My top tip for this week is all about your elbows! Do you find your horse struggles to be consistent with transitions, tempo, rhythm, relaxation and contact?
If the answer is yes, it could be because your arms are a little too straight! This will also make your shoulders and back a little bit tense, which will also affect your hips, thighs, knee and lower leg. Tension or lack of flexion ripples through our bodies, as much as it does our horse’s bodies, and our tension can make the horse tense too. How can you expect your horses to be relaxed and supple, if you are not relaxed and supple??…The fact is, you just can’t!
If your elbows are not soft, how can your hands be soft? And if your hands are not soft, how can you expect the horse’s mouth and the contact to be soft??…The fact is, you just can’t!
Elbows are the key to softness, it’s not the hands on their own doing all the work, they simply hold the reins. The connection to the horses mouth comes through the hand to the elbow.
The next time you ride, check your elbows. They should sit just above your hip. The joint itself should be relaxed and flex with your upper body (especially in the rising trot) to allow the hand to be still and quiet. I see a lot of riders and this is a very common problem. It can take a while to master but a good thing to try, if this is an issue for you, is to hook your little finger onto a neck strap or breastplate (anything relatively stable, even string tied to the D-rings) and get the feel of what your elbow should be doing. You could even set up something off the horse to practice with. It may take some time but once you get it you’ll really feel a difference in your effectiveness and your horse’s way of going.