Horses, like humans, are born with unbalanced musculature and a preference for a certain side. Typically one side will be more flexible and stretchy and the other stronger. Our horse’s best rein will be the one where his powerful side is on the inside and his stretchy one on the outside. For efficiency and to prevent injuries we need to work towards making our horse’s musculature more even.
Good muscles are of natural length. They are neither contracted (making them strong but inflexible) or overstretched (making them flexible but weak). This means that we must work on suppling our horse – stretching his strong contracted muscles to improve flexibility and strengthening his weaker ones to make them more powerful. Both flexibility and strength are necessary to perform well and sustainably. Weakness and inflexibility leave our horse vulnerable to injury.
If we demand that our horse perform exercises that are above his capability given his musculature he will incur injuries and unsoundness which in turn will lead to loss of muscle due to lack of work. This means that we must work on the boundaries of our horse’s capability. We must ensure that new exercises are introduced when he has sufficient energy and are devised in such a way to help build the necessary muscles as he learns. It goes without saying that it will be more difficult to develop muscle correctly on a poor or crooked frame. Conformation has a great impact on what will be possible. On the other hand, weaker conformation can be supported with correct muscles.
A good example of this is my old horse, Shantie. Amongst his many problems are a club foot and one front leg longer than the other. Luckily for him no-one ever told him this and he was very successful in local show jumping competitions.
Working with imbalanced musculature will always involve a degree of tension. This makes movement difficult and so it involves more effort than is necessary. It looks laboured and it is. It will become easier when he has developed the correct musculature and he uses that musculature with minimum effort. When this happens our horse moves with ease and feels like he could carry on the work forever (like freewheeling on a bike).
The most efficient shape for any athlete is symmetrical – even left to right – and even top to bottom (head to tail). Most horses are naturally built to carry more weight on the forehand. The weight of a rider adds to this problem. To address this we have to develop our horse so that he is able to carry more weight behind. This allows him to carry a rider more easily and gives freedom to the shoulders so that all movement becomes lighter and easier. We call this a collected frame. It is the most efficient way of carrying and propelling the weight of horse and rider.
To achieve this redistribution of weight the rider “collects” the horse. In other words she helps him to work in a more mechanically efficient frame. This requires two things: impulsion and alignment (straightness – the hind feet following in the path of the fore feet). The first priority is straightness as energy without straightness does not give impulsion. It gives wasted energy!
To improve straightness we need to reduce muscle tension in the horse to the minimum necessary for the exercise in hand. The absence of unnecessary tension is often called relaxation or decontraction. The two are inter-related as the more the horse relaxes his tense muscles the more he will straighten, and the straighter he is the more he can release excess tension as his balance improves.
Our horse will not be able to release tension in his body if he is tense and anxious in his mind. The rider needs to cultivate calmness. Calmness is affected by many things; the sensitivity of the horse; the way he is managed (in the stable or field); the spookiness of the environment (eg wind, unfamiliar surroundings etc); his level of understanding and trust in his rider.
We can try to control our environment but this is not always possible. We can decide not to ride eg when it is windy. We can desensitise our horse by riding him in lots of different environments. We can build his confidence in us by being consistent and clear in our training and by managing our own calmness.
A key factor in developing calmness is rhythm. Rhythm has a calming effect on the horse’s mind. It stimulates endorphin production which in turn allows him to feel and release unwanted tension in his body. This gives us an important feedback loop. Rhythm affects calmness which in turn affects relaxation which in turn improves the regularity of the rhythm. This loop is reinforcing in that whichever direction it starts with (virtuous or vicious) this will continue as long as nothing changes.
I think that it is difficult to work on rhythm directly without becoming too fixed and stiff ourselves. Rather, I think that we work on keeping ourselves calm and relaxed and keeping things “the same”. As our horse calms his rhythm will improve. This means that we work on calmness and through this influence rhythm.
Figure 26 Developing rhythm
It is difficult to breathe deeply and evenly when we are tense. It is the same for our horse. Signs that our horse is calming include relaxed snorting. This shows he is letting go and is breathing more calmly. Contrast this with the forced angry snorting which is a sign of high anxiety. If we focus on our breathing and relaxation we will influence our calmness and in turn our horse’s calmness.
An even rhythm is best achieved by “no change”. The easiest place to achieve this is in trot on a true circle. Equally repetitive exercises of any kind can be soothing and calming. Lunging is also a great help for similar reasons. It allows the horse to develop rhythm and balance without the additional problem of the weight of the rider.
The best demonstration I have seen of this was watching John Micklem lunging my anxious Arab, Shantie. As I watched Shantie careering around and around in what I considered to be rather a dangerous fashion I asked John what he was doing about it. John said that he was doing nothing because there was nothing he could do. He was simply waiting for Shantie to calm down and relax. He explained that as this happened Shantie would find his own natural regular rhythm. And it was true. I watched it happen.
An unsound horse will have an irregular rhythm due to tension and compensation. A horse will lose rhythm whenever he loses his balance. This means that rhythm is a symptom of calmness. We pay attention to it but we only influence it through our own calmness.
An anxious horse who is tense in the mind will not be able to focus solely on his rider. He will not be attentive. We can work on attentiveness by working on calmness. We can also work on calmness by improving attentiveness. This is another important feedback loop. As a horse’s trust in his rider increases so will his calmness. Trust requires consistency.
If our horse isn’t listening to us and is not calm we need to get his attention through exercises that are calming and engage his brain. A good example would be lots of lateral work in walk. Fast work and transitions are less appropriate at this time.
If he is calm but inattentive (ie switched off) we can work on both with faster work and lots of transitions. Be clear and consistent. The more responsive he gets the more the encouragement to reinforce his confidence.
We could get our lazy horse’s attention by cracking him with a whip. This is likely to be counter-productive as we create anxiety, lose calmness and increase muscle tension – not such a clever intervention after all!
As our horse’s body de-contracts, his back softens and he becomes more comfortable to sit on. As a result he finds us easier to carry. Another reinforcing loop.
As the connection strengthens he becomes more attentive and, as a result, more responsive to our requests. He becomes more ride-able and open to our influence. We can use this to improve his alignment and make him more responsive.
As he becomes more responsive we can start to develop impulsion. We can ask for more energy and we can direct it more forwards through his straighter, decontracted frame.
Exercise uses oxygen from the air to power the muscles, converting the energy from food. It is sustainable for periods that depend upon the amount of effort the horse puts in. If the horse is working at very high exercise levels, he becomes tired. Without a proper recovery period between vigorous spells of exercise, the horse will feel pain in his muscles. This leads to tension and reduced ability to focus.
Balancing feed and exercise is very important. A fit horse is not a fat horse. Carrying fat on horse or rider means inefficiency and increased effort for any given outcome. This means that we have to ensure our horse has adequate fuel (food) for his work requirements and no more. We have to balance energy input through diet, and energy utilisation through living and working.