I've said it before, I'll say it again...

I've said it before, I'll say it again, and everyone reading this can laugh and snork and call me a clueless, old-fashioned moron.

I.

DO.

NOT.

LIKE.

SIDE.

REINS.

But then again, bear in mind I'm also so completely old-school that I think the so-called dressage pyramid is incorrect, because the fundamental (lowest) step should not be "Rhythm", it should be "Relaxation" - you can't have true Rhythm without true Relaxation FIRST.

So take this post with as much salt as you may prefer. :-P

Be the trainer for a second.

Why would you want THIS...



or THIS...



When you could have THIS?



See what I'm saying? Sure, he's on the forehand and dragging behind a little bit, but his whole body is relaxed, he's happy in his mouth, so he's using his head and neck egg-freaking-zackly the way I want a young horse to do, and he's sure the heck a lot less stressed. Once he's unstressed and happily reaching forward, the rhythm will come.

What do side reins actually teach a horse?? That it can't move its head beyond a certain point. To back off the bit. To put its head down and bore, or to hollow its back. That all those jiggles of the bit in his sensitive mouth are to be completely IGNORED, because they don't actually MEAN anything, other than that he has hit the end of the side rein and it's time to either back off the bit or put his head down and bore.

Sounds great!! Sign me up!!! Not.

The configuration I'm using in the last pic is his usual Happy Mouth with the end of a chain longe line run through the bit under his chin and clipped back onto itself. Ignore the riding reins, I just clipped those up out of the way. The advantage of this configuration, assuming you have made your horse well bridle-wise beforehand, which we now have, is that a light tug on the mouth from the longeing hand (a/k/a a half-halt, in hunter speak, though the dressage half-halt is NOT the same thing) really DOES mean something: hey, relax, dude, give to me a little bit. If so inclined, you can also step a little back behind the horse and drive him INTO the lunging hand with the whip hand. We're not there yet, but we messed with it a little at the end of today's lesson.

My opinion: if you go from this to long-lining, you are teaching the fundamentals of relaxed communication with the bit and hand before you ever step up on them.

There. I've said it!