Bend and Flexion

About Bend and Flexion and how to do it

In all types of riding, the rider is striving to ensure that the horse’s hind legs follow in the same track as his front legs. So when working on a turn or a circle he has to bend through his body ; his whole body must form a straight, continual curve around the rider’s inside leg. So in order to be straight the horse has to bend ( sounds kinda weird ha ? ).
The degree of bend that the horse shows through his body is dependent on the size of the circle/turn you are trying to ride.
Example : to ride a 65 ˝ foot ( 20 m ) circle the horse shows only a slight bend through his body, but to ride around a 33 foot ( 10 m ) circle there will be a greater degree of bend.

* Achieving the bend *

1 ) The rider should concentrate on making sure that the outside hand is really following the horse’s movement in a soft, forgiving way, while still maintaining a light contact. This ensures that the horse’s forward momentum is not stifled by a restricting outside hand. The rider than opens the inside hand, setting it in the open position by simply tensing the muscles of the arm ( kinda like a half-halt ) not by pulling back on the rein. The inside leg is used behind the girth to continue pushing the horse out onto the circle ( so it does not begin to move in to the circle ), and a firm contact is only used on the outside rein if the horse falls into the circle ( moves into the circle making it smaller ).

2 ) The rider should now feel the horse bending through the body and neck ( you can tell because when the horse is bending on the circle you can see either his inside nostril or the corner of his inside eye )

3 ) So as soon as you can see that the horse is offering to bend use both legs against his sides to encourage him to bring his hocks further underneath him and to flex through his topline. When you feel the horse relax his poll and jaw so that the nose is lowered and his face is on the vertical , soften the inside rein and allow it to follow the movement in the same way as the outside rein. Now praise you horse – this is his reward for yielding to your leg and hand. The horse is now beginning to work in self carriage.

If you have any more questions on bend and flexion ( some of that didn’t really make the best sense, at least for some people ) than just give me an e-mail ( knowyourhorse@hotmail.com )

Most of this Information was collected form the book “ How to Ride “ written by Debby Sly