05/02/2024
The training scale, Part 5: straightness
A straight horse is one who is ambidextrous, and can easily bend left or right. He has the balance to respond to the rider’s requests for a change of direction or alignment, without getting ‘sticky’ and leaving parts of himself in his preferred bend. He can take either canter lead easily. He moves with his weight equally distributed between his shoulders, and can move his shoulders across in either direction on request. His hind legs are aligned so that they both step equally under the body, and he can move them to either side on request. Each one of his legs takes its fair share of the load, allowing him to take even strides with a good rhythm. This gives him an increased chance of having a long and healthy working life.
In comparison, a crooked horse has a strong bend preference – one of his sides is comparatively short, while the other side is comparatively long. This affects all of his movements and makes it more difficult for him to respond to the rider’s requests. He is very heavy on the shoulder that is opposite to his preferred bend. If the handler stands on the side of the ‘heavier’ shoulder when leading, there is an increased risk that the horse will leap or or blunder into them. Lunged or ridden circles in the direction of his preferred bend will tend to increase in size, whereas in the other direction they tend to decrease in size – while the horse looks to the outside. The canter lead on his non-preferred side might be difficult to get. He might have poor rhythm if he is not aligned well enough for his legs to take the same-sized strides. If this effect is bad enough, on the side of the non-preferred bend he will appear to be lame. Crooked horses are far more likely to protest about what they are being asked to do – because of the physical difficulties they are having, and because the rider is often asking him to do what seems incomprehensible or impossible. If you do not work on his straightness, his steering will always be haphazard, his balance will not be good, and he will suffer far more wear and tear than he needs to.
So, what do I mean by straightness? It’s not just about riding in a straight line along the wall. Straight lines have their place, but by themselves they are not enough to alleviate the horse’s natural crookedness. The horse’s habitual bend to the left or right is not a superficial thing, but is written into his entire body. It’s like ‘handedness’ in people – if you are right handed, this effects which arm is stronger, which leg takes more weight when you want to stabilise yourself, how you align yourself with your dominant eye, how you move – it even affects how the neurons in your brain are organised! This is no subtle thing! Possibly because of genetics or due to how he was curled up in his mother’s womb to one side, the horse’s habitual bend is with him from his earliest days. For this reason, the rider will need to work on the horse’s crookedness for his entire ridden career, though hopefully in progressively more refined ways, over time.
This is why in our training scale straightness is depicted as the line of a circle which has all the other factors nested within it. The goal is to have straightness enhancing all the work, while all the work enhances straightness. The horse will never be perfectly straight, but with careful training his original crookedness becomes less and less. Working on improving the horse’s straightness is something that is part of each stage of our training scale, from the earliest work to the most advanced:
Part 1: the ‘légèreté factors’:
* Relaxation – When the horse is a complete beginner, by teaching him the flexions on the ground he learns to give his mouth softly on both sides of his mouth. This may seem a very small step, but it is the start of everything. If his mouth is braced on one side, go no further until he relaxes here – otherwise the rest of him will be braced, too. Relaxation of his mouth is the key to the rest of his body.
* Balance – When the horse is on the forehand we start by teaching him he can shift more weight to his haunches by raising his head. This is the start of getting him off that one shoulder that he weights the most. Raising his head and neck on request and then asking him to lengthen is a powerful way to teach him that his balance can be mobile - he doesn’t just have to plough along leaning on one shoulder all the time.
* Impulsion – Ensuring the horse can go forward immediately on the request of the rider’s leg is the start of having the shoulders reaching out well and both hinds stepping under the body and engaging. Good, forward strides on straight lines, curves, circles and changes of direction help him to take active, even strides with each leg – improving his ability to be straight.
Part 2: Flexibility
Working on the horse’s flexibility very directly works on creating symmetry. Some of the horse’s crookedness is not just preference or habit, it is literally restricted soft tissue. One side will be shorter, and this needs to be stretched out with bends to the opposite side, whereas the longer side is somewhat lax and needs to learn how to shorten. Through working in halt, walk, trot and canter in bend and counterbend we aim to make the horse supple on both sides. Only when his body allows the bend will he be able to bend - how unfair is it to demand something that he cannot give…? Plus, we work with him to make him aware that he is able to bend in ways that are not habitual to him. Teaching these novel movements and then practicing them allow him to rewire his brain and body to acquire functional new patterns which he can can use even when he’s not being ridden. I often think that horses that are ridden in a way that improves their straightness look better muscled and coordinated than their less-favoured paddock mates.
Part 3: Mobility
We work very specifically on ensuring that the horse can give his quarters and his shoulders when requested, to the right, to the left. When we have the ability to do lateral movements, we give careful consideration to how the horse’s habitual bend will affect him in each direction. Don’t think in terms of his ‘good side’ and his ‘bad side’: he’s effected by his habitual bend whether he’s going to the left or right.
A left bend horse will tend to have different faults in the shoulder-in going to the left than he will to the right, almost as if he were a different horse! The rider’s job is to plan the riding and the exercises to end up with the end result that the shoulder-in has a consistent angle, bend and activity no matter if he’s going to the right or the left – this is what it is to be ambidextrous. The same concern guides us in developing the other lateral movements. It is in this way that real straightness opens up as a possibility.
Part 4: Collection
You need pretty good straightness to come to a healthy collection. It is through equalising the weight between the shoulders that the forelegs can take free, elevated steps, and it is through aligning the hindquarters that each hind leg can carry its share of the load. Straightness training doesn’t stop there, though. No matter how good the horse gets, it will still be useful to work on improving his straightness! The demands of collection will show up his residual crookedness: for example, in piaffe one diagonal pair may be stronger in stance phase, so he can lift the other diagonal pair higher – giving him a lopsided-looking piaffe. It’s up to the rider to keep thinking about how to train straightness as the exercises demand more and more of the horse. For example, asking for him to piaffe in shoulder-in alignment to the weaker side will help to develop this side and even out his steps.
One of the things I never liked about the official dressage scale is the order of its hierarchical steps, which lists straightness as the second last step, just before collection – this seems really out of kilter to me. Without a grasp of straightness it’s difficult to lead a horse safely, lunge him well, ride a circle or steer him towards a jump. Straightness training is not something to be left till later! I prefer the circular – or global - training scale of the Ecole de Légèreté, where all of the factors are interrelated with each other. Improvements in the basics make the more advanced work possible. Improvements in the advanced work improves the basics. And everything goes full circle back to the goal of increasing the horse’s lightness.
I have now discussed most of the factors of the circular training scale, but I haven’t yet addressed it’s core: respect for the horse. Stay tuned for this in Part 6.
I find this picture a striking one to go with the idea of straightness. This is Francesco Melpignano, licensed level 1 instructor from Italy.
Part 1, relaxation, balance, impulsion: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2324122701220144/
Part 2, flexibility: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2330841923881555/
Part 3, mobility: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2337505356548545/
Part 4, collection: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2342945572671190/
Part 5, straightness: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2348345372131210/
Part 6, respect for the horse: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2353532418279172/
Part 7, Summary of the training scale: https://www.facebook.com/1557697261196029/posts/2358990154400065/
