Back to school challenge
If you are bringing your horse back to work after a lazy summer, make sure to make a plan first – this will make progress faster and healthier.
As the days start to get shorter and the temperatures start to drop, it feels like the carefree days of summer are ending and we need to start thinking about »serious« things again. During the hot summer months, a lot of riders might run out of time to work their horses before it gets too hot. With autumn approaching, many decide that now is the time to start more serious work again. Hooray! Before you delve into it all, how about making a plan?
Here's what I suggest you do. Take a photo of your horse. Make sure it's on level terrain and the horse is in a relaxed resting posture. Then note the things you like about the way he's standing and the things you don't like.
For example, during the summer, the mare on the photo was working way less than she is used to. The work consisted mostly of easy trail rides, some in hand runs, but no structured training such as lunging, in-hand work or arena work of any kind. I see that her posture has become worse over the past three months. This is also partly due to the fact that she likes to stand in a shaded area, where she has to keep her head slightly higher to keep it above the fence. All of this made her neck appear shorter and she lost a bit of tone in the topline. She is also a bit tight around her pelvis (especially the psoas muscles) from running downhill from her favourite pasture spot to her shelter from flies. And although she isn't super tight or stiff, she would definitely benefit from a posture reset.
After you've noted all the things you don't like, ask yourself what needs to happen to change it. I would like to see her neck elongate and her head drop down when she's resting. This would put her thoracic sling in a better position to do its job and it would free up the topline so it can relax more while resting. A relaxed topline is a topline ready to work and ready to develop. I will start by paying more attention to her posture while I am grooming her, tacking her up or walking her. I will ask her to slightly change her posture to lower her head, engage her thoracic sling and elongate her neck. I will follow that up with some structured work over cavaletti in walk, because I know that for her, that's the best way to get her to use that thoracic sling and lift up the base of the neck. Twice a week should do it.
The other thing I want to address is her pelvis. It's not painful, but she needs to start thinking more about using it in a better way. So, here I am going to incorporate some stretches and some proprioceptive work. During grooming, I might add some psoas and hamstrings stretches and some work on balancing pads – get her thinking about her hind legs. Then I might take her to the forest and ask her to negotiate some fallen branches, tree trunks, tighter turns.. I will make that session short and then continue with our usual morning run. When we come back, I might do some more stretches and some gentle bodywork techniques.
I encourage you to go out and do the same with your horse. Look at the photo, mark what you want to change and write a plan on how to get there. If you are unsure about how to go about doing this, break it down into smaller steps. Which area do you not like? What muscles would need to develop more in order for you to like it more? How do you develop those muscles? Often it will be the case that some muscles or areas need to relax before you can build them up. That's ok too – you can make a plan to use gentle bodywork techniques, stretches and awareness work to address those issues first. And if you get really stuck, you can always consult your bodyworker about which exercises are and aren't appropriate for what you're trying to achieve. Remember, having a plan makes the journey easier.