Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Neck reining and dressage

Of all the things I learned from Philippe Karl in his book, "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage," the biggest, brightest lightbulb to pop over my head happened when I read his section on using the hand to turn the horse.

Confession time:

The last huntseat trainer I lesson-ed with used to say, "turn the horse with the outside rein." Unfortunately she never elaborated on that statement and I couldn't make heads or tails of it. How exactly was I supposed to make the horse turn left with the right rein? If I pull on the right rein the horse turns right. Since I couldn't get that statement to compute I ignored it.

I also have to admit that I've never understood the statement, "ride the horse from the inside leg to the outside rein." What the heck does that mean? If you Google that phrase something like this will pop up: you create impulsion from the inside leg and then capture it with the outside rein like a handbrake. Huh? If I did that my horse would just turn to the outside! Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense.

Then I read Karl's section on using the hand and it was like the heavens opened up above me, the birds sang, the sun shone, and everything MADE SENSE.

As Karl quoted La Gueriniere:

"We can also note that when we use the outside rein by moving the hand towards the inside, this action causes the outside shoulder to move inwards and makes the outside leg move over the inside one: and when we use the inside rein, moving the hand towards the outside, this movement widens the inside shoulder, in other words it makes the inside leg move over the outside one. We can see, that through these different inside and outside rein actions, that it is what we do with our hands that controls the horse's forehand."

He's talking about neck reining

Cue me having a face/palm moment.

So "turn the horse with your outside rein" means use a neck rein to turn the shoulders. "Inside leg to outside rein" means asking for the bend with your inside leg and then turning the horse using a neck rein. Because your hands move the horse's shoulders- NOT your legs!

(In case you don't know about this: You ask for a bend with the inside leg by gently rubbing it just behind the girth. The horse will automatically bend around your leg- even Gwen does this.)

Of course all you Western riders already knew this, and are probably thinking that I'm about as thick as a brick right now. But in my defense, I haven't heard any English instructor ever utter the words "neck rein." If she'd said, "use the outside rein to turn the horse," heard me say "huh," and followed up with "press the rein against the horse's shoulder like a neck rein and use that to turn" I would have understood immediately. But I doubt that has ever crossed her mind.

(What you should be accusing me of is being totally dense about the concept of the indirect rein. For the record indirect rein = neck rein, they are the same thing. But "neck rein" just makes so much more sense, am I right?)

As BrownEyed Cowgirl commented on my "cession de machoire" post, barrel horses are a lot like dressage horses. Heck yeah they are! All flatwork is dressage, no matter what tack the horse is wearing. But us "snooty" English riders often fail to give Western riders the kudos they deserve and thus try to distance ourselves from our Western cohorts. (FYI- Karl gave you props: "In terms of changing direction, Western riding is much closer than official dressage to La Gueriniere's teachings.")


Have you ever heard that the mark of a really well trained dressage horse is that they can be ridden on the curb only, with a loose rein? A finished Western bridle horse is ridden exactly the same way. Because they are ridden using the neck rein.
Eitan Beth-Halachmy on a gorgeous morgan
I think the master of Cowboy Dressage, Eitan Beth Halachmy, explains it better than I can:

"Since Neck Reining is a term long time associated with Western Riding I would like to expand a bit on it. Neck Reining can be a misleading term. Often people think that if you move the neck you move the horse. Have you ever been on a horse who when you pull on his face to the right, he can still go to the left or move straight ahead? Neck reining is actually a moving of the shoulders. When you lay a rein on the neck the horse moves away from the pressure with his shoulders. It is the moving of the shoulders and the cross over of the front legs that makes the turn. A horse does not always follow it’s nose, but it does follow it’s shoulders."

"What you saw on the Silver Screen in Hollywood Westerns was poor horsemanship. The rein was placed up high near the horse’s poll and he was yanked around with his head up in the air and his mouth open. The American Cowboy did ride with one hand, neck reining, allowing him to carry rope, rifle, gun or whip.  A good finished reining horse that is in the bridle is an excellent example of proper neck reining. Cowboys also wanted a horse that worked well underneath himself. This allowed the cowboy more comfort, as a round backed horse is smoother than a hollow backed horse. A round backed horse stays sounder longer as a majority of his weight is placed back over his hocks and off his front end. A round back horse in self-carriage is quicker and more maneuverable. A horse in self-carriage is pretty to look at. There was and still is a great deal of pride in horseman of yesterday and today.  It was an honor to be recognized and respected for their good horses. The California Vaquero and his bridle horse is a perfect example of pride and horsemanship. They may have never heard the word “dressage” but they were practicing it in its purest forms."

How about that? Long post short: My horses are going to be champs at neck reining!

PS- I wanted to add this picture to illustrate how a dressage master would ride one handed on the curb only:
Philippe Karl

20 comments:

  1. That is funny that you posted this! My trainer was just explaining the same concept to me with Shyloh. She said to turn the horse with the outside rein and use the inside leg as a pivot point for the horse to turn into. Or something like that. Shy was ridden dressage for the first time yesterday and I have to learn all this new lingo!

    Great post!

