What does "ride from behind" mean to YOU?

[Curly_Feather]

Good discussion.

Another aspect of it that is relevant for me is that when we have stiffness or rushing or just plain old inattention, don’t push forward, necessarily. My horse loves being heavy in the bridle, and forward and strong is his default mode. So I use my legs to push the hind end around, without worrying too much about the front end. SI to renvers to SI to travers. Travers on a circle, into canter depart. For my naturally forward and strong guy, getting control of the hind by moving it around is much more effective than just trying to get it moving.

[merrygoround]

Riding from behind is almost impossible unless the horse is forward, and capable of being engaged. With a young horse you need to be content to have the horse simply going forward freely from your seat and leg. Entirely too much attention is give to the position of the head and neck, other than having it properly in front of the shoulders, bent in the direction the horse i is going.

As far as receiving the forward energy the hands and arms must be relaxed, with a distinctly straight line between the elbows and bit. No backward tension.

With some horses who tend to get heavy in front, the rider need do no more than raise their chest.

[Dressage_Strider]

@Curly_Feather

Good discussion.

Another aspect of it that is relevant for me is that when we have stiffness or rushing or just plain old inattention, don’t push forward, necessarily. My horse loves being heavy in the bridle, and forward and strong is his default mode. So I use my legs to push the hind end around, without worrying too much about the front end. SI to renvers to SI to travers. Travers on a circle, into canter depart. For my naturally forward and strong guy, getting control of the hind by moving it around is much more effective than just trying to get it moving.

YES YES YES YES

[anon55755751]

netg, thanks for the photos! You put the chestnut’s pics in my thread about the neck too, and they’re an excellent illustration of both concepts.

kashmere, my horse sounds a lot like yours. (And a $700 craigslist Tb, although not OT.) He’s in an especially silly/spooky phase right now, and I’m learning the extent to which his energy can be managed before he jumps out of his skin just by committing to staying upright in my position with leg on. Done right, the spooky energy turns into a bold approach to whatever it was that was scaring him. If I pinch with my knee or pitch forward ever so slightly when he starts to balk, it amplifies his nerves. It’s actually relatively out character for him to be very reactive, but he’s had a lot of changes this year which have probably added up to not enough mental stimulation lately.

Scribbler, your (and Mondo’s) take is interesting. I hadn’t considered that grinding might be a misinterpretation of this phrase (which sounds like it’s being read as “ride from YOUR behind”), but I can see how that might happen. In general, people can go overboard using any maxim and end up doing funny things to their position. Guilty of it myself, in just about every way imaginable.

LilyandBaron, I have the opposite history, but think I’ve ended up in roughly the same place as you. Spent many years fiddling with minutae in the name of suppleness and flexion to the detriment of all forward motion. Now, if I concentrate on forward and straight instead, the soft and flexible seem to come for free — once the jaw unlocks, that is, so I agree totally with you on that critical point! For me it was important to learn how to do that unlocking with relatively passive aids – the driving aid being the only active one. Separation of the aids, which you also mention, being the key for “passive” to be neither restrictive nor ineffective…

[LilyandBaron]

@strangewings - funny to hear - I love how you describe separating the aids - we often focus too much on one or the other, but we have to separate them in order for them to be able to work in harmony in the end. And yes, the hands are passive- not pulling, but adjusting so that the energy can flow. It’s almost like those old rabbit ear antennas - having to adjust it just so to get the signal to come in. For my mare, I thought just blasting the signal (driving forward) would overcome the lack of an antenna to receive. But by softening the jaw, I can drive without running her into a wall, and I achieve the coveted “circle of energy.” I think I was lost with good intentions - all the dictates of “forward” to fix everything - but “fixing” the front first does not mean pulling or a lack of forward. Kind of hard to put into words, but when it clicks, it all falls into place!