Post by RD on Feb 2, 2014 15:23:36 GMT
To start this thread: pasted from JP's response in the Yahoo site:
Hello all, I have been busy writing a book in French in preparation for my upcoming clinic there at Michel and Catherine Henriquet. She has a complicated horse and I had promised to help her, so I started to write down about my latest research on symmetry because they needed articles for the French press and TV (Equidia). I am quite excited about that trip, as I will see some aging members of my family and meet a few new additions. The only problem is that I will probably put back the 10 lbs I just lost.
Now it is turning into a major endeavor with private visits and clinics at a number of top dressage and jumping riders (Michel Robert among them who just retired from competing at age 65 after13 medals in Olympics, Europeans and World Games, now a major international teacher). He is an old friend from when I had a jumper on the circuit and very open minded for anything new that explains what we already know from experience. I am also going to visit the South of France for a couple of the major shows in Vidauban to help the lady of the house there and meet again with her trainer Udo Lange who gave me a major insight on riding pirouettes 28 years ago at the CDS Finales in the Wine Country (don’t sit and your still inexperienced horse with turn around like a charm, same principle as posting trot or flying changes in the half-seat).
My dear friend Francisco Cancella d’Abreu (former teacher at the Royal Andalusian School, former coach to the Portuguese team and now a FEI dressage judge) is coming from Barcelona where he now lives to check on my new discoveries (on “Dynamic Asymmetry”, a term I just coined to explain what I am now understanding about what has been referred to so far as “crookedness”). We have been discussing dressage since we were kids (me at Nuno’s and him at Borba’s, which were neighbors at the time). We were together in Spain after we escaped the Portuguese Revolution of 74. He is the guy who sold me Novilheiro (and also discovered Baloubet du Rouet – World’s best show jumper - as a 3 year old for Pessoa and his Portuguese sponsor Diogo Pereira Coutinho). He is very Germanic (was a close friend of Herbert Rehbein) but cannot deny his early training with Borba and his Portuguese heritage and his international experience is immeasurable (as well as his analytical ability). We haven’t seen each other since WEG 2010, but he is very eager to see the effects of my lunging and riding rig (getting close to release, still being tweaked everyday J to make sure it works with absolutely every horse). Like me, he understands that horse do not lunge the same way left and right and what they DO (go, don’t go, loose balance, etc.) is more important than what they ARE (crooked).
WE NEED TO FOLLOW ARISTOTLE AND GET TO THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES HIDDEN IN THE PARTICULAR OBSERVATIONS OF EVERYDAY LIFE.
I read most of the posts and this subject and I will say that I agree with Mary Lou’s observations, as well as Daniella’s and Julie (and some of Dan’s and Mike). However, they are all partial views, for instance: the horse take more contact on the left circle than the right on the lunge, the horse makes a smaller circle on the right than the left, the horse doesn’t take contact on the right rein, but forces against the left rein, the right hind is weaker than the left, etc. All of these facts are consistently true and reveal a posture and dynamic common to practically all horses and observed by most trainers with a bit of experience. Stiffness of this or that and “hollow side” and “banana shapes” end up being confusing to riders as they are personal observations relative to each one of us experience, degree of feel and personal language to express it.
I consider that the dynamic of the horse in relation to the 4 fundamental directions: forward (effect on impulsion/submission), backward (effect on balance/resistance), left (effect on impulsion) and right (effect on balance) are best corrected on the circle on the lunge line because, once the rider is on board, it is no longer the horse that is being corrected/educated and has a chance to correct himself, but instead a complex combination in which the human and equine parts are no longer distinguishable in their influence and effects.
