The Truth About Balance

"The classical seat with a vertical alignment of ears, shoulders, hips, and heels, is the 'neutral' position to which the rider returns immediately after all deviations that the horse may have made necessary. It is the position in which the rider is the least burdensome, even to a young horse - because he is sitting in balance with the horse. Leaving this position is either an aid, which helps the horse improve or regain his own balance and straightness, or it is an interference, which destroys the horse's balance and straightness."

- Thomas Ritter, ArtisticDressage.com

One of the "golden rules" in riding is the seeking of the perfect balance. We all strive for balance - in our position, our seat, our movement with the horse. Another fundamental area of emphasis is in the horse's balance: too low, and the horse is on the forehand; too high, and we risk taking unplanned airs above the ground!

But there is so much more to balance.

The secret is identifying when you find the "perfect in-between" - and being able to replicate that just-right-balance regularly enough to reap the rewards.

When considering horses, finding balance occurs in avenues other than just during the rides themselves. Too much of something can be just as harmful as too little, and the horse person must learn to 'listen' carefully to the horses to know how much of something is just enough.

You must find balance in:

- hay: too much is almost as bad as too little

- supplements: too much can be wasteful or damaging, and too little can be similarly wasteful and useless

-riding: too often, and the horse can get "sour"; too infrequent, and your horse becomes less fit, able, and mentally ready

-turnout: too long and your horse gets dirty/cold/tired/ "wild"; too short and your horse gets bored/sour/unhappy

-bathing: not often enough, and the coat gets grimy and bacteria can cause skin problems; too often, and the oil gets stripped from the hair and the coat loses its luster and shine

Well, you get the idea.

There must be balance in pretty much everything, and all you need to find it is awareness and willingness to make the necessary changes to even out the scales. And whether you are sitting in balance on the horse, or achieving balanced nutritional requirements, you can be satisfied in knowing that the perfect-in-between is a great place to be!

What other areas do you find balance in your horse riding and keeping endeavors?

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Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

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Read more!

What You Ought to Know About Instant Gratification in Horse Riding: There is NO SUCH THING! Why not???

Blueprinting: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Why is it essential that you learn how to ride correctly in the first place?

Quit to Persevere: We're always told that we should keep going until the point gets across. Read why it is sometimes BETTER to quit!

In the Beginning (riding): What can you expect when you start riding? Read this article to know about the beginning of "the path".

Is Dressage Judging All That Bad?

Judging in the dressage world has become a matter of concern. From the online forums to the FEI judging seminars themselves, the contention that dressage judging is too subjective and promotes incorrect training techniques has become a rampant topic of debate. Judges are accused of favouring the so-called "dressage breeds" (a.k.a warmbloods) and then within those breeds, they apparently cannot differentiate between flashy versus correct movement.

If you have had the opportunity to scribe for a judge, or shadow a judge, or go to a judges' update or forum, you would be witness to the amount of effort that is being put into objectifying a rather subjective exercise: that of considering and rating a horse's movement against accepted international standards of reference.

Certainly, judging isn't for everyone. Other than the handful of world-renowned judges that make a good living from judging, most judges are dedicated to the job not for the "money" but for the desire to improve the horse, the rider, and ultimately, dressage. It is a task of dedication involving long days, disciplined focus, on-the-spot decision making and criticism from every member of the riding public from riders to people who have never sat on a horse.
The fact that there is a subjective component to judging dressage cannot be denied. Firstly, the judges sitting at different locations around the ring points directly to subjectivity: a judge at C sees a completely different angle than a judge at E. This is why, at the highest levels of competition, there are five judges placed strategically around the ring - the scores are collected from each vantage point and the average is the representation of the overall "picture"that includes opinions from each angle.

Another element of subjectivity includes the score value given to the movement. Like it or not, when one person is scoring a movement, they do have to take a stab at giving it a value. It is possible that one judge sees a 7 when another sees the same movement as a 5. It helps to consider that the different perspective on the movement is a contributing factor to the discrepancy.

With respect to breeds and "types" of horses: dressage isn't a 'breed sport' at all. It just happens that the warmblood breeding programs, particularly those located in Europe, have been more directly focused on producing dressage-specific horses over the past 20-30 years than the other bloodlines. Accusing judges of favouring warmbloods over say, Thoroughbreds or (insert your choice of breed), is as silly as complaining when a farm tractor doesn't "get to" win at NASCAR racing! You get the idea.....

