Let the horse activate your aids
Do you ever wish riding had a formula? I mean, it does, but it has many of them, and while they are incredibly helpful and generally true (let’s hear it for two legs into two reins and forward, free, and flowing!), they might not help you in the moment, when you have questions like what should I do with my left hand? and where should my right leg be?
Of course, there are formulas like how to ride a shoulder-in and how to ask for a lengthening. I say formula to mean a combination of aids, often done in a sequence, to communicate with the horse and create a movement. We need to know these formulas first - and then we need to relax about them and respond to what the horse is actually doing. Here’s what this looks like:
Start in a neutral position
Think about what you’d like the horse to do
Wait a moment for the horse’s response
Allow the horse’s body and response to activate your aids for the movement
In this way, the horse and her actual response activate your aids, rather than riding a specific formula. As you are more comfortable and familiar with an exercise or a question you ask your horse, your body will start to self-organize, just as it does when you put your pants on or brush your teeth. More things (and hopefully the right things!) become automatic and your body will do things without your knowledge.
In riding, this means that when you think about an exercise, your body will self-organize and start to communicate with the horse, even if you’re not aware of what’s going on. These are often subtle shifts but they are easily heard by the horse, who will start to respond. Once you’ve thought of the movement and waited to listen to the horse, the horse then will tell you where she needs more support. If we start by riding the formula, we are often over-riding the horse, cueing too strongly, or pushing the horse past her point of balance.
Let’s look at an example - the shoulder-in. The cues for a shoulder-in are to position your (level!) shoulders to the inside, allow the outside shoulder to leave the rail with the outside rein and then maintain supporting outside rein connection, maintain the outside leg behind the girth to keep the haunches traveling straight, use the inside leg at the girth to engage the inside hind, and ask for inside flexion with the inside rein. However, if you allow the horse to activate your aids, you may just need to position your shoulders and the horse will do the rest!
The other thing this allows you to do is really respond to what is going on in real time. You position your body for the horse and then they will activate the aids on their own. For example, in the shoulder-in, your outside leg is behind the girth but quiet. Then, if the horse swings her haunches to the rail, she will touch your leg on her own, thus activating that aid.
This lets us:
ride as quietly and softly as possible
focus on our own position, which is invaluable for balance and guidance for the horse
avoid overriding
focus on feeling what is going on, which is the ultimate goal!