LATERAL FLEXION IS THE KEY TO VERTICAL FLEXION

In this month's article, we are going to talk about lateral flexion and how it affects our horse and our performance. Lateral flexion is the key to vertical flexion. This is a very important statement and one some may not fully understand.

Most riders try to get their horse's head and neck to come down, but they do it by tugging or jerking on the reins, trying to force the horse's head to lower. Some riders can get their horse to lower its head by jiggling or jerking on the reins, but the horse will only keep its head down if they keep holding it or jerking on the reins. As soon as they stop jerking on the reins, the horse immediately stiffens up and raises his head. This is a good example of a "false give". Basically, the horse isn't really giving to the bit pressure at all. He is just intimidated by the bit, and he stays down as long as the rider is hurting his mouth.

If we teach our horses to be soft and responsive to our rein and leg cues, it is very easy to teach them whatever we want. Whether a reiner, cutter, dressage rider or trail rider, we all want the same responsiveness and lightness from our horses. To get that responsiveness, we begin with lateral flexion.

There are five body parts of the horse that we need to learn to control; 1) the head and neck, 2) the poll, 3) the shoulders, 4) the ribcage, and 5) the hindquarters. What we are trying to do is put our horse in a position where we can gain control of each of those five body parts and be able to move them independently of the rest of the body parts. It is very important that you understand that you must complete Step 1 before going to Step 2.

Since lateral flexion is the key to vertical flexion - before you can get you horse's head and neck to come down and soften at the poll, you must be able to bend and soften him laterally to the side. Lateral flexion exercises work so well because you are taking away his ability to balance against you and push against the reins. It's like two people in a tug-of-war - a strong man and a weak man. Both will pull against each other, but the stronger man will usually win because he has more power. However, say the stronger man is facing twelve o'clock for example and the weaker man goes to three o'clock and starts to pull on the rope. If the stronger man is still facing twelve o'clock but his arms get pulled towards three o'clock, the weaker man should be able to pull the stronger man off balance because the stronger man wasn't facing the direction the pressure was coming from.

Use lateral flexion to your advantage. The weaker man did not out-fight his partner - he outsmarted him. The stronger man could still fight, but he didn't have as much strength as he had when he was pulling straight in front of the weaker man. Pull to the side, and you will take a lot of the horse's fight away. You want your horse's body to be like a piece of modeling clay - soft and supple. If you let modeling clay get hard and rigid, when you bend it, it breaks in half - it is not soft and supple. But if you add water to it and you start to knead it and work with it, pretty soon it becomes soft and pliable. When modeling clay becomes soft and pliable, you can do whatever you want to do with it. Basically, this is the same principal of horse training. When you get your horse's body to be soft and supple, it is very easy to put them in whatever discipline you want them to perform.

Horses don't have hard mouths, they have hard bodies. When somebody walks up to me at a clinic and says, "My horse has a hard mouth," I ask them to take the bridle off the horse, put a halter on him and ride the horse around. They come back and see me ten minutes later and I ask them if the horse is still stiff and resistant. Ninety-nine percent of the time they say it is. This is a good example. If the horse really had a hard mouth, he would be easier to control when the halter was on him. But he was not. If your horse's body is stiff and resistant, his mouth will be stiff and resistant. If his body is soft and supple, his mouth will be soft and supple, too.

Horses have to be taught to give to pressure. Most horses can bend their head and neck around and bend their ribcage and do all the things we want them to do by themselves. The trick is to get them to do it when we want them to do it and in what order we want them to do it. Basically, the more we bend our horses and soften them to the side, the easier it will be to gain control of their poll, soften their head neck and get them to relax.

What we want to do in this particular exercise is walk a circle 3 to 4 foot in diameter and have our horse bend around and soften his head, neck and ribcage while walking. This bending exercise is a very important part of my program because it really teaches my horses to give to the rein and soften their body.

When walking the circle to the left, you want the horse's head and neck to be bent quite far around to the left. Get the horse to bend his ribcage around your inside leg. When the horse softens his face and bends his head and neck towards your big toe, release the rein pressure. When you do that, you want your horse to stay in that circle until asked to go straight or in the other direction. This is the finished result, of course; and in most cases when you are teaching this, it will not happen instantly as I have described.