I am going to repeat my understanding of the problem with the additions of what I have recently surmised from my recent observations:
IMPULSION:
1/ It is well admitted that the hind legs are the engine of the horse, but this engine is relative as different horses have different amounts of “horse power”. An old horse will travel at 5 miles/hour while a young TB will reach 35 miles/hour. However, if eh hind legs are the engine, it implies that the front legs are the brakes. Horses all have “absolute brakes” (can stop from any speed at any time as long as the rider doesn’t prevent the stop by stiffening them through distracting influences of badly applied aids). Watch Nuno’s or Pedro Torres’ videos (or mine) and you will see horses doing transitions to halt or walk from canter that seem effortless. That is because horses can do that very easily if we let them and there is absolutely no need for preparatory half halts. Braking function is also a balancing function (partial slow down when needed in downhill terrain, in approaching an obstacle or a scary object, in readjusting speed, etc.), so the front legs will effect that braking/balancing and conversely, the release of the braking will create impulsion. The hind legs FOLLOW and assist both functions.
2/ horses are resistant to being moved forward by others, until they become convinced of the other horse’s superiority (dominance relationship). This resistance is expressed in different ways: most horses resist apparently from the croup (kicking when pushed by a bite, backing up into somebody else), but this is only possible for them by bracing the front legs forward in order to push backward. Mares will push back in that way if they want to be bred (submissive posture in which they brace their front to support the stallion and spread their hind legs in flexion - crouching), or if they don’t want to be bred (aggressive posture in which they brace their front legs in order to kick the stallion). They do the same to deal with the weather (rain, wind) or to have a fight with a rival.
Stallions will resist a frontal attack from another horse that will try to push them with head or shoulders. They may strike with their front feet, but they return very quickly to a solid stance and it is pretty much impossible to move the front feet of an excited stallion when he is challenging another or ready to breed.
As a logical consequence of this “ethological posturing”, we must conclude that “impulsion” (which is a “transmitted force” from anybody - predator, other horse, rider - in order to create movement) is a direct form of dominance - moving the other’s feet. It will meet “resistance” which is the basic survival mode of the horse in social life (or when under attack from a predator, or humans). Resistance to movement is equal in importance of behavior to flight. Horses flee what they have not yet identified, but they resist what they already know and evaluate as not really dangerous (as they need to test their own social position that determines their access to space/ food/ reproduction, etc.).
3/ this resistance to forward motion will be effected mostly by THE FRONT LEGS who are designed to brace in a backward force. Increasing the push of the hind legs while the front legs resist is a doomed project because we already know that the “brakes” of the horse are stronger than his “engine”. If a mare cannot be moved by another mare kicking the living day lights out of her for 5 mn, how can a rider equipped with a little stick move her forward if she has decided that she won’t? This idea would equate to gunning the V8 engine of your Corvette in the garage and hoping to go forward BEFORE the garage door is opened and the 6 foot of snow in front of it are removed.
Impulsion consists first in removing the bracing of the front legs who are acting in accordance with the “ethogram” (ethological blueprint of the equine species) that has been designed through eons of practicing survival strategies. Once the brakes are removed, the activation of the engine takes very little effort from the rider (just a little education to the “School of the Aids” following the expected sequence: “Resist the stimulus, Ignore it, Relax on it, Move from it). The action chosen by the rider to eliminate resistance to his/her wishes for forward movement (something on which absolutely all schools of horsemanship agree) must be IRRESISTABLE. If not, the horse will never really go forward. This will be explained later.
4/ resistances are just as much the cause of unsoundness than their consequences. A horse who is very resistant to forward movement will increase his natural asymmetry (as described below) can create spasms sufficiently strong to affect his skeletal-muscular structure adversely and create some pathology eventually.
POSTURAL ASYMMETRY HAS FUNCTIONAL CONSEQUENCES THAT MUST DETERMINE OUR CHOICE OF ACTIONS IN ACCORDANCE TO THAT BIOLOGICAL FACT.
1/ the horse is asymmetrical on the outside (postural crookedness) in a consistent manner (the overwhelming majority of horses are the same) due to his internal asymmetry (organ disposition in lateral asymmetry - and brain lateral distribution of functions, established during the embryogenesis). Chicken and the egg, which comes first? It doesn’t really matter. What counts is what you do about it in the most efficient way possible.