A similar problem would be evident if you wanted to ask a warmblood horse to do FEI-level reining, or even better - win at 100 mile endurance races. Given the proper training, a warmblood could do a decent sliding stop and rollback. But it would probably never be able to compete against a suitably bred Quarterhorse in terms of picking up speed on a (relatively) small circle in an indoor arena. The length of stride of the WB might be too large and and the knee action too high - he might need a lower and quicker stride to pick up the speed and then sit back into a lope.

Ditto for the endurance race - could a WB go 100 miles? Maybe some horses could be predisposed to travelling that far, but when competing against a small, light, lithe Arabian horse that through specialized breeding over generations, has developed an incredibly efficient air exchange system, the Arabian might have a distinct advantage.

There could be (few and far between) horse breeds other than WBs that can move with the same dedicated dressage-type stride - they need the uphill body outline, the strength and sit-down capability. They need to easily lengthen and compress through the whole body and these days, they need the inborn suspension of the "super horses".

At the lower levels, the playing field might be more even for non-warmblood horses. An accurate, fluidly-executed test might secure higher marks than a sporadically correct test completed by a flashy, "typey" horse. Even though the movement might be spectacular for some movements, if enough errors occur, the less flamboyant but steadier mover could outscore the flashy horse.

However, dressage at the top levels is ALL ABOUT about movement. The assumption at that level is that the training is at par (in general) by all of the competing riders - let's face it, they all have to be strong trainers to get to that level (don't bash me on this one - you can only comment if you are regularly riding at the top of the FEI levels!). Therefore, much of the difference will lie in the suitability of the horses' movements in relation to the requirements of dressage. As the "super horses" improve in their movements, the bar is rising for all the breeds. It's just that the warmbloods are outstanding round movers with suspension.

This is why, at the grass roots levels, the warmblood-cross mare can (in general) get better marks than the QH/TB horse. The first mare simply moves better - more elasticity, better depth of stride, more "throughness", and even more suspension (as little as it might be). Bottom line.

And before people criticize judges and condemn the judging system, they should head off to judging seminars and inform themselves of the requirements of dressage at all levels. They could invest a few years in scribing with different judges, and witness for themselves the decision-making processes that judges go through movement to movement, hour after hour, and sometimes, day after day.

And as wise Morpheus emphatically insisted to Neo in The Matrix,

"Sooner or later you're going to realize, just as I did, there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path..."

Enjoys Being Brushed!

At Horse Listening, we are emphatic life-long learners of all things horsey. You will be reminded time and again about how there is so much to be learned from horses and other horse people, if only we listened.

This guest post is by SnarkyRider, who is not one but two people: Dressage Empress (SE) and Jumper Girl (JG). Together, they permeate the horsey Internet world with sarcasm and "snarky-ness". So get your snark on and let's get down to business!

Originally posted here.

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Enjoys being brushed!

Posted by snarkyrider

Appaloosa Colt – $300

For sale is a stud colt, approximately 16 months old. Enjoys being brushed. I do not believe he is a tri color, but his tail does have brown in it, and his sports are black and brown. He trailers easy and gets along with the other yearlings as well as the older gelding in my pasture. He is a beautiful horse and should turn out to be a valuable one, but due to financial situations, I am putting him up for sale. Make an offer. After my current riding horses’ training is complete, I will begin working with him, and the price will increase accordingly, or I will keep him for myself. He has his current coggins, and has had vaccinations as of July 1, 2011.

He is halter broke, and we are working on leading, but he probably only gets 15 minutes of practice every other day.

Woohoo! I finally found him! I cannot tell you how long I’ve been looking for a horse that enjoys being brushed! And a stud, no less. Hopefully he’ll pass that on to his foals. Those babies will sell like hotcakes!! Well, just as long as he doesn’t pass along the mile-long back, crappy hips, upside down neck and cow hocks too. But what are the odds of that?

Seriously, craigslist is chock full of winners. Someone needs to inform his owner that the fact that his “sports” are black AND brown does not mean he’s a valuable horse and that no amount of training will ever turn a $300 yearling into something that deserves to keep his balls. EVER. All aboard the gelding train! Choo choo!

Side note: When I showed this ad to Jumper Girl, she immediately started hitting her head against a wall. Literally. While moaning. It was awesome.

Softly Determined – A Poem

I found this one on the Internet long ago, with no indication of the author.*

However, it has stayed with me, blending intensity with passion, being so eloquent and yet knowledgeable about the "path". I have personally gone through many of the moments that are described here, and so it has touched me deeply, and been an anchor through my growth as a rider. Enjoy!

* Edited to add: The author was found (see comments below)! Thank you for writing this beautiful poem, Bernie!

