Prism Dressage and Equine Services

01/10/2025

Slow Down
For decades, human athletes have understood the benefits of slowing down. The complex orchestration of muscles, fascia, closed kinematic and kinetic chains, involved in gaits and performances is easier to coordinate slowly. Our equestrian linear concepts of forwardness and balance are simplistic and false. Scott Grafton (Physical Intelligence) discusses ordinary people trying to walk on a balancing beam versus ballet dancers. The ballet dancers perform better because their education has developed muscle synergies that are not specific to the problem of walking on a balancing beam but allow them better balance control. Just stay still for a few seconds on a balancing beam. You will make numerous and minute muscle adjustments, maintaining the forces above your center of mass. You will remain in balance as long as your physique controls minute shifts. You will be off balance as soon as the shifts become larger movements. You might give yourself an illusion of balance running through the beam. You will be off balance and crash at the end, but if the video is edited to show only the run, you will show the same illusion of balance as a horse rushed on the forehand, leaning heavily on the bit.
Now, go back on the balancing beam and walk slowly. You will not be able to control your balance on the first day. For each leg moving forward, your whole physique will have to complete minute and numerous adjustments as does the horse walking slowly in balance. Indeed, it is more difficult than rushing through the beam with a hand supporting you, but your mind and physical intelligence will identify and develop muscle synergies and fascia work, improving your balance. The horse needs to do this when performing in balance while carrying a rider. For each leg movement, the back muscles need to center the forces above the center of mass. This education demands that we create an atmosphere that gives confidence to the horse to explore further. The horse must feel respected, encouraged to explore, and given the time to process. Concentrating the forces above the center of mass is complex and involves the whole physique. The education is easier if the horse performs slowly and we work at the level of minute shifts that we channel between our upper thighs. The second we bend the horse’s neck or shift our body weight back to front or from one seat bone over the other, we alter the horse’s mastery of balance.
We can go fast and inject or slow and educate. Teaching the horse to master balance does a lot more than balance control. Mastering balance reduces the intensity of the forces stressing the lower front legs and cervical and thoracic vertebrae at impact. We can lead the horse to better hoof placement as we do by controlling our back on the balancing beam. Better joints’ placement at impact includes knee and hip joints. At a slower frequency, our physical intelligence can reach mastery of forces that our consciousness cannot master. Tai chi and other martial arts further the capacities of the human physique. The science of slow motion furthers the capacities of the horse’s physique.
Dressage boot camps will urge you to go fast because a boot camp aims to numb critical thinkers and make them obey stupid orders. When dressage returns to its original function, which is to educate and coordinate the horse’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance, the horse’s mental processing is the primary asset. The horse needs to process questions and have the time to explore solutions. Our understanding of the horse’s body function and the performance’s athletic demands allows us to assist and eventually redirect the horse’s processing.
Jean Luc

12/26/2024

Exciting news from Paul!

I am happy to announce that I have written a new book titled, “Long and Low, a Modern Revolution in Dressage,” that will be published by Taylor and Francis in the UK, due to come out this spring. I expect it to be somewhat controversial. I have written this book to try to document the roots of the problem that has infected dressage.

I especially wish younger trainers and riders will read it, not for any personal credit but for them to know the story of how we got to a place (particularly in dressage competitions) where the public has an all time low opinion of dressage.

What are the effects of these newer training systems being taught, and that they see in elite stables around the world? My greatest hope is they will take on this information and that it might help which path they choose in their own work for the sake of horses.
- Paul Belasik

www.paulbelasik.com

12/06/2024

What is collection truly?
Collection is not a head set, it is not “tucking the chin” and it is not the restraining of the head and squeezing of the body.

To simplify, collection is the availability of the horse’s body. It is the ability of the hind limbs to bear weight equally and of the shoulders to be free, supple, and directable.

You cannot simply get this by bringing the horse’s chin in, you cannot get this by simply squeezing the horse via the legs into a restraining hand, and you cannot get this with tie downs, side reins, Martingales, or other restrictive gear. Muscles cannot be supple by method of any restrictive positioning - muscles must be stretched, posture must be changed, the horse must be released, relaxed, and given time to understand and develop.

