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QUOTES BY PAUL PLINZNER
On the Rider's Aids
"The forward driving quality of the calf aid rests in the pressure or stimulus it exercises on the abdominal muscles, which can be greatly increased by the painful touch of the spur. It causes these muscles to contract, which leads to an advancement of the respective hind leg.
This result can always be achieved when the horse is standing still, in other words, when he is able to support the weight with the grounded hind leg, while the other hind leg advances in response to the aid. It is self-evident that in motion the hind leg is not always able to obey this demand immediately. In those moments, e.g., when it is on the ground, supporting the load and transporting it forward by extending its joints, it is unable to comply. Only in those moments when it is in the air is it able to do so.
During these airborne moments, the natural contraction of the abdominal muscles is enhanced by the calf aid, inducing the hind leg to step more under. During the grounded moments, on the other hand, stimulating the abdominal muscles could only make the hind leg shorten the supporting and thrusting phase, which cannot necessarily be regarded as an advantage.
Experience teaches that the most effective calf aid is the one which stimulates the abdominal muscles exclusively during the airborne moments of the hind leg, while not disturbing the hind leg in its supporting and thrusting function when it is on the ground. "
(1876)
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"As soon as the horse’s attempts to get out of the correct posture, which can always lead to disobediences, begin to be habitual or to increase, the rider must intervene actively.
It is in these cases in particular that the magical effect of the spur is of outstanding usefulness. Whereas a rider who is unfamiliar with the use of the spur aid can only control these horses with talented fiddling or with brute force, a rider who is used to feeling his horse on the spur can control it mechanically with ease – provided that the entire training has been executed along these lines, and that the rider has a chance to regain the basis that was created by the dressage training, in other words to get the horse back on the spur. The more or less brief correction procedure, which is necessary in these cases, is based on the fact that the horse finds the support for each resistance against the hand in the hind leg on the same side, which it wedges against the hand. This resistance will be broken as soon as the rider succeeds in placing the hind leg so that it is exposed to the pressure of the hand in such a way that it has to bend."
(1876)
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"As far as the turning rein aid is concerned, there is no question that the soldier must guide his horse in the turns on the haunches, as in all turns, predominantly with the outside rein. The horse’s obedience will be the more secure the more he succeeds in maintaining the correct bend in spite of the dominant effect of the outside rein, and consequently in maintaining the inside hind leg underneath the load.
In the training of the soldier’s horse, the predominant activity of the inside calf and outside rein cannot be emphasized enough for the movements with a lateral bend, that serve the gymnasticization of the inside hind leg. It must therefore also be a main focus in the education of the rider to teach him a feel for controlling the bent horse with the outside rein, while the inside “rhythmic calf aid”, which can always be reduced to a passive feeling with the calf or the spur, loosens up the inside rein and maintains the softness of the inside, i.e. the bend."
(1876)
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"The most important aspect of the transitions to the halt is that they are executed in a way that does not harm the horse’s legs. This can only be achieved consistently by accustoming horses to performing transitions to the halt with a releasing rein instead of a restraining rein aid. A collection that is proportionate to the vehemence of the gait, supported by a light seat with which the rider enables the horse to raise his back, round his neck, and to step more underneath this raised back with his hind legs, must make the horse want to halt before it is necessary, so that the reins can be released at the last moment. Only then will transitions to the halt be executed smoothly and without jarring."
(1876)
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Last Update: January 13, 2007