If
you’re into classical or natural horsemanship and you want to compete – and therefore
you need to take lessons – you face the same dilemma I faced for many years.
Like you, I struggled with trainers who considered my horse and me to be things
to be moulded into shape, without any consideration for who I was, who my horse
was, or the relationship between us.
Philippe Karl, author of Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage and one of the best riders and trainers in the world, unbeknown to him finally came to my rescue. At last I had found someone who cared about the wellbeing of the horse as much as I did! His training is kind, effective, and biomechanically correct. This was exactly what I had been seeking for years.
Karl entered the Cadre Noir (the French national riding school) in Saumur, France at the age of 20. Being told what to do but never why didn’t sit well with him. Naturally inquisitive, he felt profoundly isolated during his years there. Everyone else just followed orders blindly without thought for the horse’s wellbeing, but he wanted to know more. It gave me great comfort to hear him explain how he had to fill in the gaps between the instructions by researching Francois Baucher, General L'Hotte, and Francois de la Gueriniere (French dressage masters of the late 1700s and 1800s).
Similarly, F.M. Alexander and Feldenkrais also had to find their own answers in developing their systems, as did I in developing the Bentley Technique’s Functional, Anatomical Correction Training System™, or FACTS.
FACTS
begins with the simple fact (sorry for the pun!) that horses and people – just
like everything living – are naturally crooked to a greater or lesser degree.
When a rider understands this, and understands the specific ways in which she
and her horse are crooked, then she can easily straighten herself and her horse
by using simple body movements. These body movements school the rider’s body
and the horse’s body – and thus the horse’s movement – at the same time.
The result is perfect, natural posture in both horse and rider.
With FACTS, the rider quickly sees why her horse struggles on one rein, one canter lead, or becomes bridle lame. She can then quickly correct the horse, avoiding these problems in competition – as well as when she’s out hacking. With a well-balanced body, the horse becomes calm, safer, and far more enjoyable to ride.
So how do you get your horse "on the bit"?
Let’s look at the usual solution first, and then we’ll see why it doesn’t work.
1. Push your horse with an active back and legs into the hand, which is carried low, hard, and pulls against the horse until it yields
2. If the forehead-to-noseline still stays in front of the vertical, lunge your horse with short side reins to make him yield in the neck. Then ride him in draw reins.
"A
rider who forces flexion of the poll with training aids and shuts the mouth with
special nosebands is no better than teachers who gag a child and tie him to his
chair to silence him.
They are suppressing the problem rather than dealing with it.
Not incidentally, they’re also creating frustration and resentment – and bad
habits – for everyone involved." Philippe Karl
To put it bluntly, this philosophy of riding is barbaric. Here’s what Gerd Heuschmann, veterinarian and author of Tug of War, has to say on the subject.
"As a veterinarian who is interested in orthopaedics you see the results that destroy suspensory ligaments, the sore backs, the sore polls, broken jaws! Wounds in the tongue. All these things, and when you see this you have to think about your own role. What are we doing, we veterinarians? I don’t want to be one member in this circus who is producing poor animals, making a big show and killing them. This is not the aim of dressage. I love the philosophy behind classical dressage and I think our judges have to change and the time has come!"
Philippe Karl has an alternative. He suggests starting with this fun experiment, which I invite you to try with your horse.
Let's start with a practical experiment, which every rider can easily check: take a horse which has to endure the common training aide such as side reins, draw reins, curb bits, Pelham and so on - (and survived) and despite that remains tense in the back, neck and above the bit when the gadgets are removed. Get on the horse and try to make it yield with your hands in halt. You won't get anywhere. Before you give up, ask a helper to loosen any dropped nose bands and to give the horse some sugar. In order to take the sugar into its mouth, the horse has to open the jaw; in order to eat it, it has to mobilise the lower jaw and tongue, salivate and swallow. During all this time, the horse will play with the bit and finally round in the back of the neck all on its own. You will get the wonderful feeling of a vivid mouth which is in total harmony with your hand.
Therefore, two contrary opinions oppose each other, leaving us with a choice of:
Putting the horse on the bit as a fight of power between the rider’s arms and the horse's neck, which the rider can win by force only to bring the horse behind the vertical.
