Improving your horses straightness

Core strength and symmetry in your horses body and limbs are two of the most important considerations within training for our horses. And if you have been following me for a while, you will know these are topics I talk about a LOT!

And it's because I know how absolutely fundamental they are for our horses. 

If your horse isn't strong enough in their core, they are potentially not strong enough to carry a rider, as the core and back can't push up to carry the rider, and a negative spiral of events can lead to back pain / kissing spine. (FOR SOME TIPS: click here for my recent blog on Strengthening your horses core ... Core Blog ) 

If your horse is moving asymmetrically (non-symmetrically) and it isn't addressed, over the long term uneven 'wear and tear' in the horses body is created, potentially leading to injury, by the horse using his body and limbs unevenly. 

Standard walk-trot-canter exercise doesn't address the asymmetries in the horses body and limbs, due to them having a natural crookedness pattern (they are left or right handed). So it's something that we need to be working on specifically, systematically, and over the long term, to improve the horses body and movement. 

Natural crookedness in the horse is quite a big topic, and I will be discussing it in more detail in my free talk series 6-10th March, details below! 

The fundamentals to understand are that your horse is crooked in body and movement, this is natural for them, they aren't being 'difficult on one rein'...their body is simply not symmetrical, so one rein will always be stiffer than the other. 

Last weeks blog was on Rider Alignment, and we have been delving into training with our Equipilates trainer this month in my 'Strength & Straightness' members group, and it's exactly the same for the horse as it is for riders... you are one side dominant, and so is your horse...so this is going to take some careful work to allow both of you to become flexible, yet strong, and able to do movements in both directions evenly. 

SO WHAT DO WE DO TO HELP OUR HORSE?

There is a lot we can do to train our horse to be able to become more symmetrical in body, limbs and movement.

Address your own crookedness! Work on your own body with pilates, physio, treatments, etc, whatever is required for YOUR body to be functioning optimally and symmetrically! (Rider Alignment series of exercises now live on the platform for members!). 

Develop a more sophisticated way of working with your horse, so that you are weaving flexibility work into your daily plans with your horse, to work on the foundational naturally occurring issues in their body that are present within exercise. 

Create a mixed work plan for your horse, so that they are doing different tasks within exercise...good for their body, brain, fitness, confidence, patterns, and proprioception! 

View core and flexibility work as crucial, long term work for your horse. 

Introduce different types of work for your horse...long rein, polework, corrective lunge work, lateral work, in hand work...these are all some of my favourite additions to ridden work. 

My fundamentals in rehabbing / retraining ANY horse are the core exercises, and the in hand work...these are the exercises that get down to the foundational level of the naturally occurring issues in the horses body, and target them at source! Just adding these 2 types of exercises into your routine will create a huge positive difference in your horses body and movement, but sadly they are often missed out! 

In my experience, I find that once this work has been implemented, the horse improves in body, movement and comfort levels relatively quickly, and the difference in the ridden work is significant! Once you can get your horse moving more equally, by adding in core, in hand and lateral exercises, as part of your routine, your horses ability improves, their confidence improves, and their injury risk is massively reduced. 

As always, do get in touch if I can help you with your horse, and here are the links for the Free Talk Series and my Online 'Strength & Straightness' Training! 

POSTURE & CROOKEDNESS FREE TALK SERIES: if you would like to join my talk series, they will take place in a private Facebook group 6-10th March, all of the details and the registration area are on this page: Click here for Talk Series details

STRENGTH & STRAIGHTNESS ONLINE TRAINING: if you would like help with learning and implementing everything I have discussed above, take a look at the details of the programme here: Click here for more details

You will get instant access to all of my training programme and the members group, so you can get started straight away with learning how to train your horse in a sympathetic, effective way, to improve their posture, core strength and movement - and we will be supporting you every step of the way in the members group!!