Just Let Him Be!
When you are riding, is your horse carrying himself, or are you in-fact carrying him?
Self-carriage is the horse’s ability to maintain his balance with my weight on his back. When my horse is in self-carriage, I feel that the next step, or stride will be the same as the last, without any additional input from me.
A horse in self-carriage can perform his tasks on a soft rein without losing balance.
My ultimate goal in riding my horse is to have him in self-carriage with soft feel. However, at every stage of training the horse should be in some degree of self-carriage. That means that the horse maintains his own balance, frame and rhythm with a light contact.
A horse in self-carriage can perform his tasks on a soft rein without losing balance.
Self carriage comes from your horse being encouraged to work by himself, confident in his own abilities and your consistent correction only when he gets out of balance. Self carriage is really self motivation on your horses part and his knowing that when you ask for something it is his job to respond and then continue until asked to do differently.
My job is not to support my horse through every stride, but rather to influence the horses movements and balance, which will then, over time, allows him to develop the necessary strength to support himself, and achieve true self carriage.
Teaching my horse transition from short frame to working frame will give me the first step into self carriage. Self Carriage is a result of a well ridden transition, but it has just as much to do with being balanced mentally and emotionally as it does with being balanced physically.
The rider must be able to feel that his horse is about to lose his balance, or about to stop what is being asked and then act on this before it happens. (“I always ride the stride that didn’t happened yet”). Self carriage requires the horse to be balanced, supple and have the required level of physical and mental strength to be capable of using himself in a controlled and consistent way every time.
When schooling our horses, it is important to introduce new movements slowly and gradually. Remember that the level of balance, for new exercises, will be in direct proportion to the muscles strength and ability while being used that way.
Stop raging your horse continuously while riding. This will work against your horse developing himself enough to achieve self carriage. It is important to develop the skills to ask and then allow your horse to perform his movements.
One of the most difficult things to do as a rider is nothing! Nothing is just being neutral and only applying aids when necessary.
The enemy of self carriage is imbalance horse: The hind legs are pushing more than they carry, and the horse transfers some of his weight from his hindquarters to the rider’s hands.
Self-carriage is the horse’s ability to maintain his balance with my weight on his back.
For this to happen, I help my horse to put his weight on the haunches by lifting his withers (half-halt) in Dressage, or push-up in Cowboy Dressage. The goal is always that my horse will carry himself, that rather me carrying him!
Just Let Them Be!
