I have to tell you, this article was incredibly difficult to write, because every time I attempted to condense and articulate my perspective on learning to use Manolo’s in-hand techniques, I had no idea where to start.

The truth is that exploring Manolo’s in-hand work has profoundly influenced my entire approach to training.

I’m not going to give you a step-by-step analysis of the DVD, because if something I share with you in this piece resonates, you can do that on your own, over and over again, and gain new insights every time. What I want to share with you is what drew me to Manolo’s work in the first place, my experience of learning to use these techniques, and why I knew this was how I wanted to bring on my own young warmblood as I started him under saddle.

How do you wish to touch your horse? How do you wish to lead your dance partner?

Using the cavesson and bamboo as extensions of your arms — to touch, perceive and influence the horse as if with your own bare hands — Manolo’s approach to in-hand training becomes like bodywork in motion.

While groundwork was never my strong point, the ability to ‘clear the body’, as Manolo often calls it, was something I searched for as a rider even before getting into rehabilitation and bodywork. Seeing this effect when observing Manolo through a rehabilitation lens was what piqued my interest in his work. When I began experimenting with my own horse in-hand, I could feel the results immediately…and it felt like coming home.

Why?

Because I want my horses to move with freedom and ease, and even at the most basic level, focusing solely on the cavesson, Manolo’s approach was providing me with the tools to create the feeling I was always looking for in the saddle, in a setting I had always struggled with. I thought I had understood what Manolo meant when he described the head and spine as like a train, and the effect of working from the centre of the nose with the cavesson as allowing the rest of the spine to flow easily along the tracks… but I gained a whole new appreciation for this effect from my first session using the cavesson a couple of years ago.

The influence of a cavesson is NOT about control or eliciting a trained postural response to a pressure cue; it is a line of connection to your own hand, through which you guide the horse’s body as if leading a dance partner. One small but fundamental change to my lunging technique — learning to keep the rein-hand slightly advanced so that wherever I moved, I was always leading from slightly in front of the horse — had a huge impact on my lunging results, because I rapidly discovered that when using a cavesson the way Manolo does, the feel in the line is a sensory window into the horse’s body, mind and balance — especially the spinal column, and the effects of tension upon it.

To take the dancing analogy a step further, picture Virtue and Moir gliding over the ice, and the lunge line as the connection between them. There are no jerky corrections, no blocking or restricting; the entire picture is of fluid communication and shaping of movement.

Through this perspective, the contact through the lunge rein becomes very much a living, dynamic connection to the horse’s body and mind, just as it should be under saddle. Any heaviness, bracing, or pulling — especially in a young, green, stiff, tense, unbalanced, and/or rehab horse who is still learning how to flow freely and move more efficiently — is not a sign of resistance; it just tells me the horse is unbalanced, tense, or has a blockage somewhere. Together, the picture in front of me and the feel in the line — much like the feel when palpating myofascial tension with my hands on the horse — should give me a pretty good idea which one or combination of these is causing them to brace, and how I can address it.

And this brings me to my biggest motivation for using these tools to prepare my own gigantic young warmblood, Rocco, for ridden work. Rocco is basically a 7yo ‘breaker’ — his previous owners went as far as backing him when he was younger, but that was about it, because every time they looked at him, they thought, one more year… It had been two years and at least a hand since he did anything when I met him!

Now that Rocco is finally mature enough to start some real work, I want to establish the posture, balance and state of decontraction — the ability for Rocco to work in the ‘envelope of release’, as Dr Deb Bennett puts it — before adding a bit or my weight to the equation, and definitely before combining the two.

 

True self carriage starts with independent balance…

For near-18hh Rocco, the path to balance had to start with letting go of his topline and unbracing his body. Years ago, I would have used some kind of gadget connected to the bit to give him the idea of letting his neck go, but I didn’t want that this time. I wanted independent balance from the beginning under saddle, and the kind of whole-body roundness that emerges as a natural consequence of balance.

Manolo’s approach allowed me to bring Rocco to this lightbulb moment quite quickly, without restricting his head and neck in any way. And once he began to decontract and relax his topline in trot, Rocco was quite willing to experiment with different postures as he went searching for balance of his own accord. From there, I could assist him in developing tension-free, independent balance, by beginning to shape and vary his posture, and experimenting with different tempos to find his most flowing natural rhythm.

In short, I wanted Rocco to work without tension from the beginning under saddle, so that he would never have to un-learn it…and I really, really didn’t want to screw up his mouth!

This meant that I decided not to trot under saddle until he could consistently manage a relaxed and reasonably balanced trot, with a decontracted topline, in some approximation of a forward, down and out posture, without a rider… and that the first trot with me on board would be on the lunge, with Manolo guiding Rocco and encouraging him to move the same way under saddle, in a context he already understood.

I knew I had one chance to do this right, and while there are many systems that can achieve good results, I chose to approach Rocco’s preparation for life as a riding horse the way I felt most confident about achieving the desired outcome. While it is a different approach to that I have used for starting or restarting young horses in the past, it is one I felt confident in applying at the required level: an approach focused on achieving lightness, balance, and self-carriage by teaching Rocco to move with relaxation and ease.

Rocco still needs time to develop the strength required to sustain a more balanced posture in self-carriage, but because he now understands what is wanted and can manage a few strides before wanting to stretch lower, at our last lesson, I asked Manolo if we could try some trot provided all else went well. While this was earlier than planned, I knew Rocco would soon be having a big break due to other looming commitments and that we would be on our own while Manolo is teaching in Europe. Manolo had encouraged me to do some work under saddle in walk at home, but I didn’t want to ride Rocco at home until I knew what to expect if he broke into trot.

