We understand the concept now of Natural Flexion, so how then should we goabout setting it up? It’s important at this juncture to understand the sequence of eventsbehind any horse’s action.

If we want our horse to do something softly for us, we first must cause him to think softly.If his mind is soft (mental fitness) then his emotions will be soft (emotional fitness /impulsion). If he his mentally and emotionally soft, chances are his body will also be soft.If his body is not soft, you can guarantee his mind and emotions are not also. Hishindquarter is a good gauge of where he is at mentally and emotionally. Why does a horselock his hindquarter? To prepare for flight or fight. Why does he prepare for flight orfight? Because he feels vulnerable, threatened or endangered in some way. If you cannotdisengage his hindquarter easily even in movement, he is braced and you will have no softfeel. So you’ll need to loosen up his hindquarter to get him thinking and relaxed again.Your approach and offer are crucial.

If you look at the principles of Natural Flexion, you will see that hindquarter softness,excellent sideways from an offer, your back up and lateral flexion are all key factors inobtaining soft feel and later on vertical flexion. For your horse to travel softly sideways,or bend softly laterally, he needs to pick himself up and balance his weight evenly so thathis feet are underneath him to enable him to do so. If your lateral flexion is heavy, youmay find that your horse is standing with his weight over his forehand. Tip his weight backa bit and then see what happens.

The better your lateral flexion is– the better your vertical flexion will be.

In order for your horse to flex vertically and offer soft feel - which takes a reasonableamount of suppleness - your horse’s body needs to be soft. For his body to be soft, his mindand emotions must first be soft. The test for this would be to check out your lateralflexion.

Throughout the Quantum Savvy programme to this point, we have set up some simple andconsistent patterns for you to encourage you to work on your lateral movements andhindquarter yields. Exercises like; transitions on the rail in your follow the railprogramme, spiralling in on-line and ridden, sideways around the cone, simple lead-changes,changing flex to flex on the circle, have all been working toward better lateral movementsand softer hindquarters.

If your horse gets heavy and pushes on the bit when you ask for soft feel, trytaking your hands wide in a butterfly position with your little fingers facing out, asexplained in Lesson Nine. As soon as he softens bring your arms back to your sides again.This technique should be used as a reminder for your horse only. If he repeatedly pushes onthe bit, go back to some lateral work to soften his hindquarter and sideways. This willbring the softness back again. If it doesn’t, you have probably held him in soft feel fortoo long and asked too much. Go back to some freestyle ‘no contact’ riding for a while.

Understanding that lateral flexion leads to greater vertical flexion will mean that one dayyou will be able to perform all of your contact riding without the need for reins. When youare riding and you come to attention, your horse will come to attention. He will understandwhat is required of him to perform the manoeuvres you ask and he will offer the softness andflexion to you.

“If your horse is heavy on your hand, he is not yielding from your leg.”

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