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| Hamish showing some hindleg engagement with Christine on board |
In this week's lesson, Christine and I were discussing how we can help Tom and Mango to lighten the amount of weight they have on the forehand.
Both of these horses tend to prefer to have a lower neck position putting them out of balance. EdL has a number of remedies for this. Asking the horses to lift their neck through a lively demi-arrêt is easily achieved, however, this is only the beginning of lightening the forehand.
We used an exercise which will encourage the horse to engage their hindlegs and flex their pelvis; the very beginning of Mobility on the EdL training scale.
The exercise we used was a square with quarter turns on the forehand. This develops the horse's understanding of the aids for moving the hindquarters under their centre of gravity and encouraging them to flex their pelvis and as a flow on effect, enable the horse to develop the musculature to lighten the weight on the forehand.
We first did this in halt and then progressed to more of a pause, in this the horse continues to move his front feet but almost on the spot, as the hind legs stepped under and around their shoulders.
Later, with Mango who knows this exercise, we asked for a few steps of this in walk on the circle - the beginning of Shoulder-In!
As we progress with these exercises the horses will gain a greater understanding of the aids and what they need to achieve allowing for better longitudinal balance.
Ruby Kesztler - Team Member, Blinkbonnie Equestrian Centre
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