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The chestnut gelding I was riding was perfectly balanced. He felt poised in my hand, like a bird of prey perched and ready for takeoff. It doesn’t happen overnight, the horse following every moment of your hand, left, right and back, but it is certainly the mother-load of blueberry flapjacks when it does. What tickled my innards the most was the ease with which he allowed me to guide him through some fairly intricate maneuvers at higher rates of speed, and doing so one-handed. “Good boy, Legacy,” I rewarded him with a rest and a pat. I pushed his twirled, blond dreds off my hand and laid them over his neck. “I’m as happy as a coon in a cornfield with the dogs tied up!” I spouted out loud.
The roots of riding throughout our history have always had, at its heart, one-handed riding.
Cavalry training taught the outside rein bringing the turn with methods adopted in training manuals by centuries of European riding masters.
“Cavalry soldiers are ordered to turn their horses on the ‘ inward rein,’ that is, with the right rein to the right, with the left rein to the left; but they turn them on the outward rein chiefly; this is too well known to require comment,“ The Training of Cavalry Remount Horses, 1852.
One hand holding the reins means the other hand can be busy doing other things: swattin’ those blasted bugs, handling a sword, a firearm, a lariat, or simply moving and clearing brush away from the line of travel (Anybody do trail maintenance while riding?). At any rate, one handed riding is something I do, and teach all my horses because it is a traditional piece of riding among western horsemen, as well as being a timeless piece among horsemen through the ages. It also motivates me to consider how finished the horse is that I am working with, and that’s just knee-slappin' fun. As I teach across the country, I admire it whenever I see it.
Riding one handed is less demanding on a trail, but can be very demanding with any kind of arena work where practical details matter. I am talking about the “B” word. “B” is for balance. The choice is completely yours whether to ride with one or two hands, but there are aspects that are important to evaluate in order to be successful. “There are two sides to every horse and two sides to every horse’s mouth; these two distinct sides are not, as a rule, evenly developed by nature” (Henry Wynmalen). It takes a great deal of work to even out these discrepancies, and the hands play a significant role, on both sides of the horse’s mouth, in all sorts of combinations. Movements by the hands are comprised of bending the head left and right into turns, lowering the hand forward down in giving or to relax, and raising the hand backwards up to lift the shoulders into collection, a halt, or a rein back. If that all makes yer eyes glaze over, it shouldn’t. But let me bring this cattle drive home.
As our hands make contact with the horse’s mouth, the contact should be about giving and receiving messages between the horse and rider; information to and from the hand, to and from the horse; it should never be about weight (“I can’t stop this blasted beast…”). I want my horse searching for my hands when I open them, and giving, or lightening, when I close my hands. Stop stompin’ on your dance partner’s feet!
…And, bits won’t do the job for you; it is the hands behind them, and they must be working toward becoming soft, light and steady. What, you haven’t got there yet? Well, saddle up and ride on, ‘cause there’s more. Your hands must rest in motion, not moving when they are not meant to move, but rather riding in time together with the horses’ mouth. A good hand must also establish a few things in the horse—with two hands—before one hand can do its job properly.
Hard sayin’ not knowin’, but the truth, as I cook it, is that many western riders don’t ask for bending to better balance their horses. To be able to bend the horse from the inside aids—the seat and legs—is important so that your horse is not going around stiff on one side like the boards you got nailed to yer arena. First, seat and inner leg are asking for bending and then the horse gets soft on the inside rein. This is a basic to bring a horse into a balance while bending towards the direction of travel; finally, turning the horse with the outside rein on the neck and bringing the outside leg over the inside.
If your looking for the last woodchuck hiding, here it is. It is significant to mention that quality and serious riding is never about leading the horse left or right from the mouth, but rather to move the shoulders between the reins. Western riders who neck rein understand this principle. To carry the idea further into the subject of balance, the inside rein should move the inside shoulder out, and the outside rein should move the outside shoulder in. That is a true statement whether you are riding one handed or two. Many riders today can be seen leading their horses in the mouth instead of leading the shoulders.
What is important to recognize is that the hands and fingers, like playing a violin, guitar, or piano, must all be used. As the horse comes into an understanding of what its job is, the hand merely plays “back up” to the work of the primary aid, the seat. To have boot-stompin’ fun is to bring the horse into that harmonious performance. That is the work of an artist. So one-handed or two, you, as the artist, must decide.
Oh my huckleberries, you’re lookin’ good! But just remember the hands must correct the horse if he doesn’t respond to the seat. A good hand (one or two) is only as good as your seat. Is your horse listening to your seat? “Hey, Whadyasay!?”
Rein Photography