It's About The Horse

Clarissa · Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:35 pm Post subject:

Rick fantastic software application there! Unfortunately I can’t read the printing on the clips to know what it’s name is.

Well I’ve been spending much time lately studying up on what makes a horse heavy on the FH. These clips have come in very handy for me to see things I have been learning. Thanks go to Rick for the way he has done them.

For example I’ve learned that in response to the horse thinking it has to keep it’s head & neck still, it’s forward movement created by the stepping back legs, causes too much upward movement into the croup & loins. In the first clip you will notice how high the HQ is popping up at each stride & how static the head & neck are. That energy which is being thrown up by stiff back legs, can only do one thing & that is to push the rider’s seat out of the saddle momentarily with each stride. That horse is responding to pressure in it’s mouth & the only way to stop the pressure/pain is to keep it’s head & neck still which keeps the bit still. Therefore it can’t use the natural counter balance the head & neck offers for the stride.

The neck is the counter balance for the hind end stepping forward. If the head has to be kept still, the hind knees & hocks must bend a LOT more. If they don’t that energy goes upward, possibly manifesting as a rough gait & maybe lifting the rider rather than driving forward. Because the head & neck can’t move due to the bit, it is unable to help lift the FH & all forward movement is cut off at the shoulders. Any residual energy of each step is dissipated upwards through the saddle.

In the 2nd & 3rd clips you can see both horses are using their necks & heads to help lift the FH as the HQ comes through. This allows better & lighter FH.

In the 3rd clip the horse is labouring somewhat unfortunately. It seems to be doing a lateral movement but still using the natural counter balance provided by the loose neck & head to lift the FH. The rider’s forward movement is in response to the imminent FH lift by the horse. The second rider is doing the best job of being with her horse although that horse’s rump is popping up a little too, due to the hind knees & hocks remaining stiff rather than bending.

The knee & hock joints have to flex a lot more to cause the created energy to be driven forward into a long smooth light stride. The bottom horse displays that better.

In the Jack Sparrow youtube clip that rider is bobbing out of the saddle a tiny bit with each driving step also. Her horse doesn’t quite have a static head & shoulder but it’s croup is still a bit higher . However I would be more inclined to say that is due to the growing horse rather than bad education since we know it is a 3yo. The rider is also moving forward a little with each step too, to accommodate the coming energy drive by the HQ into a lift of the FH. The horse is cantering quite powerfully & the rider has to keep ahead of the momentum.

He does get a tad heavy occasionally & the rider has to pick up his FH again. One sign of the FH getting heavy is when his nose gets behind vertical. The rider looks down at :003. Horse looses balance & is actually falling forward for that & the next few strides. The rider looks up again at :006, sits firm for a stride rather than moving forward with the movement & the horse comes back into her hands. He’s still a bit heavy on the flying change & she bobs out of the saddle a tad. Apparently, if she was to open her pelvis more & push into her stirrups a tad at that moment rather than keep bent lifted knees she would help him stay in balance better through the flying change.

Nice clip anyway.

In the next clip of him, he is trotting a very nice extended trot. However very occasionally he gets overbent at the 3rd vertebrae & the rider tries to fix him. I haven’t learnt enough yet to see why that is happening. Dr Deb has a lot to say about that. She would say the reason is that too much pressure is being applied to the bit not allowing enough room for the horse to extend it’s neck to take a breath. Perhaps it’s airway is constricting a bit at the throat latch. For a 3yo he seems to be doing a mighty fine job!

I am learning these things but I may never practise them perfectly (or indeed at all!

) without a stronger body or a horse that rides better than those I currently have. Still it's good to see the theory in real time movement.

_________________
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Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

Rik(The Sequel) · Member Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 102

Na it’s really easy to see Jack, two of the clips are turning and 1 is in a straight line but we are looking at the movement of the riders in comparison to the vertical movement of the fore and hind which always occurs in a straight line or a turn when in canter/lope.

You’re looking at how the seat moves in relation to the see saw that is the horses back as it moves in canter/lope in this example.

I’d say the PP rider is the worst, first because the horse is on the forehand the most making it easiest to sit to, second because she is moving the most to sit to the movement and third because the way she is ridding is the hardest on the riders body.

JP’s horse is the most balanced and also has the most elevation in the movement, he has the best seat imo but it’s harder on his body than Bucks and he is moving more than buck but he is moving with the horse.

Buck is the most static and is the easiest on the riders body, both because of the weight in the legs and isolating himself from the movement to a degree.

Sadly it’s not a piece of software, you have to take the clip apart frame by frame mark it up then put it all back together manually, I suppose I could write a bit of code to do it but I don’t have time and I don’t do it very often so little benefit.

Jack · Member Joined: 22 Oct 2009 Posts: 269

I don't think Pignon is cantering in the short vid. A canter should have a point of suspension and his horse has both hind feet on the ground at the same time, I believe this is one reason the horse is so elevated in the shoulders. Another thing that I considered is the conformation of the horse. The first grey horse is much straighter in the hocks and built much more downhill, while Pignons horse appears almost sickle hocked and more level in his conformation. I appreciate seeing all the riders movement and the horses vertical motion but I'm still unable to compare them myself. Maybe that's because its been since a long time since my body was this flexible.

Jack

Rik(The Sequel) · Member Joined: 03 Oct 2010 Posts: 102

It doesn’t mater what causes the movement of the horse’s back, it could be a 3 beat canter, a 4 beat canter or the horse is on roller skates, what we are looking at is the movement of the back and how the rider absorbs, moves with or against the movement, that movement will be different between horses and on the same horse depending on what it’s doing, but how a rider deals with those variances is very interesting, most will have a style they use for everything a few will vary what they are doing depending on circumstances.

There is so much going on when you watch a horse and rider moving you can’t see the wood for the tree’s if you look at to much in one go, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have to limit what they are looking at, after all you can look at every joint and muscle in the body of the horse and rider and how they interact with each other every fraction of a second, that’s a huge amount to comprehend.