Part One - The Theory of the Aids

Like all languages there is a basic structure, but it is emphasis and timing which lends expression and refinement. It is essential that anyone who wishes to ride well should understand the use, the reasons for and the effect of the aids before he tries to teach them to his horse. The horse must be taught in stages and with complete clarity until it appears that all the rider has to do is think for the horse to obey willingly. A rider or trainer who can combine intelligence with mental and physical control and co-ordination can produce a highly trained, alert and happy horse.

Understanding how to communicate with the horse.

In your partnership with your horse, you are responsible for doing the thinking - not him. You cannot expect him to sit back and work out what you are trying to say, you must find a way of making it easy for him to understand. If he does not, no amount of frustration or annoyance on your part will make it any better - only sympathy for how the horse thinks. If we wish to develop a language that we can use to communicate with our horse, an excellent starting point is how horses communicate with each other. It will be much simpler to train our horse to respond to our commands if they are based on something he already understands.

If you have the time and opportunity, find a herd of horses in a field - it doesn't matter how large the herd is - relax, have a cup of coffee, lean on the gate and just watch. You will learn more about the nature of horses and how they communicate quicker and more productively then hours spend in the saddle.

For example, why, as rider is it so difficult to bring a horse off its forehand? The answer is in front of you. The horse is a grazing animal and spends most of its time with its head down eating grass - especially in this day and age when horses are not presented with predators. They no longer have reason to use themselves, their back legs and powerful quarters, to run away from the hunter.

In the main horses do not communicate with the voice. Ok they snicker and neigh and even call to each other but the predominant means of communication is body language. Here I can give you another example. If your horse has an itch on his neck, how does he get his neck scratched? He will find another horse in the herd and nibble and bite the other horse's neck exactly where he himself has an itch. The body language is saying, "Scratch my neck there". The other horse will usually submit and scratch your horse's neck (it never knows when it might want its own neck scratched).

What happens when a new horse is introduced to the herd? Initially he will feel very uncomfortable. He will not know were he stands in the pecking order and the ranking, and knowing who is boss is very important to a horse. The new horse will circle the herd and occasionally make faces and threatening gestures to the established members. The horses that back down will be ignored, but he will find the lead horse, the boss, the horse that will not back down.

I guarantee the lead horse (the lead stallion in the wild) will not say to the new horse, "Now look here Dobbin, you're new here so I think we should have a counselling session". The stallion or lead horse will use violence instead. He will kick and bite the newcomer until he submits. From then on Dobbin will be a happy horse. No responsibility: he knows were his next meal will come from, he knows were his next drink comes from and in the wild, if Dobbin was a mare, will even know where her next foal will come from. Horses live in a social structure where there is a strict order. They accept that they dominate those below them and that they are dominated in turn by those above them in the social scale. If they are not led, then they will do the leading. That's nature.

The Discomfort/Reward System

In the same way, from the earliest stages of its training, the horse will move away from the mild discomfort of a rider's leg pushing at his side. When your horse yields and responds to this pressure or goes forward, you must remove the pressure and that will be the reward. Easy! When you pull or take the reins, the horse will obviously feel discomfort in his mouth. He will learn that if he responds in a certain way, that pressure will be taken away. He will also learn, hopefully, that if he responds to these discomforts often enough and in the same way, they occur much more subtly and the rewards are in plentiful supply. You should be aiming for a time when the lightest of touches on the horse's side with your leg or a shift of your position in the saddle should produce a response. You have succeeded in finding a method of communicating your commands to the horse.

What happens, though, when our subordinate horse does not move away from the dominant one walking towards it? The dominant horse will make gestures that insist or threaten - possibly even chase or bite the other to remind him of the pecking order. Equally, as riders we must back up our aids, our body language, to insist that the horse responds and to underline our power of leadership should he choose to ignore or question it (but only once he understands the basic language). Then we must utilise a method of increasing the horse's discomfort to encourage him to respond.

This is where the tricky subject comes in about whips, spurs and the like. Such things have a definite place in training and riding your horse, but they can be abused dreadfully. Doing so is futile in communicating with your horse and shows a complete lack of understanding on the part of the person holding the whip or wearing the spurs if they think that they will help! You can only achieve what you wish if such aids are used correctly and based on an understanding of what you are doing. I will deal with this important topic shortly when we look at what aids are available to the rider and how to apply them in practice.

I will finish the Theory of the Aids with a question and story that made me realise what the aids were all about.

Question. What is the aid to bring a horse from full gallop to halt?
Answer. Just sit and touch your horse's side, on his right flank just behind the saddle!

I'll explain…

Some years ago I was lucky enough to be friendly with a young lady whose father was extremely wealthy. He owned thousands of acres of land in Kent and he had, just for a hobby, a mile and half gallops in a dead straight line though some of his fields. Because I was a friend of the family I was allowed to use the land to ride over, to hack, including the gallops.

I remember it was an extremely hot summer that year and when I rode out over my friend's land I wore breeches and boots but just a tee-shirt on top. In those days I smoked but had nowhere to keep my cigarettes and lighter. So, I put a small pouch on the two metal rings just at the back of the saddle. Every time I wanted to smoke I stopped my horse, reached into the pouch, got out my cigarettes and lighter and had a smoke. By the end of the summer I could gallop full pelt (very fast) down the gallops and all I have to do to stop Dark Khan (my horse) was to touch the pouch and he would come to a full halt. He had learned through that summer that when I went for that pouch he was rewarded by a rest and perhaps a graze. I had taught Dark Khan, albeit by mistake and circumstance, a new aid!

The moral of this story? It's up to you, the rider to teach your horse the aids. They are cause and effect. Don't forget, your horse has not read the same books as you. You are his only teacher and you must teach your horse with effective aids.

Hope you enjoyed this month's lesson. Now that we've looked a little at the theory underlying the aids we might use, the next lesson will look at the basic aids themselves and how we use them. If you have any problems, please email me. If you have any comments, please email me. And don't forget, always reward your horse, it's the only way he will know he is correct.

Lesson Number 5 - The rider's aids (part 2)

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