Aids for a circle

Previously, “learning the aids” was part of a rider’s training, especially for those wishing to become professionals; nowadays we pride ourselves on “having dressage lessons” in an approach for sports performance, where very often the basics are sorely absent. From reading different articles, viewing a certain number of current practices, and the feedback from numerous veterinarians, we can ascertain that some riders have a complete misapprehension of the basics. This fact sheet is a reminder of those basics, which, even if they are not the only approach,  can somewhat guarantee to preserve the horse’s physical health and give the rider a good chance at getting a movement right.

The horse on the bit

A horse “on the bit” will take up both reins with equal pressure, on an equal thrust from both hind legs. This is a one of the fundamentals and is essential in that it is the link between contact felt on the reins and the horse’s propulsion; the rider’s leg and hand aids are not disconnected and merely used as a code that the horse has learned to recognize, but are a true transfer of information from the hindquarters through to the forehand.
The rider should therefore get the horse to take up on both reins, thus he can rest assured that the horse is using both hind legs to drive himself forward without any sideways imbalance (“he is not leaning in or out”). When this is not the case, the trainer should proceed in the following way, and order:

• Stage 1: Have the horse take up the rein he doesn’t tense as much with the exercises described below.
• Stage 2: Lighten contact while maintaining activity so as to balance the horse.
• Stage 3: Get the horse to relax whilst working with accuracy and driven from the hindquarters.

In addition and progressively throughout the horse’s dressage, the rider should bear in mind General DURAND’s quote: “Contact should tend towards zero, without ever canceling out”. Without contact there can be no tension in the top line and no response to a demand for extension, as there will be no real lengthening of stride if the head and neck angle is open.

Use of the aids

To quote François BAUCHER¹: “Hands without legs- legs without hands”; this fundamental "binary" rule used by our ecuyers is to be understood with several nuances:

• Their intensity has a wide range;
• “Act, resist, give”: these forgotten words explain the relationship between the aids and the horse’s behaviour;
• Their relative importance with regard to the horse’s bend.

In higher level equitation, the instant the action is made is also important if it is to be effective:

• A leg action will get a different response if used when the horse’s leg is on the ground (propulsion) or when it is in the air (increasing engagement);
• A hand action to slow down in canter will be more efficient when the horse lightens his stride.

Whatever the situation, aids are not constantly applied but are related to the pace; the legs usually apply continuous pressure (without moving the heel upwards) and without exaggerated repetition,  as the rider should be looking to “descend his aids”(stop using the said aids) as soon as possible.

Here are a few examples of synchronizing the action of the aids:

• Slow down on approach (shorten strides whilst maintaining activity): when the horse is relaxed, the rider acts by resisting with his shoulders and merely keeps the leg on;
• Extending (by genuinely lengthening strides) with rhythmic leg pressure on an existing contact, even if light, which stretches the horse’s top line.

A reminder concerning the mechanics of the horse

It is important to remember that the horse can only bend towards one side at a time. He cannot bend his neck in one direction and be bent through the body in the other (except very briefly in a flying change, or during counter change of rein). This basic principle is often forgotten when doing leg-yield, or cantering with the neck bent to the outside.

It is essential to link “bend” and “hind leg engagement” since the former generally promotes the latter. The direction of the neck bend (head turning on a vertical axis) and the horse’s body curve are linked, when curved to the right it will provoke engagement of the right hind leg as the circle it follows on the ground is smaller.

To make engagement easier on the curve, the horse should be able to freely move both front and hind inside legs without being hampered by a misplaced rein action (indirect or opposing rein).

When executing two movements in succession, they should solicit the same curve in the horse in order for the second movement to benefit from the first. Except in some movements in dressage tests (counter change of rein), and in any case with a view to developing the horse’s locomotion, you should ban doing a succession of figures where the horse is constantly asked to switch from one bend to another.

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1 - Faverot de Kerbrech, 1891. Methodic dressage of the riding horse.

Placing your aids

Apart from the seat, the aids can be qualified as “inside” or “outside” depending on the horse’s bend, it does not apply to the bend on the track. The 4 aids are the following:
 

The inside rein

The inside rein is placed as an “open rein” to act and initiate or maintain the requested bend. It can be moved away from the horse and downwards, it should not go upwards or across so as not to generate a contrary or opposition effect which could lead to the horse swinging his haunches out and losing impulsion.

