CONTACT (BALM) -- The System Between the Rider and the Horse

This article is the written form of a spoken lecture.

107 - Lecture 1 (Prep)

108 - Lecture 18 

Jane Frizzell 2023

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"We still need to examine HAND, which requires examining SLETB (Straight-Line Elbow-to-Bit).

This brings us to the final — not first — connection of CONTACT.

YOU ARE CONTACT

Consider this idea:

You are contact. Your horse is contact.

We—our POSITION, our SEAT—are contact.

We are contact. Riding is contact. That is what riding is.

Another principle to keep in mind:

There is no such thing as a good HAND without a good SEAT. 

"The skill of the hands can justifiably be considered a measure of the rider's total skill. It is completely erroneous to believe that good hands could be an isolated favorable characteristic of some riders. Rather, they are the result of a perfect seat and fine feeling."  Steinbrecht, GYMNASIUM p 20.

But before we examine HAND, STRAIGHT-LINE ELBOW-TO-BIT, and CONTACT (108–19), we need to review several prerequisites, because this final contact can only be established when the rest of us—the rest of our SEAT—is:

• In place (LOCATION — base of support; ear, shoulder, hip, heel)

• Loose

• Educated, which means informed in the language of the Four Natural Aids

The Three Requirements of a Functional Seat

So we’re right back at the 108 blackboard.

This is the briefest, most accurate checklist for how a SEAT—an actual, functional seat—is:

1. Explained

2. Made

3. Maintained

Not theorized. Not styled. Not branded. Made and maintained.

And it requires all three lenses on the blackboard, every time.

The Three Lenses

1. Plumb ESHH: Ear, Shoulder, Hip, Heel

2. Looseness

3. Literacy in the Four Natural Aids

   
   

Not one out of three.

Not two out of three.

Three out of three—or failure.

Anything less produces gigantic mistakes, counterfeiting, counterfeit seats, counterfeit riding, counterfeit training.

And yes—most of the horseworld is a mosh-pit shopping mall of misunderstandings: life-coaching, trends, fads, and popular speciousness that is catastrophic for horses.

Why All Three Are Required

It is entirely possible to be:

• Plumb

• Loose

• Illiterate

  
  

Those riders exist everywhere.

We also see plenty of 'riders' who look “plumb” but who are on their fork—who are compressing nightmares—not loose, not literate, not functional.

From my point of view in 2026, the most absent elements in the horseworld are:

• Looseness

• Literacy in the Four Natural Aids

  
  

But :

If any one of the three is missing, the system fails.

The Non-Negotiable Conclusion

We must use all three lenses to explain the seat.

We must use all three to make it.

We must use all three to maintain it.

And finally—

We must be connected. We must be in contact.

Because riding is contact.

***

THE FORWARD RIDING SYSTEM AND ITS LANGUAGE

Pass / fail.

The SEAT must meet all three criteria to pass.

Keep this always in mind: We make horses by gymnasticizing them correctly, by riding in a specific way.

As we said at the START:

“The rider/trainer has achieved his aim and fully trained his horse when both forces of the hindquarters — the carrying power and the propulsive force — bound by elasticity, are fully developed and when he can use the effects of these forces at will and in precise ratios.”  Steinbrecht, GYMNASIUM p. 52

but, he also said it another way —

“The horse must therefore be enabled, through practice, to restrain his thrust to the utmost by increasing the load...” Steinbrecht, GYMNASIUM p. 71

This must be clear in our mind before we ride, because riding is faster than speech.

There's no time to explain anything in the going.

It can only be ridden that fast, not 'said'.

What is the speed of thought? The rider has the thought; the horse executes the thought. Is that faster than instant?

That is Durchlässigkeit — and according to Podhajsky, that is what “classical riding” is.

Riding Is a Language

The well-trained horse follows our decisions, but he governs his own momentum by carrying.

This happens instantaneously — but first it must be explained and practiced, much like sounding out words when children learn to read.

