ANSWER:
Sometimes confusion means that you are learning something new that doesn't meet your expectations. It's not necessarily a sign that the new information is wrong.
Bending and turning is one of the most fundamental and most important things the horse and rider have to learn. You can't do any lateral work until the horse can bend correctly on a single track. When people explain how to ride a certain movement or exercise, they often pick out one aid as if that were the only aid involved. The truth is that you always need all aids, just in different capacities: some of them actively applying ressure, some of them passively supporting, some of them yielding. Neindorff always talked about the orchestra of the aids, because there are a lot of similarities between a symphony orchestra and the rider's aids. All the instruments may be playing at the same time, but they each have their own score sheet, their own melody, etc. that they have to play. Some of them provide a background, so that others can play a solo that stands out for the listener's ear. The aids are very similar.
In turns you do need the outside rein, but it's not the only aid you need. If you only use the outside rein to push the horse into the turn, it can easily happen that you unbalance the horse by throwing him onto the inside shoulder, so that he ends up counterbending and falling onto the forehand - which will then make the horse stiffer with each turn. The old masters discovered that the quality of the turn (corner, circle, volte, pirouette, etc.) depends on how well you can connect the outside hind leg to the ground. If the outside hind leg doesn't carry enough of the combined weight of horse and rider, then he will fall onto the inside shoulder and drift around the turn leaning onto the inside rein and counterbending. In order to connect the outside hind leg to the ground and to the weight, you can e.g. apply a half halt on the outside rein, when the outside hind leg is on the ground just before you start the turn. Either just before or right after the half halt it is usually a good idea to engage the inside hind leg with the inside calf (when the inside hind leg is in the air). During the turn, think of enlarging or of riding a hint of a shoulder-in. The inside hind leg should feel like it's yielding to the inside calf. The rib cage should feel like it's yielding to the inside thigh. The inside shoulder of the horse should feel like it's yielding to the rider's inside knee, and the poll/throat latch should feel like it's yielding to the rider's inside rein. At the same time, it should feel like the horse is reaching into the rider's outside leg and rein, so that the outside leg and rein can lead the horse through the turn. The rider's pelvis is the central turning aid. It is connected to the horse's pelvis, i.e. the horse's pelvis will mimic the alignment of the rider's pelvis (unless he is not on the aids). The rider's weight often has to shift a little towards the inside seat bone during the turn and back to the middle as you exit the turn, so that it feels like you're pressing the outside hind leg into the ground right before and after the turn, and the inside hind leg during the turn.
As a rule of thumb, you can say that the inside leg and rein ask for the bend, while the outside leg and rein ask for the turn - always in support of the seat, of course. Isolated aids, that are not given within the proper context of passively supporting aids, don't make sense to the horse.
- Thomas Ritter
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Last Update: February 25, 2007