Soft Determination

So we: make haste slowly; try harder gently; are softly determined.

The ideal we desire is one of dynamic harmony,
with aids telepathic in their subtlety.

Towards that goal,
our aids should speak in whispers rather than shouts.

The horse is the partner whose emphasis includes strength;
the rider should not emphasize this.
So beware the clenched jaw of the rider,
showing the strain of excess muscular effort, trying too hard.

Clearer communication is not usually stronger muscular effort,
but more correct and focussed effort.
Finesse, and the sweat of an iron will,
rather than the sweat of iron muscles.

As we progress in riding,
some muscles grow stronger - our legs, our abdominals -
but our real strength comes from inside,
our wish for harmony,
our desire to move as one with the horse.

So we:

make haste slowly;
try harder gently;
are softly determined.

BK4Leg

Muscle Memory Matters in Horse Riding

Malcolm Gladwell put forth a theory in 2008, in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success that sounds to be entirely relevant to us horse riders. In it, he proposes that it takes 10,000 hours of practice in any task to become exceptionally good at something.

That breaks down to approximately 3 hours per day over a course of ten years. He goes on to explain that it's not just about having talent - less talented people can progress beyond their more talented counterparts through repeated, directed practice.

Another key component to his theory is that one must be in the right place, at the right time, in order to achieve one's highest potential for success. In the horse sense, I have always thought of this as being influenced by the right people at the right time - preferably very early in your riding career so that the correct muscle memory can be created early on (we know how hard it is to undo bad habits - especially physical ones!).

Although not everyone agrees with Gladwell's theory, and the criticism is that he makes broad generalizations based on a relatively small amount of data, I suspect there is something to be said about regular practice. It does not take a genius to recognize that repeating a skill tends to develop the skill.

This could be especially relevant to riding horses, as there are so many small muscle contractions that act within split-seconds in order for us to keep ourselves in the saddle and moving in tandem with the horse. Anyone who has ridden for even a short time can attest to the development of 'muscle memory', or blueprinting.

Things just become easier with practice. Once upon a time you thought you'd never be able to perform a movement, but with regular determined repetition, one day you discover that it just happens. Somehow, you do not even have to think about the movement and your body just performs.

Yes, I imagine that if I could squeeze in three hours of riding a day, I would get to my goal of being efficient and effective in the saddle much quicker. This certainly holds true for riding, as well as anything in life, including success at our daily jobs.

On the horse side of the equation, I have one particularly expressive horse who has distinctly TOLD me that this theory stands true for horses as well. He is the one that thrives on daily anything (insert riding, grooming, tail brushing, lunging - you name it) and if it happens that he gets a day or two off, he emphatically denies that he has ever been ridden. He tells me his slow and fast twitch muscle fibers have absolutely no memory of ever having twitched that way before...!

What do you think of this theory and how it relates to horse riding?

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

Available as an eBook or paperback.

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3D book 2 Blueprinting – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Blueprinting, in the riding sense, refers to the muscle memory that is developed in both the horse are rider. Going on “autopilot” when riding horses can be a good thing… or not!

How To Be An Active Horseback Rider (a.k.a. Riding With Intention): What do you do when your ride isn’t going as planned? How do you respond when your horse scoots out from under you, spooks at the horse-killing object, or flat out ignores you?

When “Good Enough” Just Isn’t Good Enough In Horseback Riding: We come up with all sorts of excuses to explain why we don’t want to or can’t get past the problem.

The Dynamic Dependency of Horseback Riding: Why is it that riding can become so difficult at times? In riding, nothing can be done in isolation.

Finding Your Comfortable Un-Comfort in Riding: Being uncomfortable is often a good place to be in riding.

In the Beginning (riding)

In the beginning, you must focus all your energy on just riding. This phase includes learning all the basic skills - how to balance, how to manipulate and coordinate your various appendages, and how to use your various 'aids'.

You discover that you have a 'seat' and that it is the crux of all things in riding, and if you are lucky, you are blessed with an instructor that is willing to lunge you to develop that seat.

You learn about the gaits, the surge of energy when a horse proceeds with an upward or downward 'transition', and distinguish between your inside and outside reins and aids.

You differentiate between go and (not 'stop' but) halt.

You negotiate patterns, movements, and figures.

You graduate from the walk to the trot ('posting' and in a while, with 'diagonals'). Eventually you take your first canter steps and you wonder what the horse world has waiting for you after all these accomplishments.

