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QUOTES BY GUSTAV VON DREYHAUSEN
On the Use of the Seat to Influence the Horse / Weight Aids
"By shifting his weight back, the rider gets a greater part of the horse’s body mass in front of him and his aids. Furthermore, the horse in motion who is stepping under and carrying the load with his hind legs is induced to flex the angles of his hind legs more, to cease to resist with his haunches and loins, which results in a longer stride. He is induced to yield his back, i.e. not to brace against the rider’s weight, and to stretch his spine into the rider’s hand, unless the rider’s clumsiness makes it impossible for him. The back is lowered towards the croup and raised in the withers. The horse expands his rib cage. He ‘comes into the leg’. What the driving seat aid cannot do, however, is to produce and maintain the motion of the hind legs itself. It can only bend the hind legs once they are in motion and make them assume more weight and thrust off more energetically. Driving forward itself must be done by the purely driving aids, calf, spurs, whip. This means that the driving seat can only be used if the horse is prepared for it. The green horse is not ready for it yet. Its measure in training always depends on the horse’s ability to step under.
If it is used too strongly and exclusively without relieving the horse by an inclination of the rider's weight forward into the horse's center of gravity, i.e. if the rider's torso remains permanently behind the vertical, the horse will step shorter behind than in front. The loins are dropped, and since the hind legs do not step under enough, the front legs have to carry too much weight, and the knees suffer. Such horses often cannot be helped in any other way than by driving energetically with the calf until the impulsion is restored, while the torso is slightly inclined forward, in order to relieve the back and to facilitate the stepping under of the hind legs.
The collecting seat aid differs from the driving seat aid in that it consists of a more intense feel of the seat bones that can be increased to a downward pressure. It is independent of the position of the rider's torso (vertical, or inclined forward or backward) and is produced with the rider's back, shoulder, and abdominal muscles."
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"A seat aid that lasts too long makes the back stiff and the gait jarring.
The rider is thus able to raise the horse's back behind the withers and to lower the head and neck by leaning behind the vertical with a soft lumbar back. By relaxing his muscles, he is able to lower the back and to resolve resistances against the rein. Applying both driving and collecting seat aids at the right time and to the right extent produces the swinging back, one of the foundations of the pure gait. Eventually, when the gait is correct and the seat is soft, the rider can improve the gait with his elastic weight alone - always provided that the calves guarantee the lively stepping under."
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"Temporarily it may even be necessary to bring the torso behind the vertical, in order to teach the horse the weight aid and to respect it. A hind leg that does not step under cannot be flexed, but the hind leg that steps under must be flexed. Otherwise, the horse would make no progress."
(1951)
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"The relaxed horse will perceive the forward inclination of the rider’s torso with a passive hand as a relief for his back and his haunches, regardless of whether he is going in a narrow or elongated posture. He will thus reach more forward with his hind legs in order to support the load that is shifted forward. He will consequently stretch and lower his neck in time, move his front legs farther out but closer to the ground. He will flex his haunches less, but step more under."
(1951)
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"The vertical torso that is in the center of gravity of the system horse-rider has a stretching effect on the horse’s spine, provided that the reins are not too short and the hand is not pulling back. This induces the horse to stretch his neck towards the bit as well and to make contact with the hand, which results in the horse stretching his poll forward and his nose downward, if this contact is received passively by the hand. As a result of this weight aid, the hind legs will bend more in motion, push off more, step more energetically, and transmit their impulse to the front legs via the back muscles."
(1951)
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"Leaning back behind the vertical, possibly in connection with pushing the seat bones forward, will bend the back and the hind legs even more, sends the horse more into the hand, and is considered to be the active, driving seat aid. It really pushes the horse’s body ahead if itself, and I would prefer to call it the forward pushing seat aid, not least of all to make a clear distinction between it and the purely forward driving calf aid that sets the horse’s legs in motion. It must always be followed by a driving calf aid and cease, when it has had an effect. It must never be accompanied by a backward hanging of the hand, since the horse’s hind legs would otherwise lag behind, and the back would drop, so that the back activity, the connection between haunches and forehand, would be interrupted. The horse would run away from the leg, because it would be impossible for him to keep up with his hind legs.
This is very important: There are many riders who drive with their torso all the time. They do not notice the moment in which the horse approaches the bit, or the moment in which the leg has to drive. They lean even further back and keep driving even more with their seat, which creates horses that roll over the hand. It is the calf that loosens the horse up off the hand, makes him permeable, and maintains the gained balance by asking the hind legs not only to bend in response to the weight aid, but also to step diligently forward and under."
(1951)
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Last Update: January 13, 2007