Over the years, as I’ve grown as a rider and learn more and more about how everything connects, I have come to realize that there is ONE major ingredient that hails above all else. One simple concept can aid in the improvement of all the other fundamentals and intertwine to complete the package. It’s the magic ingredient…
FORWARDNESS!!!
Yes, forwardness can improve everything else. Nothing is good without it, and everything is improved with it. It’s a win-win situation.
What Forwardness Can Do For You
- A forward horse is more responsive and sharp. He is ready at any given moment to act and react to your aids.
- A forward horse is alert, but that alertness is directed toward the rider, not what’s happening outside of the arena.
- A forward horse makes riding easier for the rider. You won’t have to spend your time trying to kick and nag.
- A horse that is forward often prevents the rider from contorting their own bodies unintentionally into odd positions, which is what happens many times when the rider is nagging and pushing so much to get the lazy horse moving.
- Forwardness helps with straightness. This is one of the best benefits of a forward horse. Many of your crookedness issues will magically disappear when you get your horse forward. Falling in, falling out, wrong canter leads, haunches falling in or out, issues with lateral work – all of these issues will improve when the horse gets more forward.
- Forwardness helps with balance. This also stems from straightness, which comes from forwardness, and then the three pieces continue to work together for an overall better ride.
- Forwardness helps establish good contact. A horse who is not forward will not really be seeking a contact. The horse needs forwardness to be sent properly to the bit.
- A forward horse will easily find and maintain rhythm and will therefore be more relaxed.
- A horse who is truly on the aids and on the bit, will most certainly be forward.
- And a forward horse is collectable – collection can only really happen with forwardness.
What Forwardness is NOT
It’s very important to be able to distinguish the difference between forward and fast. Forwardness is NOT quick, nor fast. A “fast” horse is typically rushing and on the forehand, and therefore heavy and not on the aids. A forward horse is using his body more efficiently, but a “fast” horse is rushing away from the aids and trying to avoid using his hind end. Learn all about a fast, rushing horse here.
How Forwardness Benefits the Rider
A forward horse is a self-going horse. Which means he ‘goes’ without the rider having to keep him going. Your horse should go as soon as you tell him too, and he should not stop or slow down until you tell him to. If you are constantly having to urge your horse to go, then he is not forward. And guess what? That means YOU are doing all the work. And it becomes tiring!
The average person in decent health should not become fatigued with training level and first level stuff. And it really shouldn’t feel like much effort either. A forward horse makes life EASY for the rider and a horse who is not forward will fatigue the rider and make riding not all that much fun.
On a forward horse, the rider should put their legs on once, and should not have to use their legs for gas again, or until you restart a new exercise. The rider needs their legs to do everything else, to shape and influence the horse’s body in other ways, but not to constantly kick for gas.
Just imagine how easy life becomes when to don’t have to work so hard to keep your horse from petering out.
When in Doubt, Go FORWARD
Instructors will often urge students forward with their horses before they work on anything else. There is obviously a good reason for this. Once you establish forwardness, you are then free to work on whatever you need to work on for that day. If you don’t have a forward horse, nothing that you work on will be very good.
Try this: At the beginning of your ride, before you ask for forwardness, trot your horse down the centerline. Try to not be very forward though. (This is a test between forward and not forward.) Just trot along lazily down the centerline. Evaluate how difficult it is to really stay straight on the centerline. Does your horse drift over or veer off the line of travel? How hard do you have to work to stay on that centerline? After that, go on and work toward getting your horse forward. Once your horse is really responsive and forward, try that centerline again. If you are forward, you will see that it will be much easier to stay straight on the center line with less work on your part.
So if you have been struggling with a particular movement lately, I urge you to first consider if you are lacking forwardness. Usually, once a sluggish horse gets more forward, whatever you are struggling with will become easier.
So work on forwardness first, then go back to whatever particular movement you have been practicing and try it again with a more forward horse. You will be relieved to find that when your horse is more self-going, he then takes more of the workload upon himself so you are free to focus on the next element that needs refinement.
Keep Riding, Keep Refining
The Refined Rider
Yes, but how do you actually GET forwardness out of a sluggish horse?
Great question!The first thing is to get your horse to respect your aids and become sharper and quicker to react. Pending and medical or lameness issues, you need to get to the point where you ask your horse to “go” once, and he responds with “yes ma’am!” Constantly nagging and kicking only makes him even more dull to your aids. So you need apply your normal soft aid, and if he doesn’t march off with enthusiasm, apply a tap with the whip. Try again, first with the original soft aid, and if he doesn’t willingly go quickly, this time, apply a stronger whip aid. Keep starting over and doing this and increasing your aid until you get the response you are looking for. Eventually he will learn that when you apply your soft aid, he had better just comply and go or else the stronger whip aid is coming. This will take days, or even weeks to instill. But it works if you stay consistent and don’t go back to nagging. Once your horse is actually “going” for you, that doesn’t mean he is “forward.” Forwardness is when the horse is really engaging the hind end. If he’s rushing off, you then need to work on engaging the hind legs to get the horse forward. The following article describes an exercise for just that, and it also helps to make a horse sharper and quicker to respond: My Favorite Exercise to Create Hind End Engagement
Once you get into a habit of good forwardness, your horse will be even more sharp and both concepts just keeping improving each other. Stay tuned for a more detailed article about getting your horse to GO!