Seeing it as a friendly dialogue between the rider’s hand and the horse's mouth.
You as the rider have to decide. And you have to take responsibility for the consequences of that decision!
Why Philippe’s method works
When
the rider carries his hands too low, the bit inevitably affects the horse's
tongue and causes the horse pain. The hyoid bone is blocked, causing more pain.
Because of the pain, the horse clenches his jaw, neck, and shoulders. (Think about when you’re in pain – you resist, and clench against it.)
The more the rider pulls, the worse the pain, so the more the horse clenches, and the more the rider has to pull. A vicious circle spins – quite literally vicious! The constant pressure strangulates the tongue. Blood cannot circulate, and the tongue becomes dry, sometimes even blue, and more and more insensitive.
The hyoid bone and tongue form an important cross point of the forehand. The muscles which mobilise the tongue are connected to the breastbone, head, and shoulders. Thus, when the horse resists your hand on his mouth, his entire forehand inevitably clenches.
When you feed the horse the sugar, you cause a mobilisation of the lower jaw and tongue. The hyoid bone is eased and the pain disappears. The horse can relax his neck and shoulders.
As the forehand relaxes, it becomes elastic and flexible. Your horse no longer has a reason to fight your hand.
General L'Hotte writes:
"Relaxation of the mouth shows primarily in a movement by the tongue similar to the one which it does when swallowing, where the lower jaw separates only as much from the upper jaw that the tongue's movement becomes possible. This slow, smooth movement moves the parotid glands, causes a little salivating and transports the bit or bits to the back of the mouth, to let it fall back and down as soon as the tongue replaces itself in its long stretched position."
What the rider needs is a sensible hand influence, with which she can initiate this mobilisation of the lower jaw and the tongue whenever she likes - without having to use a piece of sugar!
Furthermore, mobilising the lower jaw helps the rider know how the horse is feeling. The mouth plays an important role in the horse's expression and communication with you as his rider. An example is the "Join Up" described by Monty Roberts. If the horse has had enough of being sent away, he stops and turns towards the dominant human. As he turns his attention on the person, he expresses his subservience by mobilising his jaw and tongue ("licking"). Initiated by a kind, intelligent hand signal, this yielding of the lower jaw affects the horse in the same way. The horse respectfully pays attention and goes on the bit naturally without resistance.
How it can go wrong!
One woman came to my workshop in desperation. Her trainer, who comes in twice a year from the United States, was due in two weeks, and she felt she hadn’t progressed since his last visit. She was panicking.
She’d been digging into Philippe’s book and videos. Unfortunately, she’d completely misinterpreted the relaxation of the jaw exercise. In fact, she’d misinterpreted it so badly that her horse dentist said there was a lot of unexpected wear and tear on her horse’s back teeth!
This determined and highly cerebral woman had become obsessed with how her horse held onto the left side of the bit. She’d repeatedly tried to use Philippe’s jaw flexions with force.
I could see that her horse needed functional, anatomical correction (FACTS). I got on her horse to demonstrate what FACTS could do for her. After just ten minutes, the horse was straight behind (which was the real problem), forward with a mobile tongue and jaw, seeking the bit softly and evenly. She got on and was delighted.
Unfortunately, the next morning it all started again. Instead of using the exercise to warm the horse up and balance his natural crookedness, she started tugging on the left rein, commencing the fight as soon as she mounted. It was very sad, and a demonstration for me of the many ways that we as riders tend to bring our own emotional baggage into our relationships with our horses.
An earnest reminder for all riders.
Hans Heinrich Isenbart wrote in The Kingdom of the Horse:
"The wrong track, there have been so many wrong tracks in the course of equestrian history. Whatever wrong track horses and riders might have taken, it was always the horses that have had to pay the price, never the rider. The horses have suffered under the rider, and classical education does not want the horses to suffer! What do we mean by classical anyway? What was the goal of classical horsemanship? To train the horse to the utmost level of performance, to teach it the skill to carry the rider with ease and obedience, that is the objective of classical equitation."
Philippe Karl Francois de la Gueriniere
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