> http://www.hoefkens.nl/friskur/fotos/werken_en_smullen/?img=007 > > http://www.hoefkens.nl/friskur/fotos/werken_en_smullen/?img=008 > > What is going on in these pics? Is this a baby being trained, and > what sort of tie down are they using on him/her? > > Can someone explain to me the importance of working on a baby's headset???
Here's an article by Manolo Mendez: A short neck destroys balance Horses have evolved to carry most of their weight on the forehand for most of the time, and freedom of the neck and head is a crucial factor in being able to balance this weight. A green horse has natural balance, but all that is changed when we expect him to carry a rider as well. Now he must find a new balance. This alone may take many months, depending on the horse, his conformation, temperament and natural ability. Training a horse to perform the higher movements with grace and beauty is not possible without conserving the horse’s natural balance. For flying changes, pirouette, half pass, or any other advanced movement, the horse must have superior balance. A short contact used to create a short neck and to force poll flexion will interfere with this balance. Take the fly change or the half pass, for example. We should never have too much contact. We should use the reins to gently guide the horse in the direction of the leading rein, then we should change softly, allowing the horse time to organise his legs and adjust all his vertebrae. Superior balance becomes even more crucial for the Airs-above-ground, such as levade, courbette and capriole. Interfere with the mouth, have the contact too short at the wrong time, and you will cause the horse to shorten his neck and thus lose his balance. How short is “too short”? Of course, training with too long a neck can cause problems, too. If the horse is not encouraged to seek contact with the rider’s hands, to lift a little, he will never learn to carry himself in a way that will help him develop the muscles he needs. But how short is too short and how long is too long? How much contact is the right amount to allow the horse to work with his neck in the optimal position? It depends on each individual horse and the level of his training. In any type of training, the nose must be in front of the vertical AT ALL TIMES. If we force a green horse to work with a short contact he will go behind the vertical in an effort to evade the pain we are creating in his mouth and neck. A nose behind the vertical causes the poll to become stiff. The neck rolls too much, which makes the top muscles too tense. The muscles underneath “suck up” as the horse tries to support himself in this uncomfortable posture. The seven neck vertebrae become stiff and tense, which causes the rest of the vertebrae (the horse has fifty-four in all, from the poll to the tail) to also become stiff and tense. With a horse working at a high level we may need more contact, but this is because a horse at a high level has developed the ability and the stamina to hold himself in a collected outline with his poll flexed. It is still a light contact: he does not need to be held there. Shorter contact should always be by-product of physical development, not the means by which physical development is achieved. If it is the means, then it will be the wrong physical development. Even so, we should not work even a highly trained horse in a collected frame for more than a few minutes at a time. Most of his work should be done on a gentle, fine contact which encourages him to stretch down and out with his neck and head, to seek our hands through the reins. This is called “long and low”. “Long and low” or “deep and round”? Long and low is not the same thing at all as the “deep and round” principle, which relies on bringing the horse behind the vertical with a lowered head and a shortened neck. Working a horse deep and round is often achieved with side reins and running reins, and is thought to lift the horse’s back and stretch the spine by enabling the hind legs to come through properly. In fact, when a horse is worked too deep in the neck, his back must arch down. This will indeed cause him to work his back legs harder to compensate, but there is too much movement in the stifle and the hock, and not enough in the body. The hind end is not working in harmony with the front end because the bridge between them - the back - is not moving. With the legs working so hard, they hit the ground harder. This can cause concussion of the spine and hip. Deep and round restricts the respiratory system and blood supply, and the horse can’t see where he is going. The horse ends up weak in the spine. You cannot always see the damage immediately; it happens over time. In the beginning was the long neck … Dressage is an art form and, like any art form, it needs time and the right conditions in which to grow and flourish. The rider and his horse must work together, in harmony, to develop balance, rhythm, co-ordination and skill. We do not teach the horse passage or piaffe or tempi changes: these things he was born to do. But to do them with the same grace and beauty under saddle means we must work within his natural limitations, building his strength and willingness. If we don’t, we end up with a pale copy of the real thing. Allowing him to work with his neck long and low is where it all truly begins. ____________________________________ Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
