15/07/2021
Oliveira once said that a great deal has been written about the rider's hands but that there is little discussion of the legs. Perhaps he was right. We often hear that a rider has good hands, but not often that he has good legs.
Why should this be, one wonders?
Perhaps because it's an extra-ordinarily difficult topic, and legs
are far more invisible in their application, or misapplication, than are hands. Even legs that are heavy and gripping
can be invisible.
Here is an approach to address firstly the technical aspects of differing leg positions, but, far more importantly, a second thrust has been made to identify the training of these differing positions.
Once instilled in the horse it is up to the rider to maintain their lightness. It is the lightness to hand and leg which
provides for a horse's balance allowing it to best carry the weight of it's rider. This is but the 'language of the aids' that we must learn and teach to our horses for without it there can be no proper communication.
This topic is best discussed in light of the brilliant construct from Lord Henry Loch in which there are postulated to be a series of 'buttons' A, B, C and D along a horse's side
[ Figure 1].
The application of the rider's leg(s) to these buttons can be separate (unilateral) or together (bilateral), and one leg may be forward of the other, both of them carried to the rear, or both forward depending upon the effect desired.
It must surely be a matter of fact that to use their legs effectively in this fashion that a rider must have an independent and correct seat.
This should be explored. While riders have been told to let their legs hang down naturally from open hips it can be a source of wonder, then, why so many legs hang down over button 'B', even in upper level riders.
Is it because, in an essentially fork seat, their torsos are tipped forward?
Are they tipped forward in this fashion because they are apprehensive perhaps?
Worried riders will often assume this position in the belief that it is more secure when the exact opposite is true.
Is it because many ride with straight elbows which inevitably tips the shoulders forward? Or are their stirrups too short, and in an effort to fix a chair seat they fall on their forks,their lower back arching, while their legs are carried back too far. Perhaps it's a combination?
Paillard,as did Oliveira and Beudant suggested
we sit upon our buttocks. Oliveira and other great Masters recommended that we let our shoulders down and carry them back, such that we should ride with our waists forward, into the hands, rather than the other way around. Then we would assume the classical seat so well documented by Masters such as Caseaux de
Nestier who was renowned for his impeccable seat [ Figure 2 ].
Under such circumstances the legs will hang
naturally along the girth such that the heel lies close to button'A' on each side.
It will take a conscious effort,
at first, to move a leg from this position to another button at the rider's discretion.
Finally, it must be said that horses do not have 'live' buttons, like accelerators, on their sides when born, and responses to the leg on these buttons must be trained by a process of 'conditioning' evoking therefore a 'conditioned reflex'.
The accuracy of the horse's response to pressure on these buttons is entirely secondary to the accuracy and precision with which the rider applies the pressure.
Too much, or too little, or in the wrong place, will wreck the response. Just as for the hand the legs must always remain in light contact with the horse's side, draped around the barrel, like slabs of wet meat, until required.
Through a process of training it should become possible to move each part of a horse separately, with our aids. The head and neck with the hands, the shoulders with the hands and legs,and the haunches with the legs and to some extent the hand.
BUTTON 'A'.
As most riders are aware,the closure of both legs on button 'A' should be impulsive, to ask the horse to go forward. If one leg only, however, is applied to button'A' then this should move the shoulders in the opposite direction, while the horse should bend around the pressure point as it steps to the side. This unilateral leg aid applied to button 'A' should be familiar to most Western riders but is often not emphasized to riders of 'modern dressage' although they ride the same concept when they ride shoulder-in.
BUTTON 'B'.
There is no call for the application of both legs to button ' B' on either side until schooling is fairly advanced when what was taught at button'C' to evoke the collected stop, or halt, the collected rein-back and piaffe may be refined by moving forward to button ' B'. This results in an aesthetic refinement.
There is ample scope for the unilateral application of only one leg to this button to move the haunch to the opposite side, or to prevent a haunch moving too much to the same side.
Button'A' controls the shoulders and button'B' the haunches. There can, of course, be innumerable combinations of buttons 'A' and 'B' used singly, or together, on one, or both sides of the horse as desired.
BUTTON 'C'.
When the legs, together, or alternately, are applied to button'C' they will in a trained horse bring the hocks
under the mass.This can only occur in a horse trained to some collection, and then only in three movements,
the collected halt, the rein-back and the piaffer.
The only function therefore of both legs acting on button 'A' on either side is to send the horse forward and not, as is so often taught, to bring the hind legs under the mass.
It is unfair to expect a horse to bring it's hocks under it's mass unless changes of balance into more collection have been trained.
BUTTON 'D'.
Much has been discussed as to the use of the leg(s) at button'D' ahead of the girth to provoke better elbow movement in lengthenings, and while that may well be so, it is also an excellent 'reserve' button. It can be used,
for instance, if one wished to practice Baucher's 'combined effects' for it completely negates the confusion that a horse may associate this button's use with any other. This would be for another discussion.
It is in the training of the horse to learn the 'language of the legs' that is of particular interest. A maximal response to ever decreasing pressure should be the trainers absolute preoccupation. Lightness to the leg(s) is every bit as important as lightness to the hand in high equitation, and, indeed, each 'feeds'off each other.
Very young stock, as yet unaccustomed to 'button pressure', at first, may actually lean into any pressure applied.
