What is the correct way to get a horse in a frame?

Question

The horse I ride can be pretty resistant to going in a frame, so I try using my leg and pushing him while keeping rein contact and jiggling the reins a little bit back and forth, and sometimes that works, but only for a second. What is the correct way to ask a horse to go into a frame while you're riding and keep it that way?

Answer 1

There are many different exercises you can use to help teach your horse how to use himself properly, just as there are those who argue for and against see-sawing the reins. Personally, when I was teaching my hunter collection, I tried to avoid see-sawing. Here's a good exercise for working on collection:

Put your horse on a 30 meter circle and pick up a sitting trot. You should have short reins, so your arms need to be long and supple, so to speak, and your hands need to be quiet. Your inside leg should be at the girth, outside leg slightly behind it. Your outside hand will control his pace and your inside hand will control his bend. To ask for collection, apply pressure with your legs and keep a firm contact with the reins. Don't seesaw. He might try tossing his head or pushing forward. Don't let him change his pace by speeding forward, and if he tries to fight you, just keep your hands still and steady, your contact firm. If you don't tug or fight back, he'll only be fighting with himself and eventually he'll drop his head. Hold him like that for a few stride and praise him, than release the pressure. More than likely, his head will shoot up and he'll hollow out. Repeat the steps I described to bring him back into a frame, and keep praising him when he does it right. Eventually he'll start to understand and hold himself in the frame. But remember, if he's used to hacking around holding himself as he pleases, he won't have the proper muscle mass for collection. It will be hard for him to hold a frame for very long, at least in the beginning. You'll really have to help him out by being steady, quiet and consistent. Eventually you'll get through to him.

I would stay away from gadgets like draw reins, martingales, or neck-stretchers. There's a time and place for them, but unless you're a professional or working with a trainer, you can end up doing more harm than good. Also, don't spend too long on the circle exercise or your horse will get both bored and exhausted. In the beginning, I'd devote no more than ten minutes to working him on that circle. Trust me, it'll be a very tiring ten minutes for the bot of you. When you've finished that, take him all the way around the arena at the trot and ride with a long rein. If he pushes his neck down and out, you know you rode the exercise correctly, as he's stretching his neck out to ease the tension in his muscles. Eventually, he'll develop the strong muscles in his neck and back to hold himself without feeling the tension. You can over time increase the length of your circle work. I also find that this particular exercise helps a horse learn how to correctly balance himself through a curve. It produces a truly supple horse, not one that hollows out through turns or becomes over bent. When your horse is steady and collected at the trot, you can then work on the canter. Remember, he may be unbalanced at first and it may take time to get him collected and put together. But if you're steady and consistent, you will see results, I promise.

Answer 2

This is a long answer, because it's a fairly complex problem. Please bear with me!

First a quick reminder of the Training Scale: Rhythm, Suppleness, Contact, Impulsion, Straightness, Collection.

To achieve a correct working outline, a horse must first be forward at your choice of speed with a regular rhythm which suits the natural pace of the horse. At this stage it is necessary to begin to regulate the horse’s outline by encouraging him to accept the connection with your hands evenly on each side and to begin to lower his hind quarters and push forward and upward into the bridle. This does not mean that you pull the horse onto an outline, but that you indicate to the horse the way in which you would like him to carry himself. It also does not mean that we are asking for collection (remember this comes last!). It simply means that we are asking the horse to travel happily forward, accepting both driving and restraining aids with a more or less arched neck and back and active hindlegs.

To do this you do need to use your seat legs and reins but never to pull the horse’s nose towards you. The reins can be used in three main ways:

* A direct rein (usually the outside one) which acts to control the amount of neck bend and has some control over the speed of the horse ( and how the horse interprets the forward driving aids) and also the length of the neck;
* An indirect rein (the rein moving towards the centre of the wither but never crossing the midline) which is used to ask the horse for flexion at the poll and
* An opening rein (always the inside one acting towards the rider’s inside knee, away from the horse’s neck) which encourages the horse to lower the neck.

Remembering the systematic approach we take to training our horses, it is essential with any of these rein aids to

1. apply the aid in a positive fashion,
2. get the response you require and then
3. reward by releasing the pressure of the aid.

It is also essential to coordinate each of these rein aids with a supporting or even forward driving leg aid. The plan remember is to eventually use as small an aid as possible and this applies to the rein aid as well as to the leg aid.

You must also be very careful about your selection of the rein aid you use at any particular instant. For example, never use an opening rein to ask for flexion or to turn the horse and so on. The aids are very specific and must be used as such.

One of the easiest mistakes to make is incorrect use of the outside rein. Whenever you use either an indirect inside rein to ask for flexion or an opening inside rein to ask for the lowering of the neck, the outside rein must stay put ie you must not let the outside rein slip forward… your outside elbow must stay by your side and fingers closed on the rein! Yes, for a couple of strides you may feel that the outside rein becomes firm. That is OK as long as your legs are still prepared to keep the forward activity and the inside rein is specific in its use and rewards by releasing pressure immediately there is a movement in the right direction. Remember too, that you must then repeat the aid until the horse reacts confidently and quickly to the smallest change of pressure (up to 10 000 conscious repetitions make a habit!)

It is usually easiest to achieve the lowering of the neck whilst maintaining forwardness on a circle. However, sometimes you will find that a horse will fall into the centre of the circle (usually only in one direction). For these horses you can ride a square, halting in each corner if needed until the horse follows your direction. You can then introduce 15m circles in each corner of the square and use the opening rein through these circles. Eventually you can turn the square 45 degrees and ride a diamond, then curve the 4 straight lines of your diamond until you achieve a circle again. This is a very powerful tool to have in your kit! It seems so simple but it really works.

Eventually the aim is not to use the opening rein any more to achieve the lowering of the neck as the horse’s muscles will develop so that it actually becomes easier for him to maintain the better outline and you gradually reduce the opening rein until your hands appear to do nothing. . The contact you want to achieve is as if you are holding someone’s hand… you don’t want to crack his knuckles, but you also don’t want the “limp fish” handshake! Every now and then you need to give him a comforting squeeze to let him know you are still thinking of him! Your reins should be a comfort to your horse through which he feels your slightest adjustment (the same of course with your seat and leg). You cannot achieve this without maintaining contact and it is a common error to have too little contact mistakenly thinking that you are then not hurting his mouth. A steady stable contact is much more comfortable to the horse than a loose rein which “slaps” on and off. I will discuss contact in more detail in a later issue but for now, remember that he needs to feel you there.

As the horse’s training progresses, the shape of the outline alters such that the hindlegs bend more and the quarters lower so that the neck becomes more raised and arched and the whole horse becomes shorter from nose to tail with the poll becoming the highest point. But again, this is collection and comes after rhythm, suppleness, contact, impulsion and straightness! (Do you think I’m pushing the point?)

Please remember whatever rein aid you use, you must first have the horse traveling forward and reacting to light leg aids confidently. Never use the rein in a backwards direction and always remember that it is the correctness of you basic body position which controls the accuracy with which you can apply your aids both leg, seat and rein.

Have fun!

Answer 3

You are doing the right thing. But, I think you have been leaving out praise. When you put your leg on him and make bit contact, as soon as he starts to gather himself, release everything and praise him. Start holding him for a couple seconds longer, then release. Pretty soon you'll be loping around the ring with him using his hindquarters, having great vertical flexion, and having a lot of lift in his wither.

Answer 4

That's a good start. This is a difficult thing to learn unless we are there with you. Just remember pressure and release, you pressure him, he does what you want, and then you release the pressure as a reward.