Did you know Bridle & Ride is a trained and schooled Sensor analyst?
Did you know we can analyse and measure your contact/connection and help you find differences left-to-right, peak pressure moments in gaits or exercises and/or restrictions in your riding?
I hear you thinking :
Why is Rein Contact So Important?
And why analyse it?
Well ... Horse and rider connection is crucial and the contact influences the horse’s way of going in many ways:
Synchronicity Assesses the following things :
Rhythm
The pattern of the horse’s stride is reflected in the patterns of rein tension.
If a regular rhythm is established, contact patterns will be consistent. The system is also able to consider whether the tempo lies within a reasonable range for the gait. Where the horse hurries, drops behind the leg or loses balance, the rhythm score will drop.
Loss of rider position, a fixed, restrictive hand or excessive adjustments will also disrupt the rhythm in the reins.
Consistency
Our goal is an attentive horse which responds to subtle aids and can sustain a consistent way of going in self-carriage without over reliance on the rider. Where this is achieved, and the rider moves as one with the horse, variations in the contact weight will lie within a narrow range, giving a good consistency score. Where communication requires stronger intervention, this score will drop.
Contact
There is a range of acceptable levels of rein contact. However, it is possible to have too strong a contact on the horse’s mouth, or at the other end of the scale an absence of any meaningful connection. Excessive use of the hand to force an outline or exercise is an unsustainable method of training, and will lower your score for contact strength. In extreme cases, very high rein tension will result in a zero score. A horse which leans on the hand or sets against the rein will also lower the contact score.
At the other end of the scale, it is also problematic for there to be a complete lack of rein contact, whether this is a result of the horse going behind the bit and refusing to take the contact forward or the rider not providing the horse with a clear line of communication.
Balance
When aiming for suppleness and straightness in our horses, we are seeking to minimise one-sidedness and reach a situation where both horse and rider are symmetrical and able to maintain a balanced, correct picture through a variety of exercises in both directions. One measure of this is the left-right balance in our rein contact. If we ride a symmetrical pattern, such as a complete figure of eight, in an ideal world we would have the same average contact weight in our left and right reins.
The balance in our contact is a separate score with Synchronicity: if you are riding an asymmetric pattern, you would not expect your contact to be identical in each hand (though if you ride two patterns which are a mirror image of each other, your contact should also be a mirror image!) but this figure is a useful check. Are you always heavier in one hand regardless of the exercise? Very few of us are naturally ambidextrous! We cannot expect our horses to be straight if we are not straight ourselves.
For all those wondering. NO, we won't teach you how to ride, we aren't your trainer ! We CAN help you with or without your trainer by our side to analyse your contact and communicate with you and/or your trainer where the hurddles are to work on. As we all do things we do not know we do... and the horse being master in compensation... Can hide a lot, that needs to be dealt with !
Not only is this for Olympic riders people ! But for all riders at ALL levels.
Because at every level you are riding, there are always tips to be given.
And the earlier you are aware of what you need to work on, the sooner you can solve it !
Don't think you don't have differences ... we all do... But how big is the difference? En how consistent are you?!
Mind-blowing for some... Dare to take the leap and get analysing !
You can be surprised
More info online very soon ! In September we will be introducing our packages !
Did you know Bridle & Ride is a trained and schooled Sensor analyst? 
Rhythm