Lesson 11 Disengagement of the Hindquarter
The Indirect Rein
In Lesson 10 you learned about lateral flexion. This involves asking your horse to bend his neck, without moving his feet. For disengaging the hindquarters, you’re going to cause the horse to step his hind feet under his belly, almost so that his front end pivots.
Disengagement of the hindquarter is achieved by an indirect rein position.
Disengagement is the opposite of engagement. When a horse is engaged, he is powerful in the hind legs, they are slightly splayed and braced, ready for action. When a horse is disengaged, the hind legs get narrow and they step in front of each other. This disempowers the horse for when you need control.
It is the opposite of engagement where it takes the power away from the hindquarters.
This exercise is done with one rein, and preferably in the Parelli halter and 12ft line. As preparation, you should be able to do lateral flexion and in the beginning, be in a small yard.
Once again, you need to learn this with just one rein.
- Your hand position for disengagement is like stabbing your belly button! Fingernails up, little finger in your belly button, a lifting action
- Let’s do the right side first: lift your rein upward with the left hand. Bring your right hand onto it, slide your hand halfway down the rein, close your fingers slowly but surely and then bring your hand toward your belly button. At the same time, turn your head and body to the right and look at your horse’s tail.
- Now push your horse’s zone 3 with your right leg until he moves his hindquarters. then release and start again. You don’t need to ask for more than a step at first, but build it to several steps once the horse is confident.
The hand position for the indirect rein is the same as if you were to “stab” your belly button! Fingernails are uppermost. The indirect rein has a lifting (rather than pulling) quality. Focus over your horse’s tail and push the hindquarter with your leg at the same time.
The is called an indirect Rein
The indirect rein causes the hindquarters to move. It comes across your body to your belly button and in its extreme position continues upward to the shoulder. Pat has a good way of installing this action mentally: pretend you are holding a knife and stab your belly button, now continue to slash from the belly button up to the opposite shoulder: Hard to forget this now!
The indirect rein cause the hindquarter to move. Therefore it is an active rein. In its extreme, it is lifted in the direction of your opposite shoulder: ex. the left indirect rein would lift across your body toward your right shoulder.
Your legs do what your hands do
The more you can grasp this concept, and the sooner you do, the more naturally you will ride and with good coordination. You will use your whole body to communicate with your horse and instead of trying to put your leg in certain position, allow them to do what your hands and arms do when asking your horse to yield from pressure.
In essence, if your arm is bent, so should your corresponding leg be bent. If your arm hangs neutral, so should your leg. If your arm is out Strait and away from the horse, so should be your leg. If your elbow is pushing against your side, your leg should be pushing against your horse’s side.
Similarly, if you make a fist, so should your toes – try it and see the effect it has on your calf muscles! If you spread your fingers, then open out your toes too. Practice this at home!
Your legs do what your hands do.
Success Tips
- Good lateral flexion
- Porcupine Game in Zone 3, you can move the hindquarters around easily on the ground
- Bring the rein to your belly button
- Lift the rein slowly toward your opposite shoulder
- Push with the corresponding leg
- Focus over your horses’s tail
- Release if the horse is worried, and release as soon as he does the right thing
- Ge both sides feeling equally responsive
Focusing over the horse’s tail, slowly lifting the indirect rein across your body and pushing steadily with your leg all at the same time are all keys to success.
Pitfalls
- not enough preparation (ground skills)
- fighting the horse’s head, using force instead of teaching
- porcupine game is not good enough, therefore horse doesn’t understand what your leg pressure means
- not using your leg like your hand, releasing and reapplying the pressure before response
- kicking instead of using steady pressure with your leg
- only doing one side, letting them be unequal
Both sides need to become equally responsive.
Never fight your horse for this. Teach him to understand your communication.
Troubleshooting
Your horse won’t move his hindquarters
Get off and teach him from the ground. Stand in zone 3, bend his neck to you and play, use Game #2 in zone 3 to move his hindquarters and disengage them. Do this several times to ensure he understands before you try it again from his back.
When your horse has trouble understanding. Fix it on the ground with Game #2 in zone 3.
If he still won’t move his hind feet, change hands so you are still holding the rein in position and use your inside hand now to gently tap him on the hip until he moves. Use four phases! Start very lightly and gradually increase with each tap. All the while, keep you leg pushing with the same pressure, don’t get harder and more definitely, don’t kick! As soon as the horse tries to do the right thing, release everything!
By using your phase you will teach your horse to become lighter and more responsive.
You can support your leg by holding the pressure the same and gently but insistently tapping the hip on the same side.
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