Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling reveals why he likes so much to ride without reins even though sometimes reins are better. Here you find his surprising answer.

More and more people today are searching for more friendly ways of riding horses. Especially the Rollkur method and the use of reins has become a hot topic in this debate; a positive development since the use of reins in the wrong hands can cause much suffering to a horse. Recently this became painfully clear when a video clip came out showing a horse during a warming-up situation before a dressage competition, with a blue tongue (!) as a result of the tightly held reins. Although the horse was clearly suffering, the organization of the competition decided not to contest the action. An incomprehensible situation for many horse lovers and reason for the creation of www.dressagedisgrace.com, a site which protests against such abuse of horses.

Yet reins are sometimes important and, according to Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling, in some cases even indispensable. Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling shows in his courses how it is possible to dance with horses without any external force and how a deep, trusting relationship with the horse can be build up while the horse keeps all its dignity and freedom. Then why are reins still for some horses so important, especially according to this special man? And how should we use them? To find the answers to these questions we must first dive into the history of horse back riding and explore where our contemporary way of riding comes from.

The origin of riding: the baroque way
KFH: Originally, in the time of baroque riding, there was the idea that the horse comes from the wildness. The horse is wild and in nature horses make certain movements and specific postures. A stallion for example uses specific gaits to present himself and to fight, etc. The idea in the Baroque style of riding was to control the horse completely but not to destroy his wildness – to control the horse in a way which is still respecting his nature – to bring out these natural postures and movements in riding and so turn it into a very high level of art. Later on, also and parallel with the changing society, other ideas however appeared.

Francois Baucher, a Frenchman, was the first person who came up with the idea that taming a horse could be done in a much faster way. He said: “Well, what you are doing is taking a lot of time. We need a lot of horses for the war so we cannot take 10 years to train a horse”, as they did before. He said: “When a horse is going against the will of the rider, this protest is placed mainly in the neck. So if you would like to control your horse, you only have to focus on the neck because if you control the neck you’ll control the horse”. So he was the guy who invented the whole idea to put the horse between the reins and the legs, instead of controlling the horse trough weight signals and body-language. Previously they said: “I control the horse by means of weight and my legs, and I only use the reins for the transmission of signals.” Baucher said: “No, I press the horse between reins and legs and before I start to ride I do specific exercises with the neck of the horse.” This is the fundament of his style of riding and this is what we still see today in different forms. This is exactly what the so-called contemporary ‘rollkur’ is all about: controlling the neck. The only difference is that Baucher still had some refined and sensitive techniques, empathy and feelings for the horse, which is nowadays often completely gone and the only way to do it now is by pulling brutally on the reins. And we have to realize that people who train and work in this way are “successful” according to their philosophy. They are “quicker” because they bring this technical flexibility into the neck of the horse and thus control the horse, even though they don’t know the underlying history and method.

When the soul has died
KFH: This way of training has great physical and psychological impacts on the horse. The horse is deprived of all his dignity, it is painful and because of the position of the head the horse cannot see. It is unnatural and has nothing to do with the natural movements of the horse. The breathing is hindered, the blood pressure is higher, the heartbeat is higher and the horse is in a constant state of panic. And the horse has no way to come out of this squeezing system. This ‘breaks’ the dignity of the horse and for this reason 70, 80, 90% of the horses I’m receiving now in my courses are depressed. They are not beaten like before, but the dignity and self respect of the horse are taken away from them completely. This is why I now have more and more horses “without souls” in my courses; you will break the soul of the horse and you have a machine which is working, functioning, but there is no sparkle in their eyes anymore. They are lost in themselves and the life is gone. They are literally standing with their noses in the dust. My main job is then to find their souls somewhere, go to the horse and say, “horse, here is your soul. And now we have a big job to do: we have to bring your soul back into your body.” Sometimes this is an almost impossible job and it takes a lot of time. They are dead inside. Rico and Harmón were for example horses like this; you can see short videos about them on Youtube (www.hempfling.com). They were dead inside and I can bring them back to life but it takes time and I must be very careful. It takes a long time before they are halfway stable again. And then you still have to be very careful because with only small things you risk that the horse will fall back into his depression.” – So far KFH

Past and present horses
What are the alternatives? Can we lead a horse to the highest level without using reins? When we watch clips of Klaus riding his horse Janosch we see him without reins at all.

