50/ AUGUST 2017 THE RIDER The Road to Enlightenment Explanation of “Légèreté” and the Oh So Important concept of “Relaxation of the Jaw”


“How do I create and maintain true lightness?” To fully understand what lightness


truly is, we need to understand where it originates. Let’s start with a description of what it ISN’T … it ISN’T loose reins! it ISN’T synonymous with collection! (… although it IS a precondition to cor- rect collection) it ISN’T governed by the horse’s head being held on or behind the vertical!


MOST IMPORTANTLY … THE HORSE CREATES LIGHTNESS … NOT THE RIDER!!


By Muriel Chestnut, founder Enlight- ened Dressage “Ethical Consciousness in all Horsemanship”


There is much talk in equestrian


circles about “Lightness” but very little actual explanation that coherently de- scribes what exactly is meant by this il- lusive concept. I hope I can shed some “light” (… excuse the pun …) on this subject! “How do I really determine if my


horse is in true lightness or not? What should I feel in my hands?” But perhaps most importantly,


So what IS it then??? Philippe Karl offers a brilliant de-


scription: “A horse that is light to the hand is one that, on half-released reins, mobilizes its tongue and lower jaw in a movement much like swallowing (pro- ducing saliva). The horse is said to “taste the bit”. When properly understood, lightness to the hand cannot be boiled down to the eventual happy coincidence of collection. It is above all a training philosophy, an educational method that is as gentle as it is effective because it is natural. It teaches the horse the language of the aids and allows a rider to relax, balance and supple any horse. Each at-


titude and each exercise, from the most basic to the most complex, is prepared then validated by cession de mâchoire. Légèreté is also applied to a horse that is light to the legs …” from Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage, Philippe Karl, pg. 160


Beautiful concept! … now HOW


do we accomplish it?!! Education my dear riders, educa-


tion!! Not by using more pair of reins or more steel in the mouth or on our boots, but by use of what’s between our ears!! In this article, I will firstly address


Mobilization of the Jaw, since this is a vital, yet poorly understood aid that has been discontinued perhaps due to the re- moval of it from the FEI Rules as of 1958. The FEI Rules for Dressage used to state: “At all paces, slight mobility of the jaw, without nervousness, is the guarantee of submission and the harmo- nious distribution of forces.” Huh! … Interesting eh? Why


doesn’t anyone talk about it anymore??? As it turns out … the old Masters used to talk about it A LOT! For instance, Xenophon (400 BC) recommended sup- pling the neck by relaxing the mouth (“Peri Hippikes”, Chapter X). Others in- clude François Baucher (1796 - 1873), François Faverot de Kerbrech (1837 - 1905), Alexis L’motte (1825 - 1904), Jules Pellier (1800 - 1874), James Fillis (1834 - 1913) as well as the Manual of Instruction for the German Cavalry from 1912 - 1926 included a series of exer- cises to mobilize the jaw and to flex the neck!


In order to understand why this is


so important … a quick biology lesson …!


It has to do with the processing of


information in the horse’s brain. You see, the horse’s Amygdala is the largest of all domesticated animals. This is the place in the brain that horses process any information that provides information about their safety. Dr. Temple Grandin, world renown animal behaviouralist, says that horses have a “high road” to fear and a “low road”. The “low road” being the more direct line to “fast fear”. This means that the stimulus that a horse senses goes more directly to its Amyg- dala. This is because the survival instinct in horses is so strong. Without it … they would die. That’s why horses “run away now and ask questions later!”. So you see the Amygdala plays a vital role in processing how a horse relates to its en- vironment and also the emotions it uses to associate with various stimuli. And since the Amygdala sits low


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in the horse’s brain, it is directly and highly innervated to the lower jaw. Therefore, when we witness the horse “licking and chewing” this is directly caused by activity in the brain. This log- ically should then be something we def- initely NEVER want to interfere with!! It is a function of the horse’s Limbic System, associated with emotions and memory. Licking and chewing is also re- sponsible for relaxation controlled by the Parasympathetic Nervous System. This relaxation response is an amazing “tool” we can access through Mobiliza- tion of the Jaw! So you can imagine that if we had


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a situation with a horse where tension or fear were to creep in, mobilization of the jaw becomes an invaluable “antidote” for the rider! With skilled hands, the rider now can utilize this relaxation re- flex in the horse to her and the horse’s advantage. This truly becomes the supreme “Aid”!


Mise en Main - A system of teaching the horse about use of the hand The first step is to teach the horse


how to respond to the rider’s hand cor- rectly. Relaxation of the jaw is the cor-


nerstone of lightness. This is done most effectively and efficiently from the ground in “work in hand”. For many of you this is a foreign and perhaps daunt- ing exercise, but one well worth learning since it will not only help you, the rider, develop timing and feel, but will sub- stantially speed up the time it takes for your horse to correctly learn how to re- spond to the aids of the hand. This trans- lates directly to work under saddle but is far easier for the horse to learn without the added weight of a rider in the begin- ning.