2/ the horse has 4 basic deviations from the absolute straightness of his posture in relation to his line of travel:
a/ the left hind deviates left (due in my view to the reluctance of the horse in compressing his spleen which is positioned in front of the left stifle and full of blood at the beginning of the session, as well as during rest or grazing). We all know that nobody, human or animal, is very agile on a full stomach or a full bladder and it impedes movement – as well as the willingness to move. A full spleen (which is very large in the horse) is no different. One of the best functions of warming up at a trot in straight lines is probably to start the emptying of the spleen by the increased circulation of blood. As a result, the left hind bends less in both the lifting phase and the supporting phase of the stride (is “stiffer”), but it develops more strength in the pushing phase (extension of the joints), due to selective functionality (is “stronger” because it is stiffer). When the hind legs are spread, the horse pushes more (at the walk like a draft horse or the gallop like a race horse), so the placing of the left hind slightly left puts in a permanent position of thrusting a little more than the other. This thrust is directed forward for the most part and slightly toward the right.
b/ As a consequence, the right shoulder is deviated a little to the right “over” the right front foot which is placed very slightly under the body to the back and toward the medial line of the chest. Many horses prefer to graze with their right front back and often have a shorter toe/higher heel on that foot. This shoulder is generally contracted to hold the horse in this “inbalance” (tension noticeable on palpation), but the right foot does not advance enough to balance the horse effectively when he is in motion, so the horse tends to “fall” (lean) in that direction and must keep himself up by lifting his head (contraction of that shoulder) and:
c/ place the head as far left as he needs to keep his direction and enough uptightness to deal with the pull of gravity. This will depend on his level of strength: the stronger the back and the loins, the less the horse needs his neck to balance, so we see “good horses” that are able to bend their neck right when lunged to the right, but they are rare. This 3rd deviation places the neck to the left (which is why it is easier to lead from the left). The left front foot is also a little left of the shoulder and serves as a support for the head being a little left of the axis. Riders generally find balance on a left circle easier than on a right circle and neck bend to the left easier than right bend, BUT…..
d/ …. the poll is always a little stiffer on the left as the horse turns his head to the right (final deviation, 2 to the left – left hind leg and neck – and 2 top the right – right shoulder and poll). This is why the left bend has been called “the false flexion” (Michel Henriquet). This poll position translates in the horse pushing on the left rein and the reading of the left side as “the stiff side”. In fact, the whole horse is stiff (in fact contracted), just in different ways in different locations of his body. The left hind and the left poll are stiffer than the other side, but relaxation can change that in a relatively short time.
e/ What about the right hind? It is always a bit under the body (it cannot be deviated right AND be weak, as a hind leg deviating from the axis is always in a “pushing mode”, while a hind leg coming under the axis is in a “carrying mode”). That leg is “stronger” when flexed (because it is more relaxed – so more functional - in the lift as well as the stance phase) and “weaker” when extended (because the other one takes over that function).
3/ This asymmetry is evaluated by different people in different way because their reading depends on their point of view and their personal fixation on a method of training. We know that Steinbrecht focused on strengthening the thrust of the right hind because thrust was his central preoccupation. Others (L’Hotte) insisted on always “placing the shoulders in front of the quarters”.
4/ Training problems come in “layers” due to accidents of life, previous training, ill fitting saddles, bad shoeing and even bad dentistry (or no dentistry), as mouths that are uneven create TMJ problems with repercussions all the way down the spine. That said, the last layer is consistent in most horses. This is why, riders feel that the asymmetry can be “transient” during training and certain aspects to the horse’s mechanics will pass from one side to the other (stiffness, bend, strength, resistance, etc.).
5/ Postural asymmetry has functional consequences that are the fundamental issue of dressage. Simply straightening the horse like we straighten a bent stick and holding him straight with the aids does not really change the functionality of the horse.
PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS THAT RESOLVE THE WHOLE PROBLEM AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.
You will have to wait a little for that as I have appointments all day and stuff to write for my French site and they are screaming at me. I promise that once you understand what I wrote above, the answer is simple to apply and horses will change very quickly and become “functionally” straight, which goes back to the definition of straightness by Nuno which I gave you last year: a horse that does both classical voltes (6 m circles) in all 3 gaits the same way (same size, same speed, same balance, same lightness, same bend).
