The faster a horse moves, the less power it actually is generating.
We are not talking about racehorses here, that’s another type of power. We are talking about your typical pleasure/trail or dressage horse. For a horse to move Slow and Correctly, takes an immense amount of power, cooperation, and concentration. I first learned this with my Lily mare. She was a hot rod of a horse. Bold, rushy, forward, tuned out, spooky - you name it, that was her. The first 4 years of owning her I spent 95% of that time just trying to SLOW her down. I tried supplements, Lunging to burn energy, Lots of lessons, vet checks, and even Liberty work. I had others get on her and see if it was just a me issue. One person told me that she wasn’t broke mentally. Hmm, this actually made sense but that is another story. I was told to make endless circles - this helped while in the circle but not 4 strides out of it. I was scared to even canter her as we always felt out of control as if we were running down a hill and had to go faster to keep from falling. I tried different bits (this helped a little), different saddles (yes this helped too). I even tried pulling on her face, one rein stopping and “holding” her back - this created other issues.
One day it occurred to me to act like I was my own client. ‘Lightbulb’ I told myself that she was not using her body correctly, that her hind end was underdeveloped and weak, that her back and core were weak and that her sternum was dropped as well as the base of neck…. Hmm…
I then spent the next several months just walking. I found a trainer who finally understood sensitive and emotional horses - YES!! She had me walk most of my lessons and then a bit of jogging. What I learned in those first few lessons is now the foundation of most of my riding. I don’t know if she meant for me to latch onto this the way I did but I was finally able to take what I knew for a fact in my bodywork/biomechanics training into the arena for the ridden horse.
The sternum of the horse and the base of the neck is the area that is of utmost importance for these amazing animals. You need to teach your horse what it is to have free-swinging, strong, straight and light shoulders. A horse cannot have these things if it does not understand that the Poll, Upper/Lower neck, Right and Left Shoulders are all separate parts of its own body. So, what did this mean for my Lily mare? It meant that I had to teach her that all of these parts could be influenced by me individually and also simultaneously. It meant that she actually had to understand what the inside and outside rein were, individually and then together. It meant that she had to accept that contact was not meant to “slow her down” but to help her use her body for its own benefit. YIKES - where to even begin. I am not saying that ANY of this was easy or simple.
When a horse moves slowly, it gives the rider enough time to influence and communicate with a horse about what is being asked. It gives enough time to think and respond. To consciously use the body. To build a “feel” and to be felt. By working with all of these things in the walk first I was able to teach. Then we moved up to a little slow jog. Whoever says jogging a perfect shoulder-in is not hard work - doesn’t know what hard work is. Within months Lily’s topline completely filled in and her hind end started to become strong. We still had a lot of just hacking out and moving forward but the “training” was done slowly and with much thought.
What I’ve learned is that if my horse cannot do it at the walk correctly, they cannot do it correctly in any other gait. Working to “get” shoulders will automatically lift the base of neck and sternum. Which gives you a horse to sit on and also shifts the horses' weight to the hind end - This needs to happen in some capacity for any self-carriage or future collection.
I’ve been blessed to work with amazing horses (yes their people too). They usually are surprised at how much their horses change in so little time with so much “slow” work. With horses, you can always increase the speed, but it’s the slow work that will get you to the good stuff faster.
- Sarah Orloff, Still Waters Equitation
*photo credit to Melva Boyd, around the time I decided we'd both had enough rushing around.