The three-second solution: putting the horse in correct connection with the hand
In the clinics I run across the country, one of the complaints I hear again and again from students at every level is how difficult it is to get the horse on the bit.
But I tell them — and I tell you — that it doesn’t have to be that way.
With a simple system that I will show you, you can get your horse on the bit and keep him there.
And once you taste “on the bit,” you’ll never be satisfied with less again.
On the Bit—Why Bother?
Why go to the trouble of putting your horse on the bit?
Because, quite simply, it makes riding him incredibly enjoyable.
The horse looks organized, comfortable, connected, and controllable.
Every movement he makes has fluidity and coordination.
He even looks keener and more willing.
In nature, when a horse is afraid, he raises his head, his neck stiffens, his back hollows, and he has only one goal: “Save yourself!”
But when he is calm and content, his head comes down, his neck stretches, and his back rounds.
The picture of roundness that you see when a rider puts the horse on the bit actually creates this same mental state of willingness and relaxation.
A horse that is not on the bit is not mentally with his rider.
He is more easily distracted, reacts more instinctively to noises or frightening sights by spooking or fleeing, and may even resist openly.
He also looks disorganized physically; not like a well-oiled machine, but like a heap of mismatched, disconnected parts.
He is hard to turn and steer — and in my opinion, sitting on him is very uncomfortable too.
“On the bit” also brings your training program to life, in addition to creating physical and mental connection.
How?
When he is moving freely, even the simplest horse can look rhythmic, balanced, and expressive in his movement.
But just put the saddle on his back, mount up, change his balance, and suddenly this rhythmic creature moves like a dump truck and steering him is like driving a barge.
Trying to restore the horse’s beauty and ease of movement under saddle — the very thing he has in freedom — is the essence of training.
And training is most effective and easiest when the horse is carrying himself more with the muscles of the top line over the croup, back, and neck.
When does this happen?
When the horse is on the bit.
His body is placed into a rounded frame, his hind legs come well underneath him, and instead of building muscle carelessly, he develops those top-line muscles properly — evenly and without excessive strain.
(I have seen horses’ muscling improve with just five days of riding on the bit.)
In the process, he reinforces all the good qualities you want to flourish; including suppleness, flexibility, and the beginning of collection.
Working with a horse that is not on the bit is like hiding your money in an old mattress.
Even if you still have it a year later, it hasn’t gained value and has probably lost some.
But schooling a horse that is on the bit is like putting your money somewhere that earns you double-digit compound interest.
At the end of the year, not only do you still have what you started with, but it is worth far more!
In this article, just as I help my students in the clinics, I will also help you, with a simple, step-by-step system based on “connecting aids,” to reach the “on the bit” state; a method that produces results almost immediately — in fact, I have never seen it fail in the very first session.
Also, because you may be working without a trainer’s guidance (and because things that seem right and feel good are not always actually right), I’ll give you a few simple “tests” to check the correctness of your aids and your horse’s reaction to them.
Before starting, “on the bit” is one of those things where a feeling is worth a thousand words.
If you have never experienced it, try taking one or two lessons, or at least do a few laps around the arena on a “schoolmaster”; an experienced horse that knows how to do this well.
If you ride immediately after the regular rider has worked the horse on the bit for a few minutes, that feeling will stay with you for a while; try to keep it in mind, because that is what you should be aiming for.
It is also helpful to enlist an experienced companion or a friend with a good eye, because much of being “on the bit” comes down to the horse’s silhouette and form.
If even that is not possible, and if after one or two sessions you and your horse are truly at an impasse, get help from a qualified instructor to guide you or even bring your horse onto the bit for you.
Limit sessions to 30 minutes or less (for a young horse, 20 to 30 minutes), and include a long warm-up in that time.
Because you need enough time to think about what you are doing, how you are doing it, and your horse’s reaction, begin at walk (unless your horse goes pace, becomes very tense in walk, or simply cannot stay forward and in rhythm; in that case, it is better to use sitting trot).
Start with the basics. In the warm-up, focus on forward movement, straightness, rhythm, and contact; for now, do not worry about the rest of your horse’s frame.
Without these four qualities, you cannot do anything; but once you have them, you have also laid the foundation for bringing the horse onto the bit.
First, make sure your horse is thinking and moving forward, advancing with free, long, and relaxed steps on the ground and is “in front of your leg.”
What does this mean?
It means he responds immediately and eagerly to the lightest leg aid.