Speak later, JP
Hello all, I have been busy writing a book in French in preparation for my upcoming clinic there at Michel and Catherine Henriquet. She has a complicated horse and I had promised to help her, so I started to write down about my latest research on symmetry because they needed articles for the French press and TV (Equidia). I am quite excited about that trip, as I will see some aging members of my family and meet a few new additions. The only problem is that I will probably put back the 10 lbs I just lost.
Now it is turning into a major endeavor with private visits and clinics at a number of top dressage and jumping riders (Michel Robert among them who just retired from competing at age 65 after13 medals in Olympics, Europeans and World Games, now a major international teacher). He is an old friend from when I had a jumper on the circuit and very open minded for anything new that explains what we already know from experience. I am also going to visit the South of France for a couple of the major shows in Vidauban to help the lady of the house there and meet again with her trainer Udo Lange who gave me a major insight on riding pirouettes 28 years ago at the CDS Finales in the Wine Country (don’t sit and your still inexperienced horse with turn around like a charm, same principle as posting trot or flying changes in the half-seat).
My dear friend Francisco Cancella d’Abreu (former teacher at the Royal Andalusian School, former coach to the Portuguese team and now a FEI dressage judge) is coming from Barcelona where he now lives to check on my new discoveries (on “Dynamic Asymmetry”, a term I just coined to explain what I am now understanding about what has been referred to so far as “crookedness”). We have been discussing dressage since we were kids (me at Nuno’s and him at Borba’s, which were neighbors at the time). We were together in Spain after we escaped the Portuguese Revolution of 74. He is the guy who sold me Novilheiro (and also discovered Baloubet du Rouet – World’s best show jumper - as a 3 year old for Pessoa and his Portuguese sponsor Diogo Pereira Coutinho). He is very Germanic (was a close friend of Herbert Rehbein) but cannot deny his early training with Borba and his Portuguese heritage and his international experience is immeasurable (as well as his analytical ability). We haven’t seen each other since WEG 2010, but he is very eager to see the effects of my lunging and riding rig (getting close to release, still being tweaked everyday J to make sure it works with absolutely every horse). Like me, he understands that horse do not lunge the same way left and right and what they DO (go, don’t go, loose balance, etc.) is more important than what they ARE (crooked).
WE NEED TO FOLLOW ARISTOTLE AND GET TO THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES HIDDEN IN THE PARTICULAR OBSERVATIONS OF EVERYDAY LIFE.
I read most of the posts and this subject and I will say that I agree with Mary Lou’s observations, as well as Daniella’s and Julie (and some of Dan’s and Mike). However, they are all partial views, for instance: the horse take more contact on the left circle than the right on the lunge, the horse makes a smaller circle on the right than the left, the horse doesn’t take contact on the right rein, but forces against the left rein, the right hind is weaker than the left, etc. All of these facts are consistently true and reveal a posture and dynamic common to practically all horses and observed by most trainers with a bit of experience. Stiffness of this or that and “hollow side” and “banana shapes” end up being confusing to riders as they are personal observations relative to each one of us experience, degree of feel and personal language to express it.
I consider that the dynamic of the horse in relation to the 4 fundamental directions: forward (effect on impulsion/submission), backward (effect on balance/resistance), left (effect on impulsion) and right (effect on balance) are best corrected on the circle on the lunge line because, once the rider is on board, it is no longer the horse that is being corrected/educated and has a chance to correct himself, but instead a complex combination in which the human and equine parts are no longer distinguishable in their influence and effects.
I am going to repeat my understanding of the problem with the additions of what I have recently surmised from my recent observations:
IMPULSION:
1/ It is well admitted that the hind legs are the engine of the horse, but this engine is relative as different horses have different amounts of “horse power”. An old horse will travel at 5 miles/hour while a young TB will reach 35 miles/hour. However, if eh hind legs are the engine, it implies that the front legs are the brakes. Horses all have “absolute brakes” (can stop from any speed at any time as long as the rider doesn’t prevent the stop by stiffening them through distracting influences of badly applied aids). Watch Nuno’s or Pedro Torres’ videos (or mine) and you will see horses doing transitions to halt or walk from canter that seem effortless. That is because horses can do that very easily if we let them and there is absolutely no need for preparatory half halts. Braking function is also a balancing function (partial slow down when needed in downhill terrain, in approaching an obstacle or a scary object, in readjusting speed, etc.), so the front legs will effect that braking/balancing and conversely, the release of the braking will create impulsion. The hind legs FOLLOW and assist both functions.
