11/07/2020
The 2 most common mistakes riders make when trying to achieve Contact and Connection - Nope, it’s not what you think
An independent hand is a delicate thing that seems to escape the full understanding of many riders when trying to understand and implement Contact and Connection.
Contact means that your hand is making contact with the bit - yep, you heard it right, it’s not enough to have contact with the reins. Your hand has to be able to feel a constant contact with the bit in the horse’s mouth in order for communication signals from your hand to travel instantly to the horse without a delay due to no contact, loose contact, choppy contact etc.
Connection means that your contact is CONSTANT yet supple enough that the communication from the hand can travel through the bit to the hind leg of the horse and in return, the communication of the hind leg can travel through the top line and back to the riders hand. This never-ending circuit of motion and feel allows for small minute adjustment to be done by the rider to ensure that the horse is moving “through” optimally.
This circuit can’t be achieved if your hands are dependent on your body. In other words, the balance of your core and seat have to be stabile first, otherwise it’s likely that you will use your hands to balance your body and you’ll do so by pulling on the reins. You need to be able to balance independently of the horse in seat and core, in order for your hands to become quiet.
Why do my hands need to be quiet you ask?
Because, if your hands are bouncing around, they won’t be able to maintain a steady contact in the mouth of the horse and the circuit will be broken.
Failing to have the correct length of reins and riding with no contact or a loose contact (loose contact can be a short rein with slack in it) will also break the circuit. No contact is self-explanatory, it’s a no brainer. Loose contact however is tricky for most riders to understand. Often when asked to pick up a better contact, riders respond by shortening the reins. In most cases this doesn’t help the contact though, because the riders hand is still unable to maintain constant connection and is either choppy in an on/off kind of way or has no connection just on a short rein.
Good contact and connection looks like this:
The horse is in a frame with his head on the vertical or slightly above. There is a “stretched” rein without slack going between the bit and the rider’s hands. The feel and tension on the rein are light, flexible and constant. The hind leg steps forward into the rein, it is not stopped by the contact.
The 2 most common mistakes riders make:
#1 They think that they should have “light hands” so the horse can be light.
Light hands is often misunderstood by riders who with good intentions don’t want to cause the horse discomfort by riding with ‘heavy contact”. This shows up in the form of the rider who rides with open fingers and a loose grip on the reins. The horse will be out of frame, on the forehand and hollow. Even though the tension on the rein is very little, the horse will be resisting or leaning against it utilizing the under muscles of his body.
If you are this kind of rider, you are doing your horse a disfavor. True lightness comes from improving the balance of the horse, one of the steps in this journey is good contact and connection. In the beginning a horse might be heavy on the rein due to being unbalanced. Your contact will therefore most likely match the weight of the horse and feel heavy for a while until the horse with the help of lifting half halts learns to lift his withers and shift the weight towards the rear.
#2 They think if the horse feels light, it is light.
Many riders think that their horses are light in the mouth when in actuality they are just evading contact by going above or behind the bit. This problem is first and foremost caused by riders who have inconsistent contact and connection. Horses like the stability of constant connection and of course they like it even better if that constant connection can be maintained with the lightest of tension whenever possible.
The solution to this problem is to ensure that the horse is taught to ride in a frame. You can’t have contact or connection without the horse holding its head on the vertical line or slightly above. All bits only function when the nose is on the vertical - this is the definition of “on the bit”. If the nose is not on the vertical the horse is “off the bit” - compare it to either being on or off a bicycle. You can’t be both, it’s either or and it’s obvious that if you are off the bicycle you no longer have any control or influence over it. It’s the same thing with the horse.
If your horse is “off the bit” you no longer have contact or connection.
If the horse is above the bit, the horse is resisting your contact and leaning on it, building his under line. If your horse is behind the bit in a false frame, the horse is also resisting your contact through avoidance and probably still building his underline. Both are caused by incorrect contact and connection.
Conclusion: Proper contact and connection means that the horse must be in a frame with his nose on a vertical line and a forward stepping hind leg. How much the contact weighs depends on the balance/education level of the horse. The rider’s hands must maintain a steady and constant connection for the horse to relax on a stretched (no slack) yet following rein.
If you feel like this blog post helped you better understand contact and connection, I would love to hear from you and hear about your experiences with your horse. (PM me!)
I personally, had many experiences of trainers being unable to explain to me what correct contact and connection is. Probably because they didn’t really know themselves. After many years of training myself, it’s now my mission to help riders understand words like contact and connection in a way that they are actually able to implement:-)
Shared from Dolly Hannon
