As a trainer, instructor and clinician, I feel the main topic I address the most is the straightness of the horse and rider. We will talk about the horse in this post.

What does straight mean?

A straight horse does not put excessive weight in one shoulder then the other, they maintain even weight between the front legs so they both reach forward toward the head and don’t  move away from each other.

Why does the horse need to be straight?

The horse is not designed to carry weight, they will instinctively drop the back away from the weight of the rider and the aids. Unfortunately this creates discomfort for the horse that leads to many problems.

Teaching the horse to round it’s back (or at least not drop it away) under the rider is the only way the horse can comfortably carry weight without problems. Once the horse is straight, they can come through the top line, engage the hind legs and round the back.  This is a staple for all horses that are ridden, regardless of discipline.

First we have to look at the natural way a horse turns. By nature they turn by looking slightly away from the direction they are turning and leading with the inside shoulder.

Here is a 10 day old filly showing the natural way for the horse to turn.

This works very well for them until we do 2 things; put weight on their back and ask them to turn a circle.

They have to learn a different way than what comes naturally for them.

Human instinct tells us to just simply turn the head in the direction we want to go, if only it were that simple!! Unfortunately that only compounds the problem for the horse.

These pictures show first, the horse turning as he naturally would and the second a straight, more upright horse.

The second balance is the one we want, the horse can relax and carry us! Also note the different tension of the longe line between the pictures, the first is taught, the second is more elastic. It is very important the horse learns to find this straight position, creating and even way of going for successful communication (and soundness).

Often we find a secondary problem when teaching the horse to be straight. The horse will fall in like above and then on the other side of the circle fall out like this.

The tendency of the horse is to lean on the riders hand and fall out. Teaching the horse to follow the hand instead of lean on it, is critical to it’s success as a riding horse. Once the horse can scribe (turn) the circle without leaning in or falling out, i.e. straight, they will then transfer that balance to carrying the weight of the rider.

This sort of approach teaches the horse to carry himself, eliminating tension and resistance between horse and rider.

Next will be the discussion of straightness in the rider because that matters just as much