The Inside Rein Comes to the Rescue

For so, so long I over-used the inside rein. So of course, once I fixed that, I started to under-use it. Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer of Symphony Dressage Stables, convinced me that I really should start using it again. When I do, I get moments like this:

Well, hello, submissive and balanced pony!

Izzy is by no means unusual in his cheeky attitude, and little by little, I am chipping away at it, revealing a very lovely diamond. But as with most horses, the connection doesn't just happen all by itself; I have to work hard to get it.

Izzy holds most of his tension in his back, base of his withers, and poll. Getting him to let go of all of that takes some careful riding. Warming up with just my seat bones and then getting a stretch down before changing the bend definitely helped unlock his back and neck. 

To get that last bit to release, Chemaine had me try a new trick. When Izzy just won't get soft, she instructed me to take my inside rein and cross it ever so slightly in front of my pommel and hold it.

​You can see why I would need to do that here:

Bending right means that he has to use his body. Instead, Izzy wants to lock his neck, flex to the outside, and swing his haunches around so that he doesn't have to bend his body. 

By crossing my inside hand over the pommel, Izzy doesn't have anything to lean on. I become a human side rein. The instant he releases his neck and poll, I can also release the inside rein. Here he is just a few moments later. 

You can see that he has softened so much that I was able let go of the inside rein completely to pat his neck.

Releasing the inside rein completely.

Izzy couldn't pick up or hold a right lead canter a year ago. Six months ago we were still regulars on the struggle bus. Heck, even last month we had trouble getting this quality of right lead canter. It's not perfect of course, but you can definitely see some amazing potential in this horse.

Each week that passes makes me more and more glad that I've stuck it out with him. We still have some issues to address, but the good moments are coming faster and faster!

Photo by Monica Whitmer.