Strenghtening the horse's back
So recently I was riding Dublin. We were just standing there and he gave way with his back. Nothing new, but it was the first time my riding buddy saw him do that. She didn't comment on it then, but a few days later approached me with an exercise I really should try with him. Most people call it riding the horse "long and low". However, when I hear riders that ride Long and Low, I think of the riders that put their horses noses on their chest and then curl them over. This is totally different and I'll do my best to explain.
This exercise was taught to her by a French event trainer. Apparently they start all their horses at three, where they learn the VERY basics and nothing else is done. Then at four they start doing this to strengthen the back and at 5 they are put to work. Here it is.... you put your reins in one hand and a finger between both reins. Kind of like if you were to ride western style. Make sure there is enough contact on the reins that you "feel" the bit. Then run your hand back towards the buckle of the reins. Then take your other hand, take the rein and put one finger between the reins and move your hand back towards the buckle again. Make sure to keep contact on the reins, again just enough to feel the bit. You also need to hold the reins higher than the bit to encourage them to go down. Keep repeating. This especially works well if you have rubber reins with little gripper bumps.
What this does is vibrate the bit in the horse’s mouth. When the bit vibrates ever so slightly it then causes him to chew or mouth the bit and stretch out and downward. It took Dublin a while to figure out what I was doing, but once he got into it his nose when very close to the ground and his walk changed to a HUGE swinging and relaxed walk. Then once you have mastered it at the walk, do a trot in a large slow and easy trot.
This took some time for me to get him to keep his head down in the trot. I think manly because of my coordination and him trying to figure out what I wanted. But I was getting him to reach out and down with his head and swing through his back about 1/2 of a circle. Then he would pop his head up, drop his back and I would work my hands on the reins until he dropped again.
Today I went out and did this as a warm up for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Dublin has a tendency to hold his breath or breath very shallow until we get good and warmed up. But by doing this for a couple of minutes, he let out the biggest sigh and really relaxed. After I walked and trotted doing this and he felt really good, I picked up the reins and asked him to come round and move forward in nice working trot. It was SMOOTH! He was so light on the reins and his trot was really swinging and I felt him step way up under himself with his hind feet. We proceeded to work for a while and then I used this exercise to cool him down. This pleased him a lot.
My plan is this, I am going to warm him up each day and cool him down with this exercise for a month at least. And since Dublin is a very hot horse, whenever work gets tough or stressful for him, I'll stop and do this exercise for a couple of minutes and then back to work.
On another note, when my riding buddy was showing me how to do this exercise on her horse, he responded immediately. She had picked up the reins and asked for a shoulder in and then travers. Orion doesn't bend to the left when tracking left in the travers and he did the most perfect travers I have ever seen that day. So it really says something that they are relaxed, swinging through the back and hips and then to put them into work.
I want to stress, this is NOT putting the horse in an extreme curl position with their necks. The horse is simply stretching the head and jaw out and then down just as if they were about to graze. And I am not forcing this by pulling or flexing the horse's head. He feels the vibration of the bit in his mouth, starts chewing and then starts stretching down. When his head is down, I continue but my hands are lower and I let him stretch as far as he wants to go.
I'll keep you posted on our progress.
This exercise was taught to her by a French event trainer. Apparently they start all their horses at three, where they learn the VERY basics and nothing else is done. Then at four they start doing this to strengthen the back and at 5 they are put to work. Here it is.... you put your reins in one hand and a finger between both reins. Kind of like if you were to ride western style. Make sure there is enough contact on the reins that you "feel" the bit. Then run your hand back towards the buckle of the reins. Then take your other hand, take the rein and put one finger between the reins and move your hand back towards the buckle again. Make sure to keep contact on the reins, again just enough to feel the bit. You also need to hold the reins higher than the bit to encourage them to go down. Keep repeating. This especially works well if you have rubber reins with little gripper bumps.
What this does is vibrate the bit in the horse’s mouth. When the bit vibrates ever so slightly it then causes him to chew or mouth the bit and stretch out and downward. It took Dublin a while to figure out what I was doing, but once he got into it his nose when very close to the ground and his walk changed to a HUGE swinging and relaxed walk. Then once you have mastered it at the walk, do a trot in a large slow and easy trot.
This took some time for me to get him to keep his head down in the trot. I think manly because of my coordination and him trying to figure out what I wanted. But I was getting him to reach out and down with his head and swing through his back about 1/2 of a circle. Then he would pop his head up, drop his back and I would work my hands on the reins until he dropped again.
Today I went out and did this as a warm up for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Dublin has a tendency to hold his breath or breath very shallow until we get good and warmed up. But by doing this for a couple of minutes, he let out the biggest sigh and really relaxed. After I walked and trotted doing this and he felt really good, I picked up the reins and asked him to come round and move forward in nice working trot. It was SMOOTH! He was so light on the reins and his trot was really swinging and I felt him step way up under himself with his hind feet. We proceeded to work for a while and then I used this exercise to cool him down. This pleased him a lot.
My plan is this, I am going to warm him up each day and cool him down with this exercise for a month at least. And since Dublin is a very hot horse, whenever work gets tough or stressful for him, I'll stop and do this exercise for a couple of minutes and then back to work.
On another note, when my riding buddy was showing me how to do this exercise on her horse, he responded immediately. She had picked up the reins and asked for a shoulder in and then travers. Orion doesn't bend to the left when tracking left in the travers and he did the most perfect travers I have ever seen that day. So it really says something that they are relaxed, swinging through the back and hips and then to put them into work.
I want to stress, this is NOT putting the horse in an extreme curl position with their necks. The horse is simply stretching the head and jaw out and then down just as if they were about to graze. And I am not forcing this by pulling or flexing the horse's head. He feels the vibration of the bit in his mouth, starts chewing and then starts stretching down. When his head is down, I continue but my hands are lower and I let him stretch as far as he wants to go.
I'll keep you posted on our progress.
posted by Dressage Princess @ 11:40 AM
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