--- In [email protected], "Virginia Tupper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:>
> > One thing to consider - many (most?) Icelandic's don't have sufficiently > > long necks to "get on the bit", or at least with normally expected head > > carriage, like say a TB, warmblood or some QH and Arabs are capable of > > doing. > > Gat has a short neck so I really can't imagine her getting on the bit > like the other schooling horses, but, how could she get her back up > without going into that frame? Semantics, again... No, not every horse can physically get its face right at the vertical and have its poll the highest point, but that's really the least of being "on the bit." It might be more accurate to say you want your horse "on the aids", balanced and responsive to equal amounts (ideally almost imperceptibly light) of hand, seat and leg, with the back up, stepping under itself, using its pelvis and engaging (bending) all its joints relatively equally (i.e. not swinging stiffly from just the hip. but bending and using hocks and stifles). It's really not all about the headset. :) Lateral suppling (correctly--i.e. maintaining a true, consistent bend and not allowing the shoulder to pop out, or the horse to fall in, etc.--riding circles and serpentines) will help with the longitudinal. It will help her to develop the strength and suppleness needed to use her hind end and bring her back up (and yes, her head will end up going down as she uses the rest of herself correctly, although she might never physically be able to have the headset of a GP warmblood), and all this will help her W/T/C and by extension her tölt, too. It's so *not* about the head, or about cranking a horse into a particular shape. As others have said, it's a gradual process, and yes, as she does build strength and suppleness she'll be able to work in a "frame" (ugh!) that is *biomechanically correct* for carrying a rider for progressively longer periods of time. But it should be a *true* frame that arises out of correct work, not out of a pre-conceived notion of what the end product should look like. Slow, systematic, biomechanically correct conditioning and strengthening will help any riding horse of any conformation. :) /Roo in VT
