Loose Reins & Lateral Flexion

Whether starting a colt, problem solving an issue, or working with a more educated horse, I always begin with my loose rein program.

The loose rein work is the foundation of a good horse, creating balance both physically and mentally, allowing the horse to grow and build strength for what will be asked of them later.

The loose rein program starts with the hindquarters. In this article I will go over the things I do in this step as I set the foundation for the rest of the loose rein work. It is important to remember, as with any program, adjustments may have to be made for each individual horse. As they become educated, you should be able to go through the steps in order, even if you had to adjust some to begin with.

Movement of the hindquarters is the foundation of a horse’s education.

Proper movement of the hindquarters is the foundation of a horse’s education, which is why I focus there first. When I bend the horse and ask the hindquarters to break over, I am looking for the hind feet to step laterally and forward. I need to find the balance of having the break over, without so much lateral motion that it will kill the forward motion. I want the hind feet to step up under the horse’s belly pretty deep as

they cross over. This is to help engage the inside hind leg, which is driving the hind end forward and around, resulting in elevating the withers, which is key for proper movement. If the hind feet step too close to each other, you will have too much lateral and not enough forward motion. If the front-end stops moving forward and pivots on the inside front, you have also killed too much forward motion, and this is typically because of too much bend, not enough leg, or poor timing. If this happens, you should add leg and release a little of the bend. Remember, you are looking for roughly 90 degrees of bend- the horse should not be bent all the way around to your stirrup or leg unless you absolutely need to do that to get the hind to break free, always letting the horse return to 90 degrees when you can.

For timing, you want to signal the horse to move the hindquarters over as the inside hind foot leaves the ground, so that when you ask, the horse’s foot is already free and ready to move. In regards to the pattern of footfall, you want the horse to switch from a four-beat cadence to a two-beat cadence when the hindquarters break over. The horse will go from walking a four-beat gait on the circle (each foot stepping independently), to walking a two-beat gait when moving the hindquarters over (the horse’s feet moving in diagonal pairs). When bent correctly, the poll height should be roughly even with the withers depending on conformation and strength, the ears should be level, and the nose should be perpendicular to the ground.

The most important thing I am looking for from this exercise is that the hind end starts to supple and soften to my inside leg when doing this. If the hind does this, very little rein will be needed to bend the horse, and the horse will assume the correct posture themselves with little to no help from the reins outside of the initial contact. Ultimately, it will be possible to do without any rein at all. During the refinement stage of training, this will be very handy in softening and collecting your horse. It takes time to accomplish this, so don’t try to make it happen, just work at it diligently as you work on other things as well, and look for small measurable changes that are repeatable during the ride. They will build upon themselves over time.

When I work with a horse on this, I approach the exercises in the following order:

First I want to make sure I can get the horse to bend their head around without much fuss, while standing still. I am looking for no more than 90 degrees

of bend. Once this is going pretty well from the stand still, I will walk the horse out on a circle and then reach down the rein, sliding my leg back and engaging it just before drawing the rein, to ask the horse to move their hind end over. If the life in the horse diminishes before they break over behind and flex their neck, I will add more leg. If they speed up or simply brace, I will take the rein with a feel to get the hind end to break over freely and then let them stop with their head bent. I will continue this until they start to soften their hip and break it over more from my leg than the rein.

Lateral flexion on a loose rein.

Once the horse is getting consistent at moving the hindquarters over correctly and coming to a stop, I will start to sometimes ask the horse to move the hindquarters over and then return immediately to a walk, rather than coming to a complete stop. What I am trying to accomplish here is to build both strength and balance, one hindquarter at a time. This will help later on in the horse’s education when I ask for collection. I will bend them around as described above, moving their hind 360 degrees, and then walk them out of it trying to keep them coming forward with the hind through the maneuver and driving off of it to go forward out of the bend. Later, I will use this to re-balance them when they get ahead of me as well (I will go over this in a later article about being on course and under control). Be careful not to put them into too much of a bind with the rein when bending them around. Use your leg and let them bring their own head around, instead of pulling their head around with the rein, if you can. Don’t forget- when you are doing this, you are trying to soften the horse’s hip to your leg; the rein is an aid to help the horse understand this.

When the hindquarters are coming along ok, I will start to add in the front quarters too. Instead of taking them around 360, I will only go 180. At that point I will move my hand from between the saddle horn and withers to just off of my hip and slightly behind. This should cause them to rock their weight back over their outside hind and reach their inside front out and back under the stirrup. I will apply a little of my outside leg as the horse’s outside front is ready to leave, sending the outside front forward and across the inside front. I typically look for a “reach, cross, reach” pattern with the front feet before coming out of the turn. Later on with the horse, I will touch on turning over an inside hind, but I find it important for balance, strength and working a cow to teach them to balance over the outside hind first. When asking for the front, I tend to keep them pretty bent at this stage, maybe only releasing a little bit of the 90-degree bend. This should be a slow smooth turn; it should not be fast.

Asking for the front across.

These exercises are a great starting point for helping the horse learn to use their hindquarters correctly. Try not to overdo these; use them to help the horse when needed, and to educate them, but make sure you are not spending too much time in a bind and not enough time moving out freely on a loose rein. If you keep them too bound up, it will create anxiety and trouble in one, but if you learn these exercises and use them appropriately, you will lay a solid foundation for your horse’s education.

Enjoy the Journey!