Fleece Navidad
Well-Known Member
Thanks! It's still a work in progress, and he'll revert to giraffe when stressy, but the moments of it get shorter and shorter over time.
Can you retrain an older horse to work in a nice outline with always being allowed to have a high carriage?
- Thread starter Autumn30
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Thanks! It's still a work in progress, and he'll revert to giraffe when stressy, but the moments of it get shorter and shorter over time.
oldie48
Well-Known Member
As some have said, long and low is good but for some horses, that have not been worked correctly, will find this very difficult. There's a big difference between working long and low reaching for the bit with a rounded back and using the hind end to working long and low, on the forehand with a flat back and the legs out behind them, which is what many horses will offer. You may find it better to ask for this at the end of a schooling session than at the beginning.
HeresHoping
Well-Known Member
Mine was a broodmare until she was 12. This was us over a year...(please ignore our dropped noseband in picture 2 - we had to borrow one and it stretched in the rain that you can't see).
sbloom
Well-Known Member
I would personally say no to a Pessoa, working close in hand work aimed at improving posture is a much better idea IMO. I recommend the Manolo Mendez DVDs to my saddle fitting customers, but do have a list of groundwork links I can email.
This interesting and may apply to horses that go head high but equally to horses held in an outline, outline is the result of moving biomechanically correctly and that needs good posture. Head and neck carriage tends to come last.
This interesting and may apply to horses that go head high but equally to horses held in an outline, outline is the result of moving biomechanically correctly and that needs good posture. Head and neck carriage tends to come last.
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SaddlePsych'D
Well-Known Member
Bernster
Well-Known Member
Great vid thx. Am going to have a good prod and poke and assess both horses next down I’m down. They get regular treatments and I do look at how they are looking but will do that in more detail next time!
oldie48
Well-Known Member
What a good video, I found it really helpful. thanks for posting sbloom.
sbloom
Well-Known Member
It's amazing how many horses have these postural issues and why I bang on about in hand work, and feet. Feet have a massive influence on posture, stance and biomechanics in motion. Negative palmar angle is being focused on by the best farriers now as being absolutely key, and may need sorting in many of these horses.
Tom Beech has an interesting post on Facebook about the order in which you unpick these things - I was on a CPD webinar last night where, as bodyworkers, trainers and fitters we were asked whether horse, saddle or rider should be fixed as a priority where there is asymmetry. I said that it depends who you are, a really good farrier (and the ones I often link to fall into that category) would say that you have to address the feet first, but I think you can't separate issues and a bodyworker is more likely to want to fix the horse, a saddle fitter the saddle and an instructor the rider. It was fascinating to see a video where the very competent and straight rider was asked to lengthen one stirrup, and her very sensitive horse went like a bag of spanners. I'm sure that not many of us would have thought that rider asymmetry could make a horse look lame, and many instructors might just have started to look at suppling and bending exercises.
So Tom goes on to say that if you pick the wrong thing first you can cause more issues. He's quite possibly right, but who do we have who can assess all of that for our horses? It's where teamwork comes in, getting everyone talking and agreeing an order to tackle things. And so often it's not just the approach to schooling that needs looking at.
Tom Beech has an interesting post on Facebook about the order in which you unpick these things - I was on a CPD webinar last night where, as bodyworkers, trainers and fitters we were asked whether horse, saddle or rider should be fixed as a priority where there is asymmetry. I said that it depends who you are, a really good farrier (and the ones I often link to fall into that category) would say that you have to address the feet first, but I think you can't separate issues and a bodyworker is more likely to want to fix the horse, a saddle fitter the saddle and an instructor the rider. It was fascinating to see a video where the very competent and straight rider was asked to lengthen one stirrup, and her very sensitive horse went like a bag of spanners. I'm sure that not many of us would have thought that rider asymmetry could make a horse look lame, and many instructors might just have started to look at suppling and bending exercises.
So Tom goes on to say that if you pick the wrong thing first you can cause more issues. He's quite possibly right, but who do we have who can assess all of that for our horses? It's where teamwork comes in, getting everyone talking and agreeing an order to tackle things. And so often it's not just the approach to schooling that needs looking at.
milliepops
Wears headscarf aggressively
this is a very good point and it is a real headache when you are a rider of a NQR horse because every pro you talk to will give you a different answer and some will tell you you're imagining things. I think as owners/riders the best thing we can do is to educate ourselves as much as possible in all those interconnected areas because the person who sees, handles, rides and trains the horse every single day is best placed to get the spidey sense things that might tip you off to what needs to be looked at first. i don't think the layman can do this always or to any great competence, but on a personal level I'm getting to the trust-your-instincts point more and more these days. we can't all have Tom Beech over every 5 mins on spec, we have to get competent at picking up on clues ourselves and following them up.
I've been on the receiving end of the trainer seeing a physical thing as a training issue multiple times, it's nothing wrong with the trainer, as above because they are paid to fix training problems that's the prism they will see stuff through. the horse owner has to be the horse advocate and be able and prepared to take a different approach when needed. it's really hard to do sometimes.
I've been on the receiving end of the trainer seeing a physical thing as a training issue multiple times, it's nothing wrong with the trainer, as above because they are paid to fix training problems that's the prism they will see stuff through. the horse owner has to be the horse advocate and be able and prepared to take a different approach when needed. it's really hard to do sometimes.
Bernster
Well-Known Member
An observation from my trainer riding last night - we were talking about core strength and she was demonstrating using and not using her core. Horse is sensitive to the rider, and not using her core led to the horse losing balance, rhythm and going slightly ‘noddy’ - which went as soon as she engaged her core again. No known soundness issues and this was clearly the impact of the rider. Made me recall that post about people being able to ‘ride’ a horse sound, and vice versa.
milliepops
Wears headscarf aggressively
it's all so interconnected, because I can ride my broken one sound, but when I observe him in the stable or just pottering about at leisure, he is clearly not right. that's probably why trainer didn't see what I was seeing, when I present him in the arena I presented a balanced horse that was supple and quite straight. he's educated enough to let me control the edges of him
when I see him in the stable.... no one else ever saw what I saw, until I got neuro guru to look.
HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
Definitely interconnected, I think if I'd not intervened with how Skylla was using herself she would have ended up lame with how she was holding/ using herself. I don't think I 'rode her sound' as she wasn't at the unsound stage yet, but she's developed much better posture and musculature from having an in-depth rehab plan for 6 months!