Bend: Is it the Origin of Self-Carriage?

This article is the second in a series of articles that will serve to discuss in depth the various tiers of the USDF Training Pyramid. Every dressage rider should be very familiar with this Pyramid. They are as follows: Rhythm, with Energy and Tempo; Relaxation, with Elasticity and Suppleness; Connection-Acceptance of the Bit through Acceptance of the Aids; Impulsion-Increased Energy and Thrust; Straightness with Improved Alignment and Balance; and Collection-Increased Engagement, Lightness of the Forehand, Self-Carriage. A pamphlet discussing it in depth may be found here: https://www.usdf.org/EduDocs/Training/Pyramid_of_Training.pdf

Since everything we do every day with our horses is interrelated, I will demonstrate with these articles specific connections between the various tiers, and how they can be used to facilitate the training of the horse at every level. The vast majority of riders and horses are at Training Level, but what the reader must understand is that this is the MOST IMPORTANT level, for horse and rider. A good education in the beginning secures the future of every dressage horse and every aspiring dressage rider. ~Stacy C. Williams

Bend: Is it the Origin of  Self-Carriage?

The USDF Training Pyramid lists Relaxation(with Elasticity and Suppleness) as the second tier of training, following Rhythm(with Energy and Tempo). The complete description of Relaxation goes on to state: “Relaxation refers to the horse’s mental state (calmness without anxiety or nervousness), as well as his physical state (the absence of negative muscular tension). Usually, the mental and physical states go hand in hand. The horse learns to accept the influence of the rider without becoming tense. He acquires positive muscle tone so that he moves with elasticity and a supple, swinging back, allowing the rider to bend him laterally as well as lengthen and shorten his frame.”

With the assumption that all readers agree about the importance of the mental state in the horse’s training, I will elaborate in this article on the last sentence, which refers directly to lateral and longitudinal suppleness. The lateral suppleness, and the horse’s acceptance of the rider’s bending aids, directly affect his longitudinal suppleness(the stretch through the topline). It is this suppleness that teaches the horse how to carry his body correctly on the line of travel so that he is ultimately able to carry himself in balance. The balance created in turn develops the horse’s self-carriage. How does bend influence balance? Can you have a well-balanced horse traveling with adequate engagement and self-carriage for the level, without correct bend? Take a look at the score sheet for nearly any Dressage test. Count how many times bend and balance, often together, are mentioned in the directive idea box for the movements. As an example, in the 2015 Third Level Test 3, bend or balance are mentioned seventeen times. Furthermore, the words “engagement” and/or “self-carriage” are mentioned seventeen times, again, often together. In a test which contains 24 scored movements, those four words are mentioned 34 times in the Directive Ideas. Engagement and self-carriage are inextricably linked to balance, and balance develops from sufficient and correctly executed bend, which becomes the framework for each of these other states of being. As they are all very closely linked concepts, none of them can exist in any degree of quality without the presence of the others. Balance, engagement and self-carriage develop naturally from correctly executed bend, step by step, ride by ride, year by year.

What do we mean when we use the term bend as it relates to riding? Bend, in simple terms, means that the horse’s body is shaped to match the line of travel. The degree of bend required is different for a green horse as opposed to a Grand Prix horse. The bend must not only be sufficient to match the line of travel, it must also be precisely executed in order to be of any use in creating the other states of being. There are many ways a horse can attempt to offer bend, but only one way is correct. Each body part, and each leg, must stay fully on the line of travel. This is not such an easy criteria to fulfill. Every horse, and every rider, is asymmetrical to some degree. We all have a stiff side, and, a dexterous side. We all have a hand or foot that is more agile, and, one that is stronger. Think about which hip you put your child on. Think about which foot you use to operate the pedals in your vehicle. The hip you put your child on is the strong hip. The foot you use to operate the pedals is the dexterous foot. I am betting that for most people reading this, those are not the same sides of the body, unless you have had some sort of injury that has forced you to change to the other side for carrying out these tasks. Your horse is no different. Watch him lower his head to eat hay off the ground in his stall. Which foot is forward, and which is back? Which front hoof has a tendency to get too much heel, and which one tends to get too much toe? The forward foot generally gets too much toe, and, the foot that is placed under the sternum usually gets too much heel. This asymmetry affects the way he moves. It is normal. It is the job of the rider to address her own asymmetry, as well as her horse’s asymmetry. It is a never-ending job and very few horses or riders are ever one hundred percent symmetrical. This is where correct bending under saddle becomes indispensable as a tool to develop balance, engagement and self-carriage. In order to bend correctly, BOTH of the horse’s shoulders must travel in such a way that both front legs reach freely forward towards the line of travel. The hind legs must do the same. Any minute deviation from the line of travel in any limb or section of the horse creates an automatic loss of correct bend, and therefore instantly reduces balance, preventing the horse from being able to fully engage and thus carry itself.

