
20/07/2025
Recent themes - Part 2.
Contraction. What is it and why does it matter?
Many things a horse may present us with (which we find challenging) are as a result of contraction. The source is usually emotional but the symptoms are physical. Although if you ride a horse’s body in contraction, with overflexion and strong aids, it can also work in reverse.
Contraction is a term many horse people use and it’s a catch all for ‘shortening, tightness, bunching up’.
And the response which may be suggested for a horse in this state is to add more pressure. More equipment most often, but sometimes just lots more pressure.
Rarely is this successful - a horse is usually contracting themselves in anticipation of something unpleasant occurring. Or they’re confused, or unsure, or bracing themselves because of something they’re finding physically hard.
A horse may buck because they’re contracted, or refuse to go forwards, or feel like a plank of wood to sit on, or struggle to turn, or be spooky. Many variations on a theme. They’re tight, so in their brain and their body they’re in defensive mode.
Having said adding pressure to contraction doesn’t work from the horses perspective, one can clearly be very successful overlaying contraction with pressure in other fields. If your bungees don’t break, and your knee blocks are large enough to anchor you in place, you can win lots of rosettes using this very tactic. That’s enough of that, thank you.
Because the opposite of contraction is release. And that has to come from the inside of the horse. We can force a horse to do many things, but we cannot force him to release contraction - we can only show him that possibility exists. And this takes skill, empathy, good timing, appropriate feel and a desire to be lead by the horse.
This summer I have seen several people dig really deep in order to develop these things on behalf of their horse. Sometimes it means being clearer so the horse can sure, sometimes it means doing a lot less. It may be something you can show your horse the way to via the bit and the reins, or it may be something you offer with your seat and your legs. It could be changing how you present something completely, or it might be just a subtle shift in what you’re already doing.
The only real route to the release of contraction is by showing a horses body and brain that they can trust the situation they’re in. If we just overlay contraction with pressure to get the job done, well one day your horse is going to break down or break open in some shape.
I’m so grateful that everyone I work with wants to see how they can be most useful to their horse and follow that scent…