You begin to jump, rein (spins, slides and stops), fly over jumps in cross-country, get 'test'ed in dressage, complete the pattern in western horsemanship or trail, run the barrels, or maybe even head for the hills during a 30-mile long competitive trail.

You develop your ability to listen to the horse, maintain safety, and be a good leader for your horse.

You might learn to jump higher, spin faster, go longer on the trail.

At this point, riding is a pleasure, a recreational sport, a chance to enjoy the company of the magnificent horse.

But at some point, you realize that there is something missing - but you can't put your finger on it. Yet the feeling continues to pick away until through some catalyst (watching someone ride, or learning something new), you take a bite out of the proverbial apple... and discover Riding (with the capital R).

(click to read on)

So Ya Think Ya Got Something To Prove?

Then don't go to the show. Seriously.

Every now and then, it is a super feeling to get out of your own backyard, hit the road with your horse friend that you've been working with for so long, and get out to "play" with other like-minded people.

However, before you head off, set yourself some achievable goals for the day - both for your riding and for your horse - and be satisfied with your performances if you achieved your goals. Sometimes, you might achieve your personal best out there in the ring, but on that day, it just isn't good enough to receive a placing. And that should be as good an accomplishment as any.

DON'T go if:

- you aren't getting excellent rides at home, mentally and physically, both you and your horse.

- you haven't taken your horse off-property in many months (go somewhere lower-key first).

- you haven't done your "homework": both you and your horse are fit (conditioning, muscling, mentally) and riding AT LEAST one level (regardless of discipline of riding) higher than what you will be doing at the show.

- you are struggling with a component that you will need at the show.

- you absolutely HAVE TO take home the winning ribbon/prize/championship (well, ok, unless you are there to win thousands of dollars or the Olympics).

- you are unprepared in terms of tack/supplies.

"Green light" checklist for the show:

- you can thank your horse for just getting the two of you to the show

- you have it pretty good at home and your horse is producing "winning" rides on a regular basis

your horse can easily handle the physical exertion that will be required while you're riding at home

- you want to go and soak in the atmosphere of hundreds of others of people dedicated to their horses and sport like you!

- you are prepared to put forth a strong attempt and receive feedback from the judge (and your horse!) with humility.

- you know deep down that there is a tomorrow and you take what you learn from this show and put it forward to the work you will do at home and at the next show.

- you know that even if you don't win the class, you have a chance to watch others and learn from their efforts and experiences.

- you will celebrate any ribbons (accomplishments) with the joy that comes with a deep sense of knowing that everything came together at the right place at the right time

Know that there is always the possibility that things don't come together, and you might end up with a sub-par performance that day. In this case, know that there will be other days ahead when things will go right together.

Most important - listen to your horse, and see if the show was beneficial for him as well as you.

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

Available as an eBook or paperback.

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Five Secrets to Winning at the Horse Show: The fun part about winning is that winning isn't everything!

Top 6 Ways to Ramp It Up For Show Season: Preparing for the show season may not be as easy as it looks. There are many aspects that go into getting to the show ring, and even more that need to be done before you even set your first trailer tires onto the road.

Be Productive With Your Nervous Energy at the Horse Show: The tension that builds in you during the warm-up ride can be very useful if you know what to do with it.

Do You Have the “X Factor” at the Horse Show? Finding your “X Factor” at the show is not an easy feat. So many things must fall together all at the same time.

Speaking “Horse” (a.k.a. “Pushing the Envelope”)

What does your horse's expression tell you?

You've seen it before (maybe you've been there yourself?) - the horse/human tug-of-war scenario:

The person is trying desperately to keep the horse in a particular position

the person is leading the horse somewhere and all the while, the horse is moving, imposing, and once in a while, running over the doting human being!

* * * * *

Once you know how to listen to your horse, a whole world of communication can open up for you. You will know how to interpret what the horse is saying - to the other horses, to you, and to the 'world'. Horses send messages out as much as humans do. It's just that we do it verbally (just think of what a gathering of people sounds like and you'll know what I mean).

Horses, on the other hand, do very little verbally (unless the horses belong to me - they've definitely learned to 'voice' their opinion!). Most of their communication lies in the non-verbal realm; you need to learn to 'listen' in a different sense, by carefully observing their body movements. Pretty much EVERY movement has a meaning and is 'sent out' with deliberate intention. The talent on your part is to interpret the body language accurately.

Point in fact - the horse's social structure works on a basic hierarchical system. Lower-level horses always defer to the herd leader. In other words, if the herd leader moves into the direction of another horse, the lower horse is expected to move away - from the hay, from another horse friend, or simply from the herd leader himself.

