There are a number of strategies that I have used over the years that I would like to share with you.
I was riding a tough minded Saddlebred/warmblood cross in a clinic where I used a technique I later coined x plus one. Prior to it being my turn, I had audited the other riders’ lessons and one thing that I heard said was that “riders pull the left rein and drop it too quickly”.
When it was my turn to be instructed, I already had a plan not to have that said to me.
What I did was make contact on the left rein as my saddle and knee were going back and down; this being the timing a horse takes your low leg into him. I then would grow my left hand up the inner slope of my inner thigh as the inner front foot was coming off the ground. The process of growing was in the inner torso half, and the process extended my left knee and added more grounded weight on the outer sit surface. The action of growing on the upbeat (saddle moves up and gyrates towards the wither) was my focus on how to not drop the inner contact. Another focus was to allow my axial elongation to move my hand more than hand alone. Think about it. During the inner upbeat the pelvis gets carried closer to the front thus a bag in the inner contact can happen easily. The action of the inner torso growing weights your outer sitting surface so that you don’t lean left, and this added grounding of the outer seat helps the inner knee extend. This balancing energy of the outer sit surface puts weight on the outer feet, blocks exit strategies on the outer side while opening a door on the inside.
The “x” means that contact that the rider presents and that the horse feels. The plus 1cm raises the inner branch of the bit ever so slightly. It isn’t hand alone. The torso growth in essence changed the normal pattern of my inner knee and the amount that the inner rein can get too loose. I was told that I was very clever. I then got emboldened, and asked “do you ever use your low leg on the upbeat?” There was a pause then the reply was no. This is very classical. In a nutshell the low leg is used when the horse takes it into his side.
Why did the “x plus 1 cm” work to gain acceptance of the left rein?
First off you finish what you started.
If I were to take a feel on the inner mouth and the horse went straight up with the head, and I didn’t have a way to block this wrong response, then I would be showing him how to evade a feel.
In the clinic, everyone’s initial warmup was at a walk on a small circle. And it was in a location that didn’t cause the horse more anxiety. The value of a small circle helps the rider focus on equitation, and the size of the circle helps the nervous stiff horse be able to align his feet due to the belly having a reason to conform to the line of the small circle. It gives the rider an opportunity to calm things down and be able to concentrate. The rein length was adjusted so that they were attached at the V line made with the inner thighs. Go picture the width of the horse’s mouth, and then put your hands that width apart. Place one hand on each arm of your inner V line. This V line becomes narrower as it approaches your crotch. So the hands end up being in front of the hip joints if they share the same distance apart as the horse’s mouth is wide. As I thought of “plus 1” I would actually press my hand into my V and slide it up. It wasn’t floating around.
So basically, your rein presentation is like that of being a human set of side reins. I don’t like the use of side reins when lunging. There are too many evasions that the horse can learn. And there are better techniques. But when riding, and focusing on equitation on a small circle, being a human side rein combined with the equitation needed to ride a small circle, lends to learning feel and effect. The x plus 1cm is invaluable to not pull nor drop the contact. The technique does so much more than that. If your hands are part of the saddle movement the x plus 1 continues to feel the mouth on the upbeat of the saddle on the inner ups.
In the western world you will hear the term slow pull when training a colt to start a small circle and follow his head. If the colt’s head displaces laterally, but the rest of him doesn’t follow the rein, then the slow pull is an x plus one so that the horse can’t use the increased ounces of draw against the rider by derailing his energy.. The circle size and the extra ounces of slow pull created more medially create a situation where if the rider uses aids to generate life towards this feel, the horse isn’t going to stiffen and get away in front. The draw creates insurance that the energy won’t go past the end of the rein. And it ensures a way for the contact to raise in the horse’s mouth so there is less injury to the bar. It connects the horse to both follow and align while adding cushion to the feel in a vicinity that the horse can’t use his strength against you. It supports the colt not discovering that he can evade. It really isn’t a lift of the inner shoulder with the low leg, it is an organization of energy that comes from how you sit, and energy from the diagonal hindquarter. And by the way, you can do damage to the shoulder joint by over correcting an inner front and moving it away with inner leg use to do so. Let the x plus 1 influence the shoulder balance. The balance change brought about by the x plus one extends the riders knee and helps the outer feet take the weight. Summoning energy with a focus on the hind feet to track true will find it’s way under your timed equitation. The horse will position the poll and accept the feel.
