02/04/2021
I thought I would post this here on my page for the stud. I wrote it, with Nicola Hall, in answer to a question on another group about the choppy stride of some Iberian horses.
If you visualise the energy created by the hind legs of a horse and the shape that energy makes as it cycles, then the Spanish horse will give you a circle shape. The energy is recycled behind the wither, the COG below the saddle. A TB or an Arab, for example would give you a flat oval and a WB an egg shape. It comes from what they were bred to do and obviously relates to their conformation.
If you want to go straight to high school tricks, garrocha and disciplines requiring agility, then you take the Spanish horse as it is, with its energy contained over the midpoint of its body. Even the conformation of its chest and front legs is designed for that and shows in the stride.
Dressage is “the dressing” of the horse, to give a complete and all-round education. A fitness regime to straighten, strengthen, supple and focus the energy and the body of the horse, like an all-round athlete, rather than a specialist in one or two areas.
To compete in dressage with a TB or and Arab you would need to do a lot of training to bring the COG back towards the mid-point. In other words, you slowly teach the horse to collect via straightness, strength and suppleness.
If you want to compete in dressage, especially at the lower levels, with your Spanish horse, then you need to do the reverse. Using straightness, strength and suppleness to UN-collect the horse and open its energy circle to go out through the withers and shoulders, down the neck to the bit, or even a little beyond. to un-collect you have to have the energy coming from behind through a softly elastic back. Just dropping/lengthening the reins, without the energy originating from the hindlegs, will give you the opposite, ie a hollow/stiff back and the neck dropped from in front of the withers, and a choppy strides.
A proper stretch, where the neck comes in a soft arc from the withers, and brings the withers with them, takes time to build up to, since the horses energy needs to be coming through correctly from behind. Often, they need to be encouraged to (temporarily) slow down and step under more to help strengthen the back end so its capable of carrying/sitting more. This will then help build the muscles of the quarters and loins, balancing out the weak back end and strong front (which tells you the horse is pulling itself along with the forehand rather than pushing itself from behind: something TBs have more natural predisposition to do due to conformation, etc)
This is where people new to the Spanish horse struggle. They are used to riding horses that have to be trained to get off their forehands, the Spanish horse needs to visit being on its forehand and therefore releasing the energy forward, before you re-collect it to its instinctive and natural way of going.
One poster on the original thread said “I remember Carl Hester saying that the Iberians find it very easy to use collection against you and sometimes you need to put them a little more onto the forehand.” I agree with Carl Hester. But if you start their education correctly from the beginning then the problem does not arise.