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    1. Ugh, good luck. It's confusing as all get out ;)

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  2. We have touched on neck reining a little bit in lesson. It's hard and, to be honest, there seems to be a few ways to neck rein! If I remember correctly what we were told, we are supposed to keep our reins loose-ish and our elbows close to our body when moving the reins left or right. We do cue with our leg, but with the outside leg. So if I wanted to turn left, I would place the right rein on Gem's neck and apply my right leg, which is ever so slightly in front of the cinch, to push his shoulders off and start him reaching with his left leg. My left leg would remain neutral. I believe the reasoning is that if you apply the right rein and then apply pressure with the left leg, you will move the horse's hind end rather than the front. Does that makes sense?

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    1. Yes it does.

      I've had the aids swirling around in my head for a while now- specifically the legs. So if both legs at the girth mean go forward, one leg at the girth means move sideways (with a seat aid), and one leg behind the girth means move the haunches away- how do you use the legs to turn the shoulders? Do you reach a leg forward and tap the shoulder? That's an awful lot of leg movement, don't you think? It just made a lot more sense to me that the leg doesn't affect the horse in front of the saddle.

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    2. In the example I use with Gem, my right calf would be forward just a smidge and slight pressure applied to help him move off to the left as you turn your body to the left. I would think that as the horse becomes used to having a rein applied to one side of it's neck to ask for a turn, the leg cue wouldn't even be necessary, no?

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    3. Yes, eventually. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. My home computer wasn't accepting cookies for some reason and I couldn't comment on my own posts!

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  3. I've always thought about neck reining like Wolfie described above--right leg, right rein to turn left. When direct reining colts, however, I've always used a little pressure from the right rein, left leg to pivot left. Could there be different ways of doing it for different reasons?

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    1. I think you've just described inside leg to outside rein :)

      I'm sure there are different ways for different reasons, but I'm woefully ignorant of what they are.

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    2. Yeah, maybe we're talking about the same thing. After reading your last post, it sounds an awful lot like what I do with Cowboy--though on taking a lead and transitioning to canter I tip out and squeeze with both legs rather than just one.

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  4. i agree indirect reining is the effect referred to here, but the language and effect is so indistinct that it's unclear which of the indirect reins specifically is being referred to: simple indirect rein (neck rein), indirect rein of opposition behind the wither, or indirect rein in front of the wither, all of which will create movement of the shoulders as described, but of different degrees and qualities. the latter two, being reins of opposition, tend to have a pronounced lateral and somewhat collecting effect on the horse. the neck rein has no effect on collection and encourages more forward movement and counter-flexion.

    in the case of riding the horse 'from inside leg to outside hand,' my understanding of this concept is that it is intended to create a gentle lateral flexion in the horse from the inside leg which essentially 'fills out' the outside rein with a corresponding gentle contact, connecting the aids so that while the inside hand and leg create lateral flexion, the outside hand is free to regulate pace and degree of collection; that slight lateral bend is the key to developing collection and that outside rein is ultimately where the compression and expansion of the frame will be directed from. having the horse between inside leg and outside hand is an expression of this degree of 'tuning' between the aids (though i still don't explain it very well, do i?)

    the neck rein, imho (and feel free to ignore me), is probably the least likely of the three indirect reins in this scenario, as it has the effect of pushing the horse in the direction of the rein onto the inside shoulder and causing a degree of counterbend, which is incompatible with the leg aid being given. it's fine for loose rein riding, but if you want a balanced dressage turn, you'll want the horse on his outside shoulder, and using inside leg with an outside neck rein will be fighting against one another there. instead, when 'on the bit' horses are being asked to shift the shoulders inward, the hand is usually positioned for one of the indirect reins of opposition, either in front of or behind the wither, depending on whether the rider wants to straighten, shoulder-in, pivot, move the entire horse laterally, etc., as both reins have very different, and powerful, effects.

    anyway, just my 2 cents. :-)

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    1. I'm going to think on this for a bit...

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    2. it might not help that i'm probably not explaining myself very well :-\ let me know if i'm not making sense. i babble a lot and usually confuse people more than anything ;-)

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  5. I went out to my ride after reading your post this afternoon. I linked to it in mine. :)

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  6. I recently started training under a wonderful lady, and even though I had read about outside-rein steering, I understood it even less than you! When she started telling me to steer with the outside rein I was lost, then she started explaining it to me and I had the same face-palm moment, and happily shouted "Oh!!! Like neck-reining!!" It is a weird concept. My trainer also explained it like riding a river, and your outside rein is a bank, keeping the horse, the river, from flooding the banks. Neat concept.

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    1. That's a good instructor you've got there :)

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    2. Yay! I'm not the only one who struggled with the inside leg to outside rein concept for YEARS! It just didn't make sense at all, no matter how much I read about it. No matter how much I tried to use the inside leg/outside rein, my horse inevitably followed the outside rein and I gave up, completely defeated.

      Last fall I read an article (I can't remember where it was), that described the concept as using the outside rein to "push" the horse's shoulders over and the inside leg to give the horse a "pole" to bend around and AH-HA! Neck reining! I used my new knowledge the very next day and whaddya know, it works. It's amazing how when a concept is broken down into simple language it just clicks.

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    3. Jenn - That is exactly what my trainer was trying to explain to me when she was working on my horse. One rein is for control and turning, the other is for speed. But I can't remember which right now. Ugh! It is confusing. She also explained the inside leg as a pole to bend the horse around. I am excited to try this soon with Shy, she is getting the concept, now it's my turn. haha.

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  8. I have read in other websites that dressage takes a long time to teach a horse and this will need a good trainer. However, their skills and performance depends on their breed.

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