Riders must recognize that MORE bend is not necessarily the answer, nor is “more” necessarily what judges mean when they mention it on your score sheets. “More” cannot exist, if “correct” does not come first. Next time you hang out with your horse, observe him balancing himself in his natural state. For example, consider the simple act of biting a fly on his flank. Your horse balances himself by compressing the inside of his body and stretching the outside, pushing his shoulders and belly out as the head and hips come in. We as riders can use the horse’s innate sense of balance to our advantage, just by making this one observation. We can use this biomechanical reality of how a horse’s body functions to control him if he becomes unruly, by exaggerating the placement of the head and hips to the inside, in order to prevent him from bolting away from a scary object. But we can also use our knowledge of this tendency to fine tune that bend to such a degree that we create a very heightened state of balance that places those shoulders directly in front of the horse’s hind legs, its engine. Every time we place our horse in perfect bend, we require the horse to place slightly more weight on the hind leg that is to the inside of that bend. That creates strength in the glutes and hamstrings of that hind leg with repetition, no different than the human athlete who does squats to create more strength in the same muscles. This is why it is so important to change direction frequently. It is a known quantity that muscles get stronger from repeated cycles of stress and rest. The other thing that happens to that inside hind leg is that its joints must also take more weight, and flex more deeply. It is in this heightened state of flexion(“engagement”) that the power for extension is created. So long as the rider allows the horse to direct the energy created in movement away from the line of travel(i.e. a habitually bulging shoulder or hind leg that is always placed just to the inside-which not accidentally tend to go hand in hand), that energy is wasted because it is unable to be used for the purpose improving balance, engagement and self-carriage. Bend, properly employed, aligns the horse's body so that the energy created goes the right direction for our purposes. It takes a lot longer to fill forty 100 gallon water troughs if there are ten leaks in the hose than it does if the hose is solid and distributing the energy of the water flow directly to the intended line of travel-said water troughs.

Riders must recognize that it is their duty to notice every footfall, and further notice any time any part of the horse’s body leaves the line of travel. All the cogs in the wheel must stay in total alignment for maximum efficiency. The more a rider notices, the more times she can make adjustments to her horse’s alignment on that line of travel. It is vitally important at that point, once she has noticed, and made the correction, to then LET GO(“self-carriage”) to a certain degree(please don’t drop your horse on his head by abandoning your own self-carriage), to see how well the horse has understood. This letting go, this uberstreichen, is what allows the horse to learn how to carry himself in balance in the unnatural state of carrying a rider whose way of being (vertical) is completely opposite to the horse’s way of being(horizontal). Imagine carrying a backpack that lies perpendicular to your back and consider just how much that would affect your balance. Now imagine that backpack wiggling around with no control over its own balance, but then punishing you every time you lost yours while struggling underneath its ineptitude. We have to notice the horse’s failure to stay on the line of travel with each body part, and, show it the way. But, we also have to understand our own duty in affecting that very delicate balance, by being as impeccable with our own positional alignment as we expect our horses to be.