The education of the horse to the


rider’s hand is literally THE most impor- tant lesson we must teach our horses! The hand is our first contact we make with our horse, through the reins, to the most sensitive area of the horse’s body, its mouth. The horse makes use of thou- sands of neural responses from pressure on and around it’s head but particularly in its mouth. It’s very important to note that when considering the effects of each of our aids (legs, seat, hands), the most damage can be, and inevitably is, caused by the uneducated and abusive use of the hands vs. for instance the seat and legs! And yet, there is perhaps the least avail- able good, knowledgeable coaching with regard to this critical topic! Therefore, a system that teaches


the appropriate response from the horse to the rider’s hand is needed. The School of Légèreté has a solution! This is a pro- gram designed by Philippe Karl to create a systematic approach to the correct training of the horse, regardless of breed, discipline, or conformation. It ad- dresses the needs of all horses and keeps “Respect for the Horse” as its central philosophy. One of the most important con-


cepts in training horses is “Position be- fore Action”.


It is the correct


pre-condition for ultimately ensuring that the horse is placed in the most ben- eficial posture for the action, or move- ment, desired by the rider to create the greatest ease for both. Therefore, it is necessary to have a clear knowledge of helping (aiding) the horse so that the horse is not “made wrong” accidentally. This, for instance, would be important for any change of direction, change of gait or change between various move- ments. For each of these situations the horse is required to respond lightly and immediately i.e.. with ease, to the rider’s request for a change in balance. Balance in the horse is governed


by neck position. Neck position is regu- lated by the hand. Therefore, it is critical in any horse’s education (as it is in any rider’s), to be able to easily regulate the height and position of the neck. Our goal is to teach our horse to lightly and con- fidently follow the feel of our hands in all directions, be it upwards, down- wards, left or right.


The Method: There are 4 distinct steps or an


“order of operations” when teaching each of these positions: #1 The Mouth #2 Lateral Flexions #3 Neck Extension #4 Poll Flexion


Step 1 (a) - Relaxation/Mobilization of the Mouth/Jaw (Cession de Mâchoire) Standing in front of the horse,


hook each thumb in each bit ring, allow- ing the horse to stand in a natural, re- laxed posture. Slowly and progressively, add UPWARD pressure to the corners of the lips by following the direction of the aperture of the horse’s mouth. The horse will naturally open its mouth when it feels pressure on the corners of the lips. Immediately release the pressure by let- ting go of the bit rings. thus rewarding the horse. N.B. This is operant condi-


tioning using Negative Reinforcement, for those of you interested in horse be- haviour. (Negative refers to the removal of the stimulus.) Pressure motivates the horse to respond and the release of pres- sure confirms the correct response. This mobilization of the jaw is


correct when the tongue of the horse is low in the mouth with the horse then putting the tongue against the roof of its mouth, creating a vacuum, and then swallowing. The swallowing action is desirable but may not be immediate while the horse is learning to respond to the upward pressure in its mouth. Many horses are hesitant to “release” in this way and may only “lick and chew”. This is fine also. Repeat the process until the horse is quick to offer mobilization of its tongue and jaw. Remember to go slowly and progressively directly upwards, in the direction of the horse’s ears, NEVER DOWNWARDS AGAINST THE TONGUE AND BARS!! This mobiliza- tion is also referred to as the horse “giv- ing the mouth” or “yielding the jaw”.


Step 1 (b) - Raising the Neck/Rebal- ancing Effect Many horses will naturally re-


spond by following the upwards action of the hand by raising their necks and shifting their centers of gravities back- wards. This is noticed when the horse “squares up” or in fact rebalances them- selves so that their weight is more evenly distributed over each front leg. When the horse initiates this “rebalanc- ing” it is critical for the rider to release AS SOON AS THE HORSE INITI- ATES THE CORRECT RESPONSE! This is referred to as “shaping”. We want to “shape” a horse’s response to the slightest aid and therefore need to make it obvious and immediate when the horse offers the correct response. Please note that this rebalancing of the horse’s shoulders simply allows the horse to be in a position where it is not so unbal- anced to the forehand as to use its neck weight against the rider’s hand. This can be considered the basic position in the halt referred to as “high and light”. Note that “high” is only what the horse can naturally hold in relaxation, it must not be forced! For some breeds with lower set necks this may not seem very high at all, but as I said, if the horse is in balance evenly over both shoulders and relaxed those are the criteria for “high and light”.


If your horse does not “follow the


feel” of your hand, use a quick vibration upward with increasing intensity until the horse attempts to lift its head and neck. This may be necessary with horses who naturally have low set necks or are less sensitive in their mouths. Stop im- mediately when you feel the horse make the attempt! This quick vibrating up- wards action of both sides of the bit to- gether, never see-sawing, without the slightest backwards action, is referred to in the French system as a “demi-arrêt”. Followed immediately by “descent de main”, which is the yielding of the ac- tion of the hand ie. opening of the fin- gers and lowering of the hand. It is important to note that use of the demi- arrêt under saddle should not alter the speed of the horse, unless combined with the use of the rider’s shoulders. The legs are only used in combination with the demi-arrêt to collect the horse, as in collected halt, piaffe, canter on the haunches. (More about that in future ar- ticles). In the following article, I will de-


scribe Lateral Flexion of the Neck and its importance to correct biomechanics. Stay tuned for more! See you next month!


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