The rider is looking for relaxation on this rein, which is the sign the horse is balanced and bent correctly. If, on the other hand the horse weighs because he is not balanced, or falls into the circle he will stiffen contact on this rein.

The outside rein

The outside rein will feel more tense as the horse pushes his inside hind leg under him; If there is no tension, this shows that the horse is not pushing with his opposite hind leg. The outside hand is in a normal position (near the other hand, wrist held vertically, in line with the forearm, thumb closed). When the movement demands it, this hand can temporarily move upwards to reinforce it. The tension in the rein shows the thrust of the opposite hind leg (inside hind leg).

The inside leg

The inside leg has an important role to play. It should be positioned at the girth and act discontinuously (not on the horse all the time) and non repetitive (at each stride). This leg action is often insufficient in riders who do not use enough strength, or who use it inappropriately, for example bringing their heels upwards or moving it back thereby pushing the haunches out, or again if the stirrups are too long. The inside leg also must also be learned and assimilated  by the horse.

The outside leg

The outside leg is more passive, it is just moved back slightly from the girth to maintain the haunches. It will be used all the more lightly when the action of the other three are acting correctly (no use of contrary or opposition hand action, no inside leg moving too far back...).

The rider’s position and placement

Finally, the fact that the rider rotates to remain attuned to the movement is essential. From the hips, up to the shoulders, and the head, the rider is oriented in the direction of the bend. Even though hip rotation will be minimal compared to the rest of the body, for a correct placement, the outside leg should move back from the hip.

To be in harmony with the horse’s movement and not impede it, the pelvis remains supple, swaying both laterally and longitudinally without constraint, this mobility should not be impaired by leg action or tension in the shoulders.

Combining the aids

Improving engagement

When looking to obtain a certain bend, or trying to improve it throughout the movement, the rider should use lateral aids (rein and leg on the same side).The rider will use inside leg at the girth and inside rein (open rein); once the action is finished, the horse should release the tension on the inside rein which shows improvement in his balance, due to better engagement of the inside hind leg and better support of the upper muscles in the shoulder and neck.

Improving thrust from the hindquarters

To improve the horse’s propulsion capacity, the rider will use diagonal aids: inside leg pushing (at the girth) with resulting increased tension on the outside rein. This should not modify the horse’s lateral balance, and his relaxation on the inside rein. This concept is quite easy to understand in a shoulder-in exercise, when the horse is shoulder-in to the left, he is traveling off the rider’s left leg, and tensing the right rein.

Symmetry of hand actions

When riding a horse with normal conformation any action by the rider should be equal on both sides, depending on whether the gait is symmetrical (or not), two cases can based on a default position of the hands (wrists held vertically in line with the forearm, on either side of the withers).

At a trot (and walk), the gait is symmetrical, therefore default rein tension is by definition equal on both reins:

• If the horse lacks bend, of tightens up on his inside, the rider will react using lateral aids: inside hand moving away from the horse to get him to relax on his inside rein, supported by an action from the rider’s inside leg;
• If the horse lacks propulsion, the rider will attempt to get him to tense his outside rein with the inside leg (diagonal aids) to increase thrust, the idea being to  rapidly go back to using equal aids.

In a canter, the same principle applies, but a normal situation corresponds to a slight asymmetry in rein tension due to the dissymmetry of the gait. The horse travels on a straight line with a slight neck bend, using the inside rein (or the same rein as the canter lead) this rein being slightly slacker than the outside rein.
 

At any moment the rider can check the accuracy of the gait he’s riding: it should not change (in tempo and speed) if the rider slackens his inside rein, or if he decides to ask the horse to put more tension on the outside rein through a request for more activity.

None of the traditional dressage movements go against the principles mentioned above, and none are contradictory to the use of circle aids for their execution.

Referring to circle aids in different movements

Serpentines

The rider alternately orients his upper body to the left or to the right when executing a serpentine with several loops, and when riding across the center line will be looking to obtain a slackening of the inside rein as it moves away from the horse’s neck, and the rider’s inside leg increases pressure; he should rotate his torso as the horse’s bend changes to facilitate placing his aids.
 

