“In the martial art aikido, the fighter blends with the direction of an opposing force, moves with it, and uses its power to defuse the attack.“
C.A.Huang & J.Lynch (1992).
This is another useful and important principle that can be applied to riding. Horses will sometimes go against the rider’s seat and aids for various reasons and use their body weight as well as their neck and hind leg muscles as an opposing force to the rider’s intentions. In some cases, the horse loses his balance, and the momentum of the movement throws his body weight against the rider’s leg or onto the rider’s hand. In some cases, the horse may not understand the rider’s request and brace against the aids out of bewilderment. In other cases, the rider may be making the mistake of blocking the horse inadvertently and not allowing him to execute the request, so that the horse has no choice but to brace and resist against the rider. In some instances, the horse may not respect the rider and his aids and ignore or challenge the rider.
Since the horse weighs almost ten times more than the rider, it is impossible for the rider to overcome the resistance with muscular power. Instead, the rider has to use the combined body mass of horse and rider, the leverage of the horse’s head and neck as well as his own torso, and the proper timing of the aids within the footfall sequence to overcome the resistance. This often makes it necessary to go with the horse’s movement, to blend with it, even if it is not the one the rider had in mind, but then to change its course from the inside. Applying an aid that is not diametrically opposed to the horse’s force, but that comes from a softer angle will meet with much less resistance, because it does not ask the horse to do the opposite of what he is currently doing, but it asks him to make only a minor change. If this minor change is sustained long enough or repeated frequently enough, it will eventually add up to a major change.
A common example is a horse who braces against the rider’s inside hand and inverts. Many riders then follow their initial instinct and try to force the horse’s head down by working backwards with their hand, which only makes the bracing worse. A much better and more effective way of dealing with it is to ride a circle and to move the horse’s rib cage out by following its natural swinging towards the outside with one’s own pelvis. The rider blends with this swinging and actively accentuates the movement towards the outside, while remaining passive during the return of the horse’s rib cage to the inside. The rider’s inside thigh, knee, and calf can support the pelvis in the movement towards the outside of the circle. The outside leg may have to reach back and prevent the outside hind leg from swinging out, and the inside rein can now flex the neck in an opening motion towards the inside of the circle, which asks the horse to give up bracing with his neck muscles. Since the rein aid is applied at an angle, and not straight backward against the direction of the horse’s resistance, it will succeed in overcoming the resistance. At the same time, the lateral motion of the rider’s pelvis helps to unlock the horse’s belly muscles, and the inside leg helps to engage the inside hind leg, so that it cannot brace against the rider from behind the vertical.
Another example is a horse that braces against a request to sidestep, for instance in a turn on the forehand in motion. Some horses are quite adamant in their resistance. If the rider pushes the horse at that moment, and tries to force the issue, the resistance will escalate. If the rider waits passively without any pressure, the horse will stop bracing and start breathing again. And at that moment, the horse is open again for the next aid. If the rider repeats his request, perhaps in a modified form, once the horse has stopped resisting, the aid will come through.
Another common example is a horse who perhaps misunderstands the rider and does a canter transition, rather than apply himself more in the trot. In this case, the rider accepts the canter, although he didn’t really want to canter, and rides the horse forward on one or two long sides, so that the horse stretches his top line into the rein contact again. When the horse has arrived in the rider’s hands again, the half halts will go through again and the rider can bring the horse back to the trot. An alternative solution is to allow the horse to canter, but to stay with the current arena pattern and exercise. This will be typically much more difficult to execute in the canter than in the trot, and the horse will come to the conclusion himself that it is better just to go with the rider’s initial request, rather than to try and evade through a creative suggestion of his own. Once the horse realizes that his own initiative is more difficult and more tiring than the rider’s request, he will come back to the trot himself, and the rider doesn’t even have to make any correction. Should the horse be strong enough to execute the same exercise and line of travel in the canter, then it will further the development of his gaits and posture, and it will give him a greater sense of accomplishment. Either way, the outcome is good.
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Thomas Ritter
