Uncover The Mystery Of “On The Bit”

When ridden, horses can truly forget their instinctive behavior to fight or flee. One element that makes this possible is teaching the horse to accept the aids so he can be ridden on the bit.

- Dolly Hannon with Annie Morris

The Aids and Contact 

The rider must be in a balanced, secure and vertical position with independent aids before she can ask the horse to be on the bit. The seat and leg should be the rider’s dominant aids. The rider has the most weight and strength in these aids and the horse hears them best. However, the hands are the invitational aids. You should feel that you allow your hands to play more of an orchestrating role than a dominating role. In other words, the horse first responds to the leg and is energetic and moving through the back so he wants to stretch to the contact, then the rein can invite him to the contact correctly.

The contact is as unique to every horse and rider as a handshake. I have noticed a huge variation in the way people shake hands in terms of the strength of grip and the feel. The rider must offer the horse a friendly, inviting contact so the horse wants to go to it and stay there. For correct contact, the rider must offer the reins and give the horse a nice feeling to look for. Sometimes the reins are too tight or too stiff, sometimes they are too loose or unsteady. The rider must make the rein come alive with energy from her body toward the horse’s mouth. Otherwise, the contact can be a limiting factor in whether the horse can be on the bit.