Flexibility is not in the neck-it is in the back, the spine

Howdy Friends!

Flexibility is not in the neck..it is in the back, the spine … And you can’t correct that by over bending the horse right or left – You need to get the horse to lift the back, separate the vertebrae then they’ll have the suppleness to turn side to side. Horses not able to engage their hind end are forced to shift the load to the front end not designed to handle the load, hence we see the numbers of suspensory ligament and flexory tendon damage in the front end. These are 2 connected, common but reversible, conditions. It takes time and proper exercises to lift the back, engage the abdomen and empower the hind end. Simply doing the famous “belly lift,” tickling the belly causing the horse to jerk its back up, does little to create proper, healthy posture. It takes time to retrain the muscles. The belly lift is indeed an important part of the therapy to rehab a sinking topline, along with a series of other easy to learn exercises.... In this pic I demonstrate “piano wire release.” Tight hind ends are the result of improper posture and will prevent the front end from softening... Put your fingers where you see mine, apply enough pressure to find the tendon running up from hock to top of muscle – rub side to side over the “piano wire” all the way up. You will see some release the first time. This is one exercise to fixing posture and flexibility. All are in my clinics. You should learn them, for your horse’s sake. Contact me to set up clinic.

~ Gitty up, Dutch.

Posture and Locomotion.

Howdy Friends!

Posture and Locomotion. Watching your horse casually stroll along is a great time to check her posture, and overall movement. Do you see the hind end propelling your horse, the big hind muscles lifting and pushing? Toes, the last to lift, pushing down into earth. Can you witness the flow of energy from her gluteal and hamstring muscles and pelvis forward and along the topline? Can you see her abdomen engage, lift and support with each stride? Are those hind legs moving powerfully, and yet effortlessly forward to set down under her barrel in a fluid heel to toe placement? Hind foot placement should be just about where the front foot left, sometimes exactly on, sometimes half a sole behind. Is her head horizontal to her topline, her neck soft and sleek? Do her front legs float like butterflies with graceful, soft lift and effortless heel toe foot placement? Watch closely and you’ll see those feet, front and rear settle then roll from heel to toe. (This can’t happen effectively if the horse is shod). This is a description of a horse moving in correct, healthy posture and body carriage.

My Kessy strolling along

What we don’t want to see is a horse dragging with her front legs, as if that’s where the power originates. Many horses, because of what we do, fall into a “forehand” posture—and it’s bad. The hind end will become disengaged, and begin to fall farther back and atrophy, becoming weaker and weaker. (I’ve worked with horses who had no idea where their hind end was, from all the disengagement and break down). The abdomen cannot engage, the topline will drop. In her effort to find mobility in forehand posture she will be forced to carry and toss her head high, inverting neck muscles and further forcing down her topline. Muscles forced into overwork will tighten, preventing release and even restricting nourishment. Heel toe foot placement will become replaced with a plodding, slapping, jarring footfall.

Have a look at your horse as she strolls. Be honest with your evaluation. Her health depends on you. One of my strongest mantras is, “A horse’s health begins with posture.” Proper, healthy posture and body carriage is easy to establish, and maintain. But we must make the effort, for their sake. This is why I promote, and teach the exercises created by Peggy Cummings, taught me by my mentor Diane J. Sept, for the horse. A little effort can mean a whole new life for a horse. It’s up to us, our horses give for us all we ask. To ignore their posture and body carriage is not only letting them down, it is a form of neglect. ~ Gitty Up, Dutch.

Posture, for the Horse’s Sake

Howdy Friends!

Reminding my Kessy of correct body carriage.

When a rider is braced the horse cannot move fluidly, in a healthful manner. When the rider is in neutral pelvis, and moving “with the horse,” the horse can respond in kind. When the horse is forced on the forehand by a rider’s bracing, it can only become compliant, and the rider is in charge. The horse is in a no choice position, which is why people are then taught to “control” the horse. The equation is backwards. What really needs to be taught is—the powerful effect of elasticity and freedom in the rider’s body, returns twice as much from the horse—in a much faster way along with a lot of stress release, on horse and rider. The rider really needs to look at herself/himself, and be willing to change. Even the language we use is compressive and invites students to squeeze, push and hold, which only increases the bracing during motion. Neutral posture helps the rider to override bracing and tension patterns in their body and their horse while creating truly freer movement. Find your neutral, your horse will thank you. I teach posture, for the horse’s sake.

Gitty Up, Dutch.

