During my last visits to South Africa over the past few months, I rode several Warmblood horses from various riders. Much to my surprise, I experienced the same problem on all these horses: Not one of the horses I rode was truly trained to work "between leg and hand".

To me riding a horse "between leg and hand" means that a rider can give leg without the horse getting stronger in the mouth. Also, a rider can give leg and still slow a horse down without the horse getting stronger in the mouth. Ultimately, the rider should get the feeling that the more leg he/she gives, the lighter the horse becomes in the mouth. In discussing this problem with the various riders, I received very similar responses from the riders:

"This is a sensitive horse, therefore be careful as this horse cannot take pressure from your leg" or "You have to ride this horse with this strong bit, otherwise you don’t have control" or "This horse has to be cantered forward very fast, otherwise it doesn't jump well".

I believe that the true cause of the problem is not one of the above, but rather that the problem originates in training. To try and explain the concept, I would have to start at the first training that a horse normally receives – halter training.

Halter training

Although there are various approaches to halter training, the basic concept of all halter training is to train a horse to understand that it needs to follow a person on a halter. When you ask a horse to move forward on the halter, the halter creates pressure behind the ears and it is therefore more comfortable for the horse to move forward with you.

Training equipment is normally designed to create some area of pressure on the horse. This aids us in our training in the sense that we make the option that we don’t want a horse to take, uncomfortable, and we allow only for the option we want the horse to choose to be more comfortable. In essence, all training we give our horses is focused to gain obedience and control over the horse.

Lungeing

When the horse gets older, we start to lunge the animal. Again various approaches for lungeing are used, but all lungeing approaches are focused on gaining even greater obedience and control over the horse. Some lungeing is done with a light or stronger bit and some with or without extra lungeing aids.

There is one particular lungeing method that I found best suited to illustrate the point of my discussion. This is the lungeing of a horse by making use of side reins and a lungeing whip. Bear in mind that I do not intend to discuss the positive and negative points about lungeing methods.

We ask the horse to move forward with the aid of the lungeing whip. Naturally the horse wants to put his head up when moving forward. This action immediately causes the side reins to create pressure on bars of the horse’s mouth. The horse tries to find a more comfortable position that relieves pressure.

Hence the horse moves forward in the position we initially intended. Now we have successfully communicated to the horse that this is the position in which we want it to move forward, by making the option we want the horse to choose, the most comfortable one.

My conclusion is that by making the options we don’t want the horse to choose, uncomfortable to the horse, and only allowing for the option we want the horse to choose to be more comfortable, we lead the horse into doing what we want. This enables us to gain more control over the horse. The same principle applies when we train and ride Warmbloods under saddle.

Back to training

Let's use a typical problem as our example: You ask a horse to move forward with your leg. The horse moves forward, but also gets stronger/heavier in your hand. Now you need to communicate to the horse that you don’t want it to react like that. You want the horse to move forward, but at the same time you expect it to remain relaxed and light/soft in the mouth. How do you communicate this?

The same principle that applies to the lungeing of a horse with side reins and a lungeing whip, applies here: Your legs act as the lunging whip and your hands together with the reins, act as side reins.

By blocking your hand so the horse feels pressure on the bars of the mouth, you make the option for the horse to become heavier/stronger even more uncomfortable. Keep this pressure and keep your hand in this position until the horse softens. The most important thing is that you do not soften by dropping your hand forward or starting to pull back, but that you maintain a calm, low and steady hand.

You need to give the horse time to eventually find the more comfortable option – to remain relaxed and soft/light in the mouth when asked to move forward. You have now successfully communicated to the horse that when it is asked to move forward and feels pressure on the bars of its mouth, this is an indication that the horse has to soften up by itself.

In essence, you have used your legs and hands in the same way that the lungeing whip and side reins function.

From a bad feeling to a good one

Although this method of training supports the true concept of "riding between leg and hand", it is easier said than done. We all want to ride with a "good" feeling, and riding with a lot of weight in your hand is certainly not pleasant for any rider. Yet, as with any other form of training, consistency is of the utmost importance.

Therefore you need to persevere through this initial "bad" feeling, until your horse has come to the correct understanding of what you really want. Only then will the "good" feeling return. This could take place within a very short period of time, or sometimes longer or even very long. It takes a lot of trust for a rider to ride from a "bad" feeling to a "good" feeling again.