Rev Up Your Dressage Scores
Lesson
Three
The “How-to” of Straightness
You
may be looking at the outline, and wondering why circle movements are involved
in a lesson about straightness.
I am sure you’ve heard that a horse has to bend to be
straight, but he also has to be straight to bend correctly.
I feel that straightness is one of the most misunderstood
concepts on the training scale. Let’s
get the “how” and “why” figured out so you can use this to your advantage and
rev-up you dressage tests scores.
We have been discussing how to work within the arena, but
let’s step back a moment to be sure you know how to get the horse truly
straight in the first place.
Let’s say you are
riding down the centerline from A toward C.
Just because you make a generally straight line, it does not mean, in
any way, that your horse is straight.
“Well, he went straight, didn’t he?” you may ask. Perhaps, but going straight doesn’t always
mean the horse is straight.
This may not mean anything to you until you are showing in
a test and the judge tells you your horse is crooked, or makes a strange
comment that your horse is “against your leg.”
If you get that comment, you can be pretty sure your horse is not
straight.
How can you tell your horse is not
straight without a judge telling you?
Here are some obvious things a crooked horse does, or
cannot do well, until he is straight.
If your horse is not straight, he will not truly be
forward, but will rush instead. He will
prefer to move in one direction more than the other. He will have a certain side that will not
move away from your leg cues. He will
often “drop” a shoulder, and will consistently tip his nose to one side.
Tail-swishing will often accompany crookedness, or just
carrying the tail to one side instead of straight.
These symptoms are not unique to crookedness, as they can
often be pain-induced as well. But if
your horse exhibits any of these “signs” chances are good “crookedness” is the
cause.
If the issues mentioned are never correctly addressed, your
chances are zero of performing higher-level movements correctly.
Believe it or not, you can feel it when your horse is
crooked; I am sure you have already felt it, but may have given that feeling a
different name.
When you are riding, and place your leg on the horse’s side
to move him over, and he responds by pushing back, he is probably telling you
he is crooked.
When you are going along the rail and try to prepare him
for a turn, and he insists on looking outside the arena, he is telling you he
may be crooked. And if you are working
in a circle, and he is consistently counter bending or dropping the inside
shoulder, he is most likely telling you he is crooked.
Most horses are crooked at times, especially before warming
up.
Often a crooked horse can be straightened with correct
riding and solid softening exercises.
There are, however, a lot of horses with chronic
crookedness which prevents them from being able to straighten easily.
When a horse is straight, he has an equal amount of weight
bearing on each leg and he is square at the halt. There should not be any need for the rider to
make the horse stand a certain way to appear straight. Ridden correctly, a straight horse will
naturally halt squarely.
So what IS straight for a horse?
It has to do with his ribcage. The horse’s ribcage should be able to swing
to the right and left equally. In other
words, the horse can stretch or contract both sides equally.
A horse can only stretch one side at a time; the opposite
side is contracting. This is how a horse
bends.
To picture this, think of a rubber ruler standing on its
edge. Take one end of the ruler and bend it left or right. If you can visualize
this, you can see the ruler is bulging on one side and bent inward
(contracting) on the other side.
If the ruler is stiff, it is always stiff on both sides. It
can’t be stiff on one side and at the same time bend on the other. If it
stretches on the left, it is contracted on right; if it stretches on the right,
it is contracted on the left.
The horse’s rib cage is just like the ruler. When going to the right, the contact of the
rider’s right leg asks the horse’s muscles to contract on the right side, which
creates the right bend. This can only
happen if the horse’s left side can stretch and bulge.
The horse cannot bend correctly if one side or the other is
stiff. He will try to compensate by
either contorting his neck, shoulder or haunches; or possibly by pushing back
against the rider’s asking leg.
There are many attitudes or behaviors a horse can take to
avoid doing something that is physically difficult. The horse may react violently, stubbornly or
just ignore the rider.
To really get the horse straight, you want to put the horse
together in three parts. The horse’s
head/neck/shoulders are one unit put together by using the outside rein. The horse’s barrel or ribcage is controlled
by the rider’s seat, thighs and lower leg.
The horse’s hindquarters are controlled by the rider’s seat and lower
leg.
The idea is to keep the ribcage centered between the
rider’s legs and also directly between the horse’s forehand and hindquarters.
If the horse responds by moving from away from the rider’s
leg, and bends into either direction easily, then he is probably pretty
straight and can bend well. The two go
hand in hand; can’t have one without the other.
Lots of bending and flexing exercises loosen the ribcage
and enable the horse to become straight.
Being able to easily bend in either direction is what makes it easy for
the horse to be straight.
There are a few things to remember when preparing the horse
to be straight.
First you want to loosen his ribcage—his midsection. Many people call it “swinging the hammock”.
When you keep his forehand straight (use the outside rein
to keep his head and neck in front of his chest and shoulders) you can then
send the horse’s ribcage right and left with your legs.
Practice this at the walk on alternating strides.
