< Gk pneûma lit., breath, wind, akin to pneǐn to blow, breathe]

Pneuma (tic) Feel

What are the judges, the trainers and riders looking for, when they watch a horse and rider partnership, can they "see a feel" or "feel what they see"? The Mechanical way of going of many combinations reaching high levels of success does make one ponder.

My amazement is that it seems that their eyes are not wide enough to catch a glimpse of what is happening behind, where the hindlegs are struggling. Or that they cannot concentrate on the horse, too busy looking at the rider, especially if this rider is able to "do" more things with this horse than they would themselves. I wonder why many cannot see the stiff tails, the lack of softness in the joints, the rocking left and right tilt of a horse who throws his weight around, the hollow behind the saddle, the neck overarched and not coming out of the body, but more sort of planted into the trunk of the horse like a chocolate stick in an ice-cream? What about the wriggling of the croup when the horse is unable to come through? What about horses unable to breathe they are so busy trying to escape the pressure of the bit by tightening their throat?

I wonder why not many see the hoof flicking and the lack of substance and fullness of the bodies. Why not many see the tension in the eyes and the lack of movement and life under the skin. Why are Dressage horses so narrow, why do they have deep saddle marks on their back? It is common fact that men desire to be like "the others" who are successful. So they follow what is successful and work very hard at being the same so that they too grow more successful and popular. They have forgotten that one has to base our dreams and creations on the natural Laws ruling the principle of Life. To go against Nature is to destroy Life.

"Lightness" or "expression" have become the best slogan for advertising one's ability to train horses in order to attract new clients.

I wonder if this concept is correctly understood. First, what does lightness mean in Dressage? Hopefully, for most of us, lightness is more than just a "loop in the reins" or a "light feel in the hand".

It is very good for the rider to allow the horse on a free rein and learn not to rely on it for balance, when it is right, of course. And as we have learned, everything is right and everything is wrong depending on the level, the horse, the conditions, etc. The main thing is not be satisfied by what is not yet correct, or by so-called "light feels" which in fact are indicators of a horse that is behind the bridle or not correctly schooled, holding some parts of his body so as not to stretch his whole topline towards what I call the "pneumatic" contact offered by the rider, leading to the whole horse growing more airborne, through the years of training.

But here, talking about classical riding, one should be able already to balance oneself without the use of the rein whatsoever. Let's take the matter a step further. In Dressage, a rider should be able to ride in a coordinated manner and earn his independent seat, which would mean that he is able to use the legs without stiffening his back, give aids without restricting with the hands, while at the same time moving permanently with the movement of the horse so as to be certain when he gives an aid consciously or not. This is the greatest difficulty for Dressage students and a constant search for all. If one cannot ride with independent aids consciously applied with no interferences (wriggly lower leg, stiff shoulders etc.) there are many lunge exercises that would achieve this aim and help the honest student on the way.

But, for now here in this article, I would like to take the subject a little further. I wish to discuss the subject of "lightness" relative to the whole horse and rider combination. We should have a proper discussion about the quality of Contact (between trainers and judges and riders too...!) and it would be fascinating to have all the various interpretations of various backgrounds. This variety of interpretations comes from the fact that we all come from different directions and instead of all reaching for the same goal, one gets lost on the way and the communication between trainers, riders and judges is kept to a minimum so as to avoid arguments... as one seems to have lost the reasons why the F.E.I. Rules were written at the first place. Now they are even being changed, in order to accommodate some.

It seems to me that there is only one good way for the horse, only one way to ride them towards collection. And it is to ride the whole horse. Not just parts of his body like many do when following some offered methods, very popular at the moment, as they do not require the rider to be so sensitive nor educated to reach a higher Feel. Instead, many now study "sensations" they receive from the horse, which can be very misleading indeed.

By training horses correctly one does train oneself to become more "whole". I will try to explain.

Our world is denying our most deep desire and ignoring parts of ourselves. One has to look at the level of bad health in the world, obesity, depressions, etc. and various illnesses to realize that men and women are not fully joyful and fulfilled and that they require too much medication, support, treatment in order to carry on a job they may not really love... We go wrong when we are unfulfilled and it shows. Same for the horses.

Being used to ignore part of our own bodies, one carries on with this tragic lack of sensitivity and awareness while riding.

One is often not aware of the need of some parts of the horse's (or our) body to MOVE. Life is movement. Being still in Nature means being in a state of panic or ready to hunt.... Rather not what one wishes when riding. If the rider holds himself anywhere in the body, so will his horse. This is a fact. Let's try to see if this has any relation with the fact that we restrict inadvertently by trying to achieve "this lightness" of the hands... Are riders holding some parts of their bodies in order to succeed?

I am talking about the back muscles, the spine in which pass the main nervous system and other delicate energies. Collection starts with the full stretching of the spine, as we know. To achieve this, many resort to rather forceful ways. Rollkur certainly is one of them. In reaction to this, we now have many who have leapt into the other camp: they have become too soft and weak, giving the horse no intimate contact and leaving him too alone, unable to improve. These extremes will get results. But this is not the result that Dressage is supposed to display. One is forced (Rollkur), so the horse is in a horrific state of tension, and the other extreme (light rein or no contact to start with) is too weak to contain anything and the horse is not going "forward" but more sort of "up and down" type of movement, that is felt in the saddle as an "emptiness" in the back of the horse instead of a lovely swollen feeling and swinging, thanks to the fact the hindlegs have come under to carry and push in a relaxed rhythm. When the horse is not swinging or when the horse's back is blocked in the "up" position, the back will not be able to do its job and the horse cannot use his neck to carry the load with ease.

As usual, the solution is in allowing the horse to collect his body under the rider, who has learned through the years of training, to collect himself. This is the Spanish Riding School approach. The rider is first trained thoroughly to grow more supple and balanced on an older trained horse, and only then the rider is given horses to train. Outside this perfect environment, good results are not so easily reached. What one can do is to respect the facts and study so that one does not get kidded into believing that the "wide behind" piaffe obtained with extreme techniques is a good piaffe and is good for the horse. Horses certainly forgive our mistakes, but when the mistakes themselves are shown to the public as "good", it is dangerous, as many will think they are able to do "dressage things" too and abuse their horse's body trying them.

It is no wonder why so many wrongly compacted horses develop nervous diseases like wobbler' syndrome, which is a pinching of the main nerve passing through the spine in the neck and create spasms, incoordination in the hindlegs. By squashing their neck with double bridles to achieve a "light feel in the hand", one interferes with Nature the wrong way and destroys their bodies and their mind. The horse knows perfectly well he cannot lean on the double bridle too much because this would cause damage to his body, the pressure felt on the curb by the rider being multiplied 20 times or more depending on the length of the shanks. He feels the need to contort himself behind the contact and to look the "shape" desired by his rider. He therefore holds himself. By holding himself, he is not relaxed, not "losgelassen, the first scale of real importance in the training of any animal" .

The back and the "middle" of the horse is being largely ignored because once the back of the horse stiffens or is not moving, not swinging, many bad riders can imagine themselves better than they really are. Instead of training the horse through the Pyramid of training in respect for their bodies, the "basics" are ignored because their necessity is badly misunderstood.

The young horse, when backed, will have to tightened his back either up or down when the weight is on his back. This is what Nature tells him to do and the rider's first duty is to regain movement in this back as well as spending some years improving the quality and the strength of subtle feel passing through the horse in motion so that he can again be freed from the burden of our bodies and instead grow accustomed and comfortable carrying us. Then, true specialized dressage training could start.

How come nowadays we are bombarded by trainers and riders who deny this and go straight at playing with the horse's energies without having gently helped the horse to regain his beauty while ridden? Where is the soft powerful throughness that is so characteristic of the horses? We are losing daily the battle against our own ego and request ourselves to "succeed", when in fact there is nothing to win. There is much to learn and much to work on, but this does not seem so attractive to the mass of riders so excited when they see a horse "doing things" instead.

Many riders happily play with what the legs can do. They sit on hard or hollow backs not aware of the quality or lack of it, insensitive to the feel received from the horse so as to check themselves). They are taught to give cues with legs, spurs, hands and sit on the stiffened back, immobile like some wooden soldiers, cramped into a position they imagine is "still" while they are in fact spoiling the whole flow of the combination. This is not an exaggeration. A tiny tension in the body of the rider will create many more in the horse's body and Dressage is all about learning to avoid spoiling the Natural Gaits, which are not man-made and do not need our control but our release, our ability to allow them to to "be". Only then can we train these Natural Gaits and add to it.

To learn to ride a stiff horse seem easier and more accessible for the stiff rider. But I certainly think this is horrific for the horse, while the rider on top imagines himself as being still and elegant.

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