What if, by feeling where and when your horse picks up his hooves and places them on the ground, you could better influence his body?
It's not only possible, says clinician and author Mark Rashid of Estes Park, Colorado, it's not as difficult as you might think.
Before you get started on this lesson, check out the sidebar "How Hooves Fall When They Hit the Ground," which offers a step-by-step guide to the basic three gaits. Armed with this information, you can become aware of what your horse's feet are doing with each individual step. Then practice Mark's method for figuring out when and where your horse is placing his feet on the ground.
Self-Study
Mark's riding philosophy ties into his work with the martial arts. As a black belt in aikido, he has an understanding of how awareness in our lives and our horsemanship can bring us a more focused understanding of whatever task stands before us.
To find awareness, you must soften your body and your senses, so you're seeing, hearing, and feeling what your horse is doing underneath you. Start by relaxing your eyes and softening your body as your horse walks along.
Instead of sitting rigidly in the saddle, allow your core, or midsection, to soften like a spring or joint and follow the motion of the horse, says Mark. You should begin to feel your own hips rise and rotate as your horse moves. Just go with your horse's body, and let his hips move yours. As your hips move, you'll feel your legs move too, swinging in time with your horse's stride.
The horse is a dynamic surface, which rotates and swivels side-to-side and forward and back as the horse moves. Biomechanical research, as well as good old experience, shows that the horse's body and the rider's body move in conjunction with each other. As your horse's hip lowers, your same hip also lowers, and not just forward and back, but side-to-side and up and down as well. There's a lot going on when your seat is in the saddle.
Moving clockwise in the arena, move your focus to the horse's inside hind leg. Why the inside hind? Because your horse's power comes from his rear engine, Mark points out. By knowing where this leg is, you can best influence your horse's stride and move him side-to-side, backward, as well as forward.
Every gait, whether it's a walk, trot, canter, single-foot, or pace, has one thing in common: "The barrel of the horse swings out of the way of the hind foot as the horse takes a step," says Mark.
That means that when the right hind foot is stepping forward, the horse's barrel swings to the left, and when the left hind foot is stepping forward, the barrel is moving to the right.
"The rider's stirrups follow the horse's barrel," Mark says. "The barrel moves to the left, and the left stirrup swings out." At the same time, the rider's right leg swings toward the horse. Together, this all signals that the right hind leg is stepping forward.
Confused?
Here's another way to look at it. Imagine you're on your horse. He steps forward with his hind right, and you feel your left stirrup go out to the left. That means his right hind is stepping forward. Then, your right stirrup moves out to the right. That means his left hind is stepping forward.
Once you've got it at the walk, move up to the trot. Even if your horse is gaited and doesn't trot, you should still feel the same motion of his barrel swinging back and forth, says Mark. Relax your body, focus your mind, and become aware of how your horse moves, and feel for those hind legs.
Conversely, when your foot swings inward, it signifies that the corresponding back leg of your horse is stepping up, and your foot swinging out is related to the hoof that's on the ground.
