The Riding Aids

The aids are the language between horse and rider. The signals of the rider's aids allow the horse and rider to communicate with each other. This communication is not - as one might think at first - unilaterally directed from the rider to the horse. The horse has the choice of accepting the aids willingly or fighting against them, thereby signalling to the rider what the latter is doing wrong.

The term "aids" is used for the invisible co-ordination between the unity of rider and horse. In the ideal case, the rider should only have to think of the execution of the task for the horse to react promptly and correctly. However, it takes a long time to attain this goal. One pre-requisite is that the rider and horse have both learned this language of the aids.

In principle, an inexperienced rider should always learn the aids from a well-trained horse, and a young horse should learn the aids from an experienced rider, in order to eliminate the many misunderstandings which would occur otherwise, and which would have a negative effect on the training of horse and rider in the future.

It is often assumed that the horse will automatically understand correctly applied aids and will react to them in text book fashion. This, however, does not usually happen because the situation described in equitation manuals is normally based on a carefully trained and highly gifted horse. In real life, most horses which are not ridden in high-performance competitions will only experience a brief and not always perfect training period. Riding school horses, in particular, often learn the aids under different riders and in a great variety of ways. Such horses tend to learn that they will only have to accept what the rider seriously intends to enforce. The horse will simply ignore vague and poorly defined aids which are not applied with the necessary willpower.

Independent of this, the physical predisposition of horses varies greatly. Some lessons or paces will be easier to perform, others a horse will find harder to achieve. This also needs to be taken into account when applying the aids to the horse. For the rider, these considerations mean that he will have to coordinate his aids with the training status of the horse. The aids are always given in the same way, but their intensity and method of application depend to a large degree on the schooling status of the horse. The rider will only develop a feeling for this after years of riding many different horses. A less experienced rider should therefore ask his riding instructor for helpful hints.

A correct seat is the first prerequisite for the rider to be able to apply the aids correctly. Flexible aids which are independent of the rider's and horse's motion can only be applied if the rider has a balanced and relaxed seat. The balance, in particular, is extremely important for the execution of the aids.

A correct seat, upright and relaxed, invisible aids and the horse moving in harmony with its rider.

The number one rule is to find and maintain one's balance on the horse's back. Under no circumstances should the rider have to hold on or even have the feeling that he needs to hold on to something. He should always balance his weight so it lies directly above the horse's centre of gravity. Thus, the rider only maintains his seat on the horse by always sitting directly vertically above the horse's spine.

When riding turns, the rider must ensure that he sits in the middle. That way, he will not have to cling onto the horse with his hands or legs. Another sign of lack of balance is lifting one's hands, as the rider tries to compensate his lack of balance with his hands, instead of maintaining it solely with his upper body. The seat needs to be so balanced that the rider is capable of holding his hands absolutely still and using only conscious restraining and yielding rein aids. He must prevent his hands following the movement of his body at all costs. Similarly the rider's legs must never thump against the horse's sides following the rider's motion. They need to be used to drive the horse in a controlled manner. In order to achieve this balance, the initial training of the rider should include extensive lungeing lessons. Even when the rider has reached a more advanced stage, it will not harm him to occasionally take a lungeing lesson to correct his seat. In this context, however, the important thing is not a one-off correction but the constant work of the rider concerning his or her seat. During the lungeing lesson, the instructor will only point out the rider's mistakes to him. A visible improvement of the seat will only occur if the rider continuously checks and corrects his seat himself whenever he is on a horse.

Lungeing lessons: safety for beginners, intensive correction of the seat for advanced riders.

The rider gives way in the outer hip joint, pulls up the inner shoulder and holds her head in a crooked position. This upsets the balance for both horse and rider.

Weight is the most important but at the same time the least active aid of the rider. Simply by sitting upright and thereby pressing down with his weight onto the horse's spine, is the horse encouraged to move forwards. This makes it very important that the rider sits straight and upright, without hollowing his back, hunching up his shoulders and curving his spine outwards. The weight aids are transferred to the horse's back via the seat bones. If the rider is sitting relaxed and without tension, he should be able to feel how his seat bones press down on the saddle (they are located more or less in the centre of each buttock). Many riders press their weight away from the horse by tensing up their seat muscles. It is important to relax these muscles and really let the entire weight fall down until you can feel the pressure against the seat bones. This relaxation of the muscles is just as important when in motion.

The rider correctly shifts her centre of balance inwards during the curve on the circle line without giving with the outer hip.

There are unilateral and bilateral weight aids. When moving forward at the walk or trot, the rider must use bilateral weight aids. He is sitting vertically over the centre of the horse and both seat bones press down on the saddle with equal weight. In all curves, during the canter and for all lateral work, the rider uses unilateral weight aids. In this case, the rider transfers the weight to the inside of the bent horse. This automatically relieves the outside of the horse. The rider should make sure that he does not give with the hip, thus thrusting it outwards, because he is trying to bring his upper body more to one side. The shifting of the weight should be carried out solely by moving the outer, restraining leg back and thereby increasing the load on the inner hip.

When the rider stretches his position in the saddle, the well-schooled horse will collect itself together, its impulsion becoming more pronounced - the effect of the mysterious bracing of the back. Photo: Kruck

When performing the rein-back and riding in the forward seat, both sides of the horse are relieved of the burden of the weight aids. This means that the buttocks remain in touch with the saddle but the two seat bones no longer apply any pressure on the back of the horse. The forward seat has to be learned, in particular, for riding out on hacks or across country and for jumping, in order to be able to relieve the horse's back. In this position, the influence of the weight aids occurs via the thighs which rest against the saddle. These act either as forward-driving or restraining aids.

Giving in the hip joint (i.e. bending in the hip) is a serious fault which, once it has become a habit, is very difficult to correct and overcome. It will make life difficult for the rider in all future lessons, because the horse will become increasingly difficult on the respective side, due to the incorrect weight influence. This can even lead to uneven steps and serious problems of balance once the muscles of the horse have developed unevenly due to the unilateral burden of the rider's weight. If possible, you should always take the chance to ride towards a mirror and check whether you are sitting straight on the horse or whether your hip joints are folded to one side. This fault can be seen best at the trot or canter. For this purpose, the riding instructor should inspect the rider's seat from the front and back. If the fault has become established, it needs to be eliminated immediately. To do this the rider needs to lift the shoulder, which will be lower due to the bent hips, in an exaggerated fashion to correct the fault and pull the other shoulder down. At the same time he must check whether the hip has slid to one side of the saddle. The back centre of the rider's seat should be in line with the middle of the saddle.

Bracing the Back

In addition to the more or less passive weight influence through placing it on the seat bones, we have the more active weight aid of bracing the back. In order to be able to harmonise the motion of the horse, the rider needs to tension and relax the muscles of his lower back and pelvis. Usually this occurs automatically in motion, as the rider adapts to the swinging motion of the horse's back and achieves a deep seat in the saddle. In more advanced equitation, the rider should however pay conscious attention to the influence of the spine. The relaxed forward-upward swinging of the middle part of the rider (the hip...