.
Better to go to the cause of the problem and gently lift the outside hand a bit and in the beginning counter flex with feeling and without force, waiting for the horse to lift off the right rein. When you feel the shift of weight off the right shoulder, return slowly to left flexion. Once the horse learns the rein aid he rebalances the weight with the slightest turning of the outside wrist, while keeping the left flexion. The result will be that your horse is more straight.
The usually taught antidote is inside-leg-into-outside-rein which means zero to the horse because he knows it won't fix his natural imbalance. In fact kicking the rib cage on the left puts him more in his right shoulder, so he either gets dull to the leg or if he is smart he gets angry/naughty with the rider. When you understand what's actually happening and use the correct aid to fix it the old annoying wrong habit of left hand and leg will fix itself and the horse is happier and becomes more and more relaxed because he trusts that his rider understands how to help him with the correct aids. Turn your own head to the left, then drop your right shoulder and see what happens to your flexion.
As a partnership grows between a horse and his rider, the rider learns the horse's weaknesses and employs different exercises to help the horse grow and develop in these areas. A horse, also learns the strengths and weaknesses of his rider and can often use this information to point out to his rider what they need to work on!
I have been adviced “Not to go to his party," meaning that when the horse is testing to see if you will remain balanced and stable, by shifting his weight to one side, or perhaps even by doing a playful kick up, that is the times when we must remain in our own sphere of control and balance, and not allow ourselves to be thrown off.
The reality is that the horse is typically responding to something he has noticed in us, in our position or our aid, that needs attention. He is saying to us “Look at what you are doing here." Instead of asking what the horse is doing, ask what am I doing that might be causing the horse's reaction.
For example, I have begun to work more on the preparation for the canter pirouette and after first establishing a collected canter on the spot, I began collecting the canter on small circles. The minute I started to turn Batialo’s outside shoulder, I would fall forward and Batialo learnt that as I fell forward he no longer had to carry my weight on his inside hind. He quickly learnt to let me come more forward and off balance, enabling him to avoid really sitting and preparing for the pirouette.
So, as I began to prepare the canter and ask for more collection on the circle, Batialo would gently allow me to fall onto his outside shoulder, and if I went to his party, I would shift all my weight to the outside and lose control of my inside seat bone, and with it the control of his inside hind.
I began starting the pirouette, thinking that I was sitting myself above his inside hind, and when he tried to tilt me forward I would think, "no, i’m not going to your party, I’m going to really engage my left seat bone, and keep my balance." Gradually Batialo learnt that if I maintained my weight over his inside hind, he reacted by pushing my weight up and thus engaging his left hind and developing more strength in that area in order to make the exercise more easy for him.
Now, when I begin to prepare the canter, Batialo knows that I will maintain my balance and he has learnt to push me up by engaging his inside hind. We can party out the pieurotte together. It would have been much easier for me to go to the party, fall forward, and let him put his weight to the front. Correcting our patterns takes work, they are patterns after all.
If you have a horse that can sometimes “parties” underneath you, you must use this as data collection and work out why it happens. What you do when it happens that might actually accentuate, or make the party grow. If you have a horse that bucks and you fly forward or pull your hands in the air, the horse will of course become more tense and more likely to party more then, the next times he decides to play. If you choose not to play along instead and stay firm and balanced in your own seat, reassure him that you are there and you are staying there. Then you are far more likely to have him settle down and party less.
Of course there are times when our horses just have a scare, or they feel a bit prickly on the windy days, but if you find there is a pattern to his partying, perhaps you are playing a role!
If your horse is always leaning to the left, or titling his head to one side, there might be something in your position that is causing this. Is your horse trying to tell you you are tilting yourself somewhere? When your horse “parties” when ever you canter left and ask for more collection, you might be blocking him with the inside rein, so that he feels trapped and has no option but make it obvious to you.
Once you have worked out the why your horse is partying, you must then learn not to go to his party. Reaffirm your own position and aids and tell him that you understand what is happening. You are working towards the solution. A horse learns our bad patterns very quickly and it is more difficult for us to fix them. Learning to say, "no I won’t just go to your party, I will correct myself little by little," is something that must be worked on everyday, every ride, and off the horse when you are seating, or standing, or walking.
by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage
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Sarah Warne's Classical Training Articles