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Realize the Risks of Overriding
Learn the risks of overriding and how to recognize the problem.
By David Collins
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An aid is a signal that the rider uses to communicate with the horse.
Photo courtesy of Dressage Today |
While schooling my horse in the dressage arena, I'm often amazed at how well he does without me. By this I mean that the less I interfere, the more I allow his natural gaits to come through and the more harmonious and rewarding I find my riding. Judging by my horse's demeanor, he shares my experience. After all, at the end of the ride, the horse is the best judge of any rider's expertise.
A phrase from Harry Boldt's book comes to mind: "Without a rider, a sound horse never has rhythm faults. Therefore, any rhythm faults that the horse displays while being ridden are caused by the rider." These simple sentences illuminate an area of fundamental problems that many riders experience when communicating with their horses through the aids. To appreciate this fully, it helps to understand the relationship between the use of the aids and maintaining a correct, consistent rhythm.
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What is an aid? It is a signal that the rider uses to communicate with the horse. Most are nonverbal, which ties in nicely with the horse's basic nature: In a herd, the primary lingo is "body language," essentially nonverbal communication. Horses are very adept at reading body language. Over many thousands of years, they have refined nonverbal communication to an art.
An adept rider utilizes a horse's ability to react to physical cues. The rider gives an aid, say the closing of the leg. For the newly backed horse this aid represents a multiple-choice test. Over the years, I have seen several responses to this signal, and now I can almost hear the wheels in a green horse's head turning. He appears to think, "Should I: (a) Go forward? (b) Turn and bite the offending leg? (c) Take this rider for a joy ride he'll never forget?" A clever rider is careful about the way he introduces the basic concept of going forward from the leg, so most often the horse chooses (a) and goes forward. Primarily through the use of repetition and reward--and eventually the occasional correction--the rider begins to train the horse's brain. Soon the rider applies the leg, then relaxes; the horse trots and the rider allows him to go forward in self-carriage. With a quiet, confident rider, the pair achieves a nice even rhythm.
But what happens when a schooled horse refuses to go forward from the leg? As an instructor and rider, I was guilty of adhering to the concept of "use more leg." How much leg is "more" leg? How hard should a rider squeeze his legs around a horse's sides? If a very fit rider could squeeze as hard as the girth squeezes, would he be effective? Obviously, the answer is no. The only time a girth makes a horse go forward is right after it is tightened on a girthy horse or the first time it is applied to a young horse. Herein lies the clue. The horse learns to go forward when he feels an increase in the pressure on his sides. Constant pressure, as in the case of the girth, has little effect on the horse; he is quite capable of tuning out this force.
A perfect example of this occurs when a novice rides a lazy, older school horse. Unfortunately, for such a rider the concept of moving the horse forward from a light and easy aid and then maintaining a good rhythm seems about as possible as finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Usually, the novice sweats bullets just trotting around the arena a few times. He squeezes, pushes and kicks constantly. Many times, if he tries to relax his legs, the horse stops, often quite abruptly. Hence, the rider's overuse of the leg aid is reinforced. I wish I had a dime for every time I've heard, "I have to keep pushing him or he'll stop."
I refer to the concept of overusing an aid or a group of aids as overriding. The result is that the overused aid is no longer a signal that means something to the horse. Overstimulation has blocked an avenue of communication; he simply tunes out the constant force.
It is important to note that overriding begets overriding, which leads you away from your center of good riding. To make matters worse, you might not even realize that you are overriding. But here is a good clue: Ask yourself if you can maintain a nice swinging rhythm. If you answer no, then you must isolate whichever aid or aids you suspect you are overusing. If you feel that you need more of the same aid to fix the problem (i.e., more leg, more left rein, more clucking, more pushing, more contact) and yet the problem isn't resolved or is worse than before, you are probably in trouble. I know from experience.
Of course, the problem of the novice rider is quite easily resolved by riding transitions. The rider must reopen the lines of communication by applying a light aid, then a correction if the horse fails to respond. Next, the rider must strive to sit as quietly as possible with his legs hanging relaxed and quiet on the horse's sides. The rider must learn to balance and follow the motion of the horse, with no gripping or holding to obstruct the lines of communication.
Now, instead of telling my students (and myself) to use more leg on their schooled horses, I say, "Train a better response from your leg." This concept works for going sideways as well as forward. As with many concepts in riding, the principles at the beginning and advanced levels are basically the same; they just become more refined as one progresses. (Advanced riders who override can create an overly animated trot rhythm that isn't quite passage.) Riding a horse becomes more like conducting an orchestra. First each instrument must be played individually before they can be played together in concert. When the result is correct, the rider applies an aid only when he wants to change something, and he always remembers that the most important part of applying an aid is its release. When all of this functions according to plan, the rider plays the horse between the aids. The result is a happy, rhythmic horse.
A popular clinician, David Collins is based in Pawling, N.Y., where he trains riders and horses to Grand Prix. He completed the most advanced instructor's course at the Swedish National Riding School and Olympic Training Center in Stroemsholm, Sweden. He trained with six-time German Professional Champion Reitmeister Udo Lange and worked as a Bereiter for German Reitmeister Heinz Lammers, a coach of the 1976 Olympic bronze-medal U.S. dressage team. His Web site is shs-international.net. His book, Dressage Masters, is available at HorseBooksEtc.com.
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