10/16/2026
This! Contact is about balance. We don’t balance the horse by pulling its nose back to our seat.
The horse should maintain balance on its own (self carriage) and we influence where and how it needs to adjust with our legs and seat.
Use the leg to bring the barrel and hind legs to your seat. If you’re not strong enough to sit it, then only do a few steps at a time until your body is ready to do it and stay relaxed. If the horse isn’t strong enough to maintain it, then only do a few steps until they fit enough. It starts off a lot slower than we like to think.
The horse has to understand that they’re not to use the bridle to support their body weight and the rider has to understand they’re not to grip down on the reins to stabilize their upper body.
Contact is one of the hardest things in dressage to define, because it changes with every stride. Judge and trainer Gail Hoff-Carmona, PhD, breaks down what correct contact looks like from the ground and what it should feel like in the saddle, from hand position to the role of the half-halt when a horse gets heavy in the hand.
"The key to correct contact is to ride from your seat and leg, riding that small downward transition if the horse loses his balance, remaining seated using your core muscles and never pulling backward on the reins," she says.
Read the full article at the link in our comments.
📸AK Dragoo Photography
