ANSWER:
When the horse comes too low and behind the bit, there must be something else going on at the same time. Dropping behind the bit is only the symptom, not the root cause. In those moments, the horse either loses impulsion and falls on the forehand, or he pushes his croup up and gets faster (and consequently falls on the forehand), in order to avoid having to work harder with his hind legs when you ask him to put more energy into the gait.
Behind the bit with no contact also means behind the leg.
When you are training or retraining a horse, trying to get him to use a different set of muscles than the ones he has been using all along, the basic parameters of gait and posture often fluctuate a little, sometimes from one stride to the next, because the new muscles are neurologically not very accessible for the horse yet, and they are not very strong yet. So the horse struggles with it for a while, just like the riding student struggles with the correct seat (now you have it - now you don't).
Check for the regularity of the tempo and stride length. Sometimes the fluctuations can be relatively subtle, and I see riders all the time who don't notice when the tempo changes in small ways. Only after I have pointed it out repeatedly, every time it happens, they start to catch on.
Check the alignment of the hips and shoulders, because even very small deviations (a few millimeters) of one end of the horse from the line of travel has huge repercussions for balance, suppleness, rein contact, impulsion, and collection.
Check if the withers drop and you can feel the horse fall on the forehand when he comes behind the vertical.
Also check if there is a pattern there, i.e. does he drop behind the bit in a certain area of the arena, on a certain ring figure, or in a certain context?
Lifting the head and neck up with the reins, as Elizabeth has described, can work very well - on the one condition that you can activate the haunches at the same time and support the change in balance from the forehand to the haunches with your seat by increasing the tone in your midsection, lifting your solar plexus and lowering your shoulder blades. The lifting rein aid MUST be supported by the seat and leg. Otherwise it backfires and the horse gets even more behind the aids and on the forehand.
Riding transitions between the gaits also helps to bring the hind legs more under and consequently to elevate the head and neck.
A few steps in a shoulder-in or leg yield can also help to bring one hind leg under and to elevate the front end.
Activating the hind legs with your calf or a vibration from the whip, followed by an immediate request to slow down for two strides into a specific hind leg (i.e. two small half halts) will also elevate the head and neck, because it brings the hind leg more under the body mass and then flexes it between the body mass and the ground.
- Thomas Ritter
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Last Update: February 24, 2007