How To Get Your Horse To Stretch Down

Lunging and cavalleti aren't the answer. Your hands are.

Here is the key to understanding how to get a horse to stretch forward and down: Your hands have to be a comfortable, feeling place for his mouth. No amount of exercise will coax a horse to reach into hands that are dead, ungiving, unsteady, twitchy, or fixed. 

The best way to get your horse to stretch forward and down is to improve your hands--your contact. When that happens, every time you push your hands forward toward his nose, he will stretch his neck and reach down and forward to re-establish contact with your hands.

​
​The secret: To teach a horse to stretch down, improve the elasticity of your rein contact. Nothing more, nothing less.

Developing an elastic rein contact takes time. If you play a musical instrument, make pottery, garden with bare hands, or bake pastry, you have an advantage: People who engage in these kinds of activities already have developed "feeling hands". Even if their seats are not very stable and their riding isn't great, horses will nonetheless willingly accept contact with their hands because it feels good.

---

Now here's the secret: When you push your hands forward from an elastic rein contact, your horse will want to re-establsh contact. He will stretch his neck forward to find your hands again. This is sometimes referred to as "seeking the bit". The horse wants to be in contact with you hands.

If you release into a long contact, he will chew out the reins as shown in this video.​

If you push them only slightly forward, he will reach forward to re-establish contact with your hands, which will cause him to lengthen his frame, including his gait. Volta! You've got extended walk, trot, and canter, as you see in this video
 

Walter Zettle describes this beautifully in his book and videos. For more information about how to develop an elastic rein contact, click here.

Happy riding!

​Copyright Denise Cummins 2016; updated April 24, 2020

​Opening Photo Credit: Wikipedia 

---