Many years ago while visiting the stable of the late Hector Carmona in New Jersey, I was intrigued by a sign in his indoor arena that boldly proclaimed, "The secret of riding is the outside rein". I soon discovered that the outside rein (AKA the rein of opposition) has many critical jobs:
1. You control speed with it.
2. You use it to steer.
3. You use it to keep your horse straight.
4. When you combine the outside rein with both your driving aids and your bending aids for 3 seconds, you have a "connecting half halt" to put your horse on the bit.
5. Later in training your horse, you'll use a momentary closure of seat, leg, and hand to give a "collecting half halt".
Learning to Use the Outside Rein
To start, I'm going to give you some exercises to help you become more aware of your outside aids. I think this is a useful first step because riders instinctively rely more on their inside rein than their outside rein.
The first exercise is simply to ride in all three paces on the "second track" which is one meter away from the wall. One meter is a good distance because it's fairly close to the wall. And you'll soon find that the wall exerts some sort of "magnetic pull" that draws your horse back towards the track. Plus, it's a small enough distance for you to clearly tell if you're staying equidistant from the track.
Your goal is to make it all the way around the ring exactly one meter away from the track without having to make any corrections or adjustments. Pretend you're on a 4-inch wide balance beam and any deviation off your line means you've fallen off the beam. If your horse is between your aids, it's easy to keep him one meter from the wall.
Once you can do that, increase the difficulty of the exercise by making a circle. Ride one meter off the track as in the first exercise. Then ride a circle that begins and ends at exactly the same point. As you finish the circle, continue riding straight ahead maintaining your one-meter distance away from the track. The critical points are when you start and finish the circle. You'll need your outside rein both to turn your horse onto the circle as well as to straighten him to tell him to go straight ahead again.
To add an even greater degree of difficulty to the exercise, turn down the centerline and leg yield over to the wall. When you're one meter from the wall interrupt the leg yield with your outside aids and redirect your horse's energy so he travels straight ahead. Since your horse will be inclined to continue his sideways momentum and end up on the track, you'll need to influence him firmly with your outside aids.
Half Halts
Once you have a handle on using your outside rein, ask your dressage horse to step through it and come on the bit by giving a "connecting half halt".
During a connecting half halt there's a marriage of three sets of aids--the driving aids (both legs and the seat), the bending aids (both legs and the inside rein, and the rein of opposition (the outside rein).
Imagine what would happen if you were to apply your driving and bending aids to their maximum without adding the rein of opposition. That's right. Your horse would be running very fast on a very small circle. Not very good balance, eh?
However, with the addition of the outside rein, an imaginary door shuts in front of your horse. As your horse maintains his speed and straightness while yielding to this outside hand that is closed in a fist, he bends the joints of his hind legs to a greater degree and changes his balance and shape.
Changing his balance can include anything from putting him on the bit by connecting him longitudinally to improving his self-carriage by collecting him to calling him to attention when he's distracted. The main difference is just a matter of degree. Depending on what you're trying to do, all the elements (driving aids, bending aids, rein of opposition) are there, but the emphasis merely changes.
For instance, you'll use a certain amount of seat, leg and hand to ask the horse to step through the outside rein and come into a round frame in the working gaits. Then you can take that same horse and with a greater degree of the three elements, you can ask for more collection. Or if you want an extension, half halt by using more seat and leg versus the amount of restraining outside hand. When you want to do a downward transition at the end of this extension, you'll use more upper leg and outside rein to collect your horse. When you close your legs and drive more with your seat into a restraining hand, the educated horse knows to passage. If you then half halt by maintaining your legs and closing your restraining hand a bit more while lightening your seat, you're asking that horse to piaffe.
When you're ready to give a connecting half halt, you'll combine the three sets of aids for approximately three seconds. Of course, there will be times when you give a half halt in one second. But it's best for the green rider to think that the half halt lasts for the amount of time it takes to take a full breath.
As you breathe in, tighten your stomach and the small of your back. You should feel it as a wave that travels up your stomach into your chest. Your shoulders go back and down and the wave goes down your back into your seat. At the same time close your legs and maintain your horse's bend with your inside hand.
As he begins to move forward and bend to a greater degree, you'll feel a surge of energy come into the rein. This is the moment to close your outside hand in a fist. The outside hand says, "You're not allowed to speed up or bend to a greater degree than you already have. Instead you must yield to the outside hand, and because you're being driven forward, you'll bend your hind legs more." At the end of your full breath, relax all the aids and resume a light but pleasant contact with your legs on your horse's barrel and your hands with his mouth. Then you can ride him forward in a new state of balance and attention.
What Does it Look and Feel Like When Your Horse Steps Through the Outside Rein?
When your horse steps through the outside rein, he feels like he's in an organized package rather than a jumble of disconnected parts. On circles, he "fills" the outside rein and, in turn, the rein envelops his neck. His silhouette or shape is round, and the power from his hindquarters travels uninterrupted over his back through a long and beautifully set neck. Because he moves through his whole body like a dancer rather than holding his back rigidly and shuffling along with his legs, he's more comfortable to sit on--especially in trot and canter. He's so uncomplicated to ride that you have a sense of anything being possible within the very next step. For example, if you're in extended trot, you can just as easily be in collected trot by the next stride. Or if you're backing up, you can effortlessly strike off into the canter.
