The Pingpong Principle

©Thomas Ritter 2009

There are several principles at work in riding and training that are not necessarily new, but that are not described by most authors, although they may very well have used them in their practical work, perhaps even without analyzing them in abstract terms. I will introduce these principles on my blog, because I have found them to be quite important and effective, and I use them in my riding and my lessons every day.

One of these principles could be called the “Pingpong principle”. The basic idea behind it is that many horses tend to listen only to the aids on one side of their body, while ignoring the aids on the other side. Very often, they pay attention only to the inside leg and rein – partially because many riders only apply the inside aids, while the outside rein is kept too long, and the outside leg is not touching the horse. The goal is to draw the horse’s attention to both sides of his body, to teach him that there is a rein and a leg on either side, and that all these aids can have important things to say. A very effective way of explaining this concept to the horse is to move him back and forth between both sides. As a result, the horse will become balanced in the middle between the inside and outside aids. Then the aids can rest lightly against the horse’s body and form a channel in which he moves.

Here is how this works in practice: The aids on one side of the horse are actively sending him forward sideways. The aids on the other side of the body are passively receiving the energy by framing the hip and shoulder. Then they become active and send the horse back in the opposite direction, while the original aids become passive and receive the energy by framing the horse’s hip and shoulder.

This can play out in countless variations. Some of them involve a change in bend, while others maintain the same bend. Some of them involve a change of direction, while others keep the horse on the same rein.

Here are some examples:

Counter-shoulder-in followed by shoulder-in

Half pass followed by renvers in relation to the original long side

Zigzag leg yields or half passes

Moving the hips and shoulders forward-sideways together in a leg yield in one direction followed by a displacement of the hips in the opposite direction

Turn on the forehand in one direction followed by a full pass in the opposite direction or vice versa

Renvers parallel to the long side followed by a leg yield or shoulder-in on a diagonal line away from the long side

Moving the hips back and forth, either at the halt or in motion

Moving the shoulders back and forth, either at the halt or in motion

The list is by no means complete, and it is not meant to be exhaustive. I just want to illustrate the principle with these few examples and leave it to the reader to apply the principle and come up with their own concrete exercises. If you are creative, you can design an almost infinite number of different exercises based on this one principle.

Feel free to e-mail me with questions and comments.

Thomas Ritter

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