Test it: gently close your legs.
If he goes forward immediately and eagerly, you are on the right track.
But if he stops there or walks off half-heartedly, do not be tempted to use more pressure; he will only become duller, and in the end you will do all the work.
Instead, with the same softness you used the first time, bring him “in front of your leg” again.
If he still does not respond, tap him behind your leg with the whip (not on the hindquarters, or he may kick), or take your leg off his side and give a few quick taps: “wham, wham, wham”.
Do not confuse him by lifting your heel and “jab, jab, jab”; he will think you are giving a stronger aid to go forward.
He must understand that, “No, this is not an aid.
This is a correction.
” Now here is the main point.
As soon as you get a response from the whip or your tap—even if it is an irregular or surprised reaction—bring the horse back and gently apply pressure again.
If he immediately went forward with energy, praise him a lot.
Say “good boy” and stroke his neck with your fingers (there’s no need to overdo it).
If he responded within an acceptable-to-good range, but not with 100 percent effort and from the heart, tap sharply again or bang firmly.
When he responds, turn him again and repeat the same light pressure.
What is your goal?
That you whisper your aids in his ear and he shouts the answer.
Straightness means the horse’s spine is aligned with the line he is moving on.
Straightness on the long side, the center line, and the diagonal means his spine is straight; straightness on circles, corners, and curved lines means his spine is bent.
In both cases, his hind legs essentially follow the same track as the front legs.
Rhythm is the next basic quality.
Every horse’s rhythm is unique, but the rhythm of all horses, through regularity, keeps them comfortably in balance: neither too fast nor too slow, with equal intervals between the strides.
To check the consistency of your horse’s rhythm, count his steps.
In walk you should hear four even beats—“1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2...
3, 4, 1, 2...
3, 4”.
To improve the rhythm, slow the walk and/or separate steps that are too close together—something you can do by making him step sideways in a leg-yield.
In trot, the two diagonal legs (for example, the outside hind leg and the inside front leg) strike the ground at the same time, then there is a moment of suspension in which all four legs are off the ground, then the other diagonal pair strikes the ground.
Your counting should be like a metronome: “1-2-1-2-1-2”.
In canter, you should be able to count the clear 1-2-3 rhythm.
If you hear “1-2-3-4,” your horse is going in four beats and you must drive him more forward, almost to the point of a lengthening, in order to create rhythm in this movement.
Contact is the last quality you should think about in the warm-up, because being on the bit requires your horse to move toward your receptive, following hands.
What creates good contact?
A straight line from the bit, through your hand to your elbow, which allows “the action of the rein to pass through the body of your horse.”
What does that mean?
It means that the energy that enters the bit returns in a complete loop through the neck and spine, helping him carry his weight on the hindquarters and flex his joints more athletically.
A firm feel of the bit, which maintains the connection from your horse’s hind legs (his engine) to your hands.
In each hand, maintain a feel of about half a pound to one pound, firm and steady.
The ideal is for him to seek the contact himself; if he does not (and the reins become loose and hanging), shorten them — but be sure to accompany the shortening by driving him forward with your legs.
Otherwise you will pull him from the front, especially if he is accustomed to having no feel in the reins.
He suddenly thinks to himself: “Oh no, the door has closed.
I can’t go anywhere anymore.
” Consistency means the reins do not become loose and hanging one moment, then tight, and then loose again.
A steady contact is attractive because it never changes; your horse always gets the same reassuring feel from your hand.
I would rather see you maintain a contact that is a little too firm than constantly take the contact with his mouth and then lose it — something that punishes him with every step he takes.
Elasticity.
When you think of “elastic,” think of “elbows.”
Keep your elbow joints soft and relaxed enough that they naturally open and close in accordance with your horse’s strides.
In walk and canter, when he uses his head and neck in a back-and-forth motion, follow him with your elbows; let your hands move forward toward his mouth with every stride and then return to their place beside your body.
In rising trot, his neck remains relatively still but you rise and fall; to keep your hands steady, your elbows must compensate for this movement.
(How important is elasticity?
Lock your elbows beside your body in walk; your horse will slow down or stop.
In canter, he will fall apart.
In trot, your hands will bounce up and down — and your steady contact will be lost.
) A uniform contact means that you feel equal weight in both hands, because your horse is not leaning on either rein.
To create a uniform contact, keep your hands soft and closed around the reins (as if you were holding a baby bird that you do not want to crush), with the thumbs as the highest point and each hand mirroring the other.