Depending on how responsive the horse is, you can use your
thigh, upper leg, calf or heel to create the cues. Never just push or kick, use more of a
pulsing action.
The most responsive horses will react to your upper
leg. Your lower leg is a way to “raise
your voice” in terms of the cue request.
If the horse is very tight, crooked or sore, you will
probably need to use the lower leg, ankle and heel. (Of course, immediately find the source of
the horse’s tightness or pain and correct that before continuing his training.)
Don’t kick the horse, but use your heel or ankle like an
ice cream scoop, lifting up on his muscles as far down as your leg hangs. If you raise your leg or put it way back, you
will engage the haunches and that is not the part we want to move at this
point.
You want to control the middle of the horse, so that is
where you should be using your leg aid.
Always think of using both legs. One is the “asking” or “pushing” leg, and the
leg on the other side is the “passive” leg.
Think of pushing his ribcage into the passive leg. Give the horse a “hug” with your legs; one
leg pushing the horse into the passive leg.
Do not take your passive leg off your horse. The passive leg must remain against the horse
so the horse doesn’t simply move his whole body over instead of swinging his
ribcage over.
There is a lot more detail and information about
“straightness” in my course: Dressage: Foundation for All Riding Disciplines.
http://www.horsecoursesonline.com/index/index_dressage_description.html
For now, understand that “straightness” is going to rev-up
your dressage scores.
Here are two exercises to help get the horse straight. These are not asked for in any test, but are
great for improving your horse’s performance.
The
Double
You want to sit tall and level. The inside rein is taken away from the horse’s
neck (not back) and then brought back toward your hip. Twist your body to the inside, without
leaning, and with your legs, ask the horse to “double” and “chase his
tail”. In this exercise, you do NOT
hold the outside rein. If you allow him
that freedom, both his front legs will cross and his hind legs will cross. This will help him both stretch his outside
and contract his inside.
Do NOT do this with speed and do NOT use it as a
punishment.
This exercise will help introduce him to contracting his
bulging (harder) side while stretching his over-contracted inner side.
Do the exercise
several times in one direction, and then repeat moving in the opposite
direction.
Keep your body and hips level, swiveling toward the inside;
that means inside hip is back and the outside hip is forward.
After you have him moving a little rounder and softer from
this exercise, you are going to do the second exercise, the turn-on-the-forehand.
The
Turn on the Forehand
This will help lighten his forehand, round his back,
straighten his body straight and put him on the bit.
Walk your horse forward, going to the left, and halt
correctly, pushing him into your hand. Make sure you have a firm (not tight)
contact on your outside rein.
Your inside rein opens slightly
and stays soft, keeping the horse’s nose slightly to the inside. Put your
inside leg back just a bit and send the left ribcage and haunches toward the
outside leg. Use your hips as well and
eventually your hips will take the place of your leg. Your inside hip will come back as your
outside hip goes forward.
Use a press and release cue with the inside leg. Your outside rein is keeping his neck
straight – no bend in the neck please!
As the horse steps over, your outside leg then presses to
send the horse’s outside forward. His
inside hind leg should be stepping over and forward of his outside hind leg.
The horse’s head and forehand remain relatively still as
the hindquarters are moving around the forehand in a controlled, when-
asked-for motion.
You do not want the horse to step backward.
Watch a short video demonstrating the turn on the forehand:
https://youtu.be/08rFf2YjfKk
Done correctly, the inside hind leg of the horse must cross
in FRONT and forward of the outside hind leg.
The horse’s front legs lift and step, making a smaller, circular motion.
Have someone watch you or do this on the ground so you can see that he is
moving correctly. Always work both
directions.
Here is an exercise to help improve hindquarter movement.
Place four cones to create the corners of a large square.
Now ride the following pattern: Ride to a cone and
halt. Push the horse’s hindquarters over
a few steps, (keeping his neck straight and his motion forward), and then push
him into the walk toward the next cone.
Repeat the exercise. You should
make each turn a 90 degree angle. The
goal is to make nice straight lines between each cone. Keep his neck straight; raise your hands if
he lifts his neck (you want a straight line from your hand to his bit), keep
contact and do not let him backup. He
may even try to cheat by turning his forehand over instead of his hindquarters. If he does this, you need more outside rein
and maybe slide your legs back a bit to be sure you are affecting his
hindquarters.
This exercise can help your horse straighten, bend and
flex, raise his back and remain “forward”.
Improve in these areas and your horse will move forward correctly---and
I guarantee the judges will notice!
Assignment:
TASK
Please
have someone video tape you and your horse performing both a “Double” and a
“Turn on the Forehand”.
TASK
TWO:
Send
a report describing each of the above exercises. Describe using concrete details and with very
specific Do’s and Don’ts.
Any
questions, feel free to ask.
EXPLAIN
WHICH
Load
the video to YouTube,
Photobucket, or another
video hosting web site.
Please send the link to the video and your report (in the
body of an email or as an attachment) to: cathyhansonqh@gmail.com