01/27/14 Book Review: Effective Horsmandship

Is your horse a little stiff on one side?

I shared an exercise from Riding Masterclass, Lessons with 10 of Today's Top Trainers, edited by Jo Weeks, that Carl Hester advocates in a previous post. For consideration here is a different approach that looks at the position of the back and how it is used.

This builds upon classical ideas of how a horse uses itself. Ideally, the horse has a beautiful, upward bow from the hind foot to the poll and is carrying itself well. The hips and withers are 'under' the back, as illustrated in diagrams from Effective Horsemanship, by Noel Jackson.

What often happens, though, is that somehow this gets upside down and the backend is shoving the front end forward and usually down.

Since that list of disasters (of 'somehow') is long and depressing, let's avoid it! and just look at a way to get back on track. The 'problem' is that the top of the bow is not high enough, and that's enough to start finding a solution -- basically: get the top of the bow back on top of what carries it!

To do this, we can use a Centered Riding approach with a visual. This is the 'ideal':

Ideally, the horse's bow transmits kinetic energy upward. Ideally, every stride forward, his back is coming up -- because he's got to put his foot under his belly. So there is this rippling 'upward' sensation through the horse followed by a gentle wafting downward of the forefeet.

You use this image by contrasting the ideal with the current.

To begin, when you ride the rainbow, you want to first ask 'What kind of rainbow am I sitting on?' If you have a stiff horse, your rainbow might look something like:

or worse:

The rainbow on the horse's left side might look different than the rainbow on the horse's right side. The trick is to first get information about the rainbow you have.

To find out what your rainbow is, you ask yourself: "What does my rainbow look like/feel like/sound like?" And then your brain makes something up and you pay attention to it. You say to yourself: "Hey - thanks for that info!"

If your brain comes back with a perfect rainbow and your horse is stiff, then you can guess something is off in your feedback loop but all is not lost. If it comes back with some flattened, flipped, or otherwise messed up rainbow, you have your 'marching orders.'

Technique 1) - overall

a) say to yourself: "Hey - here's the rainbow we've got (flash on the current rainbow) and this is the one we want (flash on the ideal rainbow) - how do you want to get there?" (you can either juxtapose the two images by switching between them or superimpose them one of top of each other.)

b) allow your body to adjust itself

c) repeat until your current rainbow and ideal rainbow match.

Technique 2) - specific parts

a) say to yourself: "Hey - here's the rainbow we've got (flash on the current rainbow) and it's <for instance: going down in the middle, not up> - I want that section to <for instance: go up.> What do you want to do to get there?"

b) allow the body to adjust

c) repeat until it's good enough then pick a different part to attend to. examples are:

the ends of the rainbow are flipped up, one or both
the ends of the rainbow aren't under the horse, one of both
the rainbow is too flat
the rainbow bow is too far forward, too far backward, off to the side, etc.

Technique 3) - my picture says it's perfect but my horse sure feels stiff anyway

a) say to yourself: "Hey - I want a higher rainbow!" - say this especially to the side that is stiff.

b) allow your body to deliver on that.

- or -

a) say to yourself: "What if we flatten that just a little bit more?" - especially on the stiff side

b) let your body experience this.

In the first instance, you're asking for more of what you want. In the second instance, you're emphasizing what you suspect is going on, which clarifies it and allows the body to correct it.

WELL - who knew that would take so long to type! When you get good at this you can do it within each stride - you watch the rainbow the entire time the foot is on the ground and then in flight.

There are other considerations as well - like what you're doing with your hands and legs. You want them moving in harmony with your horse, not against it. More on that next time!

ps - are you thinking, wait, why didn't we 'fix the horse?!' by changing yourself, specifically what you're aware of and thinking, you're providing your horse an example through leadership. It is, in the long run, more effective and long lasting than physical manipulations.