"Neutral" sounds bland, boring, and blah. It makes us yawn. It does not conjure up images of horse and rider dancing together in perfect harmony. It’s not a very exciting concept. We want to be more than neutral. We want excellence. We want major lightbulb moments. We want impeccable timing, soft hands, and a perfectly balanced seat. But to get closer to that ideal, I encourage you to include “neutral” in your list of favorite adjectives around good riding. Here is why:
Neutral means: hovering quietly in the background, a reassuring presence the horse can feel, but not interfering, not micromanaging.
Neutral means: allowing the horse to do his job, without abandoning him or throwing him off balance.
A neutral leg hangs close to the horse, loosely draped, ready to give an aid, but not squeezing, spurring, or kicking every stride.
Neutral hands follow the horse’s neck, offering light, elastic contact with his mouth when the horse is ready for it, or a quietly loose rein when he’s not. They don’t constantly pull, fiddle, or bounce.
A neutral seat moves as much as the horse moves at any given moment - not more, not less.
A neutral rider is quiet and balanced, in self-carriage - not gripping, not clenching, not constantly driving, but not dead weight, either.
When we use an aid, we shift out of neutral - for a moment. Too often, we don’t shift back soon enough, or don’t shift back at all. We forget to give back the half-halt. We forget to take our leg off the horse. We forget to let go of muscle tension on our core. We get stuck in the active phase of communicating with our horses. This teaches our horses to ignore our aids, or to become resentful of them. Our aids become stronger, and more constant, because we interpret the horse’s response as sluggish, or resistant. Our bodies, and our horses’ bodies, become tense. And our horses become even more dull, even more resentful. And so on. We become stuck in a downward spiral of mutual frustration.
How do we become unstuck? How do we find our way back to harmony?
By shifting back to neutral a little sooner than we think we should. By getting out of the horse’s way. It may not look very dramatic, or remotely exciting, but it works.
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