Straightness

The USDF has an excellent discussion of straightness at www.usdf.org/EduDocs/Training/POT_Straightness1.pdf. Rather than repeating the descriptions of straightness there I would like to address the two related questions How can I tell when my horse is crooked? and What can I do to make my horse straighter?

Discussions of straightness tend to make it sound like those are simple questions. But if you don’t have mirrors and your horse is accustomed to being crooked or you have consciously or not accommodated the crookedness, it might not be so easy to tell. And fixing the problem can be more complicated than asking for flexion on the convex side.

What are the signs of crookedness? A crooked horse may carry the haunches to the inside in one or both directions. It may lean or brace on one rein and/or not accept contact on the other rein. It might be more comfortable turning in one direction than the other, or it might be more resistant changing direction in one way or the other. The horse may find leg yield easy in one direction and hard in the other, or tilt its head in the shoulder-in in one direction. A crooked horse will resist lateral flexion at the poll in one or both directions.

You should be on the lookout for any of these signs of crookedness at the beginning of every ride. If the horse is in front of your leg and accepts the contact you can begin to address the issue of straightness. 

First ride the horse on the track of the whole arena in both directions. Then ride on the inside track in both directions. If the horse stays easily on the inside track in both directions it is probably not very crooked, but the exercise should give you an idea of how crooked the horse is. Then you can ride on 20m circles, first in the easy direction, then in the harder direction. Then ride big figure eights of two 20m circles. Do not ask for any bend (uniform curve through the entire spine) or flexion (giving in the jaw so that the horse flexes laterally at the poll) in either direction. Just keep your hands as still as possible in front of the withers, with your weight more into your inside stirrup in each direction, and ask the horse to step actively from your inside leg to both reins in each direction. If you take 3 to 5 strides to shift your weight from your old inside stirrup to your new inside stirrup as you cross the center line the horse should steer easily from one circle onto the other. And just keeping your weight in your inside stirrup should give you an amount of bend appropriate for the 20m circle. If this figure eight exercise is effortless your horse is probably straight. If it is not effortless, it is probably because your horse is crooked and hollow on one side. If your horse is left-handed (most horses are), it will push against your right leg when you change from the left circle to the right circle. 

If the horse pushes against your inside leg on the circle it will probably be harder on the inside rein in that direction and unwilling to make contact on the outside rein. You can help the horse give to your inside leg by opening your inside rein as you cross the center line on the far side of the circle (not where the two circles of the figure eight join) and asking the horse to enlarge the circle slightly with a few steps of leg yielding. Then stay on that circle so that you can do that same enlarging exercise two or three times (now each time you cross the center line) before returning to the figure eight. Note that by opening the inside rein you are not increasing the contact on the horse’s hard side, but just using the amount of contact you have to ask the horse to take its head to the inside and keep it there while it steps to the outside of the circle, beginning to give in its inside rib cage. In addition to softening the convex side of the horse to encourage straightness of the spine and increase the horse’s ability to stay on the line of travel, this exercise helps the horse to take contact on the outside rein (the side that wants to be hollow). This is the correct way to get the horse off the rein that it is heavy on—in order to get the horse off the heavy rein you have to get it onto the light rein.

If the horse pushes against your outside leg on the circle, do the exercise described in the previous paragraph in the other direction. In other words, if the horse pushes against your outside leg on the circle to the left, go onto the circle to the right and do the enlarging the circle exercise on the circle to the right. And even if you notice a problem only in one direction, or with the horse resisting your leg only in one direction, make sure you do the exercise in both directions so that you are not overworking one side. 

The three loop serpentine (three 20m half circles) is a useful variation of the figure eight exercise. The horse should push equally from the inside hind leg to the bit in both directions without slowing down, speeding up, or pushing against your leg in both directions. You will want to ride the serpentine at least twice in each direction. The first time you learn where the issues are, just as in the figure eight, and the second time you try to correct them. The third time you can see if your corrections were effective.

The next exercise is leg yield. Leg yield generally is considered a suppling exercise (crossing the hind legs supples the lumbar area, enabling the back to swing, which in turn allows the neck and poll to soften). If it does not feel the same in both reins in both directions, though, it means the horse is not straight. 

