This month's article is the beginning of a series based on a section in my visual series, "Dressage Principles for the Western and English Horse and Rider." This series is titled "Communicating with Your Aids-Keys to Success" because I believe that it contains the lessons every rider needs to learn in order to create a responsive and willing horse.

    Throughout this series, I am going to share training techniques built upon the use of the rider's natural aids-the seat, the legs, and the hands-rather than artificial training aids or gimmicks. By learning how to use the natural aids, the rider learns how to control the horse's entire body. The rider's aids are the keys to success because they are the keys to communication with the horse.

    The aids used to communicate with the horse are not complicated for us, or for our horse, to understand. The challenge comes in learning how to coordinate the use of these aids with the horse's actions or movements to get the response we want. In this series of articles, I will explain how to use each of the rider's aids correctly and according to the horse's knowledge. You will learn how to teach your horse to respond more willingly without using force. This is the path to building a long-lasting and true partnership with your horse.