I’ve seen a lot of riders blunder and send their horses behind the bit because they failed to create energy from the rear before attempting to create a connection. To put it another way, they were guilty of attempting to ‘hand ride’ with rein aids before actually using any driving aids.

You shouldn’t forget you have to first create energy. You then employ a closed outer hand to contain the energy while keeping the horse’s neck straight with some give and take on the inside rein. If I can use a rough comparison, utilising the hands before creating energy with the legs is identical to picking up a phone that’s not actually ringing.

If the horse is adept at ducking behind the contact, I would suggest that you do the following.

1. Walk your pony with loose rein for between 5 and10 minutes so he will warm up his muscles and get used to having your weight on his back.

2. Then proceed on a large circle as you set up contact with his mouth. DON’T try putting your pony on the bit while on the walk.

3. What you should do instead is to go at once to a rising trot on the large circle (say of roughly 20 meters).

4. Start creating power from the rear by closing up both legs and asking the horse to go further forward toward a ‘lengthening’ over 7 or 8 strides. Slow down. Repeat the process until your pony starts to associate the closing of your legs with going further forward.

5. Once the pony begins to move on eagerly from your legs, start ‘lengthening’ once you have felt him surge forward over a couple of strides, use the reins, make a fist of the outside hand, give and take on the inner rein.

6. You know that you have a correct connection when your horse surges ahead through your closed outer rein.

Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers read more