What happens when most people slide a hand down the rein to bend the horse in a circle to the left? As soon as they pick up on the rein and go to bend the horse, he will usually stiffen up, resist and, even though he will walk a circle to the left, he will pull against your hand. Simply put your hand on your hip and hold it there. With your inside leg, bump his side, or, if you have a spur on, gently rub the inside spur on his ribcage. Try to encourage him to bend his ribcage. When he bends his ribcage, it will be much easier for him to bend his head and neck as well. But if you only pull on the rein and don't use your inside leg, it will be much easier for your horse to pull and fight against you because he will be in a better tug-of-war position. Remember, horses don't have hard mouths - they have hard bodies.

Continue to walk a circle to the left, and most horses that are very stiff and resistant may walk the circle for 10 to 15 times before softening. Eventually, because they are not getting any relief from the rein or leg pressure, they will try to give just a little bit. Usually, it will only be half an inch to an inch. As soon as this happens, immediately release your hand to your knee - IMMEDIATELY! You pull to your hip and release to your knee. The reason that I pull to my hip is that, if I am too long on the rein, I've got all this room behind me to pull my rein past my hip and still be in good position. I release to my knee because that is a direct signal to the horse that I am instantly giving him rein back, but I've still got my hand on the rein. However, if I drop the rein out my hand and the horse's head goes out straight, it will take me too long to slide my hand all the way back down the rein and pull it back to my hip. I will lose too much time. I don't like to pull my reins towards my belly button because, if I do that and my hand is too long on the rein, I will get up around my face; and then I lose a lot more control. At times, especially with a young horse, this can be very dangerous. Pull to your hip and release to your knee.

As soon as your horse softens even a little bit, it is very important to instantly release that hand back to your knee. When you do this, expect that he will snap his head back out straight. As soon as he does this, pick up on the rein, pull it back to your hip, leave it there and rub with your leg. Repeat this procedure over and over again. Then release your rein out of your hand, let him walk out straight for 10 or 15 feet and then bend him in the other direction and repeat the entire procedure to the right.

I like to hold my reins in a bridge fashion with both reins very loose. I hold one hand in the middle, and I slide my other hand down the rein whichever way I want to turn. When I change directions, I release the rein, change my hand on the rein and slide my new hand down the other side.

Now, we are going to bend our horse to the right. Again, when you pick up on the rein and pull it to your hip, don't be pulling your hand in mid-air. Try to position it so that you pull to your hip bone and you freeze your hand on your hip. This will create a fixed position. When you do this and your horse does soften, you will be ready to easily recognize a "give" and release your hand forward instantly. If you are pulling in mid-air, you will be pulling so hard on your horse that you won't recognize the "give" and you won't reward him by immediately releasing the pressure. Think of the rein like a rope tied to a post and you are pulling on it. As soon as you stop pulling, there is instant slack in the rope. The post doesn't keep pulling on you and take that slack out.

It is very important that when you pull your hand to your hip, you use your inside leg to encourage the horse to bend his ribcage. When you release your hand to your knee, you release your leg as well. So, it's hand to hip - leg on; hand to knee - leg off. It's like a pulley system - on and off, on and off. You will do this over and over again. It will usually take most horses anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes to catch on enough to really start to soften and supple and give to your cues.

The horse that I am using in this particular article was very hot and nervous and wanted to run a lot. He had been doing a lot of team penning without being properly schooled and, because of that, he had developed some undesirable habits. He wanted to stiffen up, resist and run when given a loose rein. This exercise is very useful for horses that are nervous and want to run like this horse, or for lazier horses that don't want to give you their attention and listen to you.

If the horse decides to build speed and trot off when asked to walk on a loose rein, I will immediately slide my hand down and put him into another circle. I will stay in that circle until my horse starts to give, soften and relax. As soon as he does that, I will release my hand to my knee and repeat the procedure. Be patient and keep working at this exercise until your horse understands and walks out on a loose rein without picking up speed. If you do ten circles with your horse pulling against you, just stay there and relax, keep your hand on your hip and use your inside leg. As soon as the horse softens, even half an inch, immediately drop that rein to your knee and give him a reward for that. It is very important that you reward the slightest try. You exaggerate to teach and refine as you go along.