2/ horses are resistant to being moved forward by others, until they become convinced of the other horse’s superiority (dominance relationship). This resistance is expressed in different ways: most horses resist apparently from the croup (kicking when pushed by a bite, backing up into somebody else), but this is only possible for them by bracing the front legs forward in order to push backward. Mares will push back in that way if they want to be bred (submissive posture in which they brace their front to support the stallion and spread their hind legs in flexion - crouching), or if they don’t want to be bred (aggressive posture in which they brace their front legs in order to kick the stallion). They do the same to deal with the weather (rain, wind) or to have a fight with a rival.
Stallions will resist a frontal attack from another horse that will try to push them with head or shoulders. They may strike with their front feet, but they return very quickly to a solid stance and it is pretty much impossible to move the front feet of an excited stallion when he is challenging another or ready to breed.
As a logical consequence of this “ethological posturing”, we must conclude that “impulsion” (which is a “transmitted force” from anybody - predator, other horse, rider - in order to create movement) is a direct form of dominance - moving the other’s feet. It will meet “resistance” which is the basic survival mode of the horse in social life (or when under attack from a predator, or humans). Resistance to movement is equal in importance of behavior to flight. Horses flee what they have not yet identified, but they resist what they already know and evaluate as not really dangerous (as they need to test their own social position that determines their access to space/ food/ reproduction, etc.).
3/ this resistance to forward motion will be effected mostly by THE FRONT LEGS who are designed to brace in a backward force. Increasing the push of the hind legs while the front legs resist is a doomed project because we already know that the “brakes” of the horse are stronger than his “engine”. If a mare cannot be moved by another mare kicking the living day lights out of her for 5 mn, how can a rider equipped with a little stick move her forward if she has decided that she won’t? This idea would equate to gunning the V8 engine of your Corvette in the garage and hoping to go forward BEFORE the garage door is opened and the 6 foot of snow in front of it are removed.
Impulsion consists first in removing the bracing of the front legs who are acting in accordance with the “ethogram” (ethological blueprint of the equine species) that has been designed through eons of practicing survival strategies. Once the brakes are removed, the activation of the engine takes very little effort from the rider (just a little education to the “School of the Aids” following the expected sequence: “Resist the stimulus, Ignore it, Relax on it, Move from it). The action chosen by the rider to eliminate resistance to his/her wishes for forward movement (something on which absolutely all schools of horsemanship agree) must be IRRESISTABLE. If not, the horse will never really go forward. This will be explained later.
4/ resistances are just as much the cause of unsoundness than their consequences. A horse who is very resistant to forward movement will increase his natural asymmetry (as described below) can create spasms sufficiently strong to affect his skeletal-muscular structure adversely and create some pathology eventually.
POSTURAL ASYMMETRY HAS FUNCTIONAL CONSEQUENCES THAT MUST DETERMINE OUR CHOICE OF ACTIONS IN ACCORDANCE TO THAT BIOLOGICAL FACT.
1/ the horse is asymmetrical on the outside (postural crookedness) in a consistent manner (the overwhelming majority of horses are the same) due to his internal asymmetry (organ disposition in lateral asymmetry - and brain lateral distribution of functions, established during the embryogenesis). Chicken and the egg, which comes first? It doesn’t really matter. What counts is what you do about it in the most efficient way possible.
