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November 2007 • VOLUME 27 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
Once upon a time I had heard or was told that I should expect to shorten the reins when my horse went into trot. Watching the horse as he went into trot, and how they lift their heads, it seemed to make sense. One day funnily enough I noticed that one of the horses that I was training would automatically go into trot the second they felt me shorten the reins. No go signal was necessary! And no wonder. First I would pick up the reins, then shorten the reins and then the leg aid was applied. Time after time. So no wonder the horse pre-empted and decided to go ahead and go when the reins were shortened. So now instead of first picking up the reins, then shorten the reins and then apply the leg, it now went pick up the reins, shorten the reins and the horse was already trotting. It should be no surprise that after a while, the horse started to trot as soon as I lifted the reins higher before I even had a chance to shorten them! So now we went from first pick up the reins, then shorten them, to just picking up the reins and instant trot! So who needs a leg aid? These horses can really teach us to laugh at ourselves through our journey with them. Years passed and I was training a horse in a double bridle. Many horses had been trained in between. While I had worked a few horses in between in the double bridle, for the most part I was just as happy and actually preferred to work all of my horses in all levels in a simple snaffle. I truly took to heart that old adage that you should be able to train all of the movements at all of the levels in a simple snaffle. That the work didn’t or shouldn’t depend on what was in the horse’s mouth. Picking up the double bridle once again after a long absence is, strangely, at some level quite familiar, but those first few rides with so many reins in one’s hands, one struggles where to put all those pieces of leather! There is little brain power left over to even begin to think about shortening four different reins, shortening two can be complicated enough!
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