Intermediate/Advanced Aids

So you know by now that your natural aids consist of legs, seat, weight, hand, voice. But how do you use them effectively?

There are five different type of rein aids:

• Direct: this is what you'll be most used to. Your hand comes straight back to your hip, and the horse turns their head in that direction. Used to create flexion, turn, slow down, stop, and reverse.


• Indirect (aka rein of opposition): Your hand comes toward the withers (but should never cross!) Mostly used to help take the weight off of the shoulder on the side you're using. Sometimes used on the outside to make a tight turn at speed.


• Opening: this is when you bring your hand off the neck to one side. Used to encourage the shoulders to move in a particular direction, esp when starting a young horse, introducing lateral work, and jumping. Also sometimes called a "leading" rein or a "guiding" rein.


• Neck: most often used in western riding, the rein lies against the neck on the opposite side of the intended movement (ie, so when you want the horse to go left, the rein lies against the right side of his neck) Usually both reins will go left to turn left, both reins go right to turn right (easily done in western where both reins are in one hand). In english riding you mostly see it being used to facilitate turns while jumping. Also occasionally (ummm mostly only in text-books and random exam questions :) called the bearing rein.


• Pully: an emergency stopping aid, one hand with a short rein gets buried in the withers, while the other the rein comes up and back quite sharply. This aid is very harsh and should only be used if you're being seriously run away with (and are about to go off a cliff or crash into something dangerous! Otherwise remember, you can ride as fast as they can run :) If you use this properly the horse *will* stop -- and often spin the direction of the rein you used, so be sitting back and prepared for that.

Now you never use a rein aid without using a leg aid. And while the leg aids don't usually get names, consider the different ways you can use them:

• one leg at the girth - Active: encourages the horse to move forward and to bend around it. Preventative: stop the horse from cutting that direction


• one leg behind the girth - Active: moves the hindquarters. Preventative: stop hindquarters from swinging.


• two legs together: asks the horse to speed up or move forward


• closing a thigh against the saddle - Active: encourages horse to bend correctly rather than lean. Preventative - helps stop the shoulder from dropping (esp out on a turn)

Now consider the many possible combinations of these:
- One leg says go, opposite rein says "not faster", end result = lengthened stride. - Reins and inside leg say "go straight", Outside leg says "bring hindquarters in", end result = traverse.
- etc etc etc
This is, of course, all very simplified. But then, riding is really simple. It's just not always easy >;-P There are hundreds of "how-to" books if you want more about this... But the best thing to do would be ask your coach :)

Seat? What can I do with my seat? Seat is really a combination of your literal seat with your abs and back muscles (technically the back is controlled by the abs too, but for most of us non-anatomy-specialists it helps to think of the back as a separate entity :). Depending on how you choose to sit, you can shift your horse's balance significantly. Shift your weight forward, and his weight will be on the forehand. Sideways and he'll step sideways under you. Turn your hips left, odds are that's what direction you'll go.

You can use your seat with the motion -- your hips follow the movement and it encourages the horse to move freely, or against the motion - where you tighten your abs and back and tuck your seat under you a little bracing slightly. This has the effect of shifting the horse's weight back and will often slow or stop him.

Is your weight in your heels, your thighs, or your seat? It'll make a difference to your horse. Along with weight - where are you looking? This is important because your head is relatively heavy -- your horse can feel the shift in your weight. Note that in the beginning, the seat is rarely focused on -- beginner riders have enough to worry about figuring out their reins, legs and basic balance. But in the end, the top dressage riders will use their seat as their primary aid. It gets it's power out of its subtlety, but requires a great deal of skill to use.

And what's left? Oh yeah, the voice. Mostly a supplementary aid (and illegal in dressage) a cluck or a growl can be that little extra encouragement necessary to get a hesitating horse over a fence while a quiet "steady" or "woah" might help relocate the brain of a panicked bolting horse.

Now the tricky part to riding is to use only the aids you intend to use and none of the ones you don't! It's very easy to accidentally give the horse conflicting signals which can lead to a confused horse and a frustrated rider. When something's not working the first thing to do is stop and think through your aids -- what *exactly* are you asking him? Did your leg bump his sides (go) at the same time you closed your hand (stop)? Did your reins say turn left while your weight said turn right? Always remember your horse can feel a fly land on him -- he can feel what you're telling him, even if you don't *know* you're telling him something!