As you do this over and over again, you will start to notice some changes. Your horse's head and neck will start to lower, soften and bend. When he is stiff and resistant, his head will usually be quite high. When he starts to bend and soften and supple, his head and neck will drop lower and lower until his ears are level with his withers. Remember, you cannot bend, soften and supple your horse too much. There is never a time when we will want to bend our horse as much as I am doing in these photographs to compete or show. I use this strictly as a suppling and softening exercise. No rider ever complains that their horse gives or softens too much. I will go out of my way to get my horse to be ultra-soft and supple. The more you bend him, the softer he will get. You have to ask your horse to give a little bit more every day until eventually he can walk a circle with his head and neck bent around on a loose rein and stay there by himself. As you put your horse on a loose rein in between the turns and he starts to trot or run off, just keep bending him around and soften him and release him when he walks and softens. Just do this over and over again until, eventually, when you put him on a loose rein, he won't want to run anywhere because he knows that, as soon as he does, you are going to channel that energy in a constructive manner.

With this particular horse, I did not try to keep him from running. I only told him was that if he was going to run, his energy would be channeled in a constructive manner. By doing this over and over, it didn't take him very long to realize that when I bent him around, he would not be released until he softened to the bit, bent his ribcage and started to relax. As soon as he did this, I instantly gave him reward. You continue to build on this. The more you do, the easier it will be to begin vertical flexion which we will cover next month.

I usually do these flexion exercises with spurs on. I use spurs not to punish my horse, but to teach him to soften and supple his body to my cue. The spur is only used as a reinforcement of the calf of my leg. That doesn't necessarily mean that you need to go out there and put spurs on your horse to try and accomplish this exercise. I just believe that it will make it happen quicker. I highly recommend that if you don't feel confident riding with spurs, you should not put them on or use them. If you do feel confident or if you already ride your horse with spurs, I think you will find that they will dramatically encourage him to bend his ribcage - the whole point of this exercise.

TROUBLESHOOTING
There are some common basic things that most people will experience when trying this exercise with their horse for the first time.

1. The horse is not bending enough.
Most people will not ask the horse to bend enough. If you don't ask your horse to bend his head, neck and ribcage enough, you will dramatically reduce the effect of this exercise. If you don't ask him to put much effort in, he won't - plain and simple. So, always ask your horse to bend slightly more than what he is willing to give. In the beginning, you may not get a lot of bend; but just stay at that point until he softens. As soon as he softens, release. From that point, you will ask him to bend a little more and a little more; and he will keep getting softer and softer.

2. The horse doesn't seem to be softening to the rein.
Are you rewarding the slightest "give"? When you release your rein hand to your knee, you are telling your horse that you will instantly reward him for the proper response by slackening the rein. It is very important to do this when the horse softens his face and bends to the side - even a little. If you keep pulling on the rein, he does not get any relief and will keep pulling. If you miss the releasing part, you will miss the whole purpose of the exercise. In addition, by releasing to your knee, you are in a ready position to pull it straight back to your hip if he decides to be resistant again and stiffen back up.

3. Not releasing your hand to your knee quick enough.
If you release your hand to your knee slowly, which most people do in the beginning, your horse will usually be so stiff and resistant that, as soon as you start to release the rein pressure, he will immediately start to snap his head back straight again. If you release your hand very slowly, your horse will pull his head back quicker than your hand is moving, and he will actually think he is being rewarded for pulling against your hand. You must be releasing quicker than he is straightening his head out. Basically, you should be slow to pick up and very quick to release. This way he will know that you are the one releasing that rein pressure and giving him that reward. You don't want your horse to think that he is rewarding himself by dragging the rein through your hand.

4. Rider is pulling too hard on the rein and not waiting.
Most people will try and bend their horse's head and neck around by pulling very hard. In doing this, they will pull their hand out towards the side. When they do this, they are not giving the horse a chance to understand and make a choice for himself. They are trying to force the horse to bend. Pick up on your horse's face and apply enough pressure so that you can feel some resistance. Leave your hand exactly on your hip bone, rub with your inside leg and wait for him to soften a little bit more than what you are asking of him. As soon as he does, immediately release your hand forward to your knee and give him that reward that he is looking for. Your inside leg encourages him to keep walking forward and around, forward and around, forward and around. The more you can make it uncomfortable for him in his ribcage with your inside leg by bumping with it or rubbing your heel up and down with the spur, the more you will encourage him to bend his ribcage. If you keep pulling too hard, eventually the horse will lose interest and try less and less.

