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training tips

Giving up control
by Chris Irwin
to Gain control
W
hen it comes to horse
shows, watching the inter-
action between horses
and riders is at least as interesting as
the actual competition. That’s what I
was doing one morning at Spruce
Meadows during The Masters a few
years ago, standing outside a warm up
ring in which a number of riders and
their mounts were preparing for their
stadium jumping class, happily pass-
ing the time before I was scheduled to
perform one of my crowd demonstra-
tions. There were probably a dozen
horses and riders at work, but a young
German rider was the one who caught
my eye. As I watched the horses and
riders, at a certain point by the in-gate During a clinic in Bermuda, Harriet, a 3-day eventer is having trouble keeping her 4-year old
where a group of onlookers were noisi- Thoroughbred, Linus, on a left bend during a left circle while going by the gate. The young
gelding has shied away from the onlookers and the manure bucket, changing his bend from
ly hanging around, all of the horses left to right, pushing through Harriet's left inside leg. Note that Linus is inverted and
would spook and move sideways off hollow-backed, which physiologically means that his vertebrae in his spinal column are
the rail through the riders (inside) leg compressed, sending adrenaline to his brain, resulting in both body and mind feeling
stressed.
and sideways away from the commo-
tion. Almost all of the riders reacted to
the horses who pushed through their of the rail with her right leg (instead of in the direction the horse felt it needed
inside legs by doing one of two things – into the rail from her left). to go.
they either simply ignored the horse’s This is called counterbending. It was beautiful to watch–instead of it
little quirk or they madly spurred or Anyway, sure enough, just like the rest being a scared leap away from the
used the whip to the girth/barrel of their of them, this horse started to shy off the crowd, with a rider reacting violently, the
horses as they shied away from the rail. What was different was that her rider transformed it into a beautiful,
people at the gate in an attempt to rider had proactively created the count- flowing, perfectly aligned and balanced
‘teach the horse to respect the leg.’ The er-bend required to move off of the rail sidepass. After a few strides of the side-
German, however, did something quite in a balanced manner. She actually told pass she simply turned the side-pass-
different. the horse to sidepass into the very ing bend back to the rail. Without a
Before she jumped her horse over direction the horse was about to shy suggestion of a fight, that rider both
any fences and while her horse was into. In effect, she was saying, “If reinforced her control over her horse
supple and straight, working her horse you’re going to move away from the and allowed her to maintain the flow of
counterclockwise or on the “left rein,” gate to the left, this is how I want you to her gait. She also earned a great deal of
the rider set it up so that she was still on do it.” Instead of working against the trust from that horse because in the
the rail approaching the chaos at the barrel of her horse with her left spur, mind of a horse, its leader should push
gate but was now bending the horse off she used her right leg to aid the horse it away from scary places, not into

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training tips
them. That rider knew that a horse goes
best into scary places when they’re not
all that scary anymore. As the other rid-
ers tried to force their horses ‘off’ of
their inside leg by spurring or whipping,
they only confirmed for their horses that
this was indeed a bad place in the
arena. The problem worsened as the
horses lost all trust for the riders’ ability
to navigate through this scary place. As
for the riders who ignored the spooky
shy sideways away from the gate, their
60 HORSE SPORT / May 2005
horses had little or no confidence or
respect for their boundaries and those
horses went on to be the ones that
refused the more difficult jumps and
ran out from the fences. However, the
German rider who proactively set up the
counterbend in order to push her horse
away from the scary spot in the arena
with a perfectly aligned and balanced
leg yield increased both the respect
and trust of her horse while building
confidence and keeping the whole
Within minutes of Chris coaching Harriet on
how to ‘ride the counterbend’ as a counter-
bending leg-yield, understanding that once
a horse counterbends, what were the inside
aids have become the outside aids, and
what were the outside aids have become
the inside aids. Linus is now approaching
the gate on a left circle, no longer needing
to counterbend. His back and neck are
relaxed, he is level-headed and his expres-
sion has changed from apprehension to
curiousity and willingness.
issue calm. After a few times around the
arena repeating the same exercise, her
horse found out that the gate wasn’t
such a bad place after all and soon lost
all inhibition about going by the gate.
Suspicion quickly became confidence
and curiosity. Within a few more laps,
the need for the counter-bending leg
yield away from the gate was finished,
as the horse was no longer leery of the
area.
