• Make your horse rounder!

    OK . . . how do I do that? I’m confused!

  • Make your horse rounder!

    Ok. . . . How do I achieve that?
    I’m confused!

Sometimes coaches assume that we know exactly what to do, and we nod, pretending we understand

Have you ever had your instructor yell at you to “Make him rounder!” and weren’t sure what to do?  So many times coaches assume that we know exactly how to do the things they are asking and we nod, hoping we could fake it. If this sounds familiar, read on!

Horses have two places that they can round, like the letter ‘C’.  One type of roundness is looking at a horse from a birds-eye-view where the body bends through it’s ribcage like a “C”. This is called ‘lateral flexion’. The other, ‘longitudinal flexion’ is from nose to tail over the topline.  

Create Longitudinal flexion to get the horse’s hind legs under him, and lift his withers

Now look at your horse from the side or from your trainer’s point of view. Imagine the ‘C’ has fallen forwards and the two tips of the ‘c’ are touching the ground. This is longitudinal flexion, the one that needs to be created first to help get your horse’s hind legs under them, their withers lifting inducing relaxation.

(ILLUSTRATION by Sandy Rabinowitz for Dressage Today)

Think of gently lifting your horse’s withers.

The horse’s body, without rider, naturally moves in a relaxed, longitudinal manner. We try to create that same relaxed movement while carrying a rider on his back, without being a hindrance.

We need to open our bodies to allow the withers to come up, shown in the illustration below.

Exactly how do I make my horse rounder? What are the steps?

Forward movement

Keep the Rhythm

Make sure you are travelling at a good pace forwards, so the rhythm stays consistent and your horse’s legs swing comfortably – not rushed. Do this on a following rein to not interfere with any forward thinking of the horse.

When you rise, squeeze or touch your horse to ask for more impulsion, if needed.

Shorten your horse’s frame

Gently shorten reins

Now shorten your reins just until you have shortened your horses frame by an inch or two.  You will feel a bit more pressure in the reins though your hands. Keep your elbows soft to follow the movement of your rise(down/up) and your horse’s head and neck, especially at walk and canter(forward/back).  You never want your horse to feel blocked by your reins at this point. Supported not blocked. It is a common fault of rider to pick up the reins and lock thier elbows in place. At this point, because you have shortened your reins you may have to remind your horse to carry on with that forward thinking attitude by adding encouraging leg pressure, just until your horse confirms, yes they are still committed to working for you, then soften.

Flexion

Gently flex and soften

Next try to help shape the head of your horse, just the head not the whole neck so that you lose the outside shoulder alignment. Flex the head so that you can see the eyelashes of the inside eyeball, then soften.

TOOL BOX – POLL FLEXION

How to flex the horse’s poll

While holding the reins gently rotate the inside of your wrist so that your pinky gets closer to your horse’s mane/withers. Jane Savoie says ‘turn a key’ in your car. Make sure your elbows don’t lock. As soon as you see the eyelashes on the inside, go back to your regular hand positioning. The more consistent you use this tool the smaller the rotation needs to be. So much so that it will be difficult for a person to see you doing anything different with your hands.

Jane Savoie explains lateral suppling and flexion of the poll for relaxation of mind and body.

Think of gently riveting, or twirling, your horse’s poll on an imaginary line, as shown. Just do it enough to see your horse’s eyelashes (this diagram is exaggerated to show idea).

(ILLUSTRATION by Sandy Rabinowitz for Dressage Today)

Do NOT pull back, as this creates the “V” shape, instead of the CORRECT “C” shape.

What you might feel

Feel the the glimpse of transformation

  • As soon as your horse softens in the poll the gentle pull on the reins gets softer. This is your que to soften too. Just a fraction. Your softening encourages your horse to reach a wee bit more into the reins to maintain a connection with you – a gift from your horse -cherish it by keeping your elbows soft.
  • When the horse gets rounder, the neck may drop as the withers rise.  It feels as though your horse has gotten wider in front of your saddle.
  • As the horse’s back starts to lift it feels like a trampoline and you will find sitting trot or rising trot easier because they are using their back more, like a trampoline.
  • The jarring landing of the foot falls lessen so that you don’t really hear the clip clop anymore and the top of the horse absorbs more so the legs can just swing.

Be quietly persistent as this always wins out over leg thumping, rein pulling and gnashing of teeth, both horse and rider.

Remember think balanced swing, forward, soften, shorten the frame by an inch or two, inside eyelash flexion, soften, half halt, soften and repeat.

(ILLUSTRATION by Sandy Rabinowitz for Dressage Today)

The effect of this exercise gives you a lovely ‘bridge’ feeling that the horse is floating as he takes you forward.