Contact is the only one of the six steps – rhythm, relaxation, contact, straightness, impulsion and collection – that describes a relationship between the horse and rider, rather than merely a quality in the horse’s way of going. “Contact is the soft, steady connection between the rider’s hand and the horse’s mouth,” says Wendy Christoff. “The horse should go rhythmically forward from the rider’s driving aids and “seek” a contact with the rider’s hand, thus “going onto” the contact. A correct, steady contact allows the horse to find its balance under the rider and find a rhythm in each of its gaits.”
Where riders misunderstand the concept of contact, Christoff believes, is that they think only about the physical contact from the hand to the rein and the horse’s mouth. “A common image used in describing contact is the one used by coaches to their students when they tell them to imagine holding a bird in their hand. Don’t hold on so tightly that you kill it, but hold on enough that you don’t let it fly away.” But contact is far more than just that feeling in the hands. “Contact is connection. It’s the feeling from the back of the horse to the front. It’s acceptance of the bridle, and it’s also the feeling of the horse underneath you, as opposed to out behind or out in front of you.”
Always From Back to Front – leg yield
It is through the use of longitudinal and lateral suppling exercises that one improves the quality of contact and connection in the horse. Contact should never be achieved through a backward action of the hands; it should result from the correctly delivered forward thrust of the hind legs. The horse should go confidently onto the contact in response to the rider’s driving aids. The poll should always be the highest point of the neck, except when the horse is being ridden forwards and downwards.
A common mistake that I see often is when the horse is uneven in the reins, and the rider tries to “supple” the horse by pulling the rein on the side on which the horse is stiff. In reality, the horse is behind the leg on that side, so no amount of pulling will correct the unevenness. Pulling only creates stiffness and crookedness. The exercises I use are leg yields, which are by definition exercises that get the horse to straighten into the contact and to yield. By leg yielding forward into the stiff rein, the rider compels the horse to give to the bridle on that side.
The leg yield doesn’t need to be on a straight line. A large turn on the forehand in the walk is my favourite exercise for addressing stiffness on one side. A turn on the forehand away from the sides of the ring (so that the rider is sure to use the aids correctly and not rely on a wall) will encourage the rider to push the horse through the stiff side instead of trying to pull the horse off the rein. As you make the sideways turns in a turn on the forehand and you feel the horse giving in to the outside rein contact, the reward is to let the horse walk straight forward, feeling a supple contact on both reins.
Another exercise I use often is a leg yield from the quarter line to the track, followed by a ten-metre circle. I introduce it first in the walk with students, so that they have the time to feel what is happening and can make corrections and not have things happening too quickly.Their positions are also less likely to be jeopardized at the walk than in the trot or canter. This exercise goes from a straight line to a curve, and requires the rider to keep the horse on the diagonal aids: inside leg to outside rein, but also outside leg to inside rein. If the exercise goes well in the walk, it can be ridden in trot and even canter. If the rider starts to have difficulty in the more forward gaits, the turn on the forehand in walk is an excellent go-to exercise to reinforce the correct connection.
Too Much or Too Little – half-halts and transitions
Another mistake I see riders make is that they lean forward and drop the contact in an upward transition, especially into the canter. If you want the horse to step through from behind, you must support the balance in front by keeping a feel of the mouth with a steady but soft contact as you ask the horse to step forward. The other mistake riders make is to half-halt, but to let the half-halt either last too long or become merely pulling back with no release. Instead of hanging on, repeat the half-halts often. When you see a horse that is curled behind the contact, it is often the result of a rider hanging on instead of making a brief half-halt by driving forward into a momentary rein resistance and then softening – but not dropping – the contact.
I also see riders who give too much and too often with the inside rein. We are taught about the inside-leg-to-outside-rein connection, but the opposite diagonal aid, the outside-leg-to-inside-rein, is also essential for the horse to be connected. We have to support with both reins, on circles and on the straight. Riders who constantly drop the inside rein as a “reward” will actually create distrust in the horse to the bit. Instead, reward with your voice instead of dropping the contact when the horse has found it. There are times when you can stroke the horse with the hand while riding, but only when the horse is in self-carriage. I tell my students to consider their reins as two sticks, with both of them straight, not one tight and one loose.
I use a series of short, quick half-halts to bring a horse that is curled back to a place where he is in front of the leg and in the correct shape, with the poll the highest point. The half-halts can be ridden anywhere, and within any exercise. The key is to remember that the half-halt must be followed by a cessation of the aids without dropping the contact completely.
Working the Diagonal Aids – suppling exercises in the walk
I use a sequence of exercises in the walk to both create good contact and to establish straightness through the use of both sets of diagonal aids. I start on a long rein, asking the horse with my legs to walk straight and freely forward. When I have established a straight walk in front of the leg, I then take up my reins while continuing to ride straight forward. I then add exercises on straight lines and turns: walk-halt-walk, and large turns on the forehand or haunches.
At the same time that I want to feel the horse staying in the same rhythm in the walk as he makes the turns, I am also testing the effectiveness of my diagonal aids. If the horse begins to lean or fall in on a bent line, the first thing I ask myself is whether both sets of diagonal aids are working.
It is only through the use of both the inside leg into outside rein and outside leg into inside rein that I can create a horse that is truly straight (the next step on the training scale after contact), and it is only a horse that is straight that can be made supple laterally for the exercises – from circles to half-pass – that are performed with a uniform curve in the spine and inside flexion.