The only way to develop collection is through systematic athletic development over time. It is not done in a weekend clinic or even in several months. It is done by an educated seat and hand, and adherence to classical principles - guiding the horse toward equal weight bearing hind limbs and straightness through the body. This is the essence of classical dressage - the development of the horse as an athlete and partner, and to enhance his natural ability and create longevity and wellbeing.

Photo is of Manolo Mendez

11/07/2024

"Earth attracts the rider’s entire weight adhesively down into perfect unity with that of the horse’s. The rider’s entire “cabinet”, consisting of his torso and upper arms, become an isometrical controlled “pillar” to which predictable focus the horse can harmonize."

~Charles deKunffy

I came across this quote from Charles and thought this is a perfect continuation of the post I wrote about elbow positioning last week. Of course, Charles writes about the subject so eloquently as only he can, a true artist whether he's writing or teaching.

Charles mentions the rider's "cabinet" which consists of the rider's torso AND upper arms (including the elbows) and he compares this "unit" to a pillar. Imagine a horse pulling against an anchored cement pillar. It would not jar it loose and would eventually tire of pulling and cease to continue it. In a similar vein, a rider should never be jarred loose by the horse's pulling or general loss of balance. The difference between us and a pillar is that we can change our bodies between isometric resistance and harmonization, whereas the pillar provides solely isometric resistance. This harmonization is vital to verify to the horse that we approve of their way of going.

Also notice Charles mentions the earth pulling the rider's weight down into the horse's back. The isometric resistance from our cabinet should result in us being pulled down deeper into the saddle if the horse pulls or looses their balance. Any jarring loose of any part of our bodies can allow our horses to continuously lose their balance and disengage their hind legs.

That leads right into the last part of the quote which mentions that our seat should be a "predictable focus" that the horse can harmonize with. Instead of us following the horse's chaotic and frequent losses of balance, they need to be stabilized in their lateral and longitudinal balance through our adhesive, authoritative seat. In other words, when we are jarred loose at all, we become a "moving target" for the horse to try to balance under. Especially with young horses, this is asking of them a near impossible task. In addition to their overall balance, the horse will also have a "moving target" experience in the contact which makes it impossible for the horse to maintain a steady, elastic connection.

If we learn the art of seamlessly changing the state of our bodies from that of isometric resistance to harmonization, soon enough we'll create a seamless flow of energy flowing from the hocks to the bridle and back again, giving us and the horse the feeling of effortlessly floating along as one cohesive unit. It's the feeling that makes the art of classical riding so intoxicating!!

10/31/2024

ELBOWS. ONE OF THE KEYS TO HAVING AN AUTHORITATIVE SEAT.

I taught a group of mostly young riders this past weekend and a consistent correction in many lessons was the placement of the riders elbows.

The biggest issue I saw was the riders' elbows being too far in front of their bodies and therefore, there was a corresponding instability that resulted from this position of the elbow and by extension, an instability in the hands.

In a way, the elbow is really the connector of the contact to the rider's seat. When the elbows jar away from the rider's body, essentially there becomes a disconnect between the contact and the seat. When this happens, the seat has lost its authority. A good visualization to keep awareness of your elbow placement is instead of visualizing the reins going into the hands, you can visualize the reins connect directly to your elbows. This will drive home the point that whenever we give a rein aid, the horse should feel it going down into our seat and therefore, down into its back.

An issue I see often is when some horses are cantering, they rhythmically jar down into the rider's hands with each canter stride. In other words, they're rhythmically pushing into the forehand. If the rider's elbows are not secure, hanging down from the shoulder and stabilized along the torso, the elbows will also be jarred forward with every stride. To prevent this jarring down by the horse and rebalance it to the hindquarters, the rider needs to PASSIVELY resist the jarring with their elbows transferring weight down into the seat.

By focusing on stabilizing the elbow in this instance, the rider finds no need to pull actively with the hands. When the horse feels that the rhythmic jarring is no longer accommodated by the rider, they'll start to shift their weight to accommodate the rider's lack of giving. As this weight shift happens, the rider can once again harmonize, breathing in the contact to verify to the horse that this new balance is approved. This process may need to be repeated multiple times to make the point that the horse now moves in a new balance, but this is how we set the horse "on the seat" in the canter. There are many more instances of using the proper elbow position and stabilization to positively effect the horse's balance underneath us, but this is one example I see often.

