In an article last year I covered ” Bending and Releasing the pole” as the key to Courage. The jest of this article was to use the horse’s natural relaxation reflexes to help the horse to:
*gain lateral flexion
*move into a state of relaxed topline
*enable him to begin proper vertical flexion.
This exercise naturally leads into the preparation for collected movements. Everyone talks about collection but many people have trouble understanding the simple start of collection and it most effective development.
When the horse has a relaxed topline and can assume this state on cue (for example, using ahead down cue or relaxing his topline when traveling in a smaller circle) we can look at building collection into the horse’s movement by setting it up for positive development. First we have to realize that the horse’s body has muscle movements or contractions on three different levels. The autonomic system, which a horse has no real control over (body functions), the positional system, which enables the horse to be in a balanced posture, and lastly the muscles of the athletic system, which are used in any athletic activity.
The autonomic system is not something we have any real control over so we will focus on the positional system, which is the most often neglected or incorrectly developed system. It is easy to get excited about the athletic abilities of the horse and affect its muscular fitness to compete in various activities. However, increasing strength in the large muscles of the athletic system without proper position or posture reduces the quality of performance in the horse and can make them very contracted and stiff, which may even destroy their wellbeing. This often leads to issues that require specialists to correct: trainers to re-habilitate, veterinarians, massage therapists, chiropractors, and sometimes confused saddle fitters.
You can prevent these issues! Once our horse understands how to travel with a relaxed topline you can ask the horse to prepare to collect itself. You can do this in-hand with the use of halter, cavesson, or a snaffle bit. If you drive the horse forward walking just beside their shoulder, you can elevate the horse’s head. Do this progressively, raising it higher every time, then walking forward. When you reach nearly as high as the horse can go comfortably, it will tend to halt forward progress. With a slight inward tilt you can then ask the horse to Quarter by disengaging the rear (stepping under itself as the hindquarters move away) while keeping the head raised. This raises the base of the neck. While doing this, ask the horse to step forward and sideways, and the horse will reach under itself more, further flexing the hocks and increasing the length of the stride of the hind legs. The key is to do this relaxed and at the walk. With practice the horse will loosen at the loin and hip, which will allow the horse to walk out in a more engaged walk (a longer more powerful stride) when we move out forward right after the lateral movement of the hind legs.
To use this movement in an exercise you could drive your horse in a
smaller circle, allowing it to relax, then raise its head by hanging on to the inside ring of the snaffle bit, and use slight pressure to cause a slight tilt of the head to the inside. This should cause the hindquarters to disengage, pushing the legs outward from the circle. You can then further ask the horse to cross over with clucking or with a small tap of a Dressage whip on the hind, asking the horse to step longer and across itself. As the horse does this you can just allow the head to come down on its own and step out allowing the horse to catch-up to you usually with a bigger engaged stride. This exercise can be repeated quite frequently but should have some many short breaks when first learning it and then more constant repetition as the horse starts to understand. When the horse understands the exercise and extends effort without any anxiousness, then you could ask him to step forward out of the Quartering with the head still elevated.
This exercise helps the horse assume correct posture, raising the base of the neck, then lightening the forehand of the horse while rounding its back as it drives its legs under itself. This is all positional. When we ask the horse to step forward we are developing the power muscles once the proper posture has been established. There are many lateral movements that can be attained from this position, turn on fore, hind, shoulder-in, half-pass, pirouette, renvers, travers, …all at a walk.
The last article in Saddle-Up on thinking Outside the box also ties into this as it also helps develop the positional system by shortening the base of support using the core muscles to posture, then using the large powerful muscles to engage the hindquarters into whatever athletic movement we choose. This Classical Dressage approach works with all horses in all disciplines. Once the horse understands this proper posture, you can ask for vertical flexion without altering the posture, power, and more importantly, the physical well being of the horse.