Ikhwan Equestrian

19/12/2024

Develop Your Eye for Correct Connection in Stretchy Trot - Dressage Fundamentals

18/12/2024

The basics of balance

To achieve self carriage the horse needs to be in vertical and horizontal balance.

The vertical balance means the horse has an even weight through both forelegs which allows the thoracic sling muscles to engage, lifting the withers through the middle of the shoulder blades. As the wither lifts it helps the horse lighten the front end and reach out to the contact from the base of the neck with an open underside, therefore no tension in the throat or jaw.

The horizontal balance refers to transfer of the horses weight from the forehand to the hindquarters. Where they can step under them selves, engaging the glutes, hamstrings and abdominals to open and lift the back and provide impulsion to push forwards and uphill.

The frame Norman is in above is forward down and out. This is the foundation frame and is where all horses should start, it will look slightly different on different horses due to their confirmation and natural carriage and training stage. But should be well established before moving onto any collection and more advanced frames to reduce risk of compensation and injury’s.

It’s no easy thing to achieve and you may well begin with just a few steps… after all none of us could whack out a 30 min plank with no training! So ride either empathy for your horse, give them regular praise when they achieve things and breaks to help them process and recover.

Have empathy for others to and be careful not to judge others on a picture or a short video, every one will be on a different stage of their journey so long we are doing our best and always trying to develop our own knowledge and skill you can’t really ask for more.

16/12/2024

Emir Idris Al Baha

A throwback to 2022 and 💎OFW LUXXURY💎...
(Exxalt x Lulu Marajj)
U.S. National Champion • Scottsdale & World Cup Gold Champion...But we are even more thrilled about the beautiful foals she is producing...More to come 😉

16/12/2024

Superb drawing!! Thanks to whoever sent it my way!!!!

16/12/2024

To prevent losing engagement and impulsion in the canter after your transition, imagine asking for the transition again on the second and third stride.

Avoid pushing into canter and think about lifting your horse into canter whilst maintaining a good balance that allows and encourages them to keep the weight on their outside hind leg.

A common mistake is for people to drop their weight forwards and to the inside, particularly if swinging their outside leg back for the transition, this kill the quality and can throw the horses balance out causing them to pick up the wrong lead.

Picture by Sandy Rambinowitz for Dressage Today

16/12/2024

16/12/2024

The biomechanics of the horse follow the same Newtonian laws of motion that everything else does, including cars. Newton’s third law simply states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Today we see too many riders who are riding in opposition to this law of physics.

To start, all race cars that are not all wheel drive are rear wheel drive because power from the back or hind is more manageable in terms of precision when the power gets turned up. This is also true of expensive sports cars like the Porsche pictured at left.

The left image with the white arrow shows what is called "torque vectoring". The arrow indicates that the power of the car's torque is greatest from the outside rear wheel. It should be obvious that when there is more power from the outside rear wheel that the car will turn as shown more easily and more accurately in the direction of the front inside wheel in the turn.

If instead the power of the car's torque came from the inside rear wheel, this would push the car out away from the direction of the intended turn. The action of outside rear torque vectoring is to create an equal and opposite action, which is to power the car forward to the inside of the turn. This is more stable because it does not fight against Newton's third law of motion.

The exact same process is true in horses. Yet we see many riders trying to make a smooth stable turn by powering from the wrong inside "wheel" in the hind as seen in the left horse image. And then they wonder why their turns are not so good. They need to realize that no one can defy the laws of physics for very long.

You can see in the left horse image that the horse's ability to bend in the turn gets stifled by the push from the inside "rear wheel" left, hind leg. The equal and opposite energy wants to straighten the horse's spine, not bend it in the curve of the turn as the Porsche does with its torque vectoring technology. Plus, this attempt to violate the laws of physics chokes the energy down so that fewer of the horse's muscle groups can get involved in the turn.

By contrast, if we look at the right horse image, we see the rider driving their horse from the outside hind in the left turn. Because this follows the laws of physics, there is no opposition to the horse's energy. More muscle groups are allowed to be applied to the turn and the horse's spine bends more easily due to the complete lack of opposition to the horse's energy. The equal and opposite action of the horse pushing from the outside hind is a smooth solid turn.

14/12/2024

Nicari Ulfah

ISF GK