If you’ve ever had an instructor tell you to “ask for more bend” on a circle, and then in the next breath say “soften the flexion” — and you nodded like you knew exactly what that meant — this post is for you.
Because here’s the thing: most riders use bend and flexion interchangeably. And most of the time, we sort of get away with it. But understanding the actual difference between these two concepts? That’s what separates riders who are just going through the motions from riders who can actually problem-solve in the saddle.
What Is Flexion?
Flexion happens at one place only: the poll.
That’s it. The poll is the joint right where your horse’s skull meets the top of their neck, and when we ask for flexion, we’re asking the horse to softly give at that joint — allowing us to see a tiny bit of the inside eye.
Flexion is small. Subtle. It’s not about cranking their nose around toward your knee. It’s about the horse relaxing through their jaw and poll, yielding to the bit without resistance.
When you have true flexion, you’ll feel your horse get lighter in your hand. Their jaw softens, their poll releases, and suddenly that contact you’re holding becomes a conversation instead of an argument.
Think of flexion as the gateway to connection. It’s the first place you’ll feel tension show up, and often the first place you’ll feel it release.
What Is Bend?
Bend is the whole horse.
When we talk about bend, we mean a uniform curve that travels from the poll, through the neck, through the ribcage, and all the way to the tail. The entire spine is involved. On a circle, a horse with correct bend will have their body curved to match the arc of the circle they’re traveling on.
Here’s where it gets interesting: horses don’t actually bend evenly through their bodies. Their spine is most mobile in the neck (sometimes too mobile), has limited movement through the thoracic spine where the saddle sits, and then gains some flexibility again in the lumbosacral joint near the hindquarters.
What does that mean for us? When we ask for bend, we’re really asking the horse to engage the muscles along their inside and allow the ribcage to swing. We’re not just pulling their nose around — we’re mobilizing their entire body.
True bend requires the inside hind leg to step more underneath the horse. This is why bend is so connected to suppleness and collection. You can’t have one without the other.
Why Does the Difference Matter?
Because you can have flexion without bend. And you can attempt bend while losing the flexion. And neither one alone gives you what you’re actually looking for.
Flexion without bend looks like a horse whose nose is tipped to the inside, but whose body is stiff as a board and potentially falling out through the outside shoulder. Their neck is bent, but nothing else is participating. This is often what happens when we rely too much on the inside rein.
Bend without proper flexion happens when a horse curves through their body but braces through the poll. You might feel them heavy in the hand, leaning on the bit, or with their nose stuck out in front. The body is moving correctly, but the connection to your hand is lost.
What we’re aiming for: flexion and bend, working together. The poll soft and yielding, the ribcage swinging, the inside hind leg reaching under, and the horse curved uniformly from nose to tail. That’s when you feel a horse truly coming through.
How to Feel the Difference
Here’s a quick way to start developing feel for this:
For flexion: On a straight line, ask for just the tiniest amount of inside positioning — so subtle that someone watching might not even see it. You’re not asking for anything in the body. Just a softening at the poll. Can you feel your horse yield their jaw? Can you get that lightness without them tipping their whole neck?
For bend: On a large circle, once you have that soft flexion, start asking the ribcage to move. Your inside leg at the girth asks the ribs to swing away. Your outside leg slightly back supports the hindquarters. Your outside rein catches the energy so the horse doesn’t just motorcycle out through the outside shoulder. The whole body curves to match the circle.
If you lose the flexion while asking for bend, simplify. Go back to the poll. Then add the body again.
The Common Mistakes
Mistake #1: Confusing neck bend for body bend. Horses are really good at giving us more neck than we asked for, especially if they’re avoiding using their body. If your horse’s nose is at your knee but their shoulders are going straight ahead, that’s not bend — that’s evasion dressed up in pretty packaging.
Mistake #2: Over-flexing. More is not better. If you’re pulling your horse’s nose behind the vertical or cranking them around until they’re looking at your foot, you’ve left “flexion” territory and entered “force” territory. The poll should yield. Not be dragged.
Mistake #3: Using only the inside rein. Both flexion and bend require a partnership between both reins and both legs. The inside rein asks, but the outside rein catches and shapes. If you’re relying solely on pulling the inside rein, you’ll get neither true flexion nor true bend.
Why This Matters for Suppleness
If you’re working on softening a stiff horse — which, let’s be honest, is most of us — understanding flexion vs bend gives you a clearer picture of where the stiffness lives.
Is your horse locked through the poll? You need to work on flexion. Is their ribcage like a two-by-four? You need exercises that specifically target bend.
Often, it’s both. And that’s okay. But now you know what you’re addressing and can choose exercises accordingly.
Transitions between flexion and bend — asking for one, then adding the other, then isolating again — are some of the most powerful suppling work you can do. It’s not fancy. It’s not complicated. But it requires awareness of what you’re actually asking for.
The Takeaway
Flexion is the poll. Bend is the body.
You need both, working in harmony, to have a truly supple and connected horse. And now that you know the difference, you can actually diagnose what’s happening under you — and fix it.
The next time your instructor says “more bend” or “soften the flexion,” you’ll know exactly what conversation you’re having.
Working on suppleness with your horse? The From Stiff to Supple in 28 Days course breaks down exercises like this into daily steps that actually make sense.