With this in mind it is best, but not mandatory, to approach these lessons in-hand, to begin with.
The horse need only have a halter and lead shank. The correct response to pressure from the tip of an index finger at button'A' is to step the shoulders away from the trainer.Even a half step or rocking in the correct direction must be rewarded by stroking and with the voice. A verbal 'cluck' may be added to the finger pressure to give the
horse the idea that movement is required of it. It is very important to understand that if the horse leans, or doesn't move, that just the same pressure needs to be applied with the finger, and maintained for as long as it
takes for the horse to move it's shoulders sideways.
For the trainer this can be very uncomfortable to begin with, and the use of an object such as a key or hoofpick will alleviate this discomfort.
That being said it is every bit as important to release whatever pressure is applied THE INSTANT the horse 'gives' and steps to the side.
It is in the speed of release that lightness is born. The trainer must pay attention at all costs.
This lesson of the leg to button'A' must be repeated, in-hand, over and over, on right and left sides, with, or without
an accompanying cluck of the tongue with the absolute goal of applying less and less pressure to obtain the
same response. Very quickly the horse will learn to step sideways simply observing the hand or end of a whip
approaching it's side.
It is unfair to train the horse to come off pressure at button 'A' unless the pressure is applied at button'A';so it is incumbent upon the trainer to always be very, very, precise as to where he presses and never to vary the site by losing concentration.
Be very assured the pressure is applied just behind the girth
where one's leg would hang on button'A'.
The lessons, in-hand preferably, at button'B' are to move the haunch to the side away from pressure and the same comments concerning the degree(s) of pressure with the finger as it concerned button'A' are fully referable to button'B'.
To begin with button 'B' should be at a definitive distance from button'A', but not as far as button 'C', to avoid early confusion in the horse's mind.
As training progresses button 'B' may be brought closer and closer to button'A'. A horse can feel a fly land on it's side and can therefore distinguish distances to within a couple of inches.
As these in-hand lessons progress the use of very light touches with the tip of a whip on these buttons should be practiced to extract the same effect.
Indeed by holding the halter close to the lower jaw it should be possible to walk the horse sideways away from the trainer, with the shoulders leading, and the tip of the whip or finger close to button'A'. Standing in front of the horse it
should be possible to obtain a simple rotation of the haunches around the forehand by the tip of the whip
applied to button'B'.
With the horse in a snaffle, attached to reins, such a turn of the haunches can be made with counter flexion of the poll, produced by an outside rein.
This is the 'reverse pirouette' described by Fillis and other French Masters but is difficult to practise, demanding some equestrian tact. Perhaps for another time?
To practise the lessons of the leg on a mounted horse it must be placed 'in hand'with a snaffle at the halt, and with the rider's legs hanging down, naturally, on button'A'.
To test the forward response to closing the legs on button'A' on either side the fingers must open, employing the principle of 'legs without hand' to permit the horse to move forwards.
The response forward should be as an orange pip
squeezed between index finger and thumb.
If little happens, an incorrect response by the rider is to squeeze harder, or, God forbid, to kick with their legs.
The whip applied to the haunch is the answer, before testing the response again.
If there is still nothing then the whip must be given authority. Little taps without a response become self defeating. The horse must move instantly forward to the call of both legs at button'A'.
As training progresses the pressure applied, must be reduced to 'the wind of the boot'.
From a mounted position it should require no more than a turn of the boot by a few degrees to exact a response from the increased proximity of the calf thereby produced.
A forward response produced in this fashion becomes no more than the physical expression of a psychological attitude.
With the application of a unilateral leg at button'A' on one
side, the horse should move it's shoulders sideways with the same degree of lightness and alacrity. The opposite leg must be relaxed to permit this sideway movement to occur. If there is little or no response to the single leg, then the
horse is not light or it doesn't understand. The whip should be used, but this time behind the leg.
To use a whip effectively in this fashion it is often easier to transfer the reins to one hand to permit a more accurate use of the whip behind the leg.
The lesson of the leg at button 'B' should result in the haunch moving over in a direction opposite to that of the leg applied. Again,should there be a sluggish response, or none at all, the whip should be used behind the leg, until a generous response is forthcoming.
To have the haunch move to the side without the entire horse moving to the side it will be necessary to keep a 'support' leg on at button 'A' on the opposite side.
Simple turns around the forehand and reverse pirouettes can then be ridden from the halt but always in lightness to the aids.
Progressively,once buttons 'A' and 'B' have been taught in this fashion gymnastic exercizes in walk proceeding to trot and then canter can be entertained.
Just as the buttons were taught in-hand it is equally important for the rider to use only sufficient pressure to exact a response when mounted and to be assured to remove it the very moment the horse responds in a satisfactory fashion.
While a discussion of the spur, stirrup stepping and use of the thigh are for another time, it is written in
stone that the use of more and more leg pressure,and particularly kicks,will simply lead to less and less response
in the horse, as it becomes more and more dull to the leg.
The same applies to legs which grip or become heavy or tight to hold the balance of the rider.
It is for the rider to make his or her horse 'understand', and to then let it happen.
In riding what is often felt to be bad in the hands oftentimes stems from something bad going on in the legs.
Sandy Dunlop,
British Columbia,
Canada.
March 2009.