That comparison is not accidental.

Riding is a language.

We teach language — and ideas — to the horse. A language of sensations: the equestrian language.

Here is its summary.

The Complete Forward Riding System

All riding reduces to four events:

1. Go

2. Turn

3. Stop

4. Carry on

   
   

These events occur on two possible lines of travel:

• Straight lines

  
  

• Curved lines

These two lines of travel are the horse’s mission.

The 2 Golden Rules

When we say a horse is straight, we mean:

• The feet track correctly: RH/RF and LH/LF

  
  

• The spine is aligned over the line of travel

When we say a horse is forward, we mean:

• The horse has decided to advance the load. He has his own desire to do this.

  
  

• He has decided to carry the load — himself plus the rider — along that line

  
  

These two conditions — straight and forward — are the two golden rules of riding.

If they are not present, we have already failed.

How the Horse Is Arranged

To place the horse straight upon these lines of travel, the forehand must be displaceable.

Therefore, to ride correctly, the rider must fully understand:

1. The operations of the hindquarters

   
   

2. The operations of the forehand — the displaceable forehand

   
   

These two are united through the back.

A horse that is through and traveling straight — on straight and curved lines — has three gaits:

• Walk

• Trot

• Canter / gallop

  
  

If the horse is not in one of these, he is at halt.

Halt = immobility + readiness to move.

One-Sided Positioning Relative to the Line of Travel

Once this is clear, the horse can be positioned two additional ways relative to the line of travel:

1. Forehand to the inside of the line of travel.

   
   

2. Hindquarters to the inside of the line of travel.

   
   

These are:

• Shoulder-in

• Travers (haunches-in)

  
  

That’s it. That's the basics we must know.

How We Communicate All of This

We do all of this through the Four Natural Aids — the means by which we communicate our thoughts to the horse so he can execute them.

The language of the Four Natural Aids is for informing, guiding, adjusting, and even shaping our horses.

The Four Natural Aids aren't vague.

'They're not optional.

They aren't “feel-based guesses.”

'Feel isn't guesswork'.

They are uniform, and precise, because they need to go through -- they need to be received -- and fast.

The Four Natural Aids are:

1. Voice

2. Weight of the Seat

3. Leg

4. Hand

   
   

These aids are delivered only by a rider whose position is:

A. Plumb

B. Laterally symmetrical

C. Loose

Why the SEAT Is Pass / Fail

'Now we see the system between the rider and the horse...and his way-of-going.'

That is all we need to achieve.

It can be easy — when we make it simple.

This is why we use the three criteria from the blackboard to check ourselves. To check our seat.

There is no “winging it.” Riding is not personal.

We conform to what riding is.

You are your riding. Your seat is your riding. You are contact — and so is the horse.

What the seat is determines what it is for.

“The correct seat is the basic prerequisite for the delivery of all aids.”— Major Anders Lindgren

BALM

The rider’s SEAT — the body — is actually the delivery system for all information to the horse. And when the rider’s SEAT — the body — is not communicating information to the horse, it does nothing, And it does nothing softly.

A rider’s SEAT does not interfere. It even enhances the horse’s ability by being ballast and by being a BALM.

"A balm that solves tension and a balm that liberates the stuck. "

You must be both, and this means you must be loose.

Looseness — Losgelassenheit — gives us

• rapidity,

• options,

• mass,

• resilience,

• and conductivity, i.e. contact.

Contact is riding. Man and horse are permeable to each other.

You are contact. 

Are you?

All of the tissues — horse and rider — must be made permeable to motion, momentum, and impulse (including information), and they must be permeable to each other. (See: Durchlässigkeit.)

To be the balm for every horse you sit on, your body must be arranged in the correct location relative to the horse’s anatomy and relative to the point of gravity of the planet. This means the parts of your body must be — and remain — in specific locations.