When is contact uneven?
When one hand is higher than the other.
When both hands are not equally far from your body.
When the angle or position of one hand differs from the other.
Now.
.
.
Is your horse warmed up?
The answer is “yes” if he is forward — not only in movement on the ground, but in his mind; if he is straight and his hind legs track the front legs; if he maintains a good rhythm; and if you offer an inviting, sympathetic, and receptive contact and he accepts it too; a contact that is firm, uniform, elastic, balanced, and straight from the elbow to the hand and then to the bit.
If at any time while working on putting him on the bit you lose any of these qualities, forget the communication half-halt and first reestablish the quality you have temporarily lost.
Only after that can you use the communication half-halt again.
Keep the communication aids simple Communication aids are nothing more than a specific, clear, and “as needed” signal; similar to the specific signals you use to tell the horse to trot (and to keep trotting until you signal him to return to walk), or to halt and stay put until you want to set off again; except that here you use them to put the horse on the bit.
If he stays consistently on the bit, you stay calm and in harmony with him and enjoy the ride.
But if he wants to come off the bit, for example by raising his head, you use the communication aids again to bring him back to the bit.
If every few strides he wants to come off the bit — which he may well do; this territory is unfamiliar to him and you are asking him, as he explores it, to use a completely new set of muscles — you will have to use a lot of communication aids.
To use the aids, apply for three seconds a combination of leg, outside rein, and, if necessary, just enough inside rein to keep the horse's neck straight.
At the walk, close both legs gently, as if you wanted that same one hundred percent, energetic, wholehearted forward response that you practiced earlier.
This time, however, instead of letting him go more forward, contain his energetic response by closing the outside hand into a firm fist — as if squeezing the last drops of water from a sponge — and hold this for three seconds.
He may bend his neck to the outside; if so, straighten him with a gentle vibrating motion, a squeeze-and-release, or short finger taps on the inside rein, and always remember that the amount of outside bend in his neck tells you how much inside rein — and no more — should be used.
(No outside bend?
Then do not use the inside rein either.
) and prioritize your aids as follows: first, the legs to create energy; second, the outside rein to contain the energy; third, the inside rein — only as much as necessary — to keep his neck straight.
After three seconds, release the outside hand (remember that the release — and the reward that counts as completing the aids — is just as important as the aids themselves) and return to the same holding feel you had before; your hands should hold those two chicks firmly yet softly, without crushing them.
When your horse comes "onto the hand," what should it feel like?
Suddenly, instead of a set of separate parts, he seems unified and harmonious.
His back becomes elastic.
His steps become softer and more flowing.
At the same time, he becomes both more comfortable to sit and more springy.
If you are doing this exercise in "sitting trot," you feel as though each time you rise from the saddle, you are rhythmically thrown upward and stay in the air longer; as if you have gone from updownupdown to uuuup…
dooown…
uuuup…
dooown.
In your hand, you will have an easy, intimate contact with his mouth.
Instead of being stiff, rigid, or hanging on one or both reins, it feels soft, accepting, and elastic.
And his steps become longer and fewer in number, because his hind legs come more underneath his body and cover more ground.
Of course, this is the ideal.
Your horse will probably not come fully onto the hand the first time.
But if his frame, feel, or steps change even slightly in the way I described, tell him "good boy" and rub his neck so he is encouraged to repeat that response.
With every attempt, his cooperation, understanding, and ability to carry himself on the hand improve.
What can go wrong? Your horse may stop, slow down, or resist by raising his head when he feels you close your outside hand into a fist; because "he doesn't get away with it."
He has learned all his life that leg means "go" and rein means "stop"; now you are suddenly using both leg and hand at the same time, and he is confused.
You need to explain to him that yes, your outside hand is a wall, but an invisible wall that he can pass through.
One way to explain this is to ask for a lengthening of stride and then close your outside hand into a fist.
The extra impulse caused by lengthening carries him forward and "through" your closed hand.
Do this a few times, and as soon as you see his neck become rounder and longer—even by half an inch—reward him.
Then use the connection aids again without lengthening, and see whether he has learned to step "through" the hand instead of coming against it.
If you think that sawing the reins—that is, repeatedly squeezing and releasing each rein alternately, left, right, left, right, left, right—brings your horse on the bit, you are heading for a dead end.
To an untrained eye, your horse may look as though he is on the bit, but you have control over nothing except his bent jaw.
