We shared this brilliant piece from Walter Zettl raising our awareness how we have a choice to make in how we direct the horse’s energy.

With the awareness that it starts with activating the back leg. He warns that as we send that forward, it is up to us how it is used after that.

“When the horse is afraid of the hands, it stops them from engaging their hind leg. We have to be very, very careful with the hands... And instead of forcing the horse into our hands we have to engage the hind leg.”

This might be one of the most important statements ever made. One that, if we take another look at it, can lead us down a new path of discovery. Which as a part of Kjrsos all of us delight in.

Today we are going to build on that but add in some pieces that also relate from an article written in Horses For LIFE. But this time looking at it from a different perspective.

We talk about the horse yielding. And more than likely, when you hear that, you think we are talking about the horse yielding to our hand. And I would guess that is not the only assumption that you are making. More than likely, when we think about yielding, we are talking about the horse yielding longitudinally.

Think the bend that happens at the poll.

And these assumptions make us miss an entire other way of looking at this.

But let’s backtrack a little first, to include bits from that previous article.

One of the great joys that I had watching these old tapes was how, in the midst of their horses working, that at any time, you might see the horse turn and look at something that caught their attention - or reach their nose out and up as if to stretch. And there were absolutely no impediments from the rider for the horses to move in any direction even if it was just to watch a bluebird in flight that had joined the horse and rider in the arena.

It was wonderful to see the horse had this freedom to move. Nothing in the riders stopping the horse from having full freedom over their head and neck.

Beautiful to see how the contact was so pliable, so yielding that the rider’s hands just follow the horses effortlessly.

Especially delightful when we realize that this has to be true at all times because there is no time for the riders to react.

Which makes us realize this is what was waiting for the horses. There for the horse to take.

Freedom. Freedom over their heads and necks as if they were free and running wild. Free with no expectation that someone was going to stop them, try to interfere.

But how can we help a horse that is having difficulties in yielding?

Because, in the end, that is what we want. After all, riding is all about control.

We want control. We don’t want the horse to have the control. And having a horse yield to our hands is us having control. So how can we accomplish that at the same time.

To start with, we will assume that you have the softest hands possible for your horse. Riders discovering often, this is enough.

Many horses presented with a soft yielding hand from the moment that they are backed naturally accept this as the norm and once they do, they will try to maintain the same feel yieldng back to you. The horses mirroring what the rider is doing. Possibly the best kept secret when it comes to horses.

But to take this further, to better understand, we need to redefine what yielding is and where it happens.