[QUOTE=slc2;4308820]
There’s a poster (or used to be!) at Rowe’s dressage stables in Okemos, Michigan, that said, ‘The secret of dressage is in the outside rein’.
Most people tend to keep the reins very loose (comparatively) when they ‘come over to the dark side’ (:lol:) from Western Pleasure. There is a tendency to use the inside rein to turn, using a ‘plough’ rein or opening rein (taking the inside hand away from the neck, to the inside of the turn), or to use a neck rein, in which the outside rein is pressed against the neck, by moving the rein hand over (again toward the inside).
In dressage, reins are more of a ‘direct line’ to the horse’s mouth.
The rider keeps a contact with the horse’s mouth with both reins, to turn he gets a little bend with the inside rein by bringing his hand back toward his (same side) hip from the shoulder and using his leg at the girth(as time goes on those signals get more and more subtle).
Most of the time the outside rein is a ‘passive holder’ - it keeps the connection, and gives forward just to ‘follow’ the horse’s neck bend, not to ‘drop the line’. It’s a ‘bend limiter’ or a ‘bend allower’, but one does very little to allow bend. So you make really a channel, the outside rein is the outside of the channel, the inside rein is the inside of that channel. You always keep a contact, but you can ‘let’ a little more bend of the neck when you need to.
Sometimes (perhaps as you get on in your lessons), the outside rein can also control the shoulder. Instead of just being a ‘passive holder’, or a ‘bend limiter’, it can be used like a ‘neck pole’ to control the shoulder, and keep it from popping out to the outside too much. You pretend as if the rein is a rigid pole, and bring it closer to the neck, without crossing your hand over the mane.
And even further down the line, you can use your outside rein to keep the horse upright, so he doesn’t lean inward, to regulate his rhythm, to collect (gather or package) him, and to not just control the shoulders, but to do things like shoulders-in.[/QUOTE]
You are correct, when I first began taking lessons I used my inside rein to turn the horse, I opened the rein and didn’t drop my seat bone and sat still as a statue - lol…now I have learned through countless hours that is not the proper method to tell my horse to turn. I have almost (though when I get tense or nervous I revert) stopped dropping my inside hand to make a turn and quit opening the rein to turn. I did use a trick though to remind me - I used a large rubber band and looped it over both wrists (not tying it, just stuck both hands through and when I tried to “drop my hand and open it to turn” the rubber band reminded me, no. Drop seat bone, turn upper body in direction of bend and horse will follow. I am not perfect but for the first time today, I got praise for not dropping my inside hand and opening the inside rein like I was driving a plow horse. This after almost 10 months. I am very proud of that wee bit of praise because after many years of loopy reins and using neck reining, it is hard to change.
Can I ask you a question? How long have you been riding dressage? Is there hope for someone who comes to it in a later stage of life? I am having fun with it, I like practicing and seeking perfection and I love how my horse is responding, (she was a noodle when we began and I despaired of her ever traveling in a straight line but now she can walk in a straight line without throwing her hips out to the right and her neck and shoulders to the left). I am not discouraged but I wonder if I shall ever be good enough to ride a Training Level Test A or B? I take one lesson a week and ride by myself the other three days the trainer does not ride - he rides my horse three days a week.
My horse is smart and since she was a “blank slate” practically, this is all the training she has had other than basic starting. I do want to do one show before I get too old and try very hard not to get discouraged regarding my progress, but when I see people at shows and how well they go, I almost despair of ever being that good. Just musing a bit because I do take this as seriously as I took riding and showing western pleasure and want to be good at it, not just adequate.
Again thanks for listening, I have no one in the family to discuss this with and all my friends ride western.