GAUGING REIN CONTACT

A system that gives an insight into your contact down the reins and provides feedback to help you improve your riding — is this the future of horsemanship? Allison Lowther investigates further and puts the Synchronicity System to the test

What the new Synchronicity System can tell you about how you influence your horse when you’re riding.

IT’S WELL-KNOWN that what you do in the saddle has a huge influence on the way your horse moves. Being aware of your body and concentrating on maintaining a good position will all help your horse to perform at his best. Regular lessons with a good trainer will help, but they can only really comment on what they see. How about a clever device that goes further than this and gives valuable feedback on your contact down each rein? This has to be a great additional tool to your training, right? This is where the new Synchronicity System by Avansce comes in. This technology helps you develop better communication between you and your horse and enhances your riding technique to improve your horse’s way of going.

How does it work?

The system uses built-in rein sensors to measure the quality of the contact between your hands and your horse’s mouth. As you u ride, it measures subtle patterns in your rein tension. Now for the techy bit. At the end of each ride, a mathematical treatment of the data collected calculates the regularity of the rhythm, the consistency of the contact and the weight of your contact down each rein. It does this by recording how much ‘noise’ is going on in the contact. The rein tension pattern reveals how consistent the feel is down each rein and shows how well the rider can coordinate their weight and balance to achieve a steady contact through the reins. If the rider has a good seat, and the ability to adapt the rein contact to the motion of the horse, the scores will be higher. But any extra activity in the horse’s mouth and head is treated as noise in the contact and will lower the rider’s rhythm and consistency scores. The results are converted to an overall score out of 10 that appears via the ‘Rate My Ride’ app on your mobile phone. This gives you and your trainer feedback, so you can adjust your riding technnique or work on specific exercises to help you improve.