In order for the horse and the rider to become the best versions of themselves and the best possible team they need to have a good relationship. The basis of this friendship between horse and rider is mutual trust, mutual respect, and effective communication. In all three areas, the burden is on the rider to prove herself to the horse, that she can be trusted, that she deserves respect, and she needs to learn to become a good communicator.
When you are working on your own, you can investigate certain questions together with the horse and let the horse show you how he wants to be ridden. Each horse is different, each situation is different, and the preferences of individual horses change over time, as they develop and move up the levels. That’s why you should investigate these questions again from time to time with your horse in order to be able to adapt your seat and aids to the horse’s changing and evolving needs.
Connection(s) and throughness is actually a rather large topic on which you could write a whole book because there are several different aspects to it that you can explain in great detail. There are many different connections that have to be established between the rider’s aids and the horse’s body, between the horse’s legs and the ground, as well as between the different parts of the horse’s body. With each new connection, the energy of the horse’s hind legs can travel more freely through his body and the permeability for the aids increases. Every time a connection is lost, the permeability diminishes and the movement impulses of the hind legs as well as the rider’s aids get stuck.
Aids are used for a variety of purposes. They are a means of communicating our intentions to the horse. They are sensors that feel the horse’s muscle tone and mood. We can use them as probes that follow the pathways of the horse’s bones and muscles to find any stiff, inflexible joints and muscles. And they can be used to frame the horse and create boundaries within which we want the horse to move.