One of the challenges, in the elbow position is to make sure it doesn't get too tense. We want the elbow to be quiet and steady along our torso, but not locked otherwise we lose the elasticity of the contact. The old saying from Charles de Kunffy is that we should have "tone without tension". In our riding position. This applies to the elbows perfectly. They should be stable, but relaxed enough to the let rein aids be transmitted to the horse in an elastic way. Focus on your elbows for a bit and see how it can transform your horse's way of going!

10/31/2024

While reflecting back on my 2021 training milestones, one really stood out to me. It was a year of terrific growth for all of the horses in my training program, but making headway into the world of flying changes with Dubai was the highlight. I believe we are currently in “flying change season,”...

10/17/2024

“The horse just has a little arthritis in his left hock, it doesn’t seem to bother him too much, he just gets a bit stiff!”

Horses are great compensators, and they will create alternative locomotive patterns to continue movement.

So, say this little bit of osteoarthritis causes a reduced range of motion of the tarsal (hock) joint. In an attempt to maintain stride length and hide this dysfunction to potential predators (because you never know when a lion could be waiting around the corner... or a flapping plastic bag!), the tarsal joint is rotated medially (inwards) during the swing phase of the stride. This results in asymmetrical & medial weight bearing through the digit. This places additional stress through medial hamstring muscles, resulting in muscle tension and trigger points. And this is all something that is potentially going on in the affected hindlimb.

A hip hike/drop can occur at corresponding phases of the stride, placing the sacroiliac joint under stress, resulting in paraspinal and asymmetrical gluteal tone/pain.

Decreased impulsion from the left hindlimb leads to increased weight bearing through the right forelimb diagonal. This can create tension and hypertrophy to the right pectoral muscles and related fascial planes.

The spiral of compensation could continue on further, affecting cervical muscles that become hypertonic as a result of weight shifting, digit shape and size, TMJ pain, head tiling, hyoid dysfunction, asymmetric tail holding...

Often it can be the case where I see a horse that is a chronic stage of compensation and it can be difficult to find the true cause especially when the horse may appear just overall “stiff”.

I liken the rehabilitation of chronic cases to peeling the layers off an onion; one layer at a time and piece by piece to unravel and rewind the compensation spiral. It is important to identify and manage the root cause, rather than just accepting it🐴

08/11/2024

"Your Best Self," an excerpt from Paul Belasik's latest book, Dressage for No Country:
What if dressage was instead about reaching a place where you are near the “best idea” of yourself? You might not be famous, but your horse likes and respects you, people like and respect you. You work hard, but you’re not nervous about the outcome. How you feel about your work won’t change much because of some judge’s opinion. You are less concerned with how you measure up to an external yardstick because you are seriously engaged in how you meet standards established by your own tests. When you are riding, training, or teaching, you are so focused, you are often unaware of time. Even when a session is difficult, you feel right with your horse. The stiffness in your back seems to have disappeared. If you get frustrated, you can quickly recover your attention. Your emotions can’t seem to get a foothold; the anxieties in your life seem suspended for a while. What you do together with your horse seems like cooperation; a mutually beneficial dance, and not like a continuing argument.
Have you ever seen pictures of people swimming in the ocean, their hands clasped around the dorsal fin of a dolphin as the dolphin carries them along? They feel excitement, fear, joy— their faces say it all. They can’t put into words the rapture they are relishing, a suspension of any editorializing or sarcasm. It is a powerful jolt of pure experience, in that moment of communion with nature itself. Even though the positive effect of that connection can’t be entirely explained, most people acknowledge it is important. We ride horses. Do we find ourselves forgetting how ridiculously amazing that is?

08/05/2024

Use your Mother Loven Flippen dog forsaken corners!!!! 😂 No seriously though. It makes a huge difference.

07/01/2024

Flashback to a cartoon that made me nod in agreement years ago, but now I appreciate its nuance even more! Kudos to the knowledgeable artist Elżbieta Jeżewska Art who highlighted the difference between instability and postural stability in horses.

