7 Elements in the Saddle

By Glenn Stewart

7 Elements

in the Saddle

Whenever I’m playing with my horses I try to be very conscious of what is working and what isn’t. Or what is working a little and what is working a lot. It is easiest for the horse and the human to break everything down into understandable, trainable portions. Separate the individual elements get each working a little, and then a lot, so we can start putting them together.

In this case, I’m referring to what I call the 7 Elements, these are what we need to have working to move the horse or parts of the horse, separately at first and then many times together and at different speeds and gaits.

These 7 Elements are: • Lateral flexion - being able to bend your horse’s neck left and right without the feet moving and when you ask the feet to move, on a straight line or on a circle. • Vertical flexion – being able to ask for the horse’s nose to come in, the neck to get round from the withers to the poll when you pick up the reins, standing still or when moving. • Hindquarter control – being able to move the hindquarters right or left separately from the forequarters when standing still or when moving. • Forequarter control – being able to move the forequarters separately from the hind, standing still or when moving. • Sideways – being able to move the horse sideways in a straight line as well as when moving forward. • Backwards – being able to ask a horse to back up on a straight line, in an arc, or a serpentine. • Forwards. At one point I considered there to be only six elements because I thought obviously all horses go forward. Then I remembered all the emails, letters and people I’ve seen ask their horse to go forward and the horse kicks out, bucks or goes forward but barely.

These 7 elements are the first things I check out on a horse when I get on. I want to know how many of the elements work and how well they work. The less they work or the worse they work, the more I know I won’t be able to do with that horse and the worse the ride is going to be at that point in time.

I check out the elements at first standing in one spot and asking for each element separately. This is the easiest for the horse and rider to manage but many horse and rider teams are unable to do these 7 elements standing still and with the use of their reins. When I say standing still I mean they are not trying to accomplish these things at a walk, trot, or canter. All these things should be able to be done at all gaits and most going backwards as well. If I can manage the elements standing still, then I want to know how many I can ask for without the reins. Next I want to know if I can ask for them at the walk, then the trot and finally the canter. For example, can I ask for lateral flexion at each gait and come to a stop, keep riding straight ahead or on a circle. So from lateral flexion at the stand still to possibly cantering on a circle being able to ask for right or left flexion without interfering with the canter. If these elements work at all gaits separately then it is time to see if any 2, 3, or 4 of these elements can work together at the same time with or without reins. Here is an example of a horse in motion with five of those elements combined. 1. Cantering on a right lead (forward), 2. Lateral flexion to the right, 3. Vertical flexion nose in, neck and back rounded, 4. Half passing right (sideways), 5. Hindquarters leading.

What you would be looking at or asking for is a horse that is cantering forward and sideways with a bend in the neck to the right, head in, neck round, and the hip a bit ahead of the shoulder. Much more difficult or advanced would be able to do that same picture without reins or head gear of any kind. The sky is the limit as they say with what we can do with our horses and how much we want to know. The bare minimum from a safety perspective is to have the 7 elements working at a stand still. Then as many as possible at the walk and trot. The faster you want to ride the more of these elements should be working, and if they all work well at any gait you will have safe enjoyable rides and be able to do most anything you would like with your horse.

Happy riding, Glenn Stewart

Glenn offers year round educational horsemanship programs at his facility near Fort St John BC and is available to travel and conduct clinics. For more information visit www.thehorseranch.com.