Neglecting to move away often results in a more aggressive movement from the herd leader - including the possibility of a swift kick in the lower-level horse's direction!

This submission has developed over the millenia for good reason - the herd leader HAD to be the one who moved the herd around. In nature, without a good leader to tell the others what to do and where to go, the herd's safety would be at risk.

How does this involve you, the human? Your actions will dictate your current and future relationship with that horse. Here is a possible scenario: while you are leading the horse beside you, the horse steps into your direction, almost walking on top of you. Your possible responses:

- you think it's cute that the horse wants to snuggle up to you, and you step back as the horse walks into you

- you see the horse coming in your direction and you push the horse on his shoulder so he doesn't continue coming into your space

Each reaction on your part gives the horse a different message. The first reaction - stepping away - will tell the horse that he is the herd leader between the two of you, and that he should be the one to make decisions. Many times, this 'herd dynamic' works just fine for your interactions, because chances are that your horse is kind and generous and usually will not be inclined toward stepping on you or dragging the lead rope out of your hand.

But unfortunately, the one time that he feels he must impose his authority on you (if he feels threatened by an unfamiliar object), you will not have a say in his decision-making. As the lower ranked member of your herd, you must obey - meaning, you'd better get out of his way as he tramples you to get away from the fear object!

If instead, you choose to not move away and push him back out of your space the moment you notice him stepping toward you, you impart a very different message. In this case, you are telling him that you are the herd leader, and he needs to respect your personal space.

This is the preferable role for you as human, since you are likely more than six times smaller and lighter and at risk of being easily injured based on just the size difference itself.

As you learn to listen to your horse, you will realize that there is constant communication going back and forth between the two of you (whether you know it or not). So instead of assuming the subservient role, pay closer attention and work on asking your horse the questions. If you move into his space, will he move away from you? If you need him to stop moving his feet, will he stand still?

Make a habit of routinely asking him questions. If he answers "yes" to your questions, you can be thankful and reward him with a pat and a "good boy" vocal response, but your job is not quite complete. Just getting an affirmative is not enough - as soon as your horse gives you the 'yes', you need to ask him the next level of question.

Maybe it could be something like: "Will you stand still and not dive for the grass while I lead you in the field with the yummiest grass?" The next level might be, "Will you walk nicely and not prance around while I lead you away from the barn and your herd members?"

Each time you get the 'yes', think of something that could be the next step. Pushing the envelope is one step in developing a trusting, confident relationship with your horse.

What are some questions you ask of your horse?

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Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

Available as an eBook or paperback.

Read more here:

Don’t Mistake the Halt For a Stop! Don’t do it! Don’t mistake the halt for a stop. They are two entirely different maneuvers.

How the “Not Canter” Can Drastically Improve Your Transitions: Every time you ask (with the correct aids), the horse resists. The situation becomes ugly – you have a hard enough time just sitting the bounciness, never mind getting the transition. What to do? This article remains one of our most popular posts of all-time.

What Responsible Horse Ownership Really Means: We need to keep in mind that horses are prey animals and long-time domesticated livestock. If we listen well enough, we discover that what we think of as giving might not be what the horses truly need.

10 Tips for the Average Rider: Are you an average rider? Then join the club!

20 Ways Horse Riding Becomes Life Itself: You could say that horses are our teachers. Not only do we grow in terms of physical ability, but perhaps even more so, we grow in character.

Horses. Riding. Life.

Tag: horses

The Truth About Balance

But there is so much more to balance.

You must find balance in:

Well, you get the idea.

What other areas do you find balance in your horse riding and keeping endeavors?

Want to advertise your business on Horse Listening? Click here for more info.

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

Is Dressage Judging All That Bad?

Enjoys Being Brushed!

________________________________________________________

Enjoys being brushed!

Softly Determined – A Poem

Finally! The Ultimate Rider-Centered Program!

Become A Horse Listener!

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – Book 4: 20-Minute Exercises To Add Variety To Your Riding Routine

Muscle Memory Matters in Horse Riding

Finally! The Ultimate Rider-Centered Program!

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

In the Beginning (riding)

So Ya Think Ya Got Something To Prove?

DON'T go if:

"Green light" checklist for the show:

Finally! The Ultimate Rider-Centered Program!

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding

Speaking “Horse” (a.k.a. “Pushing the Envelope”)

Want to advertise your business on Horse Listening? Click here for more info.

Buy the book for many more riding tips! Horse Listening – The Book: Stepping Forward to Effective Riding