When you ask for a transition, you will find that a large part of his body is under you, yet you have no influence over it at all.
If your horse maintains the contact but shortens his neck, he is telling you that instead of closing your hand into a fist, you are drawing your arms back.
Correct this habit by imagining an invisible wall at your wrists; a wall you cannot draw your hands back through.
Drive him forward through this wall with your legs; when he reaches your outside hand, close it into a fist.
If your horse's nose comes close to the vertical but his neck shortens and there is a loop in the rein in your hands and you feel no weight in your hands, he has gone "behind the bit."
You probably had not brought him to the hand before giving the connection aids, and he has simply tucked his jaw; you will also notice that instead of taking calm, longer steps, he is taking short, choppy steps.
If your horse turns his hindquarters to one side, you are probably applying pressure unevenly with your legs.
If your horse speeds up, slows down, or loses his rhythm, the pressure of your driving aids is probably not equal to the feel you have on the outside rein.
Practice until you learn to close your outside leg and hand equally.
If your horse speeds up, close more firmly.
If he slows down, apply a little less pressure.
Connection tests Here are a few simple tests to reassure you that the shape and feeling you have created with the connection aids is the correct result of driving the horse from behind to in front, so that he is truly on the bit.
At the end of the three seconds of connection aids, gently open the fingers of both hands.
If your horse stretches his nose forward and down, close to the ground, and seeks the contact by taking the rein softly and through your fingers, your connection aids have "gone through" completely.
If he stretches himself but does not go all the way forward and down, close to the ground, your connection aids have gone through partly.
If he holds his head completely up, it means the connection aids have not gone through at all.
Give the connection aids.
Keep your outside hand closed in a fist and your elbow at your side, and by taking the inside hand forward, up to the middle of the horse's neck, create a loop in the inside rein.
If his neck stays straight, your connection aids have "gone through" and he is "in" your outside rein.
If his neck bends outward and the outside rein goes slack, the connection aids have not "gone through."
If these tests show that your connection aids have not been effective, take a moment to assess.
Was your horse forward, straight, and in a suitable rhythm?
Was your contact correct?
Did you use the outside or inside rein too much or too little?
Did you remember to hold for three seconds and then soften to reward him?
Did you bring your hands back “behind” the wall?
After you have reviewed what happened, try again.
End the session by allowing your horse to softly chew the reins through your fingers until he is moving in a long, low, and stretching frame, at the trot or walk.
This cool-down is essential; I do not leave this part out any more than I would ever end a light run by flopping onto an easy chair and tensing every muscle in my body.
Some things never change: you warm up, do the exercises, then cool down.
The light at the end of the tunnel I am almost sure that, from this very first session, you will feel the results of this system.
In the first few sessions after that, you will probably spend all your riding time establishing the basic features, losing one of them, getting it back, giving the rein aids again, and so on.
When you and your horse are firmly connected and on the beat at the walk, try the same thing at the trot and eventually at the canter.
Believe me, increasing the speed puts new challenges in front of you; but whenever you run into trouble, go back to a slower gait so you can remind your horse and yourself what the rein aids mean.
Of course, this is not the end of it.
This is only the beginning of the road.
Rein aids will always be part of your toolkit, but they will become easier to apply and you will not need to give them as often.
In the end, those three seconds become one second or less.
You feel your horse is leaving the beat, you close your legs and collect your outside hand, and in the blink of an eye, boom!
, he is back on the beat.
I promise you will not be one of those riders I see who think that if they have their horses on the beat by the end of a session, they have reached their goal and done their job.
In the end, you will compress everything you have learned in this article step by step into a 10-minute warm-up; unless you have a very young horse, in which case getting him on the beat will probably have to be your entire training session.
This is the warm-up I do with my horses, and it goes like this: almost as soon as I pick up the reins, I establish the basic features.
Then, in the first five minutes, I ask my horse: “Are you responding to my rein aids?
” I make sure we are speaking the same language and that he will come on the beat whenever I ask him to do anything.
My warm-up shows me that he is listening and responding before I move on to gymnastics, school figures, lateral work, obedience exercises, changes of rein, and collection exercises.
Very soon you will do the same: get the warm-up out of the way quickly and smoothly so you can move on to the fun parts of the work.
And those fun parts will become even more enjoyable and rewarding because your horse will be on the beat.
Updated from the October 1993 issue of Practical Horseman.
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Source: Practical Horseman – Training