I’ve never seen collection explained so well. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
A horse’s weight is distributed over its haunches and forehand. However, because of the heavy head and neck, the horse carries a greater amount of its weight on its forehand. The horse’s center of gravity is located slightly above and behind its elbow (blue dot).
There is a belief that the front feet push against the ground in order to push the forehand upward and the body weight backward but by watching correctly ridden horses and horse playing in nature, it becomes clear that this is not the case.
To improve the horse’s balance we need to encourage the horse to carry more of its weight with its haunches or, in other words, engage its haunches.
Equilibrium is maintained by controlling
the body’s center of
gravity over its base of support.
KEY FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO ENGAGEMENT OF THE HAUNCHES
The bending of the hind legs – When the horse is working in a relaxed manner and his back is elastically pulsating, the driving aids can be used to encourage pure impulsive ground covering strides, which in turn cause deeper bending of the joints of the hind legs.
The shortening of the base of support – In the beginning of the horse’s training, gymnastic exercises are used that increase the bending of the horse’s spine and the bending of one hind leg at a time. These exercises would include work on a single track such as circles, serpentines and other bent lines. Later, greater bending is developed with the use of shoulder fore and shoulder in. In more advanced training, exercises that bend both hind legs (stops, transitions, backing) are used. These gymnastic exercises encourage the more deeply bending hind legs to work further forward toward the horse’s center of gravity and shorten the horse’s base of support. This causes the forward impulse of the hind legs to travel through the horse’s body and act on the forehand in a more forward/upward direction. In addition, the shortening of the horse’s base of support shifts more weight to the haunches.
The lowering of the spine posteriorly – As the horse’s strength develops, the deeper bending of the hind legs causes the spine, which naturally slopes downward from the hips to base of the neck, to lower posteriorly. In exceptionally strong and well-conformed horses the point of the hip (green dot) can eventually lower to a point below the joint between the first thoracic vertebra (back) and last cervical (neck) vertebra (yellow dot). Because the horse’s spine is somewhat rigid, the horse’s haunches do not ‘sit’ independently from the forehand. Instead, this rearward spinal tilt shifts more weight onto the haunches. Bending of the haunches to this degree requires an extraordinary amount of strength and suppleness.
The elastic tension of the lifter muscles – As the horse’s muscles alternately flex and relax more deeply, the bending of the hind legs and shortening of the base of support create an elastic tension (not to be confused with tightness or constriction) in the muscles and ligaments that connect the haunches to the forehand. This elastic tension helps to lighten the forehand in a kind of cantilever action.
Natural raising of the neck – The elastic tension of the muscles and ligaments bring the horse’s neck up into a graceful arch, with the poll balancing as the highest point and the head hanging naturally by gravity from an elegant upward/forward reaching neck.
The horse naturally raises its mouth to a point approximately level with its hip and its face approaches the vertical. This naturally offered posture allows the rein aids to travel freely through each vertebra, through the pelvis, down to the hind pastern joints. With the neck stretched upward and the poll carried poised like a ballet dancer, the heavy weight of the head and neck is shifted toward the haunches, making it easier for the back to lift the forehand and the hind legs to carry the weight.
In the piaffe, the combined center of gravity
of the horse and rider is directly over the center
of the horse’s base of support.
Relaxing and bending is the key factor that enables the hind legs to bend more deeply under the increased weight. Engagement becomes easier for the horse as it gets stronger and its balance is refined. As the horse willingly relaxes into the work it will naturally offer to bend its hind legs as much as it is able. As the horse relaxes and settles onto its hind legs, the hips and stifles bend even further. Again, this shortens the base of support and further lowers the spine posteriorly and naturally continues to draw the head and neck into a position that enhances the horse’s balance. The haunches are methodically strengthened until the forehand can be easily lifted completely off of the ground and the horse can momentarily settle onto its hind legs.
I want to talk a little about bits in this week’s article, because it’s a subject that is difficult to get good information about and because of this, Barb and I are doing a webinar next week combined with how to develop soft hands and feel (no, you don’t have to be born with those!).
Whatever choice we make regarding the bit we’re using, we all want to communicate clearly with our horse, building confidence and trust.
It’s more about how you use your equipment than what equipment you use. Certain bits work better at certain levels of a horse’s training, but more important is that we’ve laid a strong foundation so the horse understands what’s being asked and can physically and mentally respond correctly.
As a trainer, I had a far smaller collection of bits than most. However, when I succumbed to buying the latest gimmick, it didn’t take long for it to be relegated to the back of my tack room to collect dust.
Bits are tools and our true connection comes from our seat, legs, and breathing with our hands playing a secondary, supporting role.
Bits shouldn’t be used as a punitive measure nor resorted to in frustration. The reason we advance from a non-leverage bit (snaffle) to a leverage bit should be that the basics have all been solidly put into place and now we want to refine our horse’s skills in whatever discipline we choose.
If there are holes in your horse’s foundation, don’t think a bigger bit is going to fix them. Graduating to the next bit should be to fine-tune our horse by increasing their sensitivity to us and helping them become more accurate and responsive.
I hope you’ll join us on Dec 5th and 7th at 5:00 PST.
Till then,
Sandy and Barb