On the left, we see flashy movements driven by abduction, leading to a twisted thorax and dumped sling on one side - a recipe for long-term issues.

On the right, adduction-based postural stability may not be as showy, but it's the key to a healthier, happier horse in the long run!

Let's prioritize substance over flash and focus on building strong foundations for our equine friends!

06/24/2024

Inconvenienced
Kathleen Beckham

Years ago, I had a baby horse, and when he was about 18 months old, I had the opportunity to have an equine chiropractor work on him. He was wiggly and squirrelly, and I apologized to the chiropractor for that. “That’s okay,” she said, “Little babies haven’t learned how to be inconvenienced yet.”

That was big for me. So big. “Inconvenienced.” I hadn’t thought of that before, but it was the perfect word for it. We don’t want our horse to tolerate being hurt, or being treated unfairly, but he dang sure needs to be able to be inconvenienced.

From that day forward, “being inconvenienced” became a more thoughtful part of my horse work. I started to see some of the “issues” students were having with their horses as having to do with the horse’s inability to be “inconvenienced” without becoming very anxious. I also saw the stress that some of my students experienced when they knew they were going to inconvenience their horses. It turned out it was, indeed, a “thing.”

The ability to be inconvenienced and be resilient about it, it’s a skill. It’s a skill for people, it’s a skill in dogs, and it’s a skill in horses. It’s a skill that needs to be purposefully taught, and then carefully developed and expanded over time. It should be part of any training process for horses, because it’s something that they don’t necessarily come “from the factory” with, and it’s something they really need to succeed in the human world we insist they live in.

For a horse, “being inconvenienced” can be things like being asked to work while other horses are eating, standing tied, not being fed first, being turned out or brought in a “non-preferred” order, standing next to strange horses and not being allowed to socialize, having their feet picked up, going down the trail while other horses speed by, having veterinary work done, getting in a trailer or other small space, not being allowed to graze while working… I think you get the picture. Once I started thinking about my horse being “inconvenienced,” I saw it everywhere. Gosh, a LOT of a horse’s life in the human world is inconvenience. I also started to see how much stress a horse who had not learned to be resilient about being inconvenienced could experience.

It’s not always possible to remove the inconveniences in our horses’ lives, and I’m not sure that’s the way to go anyway. A horse who is resilient about being inconvenienced develops many other positive qualities because of his ability to be inconvenienced. He learns to self-soothe, he learns to think before he reacts. He learns patience and he learns to be flexible. He learns not to get stuck in patterns and expectations. He learns to be softer and more thoughtful. He learns to be calmer and quieter.

A horse who develops the ability to be inconvenienced as a principle of his training/life is less likely to be herdbound, gate sour or barn sour. They’re more likely to trailer load easily, to tie quietly and to learn whatever we are trying to teach them. It’s kind of the “secret sauce” of horse training, if you know about it.

Being inconvenienced might start very small. The first time one of our youngsters is inconvenienced might be the first time we have him on a lead rope and he wants to go left and I want to go right. Or he wants to eat grass and I want to take him for a walk or take him over to get his feet trimmed. So it might start very small at first. But I’m aware of it. I’m aware of when he’s inconvenienced, and I’m aware of how much inconvenience he’s able to take, for his stage of development. I am carefully and thoughtfully, methodically building his “fitness” to be inconvenienced.

Those little, fleeting inconveniences will turn into bigger ones eventually, like being left outside or in the barn by himself, or standing tied to the trailer all day, or working in the rain, or working while the farm is being fed. Those are much bigger inconveniences than being asked to turn left when you want to turn right. A working horse, or a horse we want to be able to take places and do things with, he’s really got to be able to be inconvenienced. That makes him much safer and more fun to be with.

Being inconvenienced is also about a horse being practiced at changing his mind. So he can practice thinking about one thing (“I want to go sniff that horse over there”) and change what he’s thinking about (“Hey horse, let’s go over here, away from that horse, and do a stop/back/bring our front end around.”). To do that, we have to be able to decipher what our horse is thinking about, and then become proficient at causing him to change his thoughts. Horses who can’t change their thoughts do not deal with inconvenience very well, while horses who are good at changing their thoughts will be much better at being inconvenienced.