The German was the only rider in the
arena who could keep her horse on
track and on the rail by the gate. That
rider’s skill and insight impressed me,
and it must have impressed her horse
as well because the two of them went
on to win their very difficult class. They
were the only ones in their division to go
a clear round.
The word ‘bend’ has come up many
times already but now it’s time to look at
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Bend is fundamental to [a horse’s] sense of balance and surrendering
control of that crucial function creates stress.
bend in a bit more depth. The kind of
understanding of bend that our horses
want us to realize is the kind that cre-
ates direction using the horse’s natural
motion and movement. It’s about using
what the horse gives us, allowing us to
advance one step further in our mutual
relationship without endangering our
rhythm or our stride. Like the German
jumper at Spruce Meadows, it’s about
giving up control to gain control.
I see a lot of riders who get stuck
here. They know about bend and they
sit on the horse as if they were joined to
it, but they don’t take the next step.
They try to force their own bend on the
horse rather than work with what the
horse is giving them. They’re taught—
and this is very common—that the
horse must be made to ‘respect the
rider’s leg.’ This is not quite true. It’s
much better to say the horse should
want and be willing to respect the
rider’s leg, but too often that crucial dis-
tinction is not made. The problem is that
the phrase ‘made to respect’ seems to
give the rider permission to impose his
or her will over how the horse bends.
Horses, however, don’t like having their
bend controlled. Bend is fundamental
to their sense of balance and surren-
dering control of that crucial function
creates stress. That stress is likely to
cause the horse to resist and invert its
spine, hollow its back, fill its head with
adrenaline, and fall off track. And for a
‘made to respect’ rider, that means it’s
time to bring out the whip and spurs.
For a good, consistent rider, this can
get results, of a kind. Almost all but the
most intensely competitive horse can
be forced to respect the horse games
of ‘who pushes whom,’ even when
they’re being played by a bully.
However, the result is also often a
sullen, nervous or angry horse. In addi-
tion, the ‘made to respect’ approach
doesn’t deal with the issue of why the
94 HORSE SPORT / May 2005
horse resisted the bend in the first
place. That resistance isn’t going to go
away and the desired bend is going to
get harder and harder to achieve.
Sooner or later, the frustrated rider is
going to start pulling on the horse’s
face on the inside rein to create the
bend that should be happening in the
barrel from the inside seat bone and
leg. Pulling on the rein does nothing to
arc the body into a balanced bend. This
is a huge problem in both English and
western barns where trainers and
coaches are pulling horses for flexion
instead of bending them. But if you start
the bend with your inside seat bone and
leg, the neck flexes naturally into the
turn. No horse likes to be pulled and all
horses move better and more freely
with the balance that can be found in
bending from the leg.
Here’s another way to think about
correct bend. Skiers turn their skis by
bending them from their midsection into
an arc. How much bend do you think
even the best skier could get if he tried
to turn his skis by pulling on two ropes
attached to his ski tips?
The best way to get bend in your
Although Linus still
shows a little
apprehension in his tail,
notice he is now level-
headed and staying
straight and truly ‘off’
Harriet's left/inside leg
as she rides a circle
past the people and the
bucket at the in-gate.
Harriet no longer needs
to ride the counterbend
and Linus now trusts
that Harriet uses skill
and finesse instead of
force and intimidation
when directing him.
horse—and the only way that will keep
her convinced you’re on her side—is to
be willing to start out at work with the
bend that’s already happening in the
natural motion of her gait. The trick is to
tune in to that and convince your horse
that you don’t want to control the bend,
simply adapt it and improve it. You’re
saying, “I know how important it is to
you to be able to bend your body how
you need to. I’m not trying to take that
away from you. In fact, if you follow me
I’ll show you a way to accentuate your
bend so it is better and smoother. I can
shape it better than you can.”
And they will allow us to do this. Why?
Remember the physiological benefits
of smooth, balanced motion in a horse:
a level head that’s full of happy endor-
phins. Horses experience this on their
own, but never for very long, and if we
can create that relaxed sense of well-
being in them for extended periods, our
horses are never going to want us to
dismount. This is what I mean by giving
up control to get it. When we improve
upon the bend the horse is doing natu-
rally, we actually get better control than
if we insisted on forcing her body into a
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