"Understanding the Why"

Understanding the why can begin in the eye ... This is my girl Kessy

Howdy Friends,

Understanding the “WHY” ... My horse won’t stand for the trimmer ... My horse won’t stand to mount ... My horse bucks when asked to canter ... My horse pushes me when I lead her ... My horse (insert anything here) ... These friends are NOT training or discipline issues, they are comfort issues. It is our job to understand why your horse is shouting those signals to you.

There is always a “why” and that why is almost always rooted in physical and mental comfort—and more training, repetition and discipline can’t cure it.

Most (if not all) things horses have difficulty doing are directly related to proper posture, self awareness, and body carriage, period. Fix that and the “bad things” simply go away. Sounds bold, I know, but I also know it to be true. To be fair we need always to address the why; stiffness, tightness, balance, self awareness, foot awareness, ease or lack of ease of fluidity and movement and posture before addressing the things we as humans focus on.

Think of it like baking an apple pie. If you’re told to bake an apple pie and you are indeed a superb pasty chef, but not given any apples, you could protest all you want and your boss would get frustrated and demand that you bake his pie ... But you simply can’t, without apples. You have the dough, the sugar, the spices and everything you need, almost. And your boss doesn’t get it and becomes louder and more demanding; you grow to be more and more confused. You want to please him, but there simply is no way you can, not without apples. So you try to protest—he won’t hear it ... That is the world the horse finds themselves in if we refuse to seek out the why.

Then your boss suddenly realizes something is not good with you and for the first time he asks you, “Why can’t you bake my apple pie?” You show him you’ve got no apples. He provides apples and you bake a wonderful pie—you needed no training or discipline, or repetition, you only needed the why answered.

Take time to give your horse all she needs, and not focus on what you want. Then what you want will be given to you in more glorious ways than you could have ever imagined. It begins with finding the why, and that why is always (yes I said always) in the horse’s ability to move in comfort, feel great about her posture and self awareness. The next time something, anything, goes a bit off I implore you to step back and ask why. Change the focus from “results” to “possibilities.” Those possibilities can always be found by giving to the horse, not insisting. 

You can find how to accomplish this posture and comfort in my book “It’s for the Horses; An advocate’s musings about their needs, spirit, gifts and care,” HERE. I promise it can change your worlds. 

You might also enjoy our Coffee Clutch story, "Sometimes the horse just can’t ... It’s Not disobeying."
Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

"Posture and Horse’s Health"

Howdy Friends,

Recently, while scheduling a few clinics, I found myself explaining the absolute importance of a horse’s posture to their overall health, physical and mental. Unfortunately many horse owners and caregivers do not recognize poor posture in a horse—or have a reference point of good horse posture. Why?

I believe Thomas Paine explained why when he said, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” Now I don’t believe one of our most outspoken founding fathers was talking about a horse’s posture when he imparted that wisdom, but it sure fits, and might explain why posture is so overlooked, or misunderstood in horse care.

I happen to subscribe to the understanding that poor posture in a horse can be, and is one of the most powerful detriments to not only a horse’s health, but also its comfort, contentment, mobility and longevity ... That’s why I write the blog posts I do, and wrote my book “It’s for the Horses: An advocate’s musings about their needs, spirit, gifts and care,” and it’s why I began to offer clinics—to help folks realize, recognize and promote the importance of good horse posture.

No matter the discipline you play in, correct horse (and human) posture will lift everything to higher heights. Play, performance and health, physical and mental, will all not only benefit from proper posture, but will excel at more exciting levels of accomplishment and fun.

Everything from attitude, awareness, soundness, performance to organ function, digestion and all bodily functions can be, and are affected—positively or negatively by the state of a horse’s posture. Often reoccurring mystery lameness, or temperament swings, gut problems and a host of other nagging issues are directly related to poor posture and body carriage.

What causes poor posture? In most cases—We do. Much of what we do to and with our horses can cause subtle, or not-so-subtle deterioration of a horse’s posture. Many things can and will contribute either positively or negatively such as, hoof care, diet, housing, saddle fit, discipline we pursue, our own posture (or lack of), dental care and a host of other interactions. But in most cases it is we humans who effect equine posture. 

How can we recognize correct posture? When we look at our horse standing relaxed on level ground we should see a picture of a relaxed neck, soft eyes and back, and legs
supporting all four corners straightly not on an angle ... In motion our horse should carry herself softly, not rush, crowd or stumble—those are not signs of “discipline” rather they are clear signs of poor posture, and a horse trying her best to both avoid pain and maintain balance.

