Experiments were conducted as early as the 19th century to investigate how different positions of the head and neck affect weight distribution on a stationary horse. Similar experiments have been carried out even today. The results were the same then as now.
A horse that is in the normal position of rest (A in the picture) carries about 60% of its bodyweight on the front legs. Note that the horse's ears are at the hight of the withers. When the rider mounts, two thirds of the rider's weight is carried by the front legs, the rest by the rear legs. To compensate for this the horse needs to rebalance itself, which it does by raising the neck and head (B). To me, the horse at B looks as if it is looking across a field. This position is not what I would call extremely raised, but rather a normal position and a must if the horse should not overload its shoulders and front legs.
With further education of the horse with collection as the goal, the hind legs of the horse are brought under the horse so that they carry even more weight. In classical riding the highest form of collection is the levade (E). Here the horse carries all his bodyweight and even the rider's weight on his hind legs. Since the hind legs in this picture are quite angled the rear is lowered. This may then be called a relative raising of the front end, that is not a raising of the neck and the head compared to the ground, but a raising of the neck's position compared to the rear.
What is it that we interpret as normal? How high a neck position is extremely high, and what is extremely low? The series of images above are taken from the former Swedish horsemaster Day Nätterqvist's website.
A similar sequence is also available in "Riding Logic" by Wilhelm Müseler. Müseler who wrote his book in the early 20th century. For much of the 20th century this was seen as normal. Also note that none of these horses have the nose behind the vertical line (an imaginary vertical line passing through the horse's eye), but rather in front of it.
Today in competitive riding, dressage as well as jumping, you can see horses being ridden in so-called “rollkur” (also since 2010 known as LDP, which stands for ”Low-and-Deep-and-Round”).
For me this is an extreme position that is not in any way helpful for the horse. I believe that even just a little behind the vertical is a position that should be avoided, for in this position too much of both the horse and rider's weight are loaded on the horse's front legs.
The trend in western riding and Scandinavian “academic riding” also seems to move towards a low position of the horse's neck, where the ideal is that the horse has his ears quite a bit lower than the withers. For me this is a position that my horse takes when I walk on a long rein. This is not a position in which I work the horse, but rather the position the horse will assume when the muscles in the neck are tired. These muscles can become fatigued when the horse is asked to carry his head by himself for a prolonged time, as in BE in the series.
It's been proven time and again how the horse's balance is affected by neck and head position. A horse with its neck straight out and the ears at the height of the withers carries more of his weight towards the front than the rear. More weight will be transferred to the front legs when the horse carries his neck lower and / or has its nose behind the vertical. When the horse raises the neck and head more of the weight is carried on his hind legs.
For me it is common sense to respect this when riding. Watch how your horse chooses to use the neck in order to affect his balance when he is, for instance, loose in the pasture, when jumping or being longed (without sidereins of course!).
What do you perceive as extreme or normal? What position does your horse choose on its own?
Thanks to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading! Any remaining errors are all my own / Lena
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment