Coordinating the aids, flexion and bend

In Galop 4 your aids stop working each on its own: they work together. That is what lets you, among other things, turn with inside flexion in all three gaits.

In the exam programme

Explain how the aids are coordinated.Common module B
Explain what flexion and bend are.Common module B
Steer on curves in all three gaits with an inside flexion.Specific part

Coordinating the aids

You know the natural aids — legs, hands, weight, voice — and the artificial ones, and you know an aid can act, resist or yield. Coordinating the aids means timing and weighting them, and giving each its role, so that the request is clear and never contradicts itself.

One aid asks: it sets the movement off — the inside leg for a canter strike-off, for example.
Others frame: they maintain, limit or channel — the outside rein regulating the speed, the outside leg stopping the quarters from swinging out.
The rest do not contradict: a hand that pulls while the legs push cancels the request.
All of them yield as soon as the horse has answered: that is the reward that tells him he has understood.

Coordination rests on independent aids: using one leg without squeezing with the other, closing your fingers without stiffening your arm, turning your shoulders without lifting your hands. As long as your body is not steady and relaxed, your aids go off on their own and contradict each other.

Did you know?

The 19th-century riding master François Baucher summed up part of this idea in a famous phrase: “hand without legs, legs without hand”. In other words, do not ask for two opposite things at the same moment.

Flexion and bend

Flexion: the lateral flexion of the horse’s head, which turns slightly to one side from the poll. From the saddle you can just see the eye and the edge of the nostril on that side. It is called inside flexion when the head is turned towards the inside of the curve.
Bend: the curve of the horse’s whole body, from poll to tail, following the line he is on. His hind feet then follow in the tracks of his forefeet instead of skidding out.

Flexion is part of bend, but it can exist on its own: a horse can have a slight flexion on a straight line. On the other hand, there is no correct bend without flexion to the right side. In Galop 4 you are asked to turn with inside flexion; working for true bend comes in Galop 5.

Flexion

Only the head turns to the inside, from the poll; the body stays straight and the hind feet drift off the curve.

Bend

The whole body follows the curve, poll to tail: the hind feet step in the tracks of the forefeet.

Fig. 4.8Flexion, then bend

Turning with inside flexion

Look round the curveYour eyes and shoulders turn towards the way out of the curve, parallel to the horse’s shoulders. A little more of your weight drops into the inside stirrup, without tipping your upper body.
Ask for flexionThe inside hand closes its fingers or opens slightly, just enough to see the inside eye, then yields as soon as the flexion is there.
Hold the outsideThe outside rein keeps the contact: it limits the flexion, controls the outside shoulder and regulates the speed.
Frame with your legsThe inside leg, on the girth, keeps the horse active and supports him round the curve; the outside leg, slightly behind, stops the quarters from skidding out.
Keep the gaitIn walk, trot or canter, the speed must neither drop nor run away on the curve. As you come out onto the straight, straighten the flexion.

Common mistake

Pulling on the inside rein. The neck kinks, the head turns too far, the outside shoulder falls out and the horse leaves the curve. Good flexion is light: you see the eye, not the whole head.

A word from the instructor

Pushing with your legs while pulling on the reins is pressing the accelerator and the brake at once. A car stalls; a horse complains — and he has a point.

Ekidemy

The Galops^®, from the first step to Galop 7