Steinbrecht himself asked each of you who truly wants to earn the title of rider “to let each of his limbs find its resting point, and thus steadiness, by letting it hang under its own weight, and to put no force or stiffness in his overall posture.”

Each part of each body — man and horse — finds where it belongs when it is loose and when it is going straight forward. 

Looseness allows every part to hang where it should, under its own weight, without force or stiffness, and when both bodies are loose and going straight forward, they remain together.

The looseness of each allows them to remain together, and the agreement as to the lines upon which the horse carries them as one arranges them.

The man makes the decisions and the horse carries out the decisions — think and do.

The rider has the thought and the horse executes the thought.

To do this the horse must be able to govern his own thrust. He does this by carrying. Carrying governs thrust, but it does not suppress it or cancel it out.

"Carrying and thrust are not opposing forces that cancel each other out — they are both nurtured and cherished."

They — we — you and your horse — are "going somewhere".

Will you think about this 'going somewhere" in regard to SLETB and your hand?

Nothing that follows works unless this is understood.

Straight-Line Elbow-to-Bit (SLETB)

SLETB: The Autological Axiom Only You Few Ride

“Straight-Line Elbow-to-Bit isn’t a mere rule — it’s a physical requirement. It’s a mechanical inevitability.”

SLETB Is an Autological Axiom

Autological → the term describes itself; the name is the structure.

Axiom → it requires no definition because it is self-evident and mechanically inevitable.

Why the Straight-Line Elbow-to-Bit Is Non-Negotiable

SLETB is a thing — a mandatory thing — not because of rules, but because the formation of the fist, the skeletal formation of the rider’s HAND, the hollow fist, is impossible unless the HAND is located on the SLETB.

So it’s a rule because it won’t work otherwise.

The HAND is like a regulating valve in the propulsion mechanism — the going. The SLETB places the bit that the horse knows to follow.

It places it by determining the length of the rein, which decides:

• the height of the bit from the ground, and

  
  

• the distance the bit is from the withers.

  
  

Dock Through Poll → Spine: The Animating System

The HAND also reminds the horse to keep the lower jaw loose, which is the only way the atlanto-axis joint can be free or supple.

We do not supple the poll. We loosen the horse. The bit sits in the jaw.

"The bit acts upon the JAW, not the HEAD." Captain Beaudant, ARMY, FRANCE p.42

And if you’ve done your homework, you already know the horse’s first lesson about the bit is:

Oh — I loosen my lower jaw and drool.

The second lesson is:

Oh! — I follow my bit.

When I say we loosen the horse, I mean all of it — and us — but the bit in particular reminds him, from lesson #1 -- before he was even BACKED:

Oh! this is yummy. I loosely love it in my mouth. It keeps me connected to my friend. It’s our forward-going phone-home line.

SCHWUNG

All conductivity of motion, momentum, impulse — including INFORMATION — exists in the loose, in the schwung.

So now we are touching THROUGH — THROUGHNESS.

The bit is the lower jaw’s friend, and the fruit of that is a loose, free atlanto-axis joint — a.k.a. the poll.

We do not supple the poll. We supple the HORSE. Remember Captain Beaudant's ALL CAPS !

Onward.

Now the body:

"You must knead him like dough." MAJOR ANDERS LINDGREN

The Spine: Stern to Stem

Before we make the front end of the spine free by looseness seeking to advance, we must start from BEHIND.

The back end of the spine is anchored by engagement — coxo-femoral articulation caused by weight-bearing.

That anchoring allows the spine to extend forward, out the open end: the face and mouth.

Now the two ends of the spine become 'ours',

• the butt end and

  
  

• the front end,

  
  

by loose freedom.

The SPINE is the STEM, housing the nervous system as an extension of the brain. The nervous system is the organ of sensation and animation.

So this is now ours: stern to stem, back to front, arranged loose and unimpinged, clean along the line of travel that we both agree to — by our eyes and by our MINDS.

