This week, after being introduced to the horses last week, I had a better idea of how to approach their challenges.
Eachan's challenge is about contact - when met with any kind of contact, he tends to brace his jaw and neck and pull down. My focus this week was on ‘Cession de Machoire,’ or ‘Jaw Mobility.’ This is when the horse relaxes the mouth and jaw to the rider's hand, unlocking tension in the rest of their body so they are available for any type of position or movement.
My challenge as a rider is, when met with a heavy contact, I will also pull, and it becomes a bit of a tug of war between me and the horse. The first thing I had to be aware of was only ever having a light contact - note, not NO contact.
When Eachan pulls down, rather than pulling up, I lightened my own contact and did upwards vibrations with the rein, this demi arret rein aid asks him to lighten the contact and so lift his neck up without pulling - this is the first step in Cession de Machoire: the horse cannot relax his jaw if he is heavy on the bit. When I felt he was lighter in the hand I lifted my hands and gradually increased the pressure to ask relaxation of the jaw, when he didn’t respond, I lifted the inside hand upwards and towards the mouth/ear. Eachan took this as an aid to pull down again, but after many repetitions of vibrating and asking for jaw mobility, he did very well in the walk, but found it more difficult in the trot; or maybe I found it difficult to see his mouth move past his magnificent mane!
My goal for Eachan for the coming weeks is simple: get a soft yielding of his mouth with jaw mobility when I take up a contact, then progress to the walk and trot, before working towards helping the balance in his shoulders to enable him to canter well.
Erica Hosking - Instructor, Blinkbonnie Equestrian Centre
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