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“Kissing the stirups.”

Kissing the stirups is an easy and simple exercise to do, and at the same time very big exercise in the process of training the horse.The horse bends its neck to the side eventually so much that it could easyly kiss the stirups.The exercise loosens up stiffness in mouth, poll and neck, loosens up the horses sides, and is an exellent way to increase leadership and trust between horse and rider.

When the horse bends its neck, it loses the ability to put weight in the riders hand, and loses the ability to raise the neck and head up, they start to put head and neck down and forward wich is the ultimate workingshape, where the horse can lift its back up and carry the rider with the backmuscles.

Best way to teach the horse to kiss the stirups is to begin from the ground, the trainer stands beside the horse, with the rein up as if he was riding. Then the trainer starts to bend the horse a little bit away from himself, when the horse starts to bend a littlebit the trainer releases the rein to let the horse know that it answered in right direction. Littlebit at a time the trainer gets the horse to bend a bit more and more.

It is best to bend the horse away from the trainer to begin with because the trainer stands with the horses outside and the horse will not start to move around as easy.Very important is that the trainer always releases the rein when the horse does right.

When the horse accepts to do the exercise from the ground, it´s time to do the same sitting in the saddle.

The rider starts with bending the neck a littlebit with small, light reinpressure, and release when the horse bends just littlebit, to encourage the horse to do more itself.IF the horse starts to move around in small circles when you bend, it is OK, don´t stop bending, continue instead and bend more, the horse can move around a bit but it is difficult, not comfortable (see above). The horse will soon realise that it is much more comfortable to stop with the neck bent. And then it´s superimportant to release the rein to let the horse know that it was right to stop with bending.

The horse is supposed to stand still, relaxed with the neck bent on a loose rein and wait untill the rider takes contact with outsiderein to straighten up.This exercise is good to do in the beginning of the ridingsession or as needed.The horse hould in the end, stand still while the rider bends the neck left and right without stopping, and the horse does it without any resitstance in the neck. To check if the rider has done right, it´s good to drop the inside rein and the horse stands still with equally much bending on a completly loose rein.

Be careful to drop the outsiderein when you do the exercise to give the horse space to bend.The rider sits straight over the middle of the horse, don´t lean in or out when you bend the horse.