Q. What does it mean to disengage my horse?
A. To disengage your horse is a psychological move for your horse. Most people think that all it means is the horse moves his rump around his front quarters but it is much more than that. To do a correct Disengagement of the hindquarters your horse has to be mentally and physically soft.
When the horse does a disengagement and is moving his rump to the right his left hind leg should be crossing over his right hind leg. This is where it starts to get into the psychological part and shows you whether your horse is soft and trusts you or not. This is why: For a horse to run away they have to have their hind feet separate and ready to run, if they cross their hind legs they cannot run off. Try it yourself, stand with your legs apart and have your friend try to push you over, it is going to be easier for you to stay standing up. Next try to run off, your feet are in the right position to run off so you can run off easily. Now, while standing cross your legs, have your friend try to push you over, it is really hard for you to stay standing up. Next try to run off, that is going to be really hard also, what you are going to have to do is fix your feet by uncrossing them to run off.
Now, horses knowing that they can’t run off in this position are not going to want to put themselves in that position unless they trust you and are soft in the body. What they will sometimes do when asked to disengage is they will bring their feet together and disengage but never cross, or they will cross there leg behind them instead. So when asking your horse to disengage, make sure the feet are crossing over each other (if you are on the right side asking your horse to disengage his rump to the left, his right hind leg should cross over the left).
A disengagement has many uses. Here are just two:
1. To get your horse soft and relaxed and trusting in you.
2. To have some emergency brakes while riding your horse.
When your horse disengages, his rump should swing away and his front feet should walk around in a small circle. If your horse is sticking his front feet and not moving them, you are not getting a true disengagement. If he is sticking his front feet (like some teach) he is going to start getting stiff and brace against the move. You want your horse to be fluid and soft. So he should have his front feet moving in a small circle while his hind feet move in a disengagement.
