QUOTES BY PAUL PLINZNER
On the Weight Aids

"In working the haunches, the rider will lean back if he wants to bend the hind legs more, and lean forward if he wants to activate them more. Horses whose hindquarters are so strong and energetic that they are capable of acting as springs even under a great load, can be worked while the rider is leaning back. However, horses with weak and soft haunches will have to be worked with a forward inclination of the torso, even when gymnasticizing the haunches. In general, there is no doubt that an appropriate “relieving weight aid” is helpful in all increased demands that are made of the horse, because it facilitates the increased activity of the haunches and the back, which these demands automatically entail. This applies not only to increased demands in free gaits, but also in collected gaits. Although the horse’s “position on the haunches” requires leaning back in “soft passivity”, as we have seen, the rider will have to leave this passivity more and more the less ideal his horse’s conformation and disposition are, if he asks him to work vigorously in this position for longer periods of time, as is necessary for gymnasticizing the haunches. Among the aids, which maintain the horse’s impulsion in these movements, the relieving weight aid plays no small role. This makes it so much easier for the hind legs to push off again after they have stepped under that the weight shift towards the front end, which it causes, is irrelevant by comparison. There is no question that the weight aids constitute an important addition to the active aids, which the rider applies directly with the legs and reins, and that the superiority of the better riders consists to a large extent in the ability to use these weight aids correctly. However, it is equally certain that at least the forward inclination of the torso must always remain a prerogative of the better riders, because experience shows that the majority of people cannot be taught to follow the horse correctly in this seat, much less to apply active forward driving aids with it while simultaneously energizing the hind legs with their calves. While the forward inclination of the torso holds the greatest advantages for the better riders, the average person rides his horse more and more onto the forehand that way, making him dull and causing him to stumble. " (1876)