More importantly, I wanted Manolo’s support not only as a safety net, but to make sure that first trot went exactly the way I envisioned: an experience defined by relaxation, trust and confidence, in which Rocco and I could both “feel supported and grounded during a time which will often determine how the young horse feels about work and the arena for the rest of his life”, as Caroline Larrouilh (a.k.a. the awesomely helpful and insightful manager of the In Hand Work with Manolo Mendez Facebook group put it.

 

So… How did it go?

In short…exactly the way I had hoped!

Just as the walk went from very wobbly and uncertain to confident and forward in a few rides, the trot did the same over the course of one ride.

As you can see in the video, Rocco is not fully balanced or unbraced while he tries to figure out how to organise his body in motion underneath me… but with Manolo’s support, he is confident and balanced enough at moments to flow more — and this is exactly the trend I want to encourage as we dip our toes into ridden work; I want to make it easy and desirable for Rocco to flow as freely under saddle as he is learning to without a rider.

Manolo’s approach to in-hand training has formed a critical part of this chapter, and will continue to play a huge role in preparing Rocco’s body for more. Even as a novice with these techniques and tools, they have given me the ability to lay the foundations I want in place for the next chapter of Rocco’s training, and I know that we will reap the rewards of ongoing in-hand training a thousand fold as our journey together continues.

 

Is this approach right for you and your horse?

If you are looking for shortcuts or a magical method to make your horse move perfectly overnight, this DVD is not for you.

I’m allergic to gurus and anything approaching cult-like hero worship. Masters, on the other hand, I have all the time in the world and enormous respect for. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with numerous masters in different fields, both in the horse industry and outside of it. Here’s the thing: They’re all human. And they all attained mastery by practicing, observing, experimenting, and practicing some more. Intensely.

If you see something you like in Manolo’s work and wish you could do the same, understand that mastery has nothing to do with magic, or drinking the Kool-Aid. Manolo is not only a master of his craft, he is as much a researcher and professor as any of my favourite academics, and he got there by studying the horse and continuing to learn from them every time.

While to the casual observer, Manolo’s approach seems to flow from an intuitive feel for what the horse needs, this feel is grounded in a very systematic understanding of how to meet each horse where they are. Everything Manolo does is deliberate, and in this DVD, he breaks each lesson down into chunks for us, just as he does for the horses. If you want to give it a try, watch the first lesson of the DVD, pick up your cavesson and bamboo (or just the cavesson at first, if you’re uncoordinated like me), get out there with your horse, and learn by doing.

This DVD will give you the tools to get started, along with new insights every time you return to it, and your horse will give you the rest, if you take the time to try, observe, and experiment. Forget trying to imitate or going through the motions, because you’ll completely miss the point. Take one little nibble at a time, internalise it and practice it until it becomes natural, and you will be surprised how quickly your own in-hand sessions start to flow intuitively.

This is the real value in the glimpse of Manolo’s approach presented in the DVD. It is an introduction to techniques anyone can use, but if you take the time to learn them properly, they will open the door to a much deeper relationship with the horses you work with, and an intuitive approach to training that nurtures the horse’s body and mind.

As Caroline Larrouilh told me the day we met back in 2012:

 

“We all have the ability to observe, to think, and to create a parameter of ‘okay’…

[We are not] looking to give you step-by-step, cookie cutter instructions. What we want to do is give people an understanding and knowledge; coach them to go, watch, and work with their horse; observe, and understand that each horse is an individual, and work from that premise.

We are giving you the equivalent of musical notes: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do. Different postures that you can create with the bamboo, and the cavesson.

And then, it is up to you to spend the time, make the effort, get educated and knowledgeable about your horse.

You create the right symphony for that horse.”

 

She’s right, of course. The notes are there for the taking, but the music you create with them is up to you. Even the most exquisite musical masterpieces began from an experiment with a couple of notes…so get out there and start composing something of beauty with your horse.

 

 

“In-Hand Lessons with Manolo Mendez – An Introduction to Working In-Hand“ is designed to help you help your horse be suppler, straighter, and more balanced in-hand leading to a calmer, healthier horse under saddle.  It benefits horses of all breeds and disciplines because it is based on understanding and creating healthy postures and recognizing and developing healthy gaits. The DVD is a 3 hour– plus introduction to groundwork and working in hand with horses. It is practical and un-intimidating and follows the first five lessons of equestrian and biomechanics lecturer Jillian Kreinbring as she learns to shape, influence and enhance horses’ postures and gaits for the better with the help of a cavesson and a bamboo. Jillian asks a lot of questions which is very helpful for viewers at home. Manolo discusses and demonstrates everything from how to select bamboo and adjust a cavesson properly, to how to create and regulate forward, how to halt, turn, change direction while maintaining healthy flexion throughout the horse’s topline, how to introduce shoulder fore, shoulder in, turn on the haunches, shoulder in – out, to the wall and more..

The DVD also contains additional footage of Manolo working in-hand and demonstrating exercises with two inexperienced horses. In addition, Manolo shares his way of introducing a young horse to lungeing and discusses and demonstrates how to transition a young horse from lungeing to riding. Finally, the DVD contains a section on What the Horse’s Body Tells You, where Manolo and Jilly observe a horse together and discuss physical landmarks and what they mean, how to improve them. While Jillian practices the exercises, Manolo gives her feedback and steps in to correct common mistakes, ensuring that viewers get a good understanding of what to do, and what to avoid.

In-Hand Lessons with Manolo Mendez is currently available on DVD for $39.95 USD via this link (usual price $69.95).