Now more than ever, during contact riding, all of the preparation you havedone through Levels 1 and 2 come into play. You are sitting back, nice and deep in yoursaddle with as much contact with your horse as possible. Refinement of communication isabout speaking clearly and quietly to your horse. Your focus is excellent and impulsion isin place.

At this point it’s important to be aware of how you sit. We discussed the six points on yourbutt back in Level 2. If you have been putting these into practise and perfecting your pinchtest, by now you should be able to easily guide your horse in all directions with just yourseat and focus. Remember, the bigger your body language, the more exaggerated you are, the‘louder’ you are speaking to your horse.

At this level your lower leg gains importance. Throughout the programme we have used it onlyfor yielding and turning, to keep our horse’s sides sensitised to pressure. Constant kickingor spurring, or gripping with your legs will have desensitised your horse’s sides so anykind of refinement or advancement from this point would be difficult.

Remember, in contact riding with more advanced manoeuvres, you will need to be aware of whatyour whole body is doing. From your waist down you are communicating with and steering yourhorse’s hindquarter. From your waist up including your arms and hands, you are talking toand guiding your horse’s forequarter.

In Levels 1 and 2, we focused with our whole body. Where we looked our horse went. Now inLevel 3, each part of your body is responsible for a part of your horse’s body. When ridinga circle for example, it’s not just enough to look where you want to go and point him therewith your reins. To truly ride a circle, your whole body needs to be on the circle. In thefollowing pages, you will be asked to ride a circle yielding your horse’s hindquarter in andout of the circle while the front end continues to travel forward around the circle. So, thetop half of your body will be doing something different from the bottom half of your body.One leg will help guide and steer your horse on the circle while the other leg yields thehind in and out.

There are a couple of great ways to check if you are sitting as deep as youcan in your saddle with as much of your butt and legs in contact with your horse aspossible. Firstly, take your feet out of your stirrups and stretch your heels down as low asyou can, just as if someone had a hold of them and was pulling them down. Feel thedifference? If you are still not sure if you could be sitting back more with longer legs,try touching your ears with your knees. Then relax your legs back down again ... but don’tshift your butt position!

Now that you are truly sitting back, your legs are long with lots of contact, just take adeep breath and sit up from the waist up. Keep your back relaxed and your arms soft and yourall set to ride in style.

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