15/03/2025
BIRTHRIGHT BALANCE & THE FOLLY OF THE DIRECT REIN…
Working on counter flexion for rebalancing in my double lunging last week, the visual observation made me realize why the direct rein has such a negative effect on the horse’s balance…
In forcing an abduction step into the bend, not only does it condition the horse to push into a plane of pressure perpendicular to their line of travel, it forces them to let go of their verticality and integrity in their opposite diagonal pair to do so, and becomes the first step out of their birthright balance and into a man-made, lateral balance, made all the worse by our leading and lunging practices, to be battled evermore by an army of half halts and inside leg.
It would be a comedy of errors if it weren’t such a tragedy for the horse.
This is what I spend the majority of my time doing, is restoring horses to their birthright balance, or ensuring they retain it as c**ts.
Not by micromanagement, but by little reminders of their original power and balance, which they’re allowed to explore, and proving to them I will never ask them to step out of balance or into pressure.
No easy task when we both have the muscle memory of doing it the wrong way for many years…
We’ll be dealing with the negative repercussions of well-intended abduction steps, ‘following the nose,’ necessary but overdone in the c**t starting world, as well as a weaponization of imbalance common in the c**t-starting world… the necessary but overdone hindquarter disengagement.
But I can’t point the finger at natural horsemanship without also acknowledging the weaponization of lateral movements that also happens in the dressage world, where we see destabilization of the diagonals and a lateralization of balance by the necessary but often over-angled and overdone shoulder-in.
If you’ve ever gotten stuck in ‘shoulder-in purgatory,’ you’ll know what I mean.
FIRST & FINAL BALANCE
In Baucher ‘s final 14th edition, he briefly touches on his second and final manner, and how he’s experienced a balance superior to his previous attempts.
He describes this superior balance as the horse’s ‘first type of balance,’ and gives a sound argument as to why it can never be accessed by a simultaneous use of the hand and legs, but only by the principle of ‘hand without legs, legs without hand,’ an alternating use which demands self-carriage and self-impulsion
He also goes on to describe how he accesses this ‘first type of balance’ via his ‘3rd rein effect’ and counter turns, in order to bring about an ‘equilibrium.’
Some recent discussions have helped me distill my thoughts on this; particularly, my understanding of the role of the grounded adductors in bringing about equilibrium to each diagonal pair.
I’ve yet to find a source who names or describes diagonal rebalancing outright, although plenty of sources describe countering asymmetry or imbalance via the shoulders relative to the hindquarters, whether via a mobilization, or simply weight redistribution.
In walk and walk pirouette especially, the outside hind definitely takes on a tripod role, but even then, the need to bring the opposite diagonal back into equilibrium by re-engaging the grounded adductors becomes apparent.
In trot and canter, that diagonal equilibrium becomes even more necessary.
What I’ve observed is a natural phenomenon where the lightening of a shoulder is implicitly tied to folding of the joints of the diagonal hind, and dependent on the integrity of the opposite diagonals.
Bending the joints of the diagonal hind is the opposite of a hind pushing across the diagonal into the shoulder, and takes on the role of both carrying and engaging at different phases of the stride.
This becomes particularly apparent when we’re working in canter, where we want the horse off the inside shoulder, carrying and engaging rather than pushing with the outside hind, and stabilizing via the opposite diagonal.
Like anything, we have a spectrum of how we choose to utilize this phenomenon, from helpful influence, to mechanized exploitation.
Riders like Bussigny, who I’ve been having quite a bit of discussions on recently, were definitely verging on exploitation of this ‘diagonal effect.’
Within this phenomenon, the importance of adduction over abduction becomes clear.
But adduction steps are not the goal themselves, but simply a way to access the grounded adductors that pull the horse into verticality.
So, we can use an adducting counter turn, like Baucher describes, and like I did with the horse here, or simply a counter flexion, or, depending on the horse, we can get to the point where we can switch on those grounded adductor muscles invisibly, supporting the base of the neck and lightening the shoulder, and softening the diagonal hind.
It can also be helpful to switch on hind grounded adductors (but NEVER to correct intractable asymmetry) by introducing an adduction step of Baucher’s reverse pirouette, which he always introduced before regular pirouette, and I’ve seen several horsemen access the diagonal grounded adductors simultaneously by transitioning from renvers to halfpass, which is a really good example of a full diagonal effect.
But I digress.
And I think I’ve info dumped more than enough, thanks to the wind driving me indoors.
We know what the cure is.
Perhaps the most difficult thing in implementing it, is how ‘wrong’ it will feel at first, and how wrong it will look to onlookers, who would demand a regular bend.
Baucher reassures us, regular bend will come, but only after equilibrium is established.
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