 How can we help our horses achieve proper posture and body carriage? “Proper hoof care” is paramount, and our Coffee Clutch and Facebook friends know I believe that starts with going barefoot—but even barefoot horses can have toes too long that make correct posture impossible—that simple fact can, and will, set up a cascade to impact the likelihood of achieving, maintaining, or preventing correct posture. “Housing,” horses must not live in stalls, they need to, and want to, move about at will. “Diet,” horses thrive on an all forage diet. “Dental care” like hoof care impacts, everything. “The things we do.” Many activities we pursue with our horses have goals, or perceived goals, that not only chip away at a horse’s ability to carry proper posture—but sadly too often Demand their posture be ruined for a certain look or performance.... We can help overcome some of that that with exercises that help create proper posture, and I highly recommend every horse caregiver learn them. They can easily be part of anyone’s management routine. 

Exercises for your horse. Having had the honor and privilege of working for a number of years rehabilitating Tennessee Walking Horses with my mentor Diane Sept, a Senior Certified Connected Riding® Instructor, I learned from her, and the horses, many things. Among them the techniques of Peggy Cummings’Connected Riding and Groundwork® and Linda Tellington-Jones’ Tellington TTouch®. They are the foundation for everything in my clinic ... And can be the foundations for helping your horse gain or regain proper posture... I recommend Peggy's and Linda's books and clinics. 

One of the most important easy to do exercises is the “Rock Back.” Many horses carry themselves on their forehand, which begins to create a host of problems. This little exercise will help a lot (but don’t stop there, learn more exercises). .... Standing in front of your horse, very gently touch her shoulder point and say, “Rock Back.” We are looking for only a shift in posture and weight off the forehand, not a step back. If she steps back, start over. Watch for the slightest move, at first it may just be her pectoral muscle moving. Stop asking as soon as you see the slightest movement or change. You may need two inches of rock back to get her correct and off her forehand, and you may need to get it an eighth of an inch at a time. (see photo) (Excerpt from, "It's for the Horses.")

Kessy and I demonstrate the "Rock Back" - Her weight has clearly shifted to her hind end-she is relaxed, and soft

The importance of correct posture and body carriage to the health of a horse cannot be overstated.  Many more exercises and ideas are in my book, "It's for the Horses:An advocate's musings about their needs, spirit, gifts and care."... Kessy and I hope this little story will encourage you to examine your horse's posture.

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

P.S.  You can find my book “It’s for the Horses: An advocate’s musings about their needs, spirit, gifts and care,” at www.itsforthehorses.com 

P.S.S. To ask about my clinics to help your horse achieve proper posture and body carriage email me dutchhenry@hughes.net

"Saddle Pitch and Inverted Hips"

Howdy Folks,

 

Recently I've had conversations with a few folks who were experiencing tripping, stumbling and other things such as horses appearing distant, unwilling or sore. Each had different descriptions of what was happening and all had been given, as we might expect, a wide variety of courses of action to correct the problems. Of course each case could be examined separately, and a wide variety of human related things can be the cause of horses tripping, forging, being sore, uninterested, etc. I shared the link to my post, "Reconnecting Your Horse To Her Feet" If you've not seen it, I invite you to have a look.

We talk often of the importance of "saddle fit." Unfortunately saddle fit is, and always will be a challenging endeavor. And costly too. But they are our horses, entrusted to our care, and few things are as important as a correctly fitting saddle. I'm often surprised at the money folks are willing to spend on all sorts of horse related items, including trucks and trailers, and of course buying a horse, but are so reluctant to spend the money it takes to get the most important piece of tack perfect.

In saddle fit we all know about room over the withers, sort of. We all know about clearance for the spine, sort of. Some folks know about rocking and bridging. Most of us know about tracing the withers so we get the tree width correct, sort of. Many know about proper flocking, and the proper length of a saddle. What about saddle pitching?

I had the opportunity to see the photo of one of the folks whose horse was tripping, sitting her horse. As the photo opened, I noted the posture of the rider's head and shoulders, not bad, but slightly off. The horse had its head down low; the rider had a firm hold on the reins, her legs tight, her pelvis tilted forward. The saddle pitched ever so slightly downhill, forward. Admittedly it was just a photo snapped for fun and none of us are ever posed as we would like to be. However, the not level saddle caused inverted posture of the rider, and this would be a constant in that saddle, or any saddle that pitches out of level.