Leg-yield and side steps

In the leg-yield (at a walk or a trot), the horse moves laterally with a slight bend on the opposite side to the movement. In a left leg yield (towards the right), he moves in response to the left leg at the girth.

When carrying out side steps, the horse is prepared with a slight bend on the side he is traveling, the rider is using both hand and leg on the opposite side (left hand and leg if traveling to the right).

Shoulder-in

In shoulder-in (at a walk or at a trot), or during shoulder fore (at a canter), the horse is traveling in the opposite direction from the bend requested. To obtain this the rider should act with his curve leg at the girth, the inside hand keeping a loose contact, and moving away from the neck if necessary. The horse should maintain his shoulders in without collapsing or coming behind the bit.

Aids for canter work

Canter

At a canter the horse is naturally bent in the direction of the leading leg, since on this side he needs to reach further forward, and must therefore be free to do so. The horse should be supported by the inside leg at the girth, and with the hand on the same side maintaining a loose contact.

Changing circles

When the rider rides a circle followed by a straight line, he merely reinforces the tension on the outside rein to indicate that he has finished circling. The previous aids are kept on, with more tension on the outside rein than on the inside rein. The rider should not stop the previous movement (for example with an inside hand becoming a contrary rein) to go to the next movement.

Counter-canter

In counter canter, the horse should maintain a slight bend to the outside of the curve he is ridden on. This bend is to obtain movement on the circle through reinforcing the action of leg on the leading canter foreleg, at the girth, the rider’s leg “bounces off” the hand on the other side (action of the right leg, off the left rein, when cantering right lead on a left hand circle).

Lengthening or shortening canter stride

When carrying out transitions in canter, respecting the circle aids is essential to shorten or lengthen canter stride without stiffening or precipitation. The movement of both the horse’s inside legs (as they reach further forward than the outside legs) should not be impeded by the rider’s aids. The horse should be slowed with the outside rein (opposite side to the leading canter leg), and during shortening of the stride a loose contact maintained on the inside with lateral aids to help engagement and kick back of the hind leg.
 

Three basic exercises are suggested to educate the horse to respond to these aids, and to teach the rider to master them correctly: The circle, a spiral, and leg-yield. In the spiral, the horse starts on a small circle which is progressively made wider by the rider mainly using his inside leg at the girth. He then brings the horse back to a small circle by using an open rein.

As this progresses, work on the serpentine, which can be over rounded, and two track work (shoulder-in and side steps) are more useful than spiraling or leg-yield as they have more effect on the engagement of the hind legs.

Some examples of movements in succession

To improve and develop the horse’s locomotion, the rider can work on more complex technical situations.

Pace transition while in shoulder-in

In a transition from walk to trot, the rider goes to trot by reinforcing the action of his inside leg at the girth without losing the bend and by maintaining it with an open rein. In this exercise, the rider is requesting additional push from the hind leg in its engagement, so as to jump into a trot.

Pace transition coming out of shoulder-in

When the horse in shoulder-in at a trot comes out of shoulder-in at medium trot again with a reinforcement of the action of the inside leg at the girth promoting increased activity compressed through the outside rein. Depending on the direction given to the inside rein, the horse either travels straight along a diagonal, or goes into a circle (open rein) which is sometimes a better option to maintain engagement.

Change of gait in half-pass

This is a difficult exercise, and being able to change gait when half-passing shows that the horse understands circle aids perfectly, and that the rider can coordinate his aids and use them with appropriate strength. The rider needs to coordinate outside aids to bring the horse into half-pass, to control the sideways movement with his inside leg, which will also request either to slow down to a lower pace, or to break into a trot. The inside hand is only used to ensure relaxation and maintains the horse on his bend with freedom of shoulders during the movement.

In all my movements, if I respect circle aids as soon as the horse has achieved the required bend, I’m not cheating, and I am maintaining a logical approach which should:

• Avoid mistakes due to misunderstanding by the horse
• Respect the way he functions, and therefore his health
• Let the horse move and express his paces
• Keep him relaxed as well as thinking about his well-being in mind
• Aim for economy of the aids, with no opposition between aids, no unnecessary constraining
• Help improve the horse through successive movements