Put Your Horse On The Bit

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Putting your dressage horse on the bit is really as simple as patting your head and rubbing your stomach.

As long as you know the ingredients that make up the aid that puts your horse on the bit, you can connect him. And the great news is that aid is as simple, clear, and uncomplicated as closing your legs and asking your horse to go from halt to walk.

For the sake of clarity, I’m going to call the aid that you’ll use to put your horse on the bit the “connecting aids”.

The “connecting aids” are a combination of three ingredients that are maintained for about three seconds—the length of time it takes you to inhale and exhale:

Those three ingredients are the:
•    driving aids
•    bending aids
•    rein of opposition

The driving aids consist of your seat and your two legs because any of those aids will drive the horse forward.

The bending aids consist of your inside rein which asks the horse to look in the direction that he is going, your inside leg on the girth, and your outside leg behind the girth. Each of those aids contributes to bend.

The rein of opposition is the outside rein. It’s called the rein of opposition because it opposes too much speed from the driving aids and too much bend from the bending aids.

When you marry those three ingredients–driving aids, bending aids and rein of opposition for about three seconds, you give the cue to put your horse on the bit—the connecting aids.

Yes, it’s important to time your aids. That’s because your horse can ONLY respond to an aid when a hind leg is on the ground—and specifically just before it pushes off. But by giving the connecting aids for about three seconds, you’ll be overlapping the time when each hind leg is on the ground.

So putting your dressage horse on the bit really is as simple as patting your head and rubbing your stomach. That’s because basically, all you’re doing is closing both calves to drive your horse forward as if you’re going into a lengthening. Then you do something different with each one of your hands.  (That’s where the patting the head and rubbing your stomach comes in.)   Your outside hand closes in a fist while your vibrating inside hand keeps the neck straight and asks for flexion at the jaw.

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If you only use your hands when putting your horse on the bit, you’re making one of the biggest mistakes you can make. By focusing on the head and “getting the head down”, you’ll just be creating an artificial “head-set”.

Putting your horse on the bit has nothing to do with “head sets”. Physically, it’s a round silhouette that occurs when you ride your horse from behind, over his back, through his neck, and into your hands. (And at that point the energy can be recycled back to the hind legs) Mentally, a horse that is on the bit is “on the aids” and anything is possible within the next step.

When you’re working on putting your horse on the bit, remember to always FIRST use your driving aids before you use your reins. You want to create a surge from behind as if you’re starting a lengthening.

Then just as you feel your horse begin to lengthen, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that power back to the hind legs. (You’ll only need to use your inside hand if your horse bends his neck to the outside during the combination of the driving aids and rein of opposition (outside rein).

Always remember that using your hands BEFORE your driving aids (or instead of your driving aids—YIKES!) is the same as picking up the telephone before it rings. Why would you pick up the phone? No one is there!

By the same token why would you use your hands to put your horse on the bit before you’ve first driven him forward? You haven’t created any power to capture and recycle back to the hind legs!

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Many riders mistakenly think they’re riding their horses on the bit when they flex them at the jaw. When a horse flexes “in”, he flexes at the jaw and closes the angle at his throatlatch. If this is all you’re doing, you’re riding your horse from front to back.

Don’t get me wrong. We do often flex the horse’s jaw. In fact, his jaw must be flexed for him to be completely on the bit. BUT, the danger lies in flexing the jaw BEFORE you connect him over his back. If you flex his jaw first, he’s not really connected. His face is just “in”. The danger here is that you can fake yourself out.

A horse flexes “in” when a rider moves the bit in his mouth. When you do this be sure you only use ONE rein to move the bit. If you alternately saw on his mouth with your left and right hands, he’ll just bring his face closer to his chest.

You might think he’s correctly on the bit because he feels soft in your hand when his jaw is flexed. But if you go to do something like a transition, you’ll find out that he’s really not on the bit at all.

He wasn’t honestly on the bit to begin with during the transition, he’ll raise his head and neck and look hollow. That’s because all you have control over is a flexed jaw. You need to ride your horse from back to front. Close your legs and send your horse forward through your outside hand to get his back round. And ONLY after you’ve sent him forward through your outside hand should you flex his jaw as the final ingredient of putting him on the bit.

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