Continued:
As you use your driving aids, you experience a comfortable interaction with your outside hand. You create energy, and your outside rein recycles that power through your horse's body without any conflicts--sort of like a flywheel that continues to turn by itself because it doesn't meet any resistance. There's a cooperative relationship between the driving aids and the outside rein where the use of one benefits the other rather than existing as separate entities that work against each other.
Not only can you feel when your horse steps through your hand, but you can see it as well. As your horse steps through your hand, you'll notice that his neck changes shape. It gets longer, rounder, and often lower. His neck is widest at the base and gets progressively narrower with the narrowest point behind the ears. (If his neck is widest in the middle, he's not stepping through the outside rein.)
However, when the relationship between your driving aids and outside rein is not right, the use of your driving aids complicates the feeling in your hand. Your horse might speed up and run through your hand, become hollow, pull, come against your hand, or lean on it. He feels as if he's jammed up against your hand with the kind of resistance or blockage you'd meet if you were trying to drive your car with the emergency brake on. You'll also probably feel like you have to resort to doing too much with your inside rein for basic things like steering and maintaining his round shape.
Testing the Connection Through the Outside Rein
After you've pushed your dressage horse through the outside rein with a half halt, you can tell if you've been successful by softening your inside rein forward for a couple of strides (uberstreichen). If your horse maintains his shape and position while you give your inside hand away, you know he's stepping through the outside rein.
Start your test on a circle where the bend of the circle will help you to put him through the outside rein. Give a half halt. Close your legs, close your outside hand in a fist, and maintain flexion to the inside by lightly vibrating the inner rein. Then put a loop in the inner rein by softening your hand forward towards his mouth for a couple of strides. Does your horse stay bent along the arc of the circle? Do his speed, balance, and frame stay the same? If so, you can feel confident that your horse is connected through your outside rein. If anything changes, give another half halt and try the test again.
Next, challenge yourself by doing this same test on a straight line where you don't have the bend of the circle to help your horse fill the outside rein. When you give the inside rein away after a half halt, ask yourself if your horse's spine stays parallel to the track or does his neck bend to the outside. If it does, does it bend a little or a lot? The amount that your horse's neck bends to the outside and he, therefore, loses his straightness tells you the degree he's connected (or not) through the outside rein.
Once you know your horse is stepping through the outside rein on circles and straight lines, do the same test during lateral work. Start a shoulder-in, a haunches-in, or a half pass. Give your half halt and then soften your inside hand forward for a stride or two. Does your horse maintain his bend and position? If he does, you're in business. If not, you're probably helping him too much with your inside rein rather than pushing him from your inside leg to your outside rein.
HELP!
At this point, you've ridden a bunch of half halts, but your dressage horse just doesn't seem to understand stepping through the outside rein. Every time you drive him forward and close your outside hand, he stiffens against the rein and raises and shortens his neck. So what now?
What I do in this case is use the momentum of a lengthening to give the horse the idea that he must go forward "through" the closed outside hand.
To do this, start on a circle where you know your outside rein has to be more definite because of the bend. Then ask for a lengthening. When you're really motoring along, close your outside hand in a fist while maintaining the lengthening. While doing this, your inside rein is doing its usual job of keeping the horse straight--that is, vibrating just enough to keep the inside flexion of the horse's head.
If your horse lowers, stretches, lengthens, or rounds his neck even one inch, soften your aids and reward him. If he doesn't, KEEP lengthening while your outside hand stays closed and your inside hand vibrates until you see his neck lower even slightly. (This could take half way around the circle in the beginning!) When the power of the lengthening carries him forward through your closed outside fist and he comes rounder, soften your aids and praise generously.
If your horse still stiffens against your hand when he feels you use your outside rein, give an "increasing half halt". Start with a light half halt but over the course of the three or more seconds, increase the pressure of all the aids. If you need "more leg", you can tap your horse with a whip at the same time that you are using your driving aids and hands to the maximum.
Now here's the important part. While you're doing this, watch your horse's neck very carefully. The moment it becomes even slightly longer, relax all of your aids. By lengthening his neck, your horse is telling you that he's starting to step "through" your outside hand. He should be instantly rewarded for this both by the softening of all of the aids and by praising him.
Then start again with a light half halt only increasing the pressure if necessary. Always start with a light half halt rather than immediately going to a strong one so that you give your horse the option to respond to a subtle aid. You always want to ride using the most refined aids possible. It's not much fun for either you or your horse to ride from strength.
In this way your horse learns that when he arrives at your closed outside hand, he should soften and yield to the action of the rein. He has other options besides jamming up against your hand. He needs to view the outside hand as a wall, but it's an invisible wall. He can step "through" it and come into a better balance.
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Jane Savoie was the reserve rider for the bronze medal winning Olympic Dressage Team in 1992 (Barcelona) and has coached at 3 Olympic Games (Atlanta, Sydney, Athens). She is the author of 5 training and sports psychology books that have been published internationally and has produced numerous dvd programs and home study courses.
To learn more about coping with rider fear, check out janesavoie.com.
