Fixing Your Horse’s Natural Asymmetry (Part 1)

Overcome your horse’s natural asymmetry so you can—finally!—ride perfect circles and straight lines.

Does your horse seem to have a “good” and a “bad” side? Is he somehow easier to ride in one direction than the other? Is it hard for you to make your circles to the left match your circles to the right—or for any of your circles to be perfectly round? This is similar to our being right or left handed. Here. We’re looking to help him become ambidextrous.

The effect you’re noticing is caused by his natural asymmetry. In other words, one side of his body is not exactly like the other, and so doesn’t move and respond in exactly the same way (just like ours). That means he’s stiff and resistant to bending in one direction (his stiff side), while he tends to bend too much in the other (his “hollow” side).

As if this asymmetry weren’t enough to deal with, “magnets” also pull your horse out of alignment when you’re trying to ride precisely. Magnets are things (such as the barn or a pasture full of buddies) that attract your horse’s attention, causing his body to bulge or drift that way.

The Enemies of ‘Going Straight’

Getting and keeping your horse straight—whether he’s on a straight line or not—is a fundamental goal of riding. This concept can seem confusing, so let’s consider some definitions.

Straight: Your horse travels with his hind feet in the tracks of his front, with his neck and spine aligned to allow this. This means he’ll be straight on a straight line and curved on a curving line, or circle. (Trouble is, his asymmetry and the pull of magnets make it challenging for you to keep him that way.)

Hollow: Your horse bends or softens excessively in one direction. About 80% of horses tend to be hollow when traveling to their right. When you lope your horse to his hollow side, it will feel as if he’s bending much more than the arc of the circle requires. That’s because his natural asymmetry is causing his hindquarters to drift to the inside of the circle to avoid carrying weight, which in turn causes his neck, shoulders, and ribcage to drift to the outside of the circle.

Stiff: Your horse resists bending or softening in one direction. Horses tend to be stiff when traveling to their left. When you lope your horse to his stiff side, he resists bending on the arc of the circle. His nose won’t be properly tipped to the inside, nor will he have a soft bend from poll to dock.

He’ll feel as if he’s always collapsing/cutting in on his circles when going this direction. You’ll usually feel more comfortable loping on this lead (to his stiff side), as he’s tracking straighter and will usually stop better, but that doesn’t make it his better side. It’s as challenging to supple the stiff side as it is to straighten the hollow side.

Magnet: Anything that attracts your horse’s attention and therefore draws him to it. A horse’s body goes where he looks, and he looks where his mind is. Predictably, this is the gate, the barn, the trailer, where his buddies are, and so on. Magnets are what make straight lines (such as rundowns in a reining pattern) and symmetric circles problematic.
To compensate for these magnets and to deal with and overcome your horse’s asymmetry, you must learn to…

Ride a Perfect Circle

This sounds easy, especially at a walk, but it isn’t! Once you master perfect circles in both directions, though, you’ll have evened out your horse’s asymmetry and achieved control over his entire body—essential for any competitive event, as well as for safe, pleasurable trail riding. You’ll also have learned how to overcome the effects of your horse’s favorite magnets.

Before you begin this exercise, turn your horse out and/or work him from the ground to get the “fresh” out and dial his attention in to you. Outfit him in a plain snaffle bit (for clear, comfortable communication) and his usual saddle. Work in an enclosed area with good footing. If possible, work on freshly groomed ground so you can easily see your horse’s tracks, and/or enlist a friend to help you gauge the symmetry of your circles.

The goal. A perfect circle is precisely round as opposed to oval, oblong, cigar or egg-shaped. As your horse travels this circle, he should stay soft in your hand and flexed slightly to the inside through his neck and body. He should walk in an even, four-beat rhythm, at a steady pace—no deviations in speed. His hind feet should follow in the tracks of his front. He should be equally soft and responsive in either direction.

KEY SKILL: Teach your horse to move laterally, off your leg. Let’s review that before we move on. Be sure you can move him out onto a bigger circle by pulling your outside rein way out while keeping his nose tipped to the inside and keeping his body on the arc of that circle. He’ll have to bend and move laterally off your leg (this is no easy feat so practice it at all the gaits before moving on). I’ll cover more of the “how too’s” in my next article.