The leg yield from the center line to the wall (without changing rein) feels easier than leg yielding off the wall to the center line because the horse does not have to change the flexion in order to do the exercise. And when you are first teaching the horse to leg yield that is the better way to do it. Horses love to go back to the wall! Because the turn onto the center line requires more bend than the leg yield does (in the leg yield the horse should be straight through its spine, with just a little lateral flexion at the poll away from the direction of movement), though, it is easy for the horse to stay bent and just fall toward the wall with its shoulder. Leg yielding off the wall is a little clearer for the horse: bend through the corner, straighten onto the long side, change the flexion, then go sideways toward the center line. It is also clearer for the rider. Leg yielding to the wall can feel good to the inexperienced rider because falling toward the wall is easier for the horse, so the horse feels more willing. Starting the leg yield at the wall gives the rider a starting point where the horse is parallel to the long side, so it is easier to feel when the horse starts to lose that alignment.

If the horse cannot stay parallel to the wall, or overbends in the leg yield, or becomes rigid on one rein, it is not straight. For overbending or loss of alignment, ride the horse straight ahead again and forward and then try the leg yielding again. If two or three tries do not yield a correct leg yield change direction and do the leg yield in the other direction. If the horse braces on the rein in the leg yield go immediately to the leg yield in the other direction and then return to the original one.

Once the horse can do 20m circles and leg yields easily in both directions, return to the three loop serpentine to see if it can do all three loops in both directions without bracing on either rein or pushing against either leg. If it can, your horse is probably straight!

If the horse is straight in the trot and has a well-balanced canter it should be straight in the canter also. If there are any weaknesses in the canter, however, straightness may be an issue. Pay attention to how well the horse steers in the canter and how clear the rhythm is. When monitoring the steering, always bear in mind that you can ask the horse to turn only on beat one of the canter (when the outside hind foot is on the ground and the poll is at its highest point in the stride). You should sit slightly in the direction of the turn and use your outside rein to move the shoulders (which are then in the air) in the direction of the turn. If the horse has trouble turning and maintaining a clear rhythm, and you can’t trace the problem to steering errors of your own, it is possible that the issue is crookedness. 

As you attempt to straighten the horse in the canter, bear in mind that the horse needs to give a little in its inside rib cage to accommodate the mechanics of the canter. Thus even if you need to counterbend the horse to help with balance and straightness, the horse must be allowed to return to inside positioning (the inside hind footprint between the front footprints). A left-handed horse will tend to have a longer stride to the left and may also want to overbend to the left. If the problem is just that the stride is longer (and probably also less balanced) you might be able to correct it with half halts. If the horse also tends to overbend, however, it will probably be harder on the right rein and thus be less able to accept the half halt. Counterbending this horse will put more weight on the outside hind leg and raise the inside shoulder, thus improving the balance and the alignment on the line of travel. The horse should then demonstrate its straightness by being lighter on the right rein and steering more easily.

The left-handed horse will also be more difficult to the right. It may have difficulty staying round and going forward. It may want to turn by bringing its haunches to the inside rather than keeping them lined up with its shoulders on the turn. This horse needs to give in its inside rib cage before it can do anything else in the right lead canter. You can put the horse on the 20m circle just as you did in the trot and ask it to bend from your inside leg, using an open inside rein if necessary to encourage the bend. When the horse accepts the inside bend and the connection on the outside rein, lightening the contact on the inside rein, you can try straight lines and turns again. If the horse can go forward on the straight line and make turns without losing the elastic connection on both reins, it should be straight.

All of the elements of the training scale are inter-related. Thus it is important every time you ride to be mindful of your horse’s straightness as much as its rhythm, relaxation and desire to move forward. Note also that all the exercises I have described are done in motion. Just as there can be no rhythm without forward motion, straightness can only be achieved in relation to progress along a line of travel. all of the exercises are designed to help the horse find its way forward to straightness, and not to make an instant correction to faulty alignment.

©  Shan A Lawton

Published in The Contact, Winter 2018 Newsletter