5. Outside rein is too tight, giving the horse mixed signals.
In the beginning, I hold both my reins very loosely, with one hand in the middle in a bridge fashion. Keep both reins very loose and then slide the hand of the direction you wish to bend. For example, if you wish to bend to the right, you would lean forward a little bit and slide your right hand down the rein. This will put your hand in a good position and the rein won't be too long. Most people pull on the outside rein and make it too short as they are trying to bend the horse to the right. If the left rein is too tight, the horse may not bend and soften to the right because of the mixed signal he is receiving. One rein at a time - the looser you can keep the outside left rein, the clearer it will be to your horse that you want him to bend and soften to the right.

6. Not using enough inside leg.
If you don't use your inside leg enough, you are not encouraging your horse to try hard enough. The more you pull on his face and the less you use your leg, the more tendency he will have to just lock on to your rein and lean against you. It is very important that you use your leg to create energy to ask him to walk forward and around. The only time I will use my outside leg in this particular exercise is if I bend my horse's head and neck to the left but he doesn't respond by walking a left circle. I will bump with my outside leg until he starts to go in a circle to the left, at which time I will go back to the inside leg. By applying pressure with your inside leg when he pushes his ribcage into you, you are making it uncomfortable; but as soon as he bends his ribcage, you release your hand and your leg; and this makes it more comfortable for him. The more your use your inside leg, the quicker it will be to get your horse to soften to the rein pressure

7. The horse is lazy and doesn't want to move.
Occasionally you will get a horse that is very lazy and does not want to move or put much effort into this. If you start the bending and you get a lot of resistance, abort the bending and create some energy. Remember, you can't teach your horse anything unless you have some energy to control. Stop bending, trot and canter that horse around anywhere you can go, constantly changing directions, preferably at the canter, to create some energy. Basically what I am saying is clean the cobwebs out of the muffler. The faster you can go, the better. Get a little bit uppity to his mind frame - like let's go NOW! Do that for 10 or 15 minutes, and pretty soon your horse will decide that bending was so much easier than having to run around. Resume the bending and ask him to soften again. You can't teach your horse anything if he is falling asleep.

8. The horse tries to kick or bite at your inside leg or spur.
Sometimes this happens, especially if a horse has never had a spur on him or if he is very resistant and you have to use more inside leg. If a horse tries to kick at my inside leg or tries to bite at it, I really just ignore it because he is just going through a small confusion and doesn't understand why you are applying pressure to his ribcage. He must understand that he won't get rid of your leg by trying to kick or bite at it. He will get rid of your leg by bending his ribcage and softening around it. Usually, in most cases, I find that these two problems disappear by themselves once the horse understands that you are not trying to hurt him with your leg. As soon as he bends his ribcage, immediately take your leg off to reward him. If you don't reward him this will encourage him to be resentful towards your leg.

9. The horse still won't walk off calmly on a loose rein.
Remember, in between each turn - each bending set of circles - let your horse walk off 10 to 15 feet on a loose rein. This gives him a chance to think about the situation, relax and comprehend what is going on. It also gives you an excellent chance to dare your horse to listen to you. If he is hot and nervous like the one I have in this article, he must instantly be "shut down" when he tries to run off by being taken right back into circles again. It is very important to give your horse a chance to think about the whole situation rather than just go from one side to the other with no break.

10. Not using the correct equipment.
When I do these exercises, I like to use a plain ring snaffle or some sort of a snaffle bit that does not have leverage. I like to have a leather chin strap or a piece of twine or something under the chin of the horse to stop the bit from sliding through the horse's mouth of he opens his mouth. I don't like to use a curb action or severe bit to do this because I believe it confuses the horse. You need to have a bit that allows lateral flexion and puts pressure on the horse's bars in his mouth without any chin or nose pressure.