23/05/2025
RIDING FROM BACK TO FRONT
One of the most common faults that prevent a rider from riding their horse from back to front is that they don’t have “forward-thinking” hands. Instead, they have “backward-thinking” hands.
Backward-thinking hands are always pulling back as though the rider constantly has the handbrake on. The rider may try to create activity from the horse’s hind legs, but the horse will always feel as though he’s been ridden into a brick wall between increasingly stronger leg and rein aids.
Another cause of backward-thinking hands is when the rider tries to “fiddle” their horse into an “outline.” This will only cause the horse discomfort and encourage him to duck behind the contact.
Instead, the hands should always be forward-thinking, meaning that whilst the contact with the horse should always remain elastic, your hands should have a feeling of pushing the horse to the bit, and not pulling back.
The outline and the contact with the rider’s hand come from the horse’s willingness to work forward and over his back.
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For more on riding back to front, check out this post - https://howtodressage.com/article/back-to-front/
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