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Roll & Yaw 

Have you ever been on a horse and felt like it's about to roll over on it's back?  Just drop the shoulder and wiggle real good to itch it's top side in the sand?  Not that it does.  It somehow manages to keep going but meanwhile you and your saddle are sliding off the side.  You probably have to keep stepping in your stirrup to get things back to rights but then before too long it's happening again.

And then there are times you feel like the horse is skidding around the corner sideways - not that it's properly doing a lateral move or a side step or anything, it's just kind of going along sideways like a dog running down the street, and any minute now the back end will pass up the front end.  Again, another uncomfortable moment!

With airplanes, they describe this as 'roll' and 'yaw.'  (And with horses, the 'pitch' relates to self-carriage.  A horse heavy on the front end is pitched downward.)

Well, we haven't got ailerons or rudders on horses, but there's something that can be done about this that doesn't involve pulling on reins and such.   

While this can be done regardless of what you're doing with the horse, let's start with one of the easier things, a 20m circle at the walk: 

  • Begin walking on a 20m(ish) circle.  Bigger if you need to.  
  • Your first task is to be aware of what is happening.  After that you can decide what action to take.  To become aware of what is happening and start sorting this all out, ask yourself:
    • is one side of the horse lower than the other?  
      • is it 'wanting' to roll over one shoulder? 
      • is it 'wanting' to roll over in the middle of its back?
      • is it 'wanting' to roll over near the hind end?
      • if one part is wanting to roll to one side, there may be another part wanting to roll the other way.  whichever one is either easier or more noticeable, chose to work with that first and then come back to the other part.
    • does the horse feel like it's traveling sideways?  
      • even if it's got its poll, withers, and sacrum on the circle, it may still feel like it's going sideways.
  • Now what to do about? 
    • If this is all you do, you've actually accomplished a lot more than you may think.  You've brought awareness to yourself and your horse and *that alone* will allow the self-corrective mechanisms to kick in.   Maybe not super-duper quick, but the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and this was that step.
    • There is also a technique you can use from Ortho-bionomy which can help.  This accentuates the pattern that is there and involves vectors.  
    • Another technique borrows from Feldenkrais and asks the horse to be aware of a range of options.  
    • A third technique involves a 'beacon' of sorts, and visual (or auditory or kinesthetic) double-exposure that compares and contrasts the actual with the ideal.
Vectors in General

Those questions above bring into the conversation the concept of vectors.  Vectors are ways of describing speed and direction together.  Or, they're arrows of movement: Which way is something going?  Which way are the forces acting on it going?  If you pick up a ball and throw it, the ball is going in a direction away from you.  It's also got some up/down direction and some forward direction which, when combined, produce the direction it's going in.  (and if you're really clever, you can assign numbers to all of this!) (we're not going to do that.)

In this situation, pretend 'O' is the horse's head and you're looking at it coming towards you.   
green arrow the rolling sensation. theoretically, in a balanced horse, there would be a little roll left, then a little roll right, then a little roll left, etc, as the sides of the horse undulate.
at the yawing sensation. theoretically, in a balanced horse, there would be a little yaw left, then a little yaw right, then a little yaw left, etc, as the sides of the horse undulate.
ac the pitch up hopefully greater than...
ar the pitch down

 

The only thing that's really important here is to realize there's more than one 'push' involved.  Some pushes are to the inside, some to the outside, some forward, some sideways....  because it's a horse, we've also got a lot of stuff going on inside.  There's all kinds of pushes and pulls generated by muscles leveraging bones and working against the ground.  (which we'll talk about a bit later!)

Awareness

Accurate awareness can do incredible things!  Begin with this and you will be amazed at how much this alone can accomplish.

It can be very hard not to jump into action or into 'fixing' mode.  Resist this temptation!  Trust that your horse will move better once it understands how it is moving already.  Let you mental images convey this information.  It will work! 

If you have to speed things up, there are a couple things you can do to help the horse understand better.

An Ortho-bionomy Approach

Ortho-binoomy / Equine Positional Release involves accentuating the pattern.  

Yaw patterns are a lot like the ribbons in a candy cane wrapped around the parts of the horse that are influenced.  RIBBON SERPENTINE

For instance, of I feel like the horse wants to roll over the right shoulder, I will become aware of where that influence comes from and where it wants to go.  It may be that there is a push from behind the left shoulder blade at the withers, over the withers, onto the ground in front of where the right leg tends to go.

The firs step is to become aware of this 'movement.'  Give it a color, draw an arrow in your mind's eye, feel how fast it goes from the start of the movement until it hits the ground - maybe it changes speed in there!  find out as much as you can about this movement.  

Now make it more so.  In your head!  (Don't throw your horse down.)

Maybe the 'arrow' is thicker in size, or it's deeper in color, or it penetrates the ground a little further.  Maybe the roll is bigger.

Or maybe there is a high hip and it feels like the horse is constantly hefting one side up and both feet are under that side.  A bit scary.  I usually become  aware of a push coming up from the ground through the side of the pelvis that is high, and sort of grazing over the other side, which pushes that side down, and then the foot from the side towards the midline.   

Sometimes the roll starts at the midline and pushes down.

 

throw its head to the outside, I become aware of where the horse wants to throw it's head to and pretend it's over there, and maybe just a little more over there for good measure.  Or if it's the withers that don't want to be on the circle, I pretend they're a little bit further away even.  

When you're starting out, you can still accomplish quite a bit by limiting yourself to the three major points along the spine of poll, withers, and sacroiliac.  Be observant of how they relate to the line of travel on a circle and you will find it helps quit a bit.

Usually the horse will respond positively in about a minute.

 

For instance, this horse is tracking left and and the poll and tail on are on the circle, but the withers are habitually right of the circle.  The green X is 'where the shoulder point belongs.'  The red X is 'where the shoulder point is.'  The yellow X is at the end of a 'vector' found by connecting the two and going just a little bit beyond the red X and is where I pretend it is.  I 'hold this thought' for perhaps a minute and then let it go.  In reality, these distances are in inches usually.

 

For instance, this horse is tracking left on the circle and I have the sense that it is throwing it's shoulder to the right instead of tracking forward with it, towards the circle.  The green X is 'where the shoulder point belongs.'  The red X is 'where the shoulder point wants to be.'  The yellow X is at the end of a 'vector' found by connecting the two and going just a little bit beyond the red X and is where I pretend it is.  I 'hold this thought' for perhaps a minute and then let it go.   In reality, these distances can be in feet, as in a foot or two or even like thirty.

 

 

Doing this for the three major points along the spine - poll, withers, sacroiliac, and how they relate to the line of travel on a circle, simple as it is, helps quit a bit.

 

If you try it, let me know how it goes!  And if you'd like some hands on, call me up for a lesson.  

 

Copyright © 06/27/14 Lynn S. Larson
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Ortho-bionomy in the e-store

Ortho-Bionomy: A Practical Manual Ortho-Bionomy: A Path to Self-Care The Philosophy and History of Ortho-Bionomy
Ortho-Bionomy: A Practical Manual
by Kathy L. Kain
$18.68
Ortho-Bionomy: A Path to Self-Care
by Luann Overmyer
$19.64
The Philosophy and History of Ortho-Bionomy
by D.O. Arthur Lincoln Pauls

 

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