Ride on the Buckle

Ride your horse on the buckle!

It is very important to be able to turf the reins away and walk your horse on the buckle!

Reasons why this is important:
-Safety!
-Allow horse to stretch
-Horse becomes responsible for maintaining gait/direction
-More relaxing for the rider
-Horse does not feel claustrophobic
-Less chance of developing a horse that 'head flicks', 'pulls at the reins', 'jigs', 'bolts' etc.

I am not suggesting you never collect your horse up with your reins, but be CLEAR for your horse. An idea is to have TWO rein positions, one that means something and one that doesn't. 

If you have contact with the horses face/mouth, then make it mean something. You should only have feel on the horses mouth if you are asking for collection/softness/flexion of some sort, too often I see people use tight reins to 'control' their horse. Holding a horse in like this just makes them show all of the negative behaviours listed above.

If you are not asking your horse to do anything, then LET THE REINS GO (or learn to)! The belief that holding the reins tight 'control your horse' is so wrong. Every single person SHOULD be able to and CAN ride their horse on the buckle. If you cannot do this you are on borrowed time and not supporting your horse in having correct posture.

I can hear many people saying, "gosh if I let my horses reins go I would be..... in the dirt, or on a bolting horse etc.... If you are in the situation of not knowing how to ride your horse on the buckle, do not worry you are NOT alone and you and your horse CAN both learn :) I know from experience as I used to be a 'tight rein' rider.

If you want to know more, drop me a line and make a booking for a lesson or clinic.