The tipping forward saddle will not only hurt the horse, but makes it impossible for a rider to find their neutral seat. That is, the pelvis will tip front, inverting the spine, causing the rider to sit and ride inverted. In a natural attempt to compensate for that, it is necessary to put too much pressure in the stirrups and that transfers negative energy through the rider's body, and the horse's. The rider's inverted posture will cause the horse to go inverted, causing trips, stumbles, loss of focus and soreness and breakdown.

You can learn a lot about the neutral position from the books of Peggy Cummings and Sally Swift.

Can you shim a saddle to make it level? Yes, however that should be a temporary fix. Shims all have a start and stop possibly causing pressure points, and they can move. It only takes five pounds of pressure per square inch to stop the blood flow to the capillaries in a horse's back.

Sorry, this is the best pic I have for this. But even here, you can see, if you look at the saddle seat how it sits level on Kessy's back. Look at the bottom of the seat, (you have to ignore the sheepskin)back to front and you'll see the level line.

How can you check if your saddle is level? With your horse standing squarely, and level, let your eyes trace over the seat. From a few feet back, standing at the side, look softly at the seat from back to front. You'll notice if it is pitched forward if you look for the imaginary line running through the center of the seat. English or western. If a western type saddle, the cantle and horn can confuse you, it's best to look at the seat. Be sure to hold your horse in this inspection gaze, too.

Out of level saddles can be the cause of a lot of unhealthy problems for rider and horse. If when riding you feel as if you need to use your legs too much to sit comfortably, if you think you are having a difficult time finding your neutral seat, your saddle is most likely pitching. It will invert your hips. Your inverted posture will cause your horse to become inverted, and that is really bad for both of you.

Hope this helps! ~ Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

A Pain In Your Horse's Back?

Howdy Folks, 

In the past few days I've had several folks email me with questions about their horses' backs. Specifically these were questions about dropped backs, or toplines. Working with my mentor, Diane Sept, it was not uncommon to hear her say, "There's no reason a horse can't have a straight, firm topline into their 30's." Of course, as always, there may be exceptions, but for most of our horses, that's true.

What causes a horse to lose its firm, straight topline? A lot of things, mostly all in our control. Everything from saddle fit, to teeth and mouth care, hoof care, to how we sit in the saddle, to how we lead our horse. And a bunch of other things too, injuries, conformation and even nutrition.

Working with Diane I learned much about biomechanics of horses, and the tremendous help a few things we can do as care givers for our horses to keep them moving freely in a posture and body carriage that maintains a correct, comfortable and healthy topline. Everything I learned from Diane, a senior certified Connected Riding Instructor, is from Peggy Cummings, Linda Tellington-Jones and Sally Swift.

For me, I think the single biggest thing we can do is to be sure our horse is, off her forehand and has an engaged hind end. There is a very simple way to accomplish this by the two of you mastering the "The Rock Back" exercise. You can check it out in my blog post  "Reconnecting Your Horse To Her Feet"Have look, master it together, and you'll see remarkable changes in health, politeness, body carriage, and responsiveness.

Kessy and me demonstrating the "Rock Back"

Off the forehand (rock back) is first, because it ties into everything else we do. And we can learn to lead, and ride, our horse off the forehand, and be sure to lead from both sides – this is so important for overall health and posture of your horse. And don't always walk in a straight line. Mix in long, soft sweeping zig-zags as you go along. Engage that hind end!

Next, let's mix in a few easy to learn exercises to do regularly, and certainly before we mount up. I've described them in just the order I do them in my blog post "Pre-Ride Exercises For Your Horse"These selected exercises, done in a regular routine that fits your schedule, will make a tremendous difference in the health of your horse. After you and your horse master them, this routine will take about 5-10 minutes. Remember though, slow and easy, soft hands, and wait for the responses.

Another very important exercise to help your horse master correct posture is the "One Step." You can learn to do it from my post - "Seeing With Her Feet - One Step Exercise"

Learn more of these wonderful exercises by buying Peggy and Linda's books. If you can, take their courses. You can contact Diane for instruction, too. Her number is -717-336-6346.

Oh, what about hoofcare? – Have a look at my post "Why Barefoot?""

Please feel free to email me, dutchhenry@hughes.net, or contact me on facebook.

You can also have a look at these and other exercises on my Facebook album "Therapy For Therapy Horses"

Taking care of your horse's topline can be easy, fun and oh so good for your horse. Even if there are other things going on, mastering, and employing these techniques will greatly help your horse maintain a firm, straight topline, and comfortable, pain free body carriage.

Just to learn a few treats, check out - "Easy Exercises to Relax and Release"

Gitty Up ~ Dutch Henry