KFH: Very seldom I use any kind of reins whatsoever because often they are completely ineffective. When you see me in a clip riding Janosch you can see that the horse is perfectly in balance by himself (Youtube: Riding in the Herd). This horse does not need reins. But when you see me riding Yunque, you will never see me riding without reins – for sure often only with a simple halter without a bit. Why? Because this would not be good for this horse. This I’ll have to explain more deeply.

If we look back to a native, natural horse, then this horse is built in a particular way: it has a typical balance between the shoulder, back, neck and croup. We can still find this specific way of building with for example Welsh Cob ponies and Camargue horses. But if we look at the contemporary sport horses, jumping and dressage horses, Spanish and Portuguese horses, we find different proportions. They have a long neck, they are slimmer and smaller, and when you see these horses running or walking on their own you always get the feeling that they are running on the forehand. You can see this very clear in the clip Queijo’s First Dance(Youtube) there (and also many of them you can find in my new book: The Horse Seeks Me) I have pictures where the horse is running alone and pictures where I’m supporting him. In these pictures you see very clearly that when he’s on his own, he is walking on the forehand. What I do when I’m working with these horses, is putting so much interest and so much focus, almost in an exaggerated way, on the hind legs, that the horse is in a way encouraged just to bring his neck closer towards the body and so bring forth a more collected way of moving. But the point is: these horses are over hundreds of years bred in a different way and so they are now built in a completely different way than the native horse types. They are rebuilt in such a way that they need a ‘fifth leg’ in front of them so to speak. And so it is not good to ride these horses without reins; they need the reins, otherwise they feel lost. This is something we have to realize: we have to look very carefully at our horses and really try to see what they need. Someone who says “I would like to come back to a very natural way of riding and I do not use reins” I understand perfectly because that person looks at reality and knows that in almost 100% of the cases reins cause pain. And this is true. But we have to consider the other side which means that these horses need an extreme refined technique to be supported by always loose reins. Why? Because we need to support the horse with the reins and because the horse benefits from it. I would not like to ride horses like Queijo, Harmón, Harbon and many others without reins because by themselves they no longer have the natural balance that the native, authentic horse has.

Collecting vibrations
How should we then use the reins if we don’t want to pull the horse into a certain position but to reach this balanced and collected state?

KFH: When I use a rein or any kind of bridle it is not to pull or to cause the horse pain but only to give the horse the idea “horse look, I’m here. I am always with you. I am with your hind legs. But also with your mouth. ” I’m playing and vibrating with the horse in a very soft way and I’m giving them the idea “I know where you are. I know what you would like to have. You need a support.” Even if my reins hang very loose, they always have to be there. The horses need the reins because the whole system of riding with reins is incorporated in the breed of the horses. The only thing is that when you’re starting to work with these horses, you have to start with encouraging them to use the hind legs. Then it’s not necessary to pull the reins and cause them pain. This is by the way also the real way of baroque riding. Sometimes you see people in the baroque way of riding without reins, like Nuno Oliveira – who sometimes did it, to show that it is possible for a horse to perform piaffe and passage etc. without reins. But you can see that the horse is then “collapsing” if we look to the whole picture he is performing then. The horse is long, wide, runs with an under neck and the head is “more or less lost”. You can see that the horse is not happy in such a situation. The horse needs the rein and, when used in the right way, is happy with these kinds of reins. And we must bring ourselves to the level where we use the reins as memory and signal for the horse.

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Additional information of current interest:

The video clips mentioned in this article may be found on www.youtube.com and www.hempfling.com

On the site www.dressagedisgrace.com you may also find a free teleseminar with Klaus about the contemporary debate on Rollkur.

At Spring 2010 Klaus’ new book “The Horse Seeks Me” will be published in English, Dutch, German and Danish.

View the video of Harmón

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