Long and low part 2

The next phase on why long and low is so important.
Long and low not only teaches your horse to balance themselves within the gates but also even more important teaches your horse to balance their diagonal pair. Why is this so important?
The diagonal pair is where it starts for your horse to be able to carry more weight on their hind ends and balance their right side and their left side of their body.  Remember horses carry most of their weight on their inside shoulders/front leg. If you have read my past posts you know that your horse needs to load their outside hind in order to first balance themselves and then move forward into whatever you are asking.
As we start to teach our horses how to go long and low we need to do this first without a rider. The reason for this is because your horse has to learn how to carry their own weight before they can ever carry their riders. Pretend you are going to the gym to work out. You are just starting out. Now try and grab some weights and try to do a few sets of squats.  Hard right, well that is the same for your horse. Remember your horse does not know how to use their backs nor their hind ends. No more then we have a hard time using our core and backs. If you are honest you use all the wrong muscles to lift and carry thing. This is why it is so important to spend time working your horse in a round pen without a rider. This way they only have their own weight to try and manage as they start to strengthen their bodies.
What does your horse look like when you are ready to work them in the round pen.  First you need to have a pair of balancing side reins. I only like balancing side reins because these are side reins where your horse can find their balance depending on where they are during the exercise.   Regular side reins go straight from the bit or preferably a lunging caveson to a surcingle. This making it hard to find balance in different position.  Balancing side reins go from one part of your surcingle to the lunging cavson back to another place on your surcingle then creating a place where they can find their  balance in many different position. 
You can see how they look in the first picture below.  I also like to put a polo behind the horses behind to help your horse think about their hind legs and bring the under instead of out behind. Its like putting them in a box with support all around them as they start to  find their own.
Something you want to keep in mind as you are doing all this work,  you want to be able to  ride whatever you create with a soft contact as they start to reach down and strength their backs and hind end. Meaning  your horse is able to do walk, trot and canter on a long rein, stretching into the contact with out rushing in their up and downward transitions. When you have this it is now time to add a rider (as long as their rider is strong enough to be able to support them selves and sit light on the horses and not interfere).
Realize if you haven't spent time  working on your balance and strengthen your seat, all of this work will be of no worth.
So lets assume you have done this work on you and your horse and are now ready to sit on your horse.
You would still be in the round pen with the balancing side reins still on. You would ride walk, trot and canter without taking up the reins, meaning riding the horse into the balancing side reins just as if they were your reins. Reason for this is to make sure you can ride the horse into the contact without interfering with the horse. If you are able to do this then congratulations you have just learned how to ride a horse into the contact, another words, riding the horse from back to front).
Now you can take off the balancing side reins and polo and work on getting your horse stronger and doing movements or even starting over fences. Its all about what your goal is for you and your horse. So go and have fun with your balanced horse. You now have the most important part of your foundation.