Originally published on Substack
Carl Hester says the FEI is moving at a collected walk rather than an extended canter on reforms that "cannot wait." One of those reforms is the give-and-retake of the reins at Small Tour and Grand Prix level. The idea sounds simple enough: if the horse is truly in self-carriage, the rider should be able to soften or release the reins briefly and the horse should remain balanced, organised, and in the same outline without relying on the hand.
That sounds reasonable. But dressage also insists on another principle: the horse must seek the contact. We are told the horse should confidently go forward to the bit, stretch into an elastic hand, and follow a softening rein. And that is where the contradiction appears.
When the rider moves the hands forward and gives the reins, what should the horse do? Should he remain exactly where he is, proving self-carriage? Or should he lengthen the neck forward, proving that he seeks the contact? Because those are not the same response.
If the horse stays fixed in place, he is not meaningfully following the hand forward. If he follows the hand forward, he has changed his outline. Yet dressage rhetoric often wants both answers at once.
In practice, horses learn context. They learn subtle differences in seat, posture, timing, rein feel, routine, and expectation. They learn when the rider wants them to hold a posture, and when the rider wants them to stretch. That is not magic. That is training.
And there is nothing wrong with training. The problem begins when trained responses are presented as proof of invisible qualities such as harmony, willingness, or self-carriage.
A horse who stays round during a give-and-retake may be balanced, supple, and honestly carrying himself. He may also be highly rehearsed. He may be responding to habit. He may be responding to subtle body cues. He may simply have learned that changing nothing is the safest answer.
Likewise, a horse who stretches forward may be relaxed and confident. Or he may simply have learned another cue. Behaviour does not come labelled. That is why these tests are not as straightforward as they are often presented.
If the FEI wishes to make give-and-retake a welfare priority, it should first define what it is actually measuring. Because right now dressage still seems to want two opposite answers to the same question.
And no amount of extended canters can solve a contradiction.