Are softness/lightness the same thing?

[pearlieking1977]

I've been musing- and I know that you lot are experienced. I heard an instructor the other day, say that softness/lightness ARE the same thing? But, I don't think they are? I think they might run parallel in training your horses, but I couldn't get my point across?

Perhaps you lovely guys can help describe the terminology better?

[kas]

I'm pondering this a bit. I'm thinking that you can get lightness because your horse might decide to give it to you regardless of what you are up to. But softness is about a feeling through your bodies, it's also mental, it's knowing that the horse is there and ready to respond without putting pressure on your hands. It's a mutual responsibility though... A lot of people confuse softness with loose reins and sloppy riding. Softness isn't about having your reins long enough so that you can't feel your horse's mouth, it's about that feeling of when you are being fair with your hands and body your horse understands that they will be soft within that frame, not pushing or weighting their front end etc etc etc...

[pearlieking1977]

YES! you're right. Too many times I see people trying to achieve softness by using 'forceful' contact and then the horse 'yaws' at the bit trying to figure out how to take the pressure off, I think this is exactly what I was getting at with the softness aspect. I think fairness, is a big thing when it comes to hands and mouths - hmmmm..... definite food for thought....

[kas]

Relaxation, there can never be true softness without it. That goes for horse and rider maybe?

[nicxf]

This is definitely an interesting topic.

I guess I'd say you look for softness to achieve lightness??

[kas]

Yes... nobody can be soft unless they are relaxed... then softness is the real deal, not just someone with washing line reins... then you think about lightness, true self carriage... which will look different in every horse...

[pearlieking1977]

Yes, I have a lovely lovely friend who has two very lovely Friesian horses. Both different personalities, and she is very softly spoken and good with them on the ground, but when riding them she just cannot relax, she would never ever shout or be mean, she does not have it in her. However, she is finding it very hard to translate the softness she gets at liberty to her ridden work. Nerves then kick in and she loses her ability to relax. You're right, it's much more then washing line reins. It's calmness and gentle direction. But for me, relaxation is definitely the lynch pin to effectively finding 'soft' with a horse?

The thing is, when you work with a horse whose tolerance has been eroded over years of being worked with rigidity and complete discipline, it can be harder to achieve that but you have to remain logical and relaxed to get to where you need to be - but some people are emotive first and logical second.

On the back of this, how does emotion positively/negatively influence our daily interactions with our horses? Is it the same for all of us at different points, whereby we aren't sure of the training path we should take with our horses because we lose a bit of objectivity?

[snigsby]

Interesting,pearliek!

I was horrified at my first Tom Widdecombe clinic (where I rode the lovely Celeb, courtesy of Kas) to see in the pictures how rigid my forearms were! I don't think I had a firm hold of his mouth,I think I was fairly light in that respect but OMG my forearms were like blocks of wood!

There is a happy medium somewhere between being a floppy sack of spuds and a rigid,pole-up-you-bum posture. I think you need that before you can have a hope of softness or lightness flowing between you and your horse.

[nicxf]

I've noticed, frequenting various livery yards where friends keep their horses, that an awful lot of people (certainly around here in hunting country, yuk), over-horse themselves with massive animals that they actually appear to be quite scared of. Rather hard to relax if deep-down you're afraid of your horse.

I've had a few comments about what a lovely calm presence I have. I've pointed out that, sat on a mobility scooter even a 14hh pony looks big, so behaving like a strung-out lunatic would be a sure-fire way of getting myself squashed and make the horses really scared of the scooter. Projecting (and being!) calm has meant that,in most cases, the horses are far less worried about it than their owners. Hit-and miss on translating this to my ridden work - it tends to depend on how much pain I'm in. But you're all right - when I'm relaxed my riding is far better.