Introduction
We are often asked how to get a horse light in hand and off of the forehand when he is leaning heavily on the bridle. Both issues are closely related to each other. The rein contact that the horse offers is not a localised affair that is limited to the rider’s hand and the horse’s mouth. It is, rather, the result of the horse’s balance, overall posture, and muscle development. That’s why it usually doesn’t help to change bits, because the underlying causes are located somewhere else.
Possible Causes Of A Heavy Rein Contact
Whenever something isn’t going well it’s always important to research the possible causes before deciding on a course of action to correct the situation because if you address the symptom (heavy rein contact) and not the underlying cause, it is unlikely that the horse will become truly light.
When a horse leans on the bit, it’s always a sign of an imbalance: the hind legs push more than they carry. They use their extensor muscles more than their flexor muscles, and the horse transfers some (sometimes a lot) of his weight from his hindquarters to the rider’s hands.
In some cases, the hind legs throw the weight onto the forehand because they don’t engage enough. They step down close to the vertical or behind the vertical so that they skip the flexion phase and start extending their joints right away. Because they are far away from the center of gravity, this force (in the physical sense) approaches the body mass from behind and pushes it horizontally forward. When the hind legs step down closer to the center of gravity, they can lift the body mass up because their force approaches the body from below rather than from behind, so the direction of the force is more vertical, rather than horizontal.
In some cases, the hind legs step down close to the center of gravity, but without flexing and without supporting the body mass. If the horse doesn’t have the strength in his hind legs to lift the body mass, or if he lacks the confidence in his hindquarters to support and lift the body mass, he will try to relieve his hind legs in one of several possible ways. One possibility is to lower his neck and lean on the reins. At the same time, he will try to keep the joints of his hind legs as extended as possible. This results in a hard and heavy rein contact and a hard, uncomfortable feeling under the seat bones.
Possible Remedies
Since the root of the problem is an imbalance, a lack of flexion of the hind legs, it can’t be fixed by using a stronger bit. It has nothing to do with the horse’s mouth. The heaviness in the reins is merely a symptom and it will only go away when you address the root of the problem: the imbalance between pushing and carrying. When the hind legs flex and support a larger share of the body mass, the rein contact will become light again.
The imbalance of the horse usually has a longitudinal and a lateral aspect:
The front legs have to support a larger share of the weight than the hind legs, when the joints of the hinds are not flexing enough under the weight,
and one lateral pair of legs has to support a larger share than the other pair. This is a straightness issue. The naturally concave side of the horse’s body typically carries a smaller share of the weight because the hind leg of that side moves alongside the body, instead of stepping underneath it. This shifts the weight onto the shoulder of the naturally convex side, which is why the rein contact on the naturally convex side tends to be heavier or harder than on the concave side.
There is another, related, aspect to it: Gustav Steinbrecht says that the resistance you feel in the bridle usually finds its support in one of the horse's legs. In many cases it's a hind leg, in others it's a front leg. The horse can only brace and lean on the bit as long as this leg is on the ground. He uses the ground against the rider, essentially. When you ask him to pick this leg up, he has to redistribute his weight to the other side of the body. Otherwise, he would fall down. It creates an engagement of the deeper core muscles and an opportunity to relax the outer muscles that had been bracing against the ground and against the rider. As the horse shifts the weight to the other side of the body, he can let go of the rein he was leaning on, at least for a few strides.
Any bracing and leaning by the horse is static in nature. It's human nature to try and fight the static behaviour of the horse with static counter measures, like holding and pulling. But since the horse is heavier and stronger than the human, the horse will win a leaning and pulling contest every time. The only thing that works in these situations is usually to dissolve a static resistance by moving the weight around so that the horse has to reorganise his balance which leads to him engaging muscles that had been slack and relaxing muscles that had been tight and braced. In other words, he stops bracing against the ground and against the rider.
Posture and balance tend to become habitual. Horses like to support themselves with the legs that they are more aware of. Using a certain leg more often develops the muscles around it, and it makes it even more available and more neurologically connected to the brain than the other legs. Some horses have a “favorite” front leg with which they always support themselves. Unfortunately, this asymmetry develops the musculature very unevenly, creates excessive wear and tear in the overused front leg, and leads to compensatory stiffness and bracing in various parts of the body.
If you try to change the weight distribution, some horses become very defensive because they think that you are trying to kill them. They are not aware that they have two healthy legs on the either side of the body. Or they don’t believe that these legs are all strong enough to support the body mass. So they may resist against any change of balance at first. In these situations it usually works well to move the weight only for short moments away from the favorite leg and allow it to return briefly. The more often you rock the weight away from the favorite leg and back, the more they realise that they have one leg at each corner of the body and that all legs are perfectly capable of supporting the body mass, at least for brief moments. This creates a greater sense of security and self-confidence. The horse no longer worries that he may fall down and die, and it leads to a better body awareness and a more even muscle development.
Summary
In order to make a heavy horse light, there are 6 areas you need to work on.
Mental flexibility: the horse has to be able to visualise the movement the rider is asking of him. If he doesn’t understand what the rider wants or how to do what the rider is asking, he will brace and resist.
Body awareness: the horse has to be able to feel his legs as well as the weight distribution over the support base. If he can’t feel where his legs are and which leg is supporting the weight, he can’t change his balance and will brace and lean or resist.
Balance: the horse has to learn to distribute and redistribute his weight over the supporting legs at will. Balance is not static. It’s dynamic. A horse is only truly balanced when he is able to adjust the weight distribution from one split second to the next, to meet the requirements of the situation.
Coordination: the horse has to be able to move his legs in any direction (forward, backward, sideways) and to move off from the halt with either hind leg.
Suppleness: shoulders, pelvis/hindquarters, and spine should be freely mobile, without being limited in their range of motion by muscle blockages. This enables the horse to balance himself and to carry himself without having to use the rider’s hands as a fifth leg.
Strength and stamina: The hind legs and the postural muscles need to be strong enough to maintain self carriage for longer periods of time.
I have found in practice that we often need to start with developing the horse’s body awareness first, then we can improve suppleness and balance, and when the horse has discovered the correct muscles that he needs to use to balance himself, we can strengthen and condition them.