It might seem contradictory to consider bend in creating balance when one considers that we also have to ride on a straight line. It is easy enough to ride on a circle and get the horse to reach through his topline and remain in adequate balance. But the minute the horse is asked to leave the circle and carry on down the rail, riders have a very bad habit of forgetting to ride and letting the rail take over the job of directing her horse on the line of travel. Experienced riders always ride in shoulder-fore. It is a cliché in dressage, that a straight horse is ridden in shoulder-fore. But this “straightness” is achieved with-wait for it-BEND. Not much, mind you. But just enough. Just enough to require the horse to narrow his shoulders, and shift them inward so that they line up in front of the inside hind leg. In order for the horse to take this shape, he must, by sheer force of his biomechanics, displace his ribs ever so slightly away from his riders inside leg. This is the beginning of bend. It is this ability to keep the thought of bend even on a straight line that allows the more experienced rider to keep her horse better connected, aligned and balanced no matter where she is in the arena. This is why “Relaxation with Elasticity and Suppleness” comes before Straightness on the training scale. Consider the following excerpt from an article in the May 2005 issue of Dressage Today, written by Sandra Adair about a 2005 symposium conducted by the Houston Dressage Society, which featured Robert Dover. The author writes that Mr. Dover explained the basics as follows: “The driving aids-the seat(back, trunk, weight) and both legs-generate forward motion; the bending aids-both legs and the inside rein-work together to produce straightness; one regulating aid-the outside rein-helps the rider control the effects of the first two sets of aids, and, adjusts the rhythm, flexibility and ultimately the balance of the horse.” (I will point out that I do think the author meant tempo vs. rhythm.) Notice the part I highlight. The BENDING aids produce straightness.

The Dressage test writing committee is very careful to write the tests in such a way as to help the riders better train their horses. In every test, riders are given the opportunity to establish the bend and balance in the first two movements. Read every test, from Intro A through Second level. The second movement box in every one of those tests reads “C track right/left”. In the Directive Ideas box, in each of those tests, the very first thing mentioned is “bend and balance in turn”. It is the rider who asks her horse to turn directly off the line from her outside aids with no deviation outward, asking with her inside leg to stay upright as he wraps himself around that supporting leg to take the exact shape of the line of travel as he makes that turn, who is setting her horse up for the balance needed to progress from just started to Grand Prix in the least amount of time, with the most correct muscling. So many riders spend hours upon hours trying to get a better trot lengthening, but how many realize that it was in the turn through the corner that their horse was either prepared or unprepared to be engaged enough and balanced enough to comply with the request? The devil is in the details. The photo at the end of this article shows a centerline, turn, medium trot sequence that earned an 8 and a 7 in a Second level test. Photo credit goes to Pam Olsen, prophoto.bz. Notice the placement of the inside leg of the rider(myself), supporting the bend through the turn. For top scores, my horse could have been even more engaged behind, and his shoulders would have then been even more uphill, preventing his inside front leg from coming even slightly behind the vertical in the stance phase. I could have accomplished that by asking him to be even more correctly on the line of travel with his haunches with my outside lower leg, and, I could have kept my hips, shoulders and hands more level, preventing him from dropping his inside shoulder in spite of the good placement of my inside leg. The ever so slightly lower inside ear and my inside hand acting in a backward fashion are dead giveaways that his shoulders weren’t totally level in the turn. My trunk and seat could have done a better job backing up my correct inside leg.

My goal in writing this article is that I impress upon the reader the profound role correctly executed bend plays in the development of balance, engagement and self-carriage of the horse. The moral of the story is this: The next time you get back your Training level test, and the judge has commented on bend(listed nine times over the course of thirteen movements in 2015 Training Level test 3), I hope you will take the judge’s advice to heart. I hope you will really, truly, and deeply assess your understanding of just exactly how your horse is executing bend. Are you teaching your horse to bend in such a way that its balance improves? If so, then, engagement and self-carriage will most likely become happy by-products of this very basic directive. Dressage, correctly and thoughtfully practiced, is a wonderfully systematic way of developing a horse that allows him to learn everything in a gradual way, and therefore develop his strength in an equally gradual way. Riders will do themselves and their horses a huge favor to really understand the directive ideas as they relate to the Training Pyramid. This method of training we call dressage is what makes the plain horse beautiful, and, the talented horse reach its full potential.