The Hand Governs the Entire Forehand

The HAND governs, guides, informs, adjusts, supervises — and even protects — this front end of the design.

The HAND can only exist properly when:

• all the bones and muscles are unclenched and loose, and

  
  

• the living tissue where the nerves reside operates like the pads of Louis Braille’s fingertips, reading the going and the loose freedom of the animated skeleton and muscles.

  
  

A RIDER’s HAND can only exist in the SLETB.

There is no way around this.

The SLETB is a tell.

Ear → Shoulder → Arm Hang → Elbow → Fist

The Only Correct Sequence

The SLETB can only be established if the shoulder is located properly so the upper arm can hang out of it properly.

Remember Ear, Shoulder HIp, Heel. These are best arranged by gravity, (not by a mirror in your arena).

The entire system is contingent on the largest joint before it.

This system is too simple to tolerate error.

An error or fault in these basic mechanisms = failure of the system.

Where Today's Riding Flunks

(Jumpers, Crest Release, No Throughness)

Outside of Western Europe, most horses today are not on-the-bit, not forward, not in front of the leg — however you want to say it — not round. Not through.

Jumpers included.

Utility horses must be forward, round, and soft in the going if they are to jump, manage terrain, and not break down.

This is not about being prissy horse-show people.

The horses should be going round through themselves — and they should also be jumping round.

But CONTACT — this THROUGHNESS — is barely even a topic in the forsaken horseworld.

Hunters and jumpers are stiff, hollow, and resigned.

This is why we see still crest release in the Grand Prix.

The automatic release (what we SHOULD see at that level) allows the continuation of CONTACT through the jump.

You approach, takeoff, AND land in CONTACT and continue in contact.

A feature of CONTACT is CONTINUITY !

What we see instead is occasional, accidental forward contact in the final strides before the fence — only because the horse has to take over — because the rider is either nowhere, or too stiff, or both.

There are too few riders who get this right.

That is the fault of the trainers. This should not be so.

Making — or Violating — the Straight-line Elbow-to-Bit

Look here: SLETB.

Look here: violation or neglect of SLETB?

Which way do you want to ride?

This line must be made — but it can only be made when:

• the shoulder drops properly down a flat upper back.

  
  

• the upper arm hangs from its own weight — SOFT — which means it is vertical to the gound,

  
  

• all the soft tissue is...SOFT...like an octopus' arm.

  

  
  

• then the elbow can rest in its correct location,

  
  

so that the hollow fist — formed by skeletal design — will be placed exactly on the straight-line elbow-to-bit.

By God’s design.

Propulsion on the Line of Travel

The face and mouth are the open end.

Your HAND — your FIST — must stay in one location relative to the horse’s mouth or you are really fucking him up.

Your upper back and shoulders determine the hang of the upper arm.

That determines the elbow.

That hinge allows the elastic, forward-going SLETB to exist.

The HAND remains on the SLETB.

If the HAND ever departs, it may slide forward along the SLETB toward the bit — that is legal.

Then it elastically returns to its home near the withers.

It cannot live there if there is tension or rigidity.

Rein-Shortening Errors: Elbows, Tension, System Failure

Elbows sticking out come from un-schooled, neglected REIN SHORTENING.

REIN SHORTENING VIOLATIONS:

• elbows akimbo all over hellandgone

• hands, even (God forbid) forearms, crossing the neck,

• tension.

  
  

We can see the strain in the tendons and ligaments, the veiny effort in biceps and triceps. Sleeves rolled up. Proud of it.

Shame on you. This needs saying.

Your Responsibility: The Educated Hand

Now we are here so you can have an educated, soft, intuitive HAND — so your riding is worthy of your horses.

That is your objective.

You get there through these simple factors.

You may have to sort them joint by joint, tendon by tendon.

You are smart. You are disciplined. You will solve it.

***

If you’ve read this carefully and want to hear the same material delivered in real time, here is the original lecture recording:

BALM — Lecture, spoken version of the text above