Introduction to Impulsion

Overview

The entry is about what I have learnt at Anna Auer's over the past 7 or 8 months, which I believe to be the "Introduction to Impulsion". It is aimed at the rider who can ride, but who is not getting optimum performance from their horse. Some of the problems the horse can exhibit are - rushing, not stopping, being tense in the jaw, leaning on the bit, head tossing, working above the bit, bucking, plus many others.

The key to Impulsion is that it comes from behind. It is energy that starts at the back of the horse. Then it moves forwards, and as riders we can either block it, or channel it. We need to learn to channel it. To shape it as it moves forwards.

The Hind Leg

The horse moves from halt to walk by first moving one of the hind legs. The hind leg needs to come underneath the horse. The horse, under the guidance of the rider, needs to learn to do this, one leg at a time.

Bringing the leg underneath is actually hard for the horse, and its initial reaction is either to run away from it (go faster), or to get rid of the cause (buck). The key is not to ask too much, to not allow the horse to run away, and to make the horse comfortable when it does the correct thing.

The exercises for the novice horse are: shoulder in on the circle, shoulder in and quarters in.

The Back

Once the leg comes underneath, the horse needs to arch and use his back. The horse's back needs to arch in a similar way a cat arches his back. The horse cannot do this if the rider is sitting in the wrong spot, or in the wrong way.

The Rider

The rider needs to feel like they are perched on the wither. When looking at the rider, there will be a straight line from ear to hip to heel, and this line will be perpendicular to the ground. However, to the rider, this is totally irrelevant as it doesn't describe how it feels! Your leg feels like you're kneeling. And your body feels more like you're standing rather than sitting. You are suspended in the saddle by a strong thigh, and a strong calf. Your heels are down, but only in a dressage kind of way. If you compare it to showjumping, they heels actually feel like they are up. Most importantly, your body is close to the pommel, and far away from the cantle. Simple. Just do it. Walk, trot AND canter!

Hands and Reins

Hands must be soft. Arms must be soft. If the horse is correctly stepping under with the inside leg, then he should seek contact with the outside rein. That rein must support the horse and not let him fall out. It must control the speed. But there must still be softness in the hand and through the entire arm. The inside rein just asks for more or less flexion (bend). The smaller the circle, the more bend is required. This hand and arm is very soft, and the touch on the rein very slight.

The Neck

When the horse's hind leg comes underneath itself, AND he learns to accept this, the neck will arch. Period. Job done. That simple. You're not quite getting this result? If the horse hasn't been using itself correctly, and all of a sudden you ask for this, and you actually get it right, your horse will probably start head tossing in protest. (Or it may buck, or run, or something else nasty). "Ouch! I'm not used to this. It hurts!" If the horse isn't used to this way of moving, then it just doesn't have the muscle to do it. If you get head tossing, persist. You're asking at the right level. But persist for 10 minutes at a time. If you get bucking, then you're asking too much. Do the same thing, but ask for half that. Aim for the head tossing level. Then train at this level.

Time

Once you start working your horse correctly, it still takes time for the horse to build up the right muscles. If you ride your horse twice a week (like I do), and are still learning what to do and how to do it (like me), it takes probably about three or four months. A lot depends on how troubled your horse is to start off with.

Shorter rein

I arrive at Anna's bubbling with excitement. Over the Christmas break a lot of things she's been trying to teach me have suddenly all come together and I am really really keen to tell her about it.

She listens patiently as I relay my discoveries to her, while Princess walks around the indoor arena. Anna nods her head and punctuates the conversations with "yes's". Yes, yessety yes! I've got it. (And I will write about it here in a series of entries). "I feel like I've had a real breakthrough", I say to Anna. "Now I can't wait to see what I can learn next", I finish off.

"Make the reins shorter, and half halt", says Anna. I do as she says, and the horse almost stops in her tracks. A walk that was running, and fast, all of a sudden turns into a "thinking" or "contemplating" type of walk. The energy is still there. But the horse is not trying to "get somewhere" anymore.

The walking is going well. "Now, shorten your reins, and trot on". I do as instructed. Once the trot is going well, Anna starts preparing me for canter. "Shorten your reins, and ask for canter". Shorten your reins?! But they are already short?! But I do as I am told. My hands feel like they are half way up the horse's neck. The canter comes. The reins feel about right. I have to work pretty hard with them to keep the horse going at the correct pace, on the correct circle, and relaxing. (Remember the entry on "strength"?). If they were any longer, I wouldn't have enough power.

We come back to the trot. "Lengthen the reins". We come back to walk. "Lengthen the reins".

Strength

For the past six months I've being toying with the concept of strength. Does one need to be strong to ride and handle a horse? How strong?

In all the available literature it constantly stresses that it's all about technique, in some languages there are proverbs along the lines of "if the horse knew his own strength then no one would ride him" implying that riding horses is not all about strength.

Now, I do agree, that muscle for muscle, the horse is stronger. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be so useful. But I think when we are constantly bombarded with "it's technique and not strength", we forget that once you get the technique right, you still need strength. It takes strength to groom a horse, to saddle a horse, to clean out his feet, to get on, to balance during riding, and then to issue commands with your seat and legs while balancing.

Let's compare it to riding in a train carriage, or in a tram. Imagine you have to stand in the middle of the carriage, without holding onto anything, while it's taking off, going around corners, bumping across track changes, and then stopping at a station. There is the technique - legs shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, one foot forward, one foot back, feet at right angles - yes, this is how I practice. But then, as the train corners and bumps, strength starts to play a very big part. Your feet feel like they have claws that grip the floor, your quads tense to absorb the changes in momentum, your knees become shock absorbers and your calves flex. And then, if you dont have a handbag and two books, you can use your upper body too. After five minutes, you're about ready to hold the rail!

This is exactly what you need to do on a horse. In fact, you need to do more. Because while you're desperately trying to maintain that balance, you need to also indicate go left, go right, bend this way, move this leg (yes, it can get that precise). So you need strength. Lots and lots of strength. Yoga kind of strenght - I'm not moving much, but I can't be pushed over.