2/ the horse has 4 basic deviations from the absolute straightness of his posture in relation to his line of travel:
a/ the left hind deviates left (due in my view to the reluctance of the horse in compressing his spleen which is positioned in front of the left stifle and full of blood at the beginning of the session, as well as during rest or grazing). We all know that nobody, human or animal, is very agile on a full stomach or a full bladder and it impedes movement – as well as the willingness to move. A full spleen (which is very large in the horse) is no different. One of the best functions of warming up at a trot in straight lines is probably to start the emptying of the spleen by the increased circulation of blood. As a result, the left hind bends less in both the lifting phase and the supporting phase of the stride (is “stiffer”), but it develops more strength in the pushing phase (extension of the joints), due to selective functionality (is “stronger” because it is stiffer). When the hind legs are spread, the horse pushes more (at the walk like a draft horse or the gallop like a race horse), so the placing of the left hind slightly left puts in a permanent position of thrusting a little more than the other. This thrust is directed forward for the most part and slightly toward the right.
b/ As a consequence, the right shoulder is deviated a little to the right “over” the right front foot which is placed very slightly under the body to the back and toward the medial line of the chest. Many horses prefer to graze with their right front back and often have a shorter toe/higher heel on that foot. This shoulder is generally contracted to hold the horse in this “inbalance” (tension noticeable on palpation), but the right foot does not advance enough to balance the horse effectively when he is in motion, so the horse tends to “fall” (lean) in that direction and must keep himself up by lifting his head (contraction of that shoulder) and:
c/ place the head as far left as he needs to keep his direction and enough uptightness to deal with the pull of gravity. This will depend on his level of strength: the stronger the back and the loins, the less the horse needs his neck to balance, so we see “good horses” that are able to bend their neck right when lunged to the right, but they are rare. This 3rd deviation places the neck to the left (which is why it is easier to lead from the left). The left front foot is also a little left of the shoulder and serves as a support for the head being a little left of the axis. Riders generally find balance on a left circle easier than on a right circle and neck bend to the left easier than right bend, BUT…..
d/ …. the poll is always a little stiffer on the left as the horse turns his head to the right (final deviation, 2 to the left – left hind leg and neck – and 2 top the right – right shoulder and poll). This is why the left bend has been called “the false flexion” (Michel Henriquet). This poll position translates in the horse pushing on the left rein and the reading of the left side as “the stiff side”. In fact, the whole horse is stiff (in fact contracted), just in different ways in different locations of his body. The left hind and the left poll are stiffer than the other side, but relaxation can change that in a relatively short time.
e/ What about the right hind? It is always a bit under the body (it cannot be deviated right AND be weak, as a hind leg deviating from the axis is always in a “pushing mode”, while a hind leg coming under the axis is in a “carrying mode”). That leg is “stronger” when flexed (because it is more relaxed – so more functional - in the lift as well as the stance phase) and “weaker” when extended (because the other one takes over that function).
3/ This asymmetry is evaluated by different people in different way because their reading depends on their point of view and their personal fixation on a method of training. We know that Steinbrecht focused on strengthening the thrust of the right hind because thrust was his central preoccupation. Others (L’Hotte) insisted on always “placing the shoulders in front of the quarters”.
4/ Training problems come in “layers” due to accidents of life, previous training, ill fitting saddles, bad shoeing and even bad dentistry (or no dentistry), as mouths that are uneven create TMJ problems with repercussions all the way down the spine. That said, the last layer is consistent in most horses. This is why, riders feel that the asymmetry can be “transient” during training and certain aspects to the horse’s mechanics will pass from one side to the other (stiffness, bend, strength, resistance, etc.).
5/ Postural asymmetry has functional consequences that are the fundamental issue of dressage. Simply straightening the horse like we straighten a bent stick and holding him straight with the aids does not really change the functionality of the horse.
PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS THAT RESOLVE THE WHOLE PROBLEM AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.
You will have to wait a little for that as I have appointments all day and stuff to write for my French site and they are screaming at me. I promise that once you understand what I wrote above, the answer is simple to apply and horses will change very quickly and become “functionally” straight, which goes back to the definition of straightness by Nuno which I gave you last year: a horse that does both classical voltes (6 m circles) in all 3 gaits the same way (same size, same speed, same balance, same lightness, same bend).
Speak later, JP