This is different from “desensitization,” and it’s not about getting the horse “shut down. It’s not about hurting him, or flooding him, or setting him up to fail. It is literally about building the horse’s mental flexibility, by degrees. It’s methodical and progressive. It’s sometimes a delicate balance, and it can be something that takes some awareness and skill on the human’s part. It’s no different than building a horse’s physical fitness and abilities, it’s about choosing the right size steps for that horse’s fitness level.

A horse whose ability to be inconvenienced has been well-developed will be quieter, less anxious, less ulcery, and more physically and mentally balanced. They will have more brain-space available for things of our choosing.

This ability to be inconvenienced, it’s a gift to the horse. It’s a gift to him, so he doesn’t have to suffer the unnecessary stress and anxiety caused by his lack of mental flexibility. Done mindfully, it doesn’t have to be scary or dangerous. And done earlier, it’s easier. And older horse who has never been inconvenienced, that’s going to be more difficult than a younger horse with no preconceived ideas about things.

At the end of the day, this is a practical thing. We choose to have our horses live in our human world, so if they can be inconvenienced, that makes living in our world a lot easier for them. It’s a gift, not a burden to them.

Coming soon... The Attention Course: an online learning opportunity that will help you get, keep and direct your horse’s attention (thought), and in the process, become worthy of it. This is part of being inconvenienced, because it is not always convenient for our horse to pay attention to us (or for us to have to ask for his attention). If you’d like to be eligible for a discount on The Attention Course when it goes live soon, sign up for your discount here: https://www.ethosequine.com/courses

06/21/2024

Narrowness and how it can transform your riding…

Something I rarely, if ever, hear mentioned outside of RWYM coaching is the importance of the concept of narrowness for a rider. To clarify, narrowness has little to do with your body type and if you’ve no idea what I’m going on about - it is a teachable/learnable skill and one that very well could be the difference that makes the difference at all levels of riding. As is the case for many coaches, their innate natural ability perhaps has made this skill part of their unconscious competence. If you aren’t even aware you do it when riding, you are unlikely to think to add it to your teaching toolbox.

As a rider maybe you struggle to steer your horse, to keep them straight, to have your horse give its back, to do lateral work in ease instead of frustration. These issues can often be attributed to a lack of narrowness in the rider.

Before riding with and training as a Ride With Your Mind Coach with Mary Wanless, I’d never even considered it and certainly had never received any instruction about how to become ‘narrow’ and how not being ‘narrow’ could contribute to some of my riding struggles.

I am forever exploring different ways to communicate these important concepts to my riders. One day I was out riding my bike and came to a portion of the path with two very narrow posts (to keep motorized vehicles off the trail). As I went through this narrow opening I quite naturally felt myself get ‘narrow’ to get through the small space. It was as if I suctioned my body inward and upward and I immediately recognized the feeling as being similar to when I really got really plugged into and narrow on my horse and my horse instantaneously changed through this connection into an easier to sit, more steerable, pleasant ride.

When I got home from this enlightening bicycle ride, I had my riding partner video me riding toward her with no thought to narrowness and feeling rather ‘bloopy’ and then again feeling like I felt going through the narrow posts. Note how wobbly I look in the photo below marked ‘wide’ and how streamlined I look in the ‘narrow’ photo. The results speak for themselves I think.

If you have a good imagination, you may be able to create this feeling by just imagining how your body would change to ride through a small space on a bicycle and not topple over. Another experiment you can do to begin to wrap your head around this rather foreign concept in riding is to put a line of tape down on the floor and walk the line similar to how you would walk on a balance beam in the air. Notice how your body changes to stay balanced on this line. Do it a few times, and keep noticing what changes, then walk it with no regard to this narrowness idea and note the difference in your body’s organization.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can find and use this tool of narrowness, I will be continuing this discussion in the coming days. Hope you come along for the ride!

06/17/2024

Dressage Solutions: To confirm that your horse is on the vertical ...

Imagine he is a unicorn and has a spiral horn coming straight out of his forehead. If you can see the tip of that horn between his ears, you have perfect in-front-of-the-vertical placement. If his nose is behind the vertical, the horn will not be visible.
— Endel Ots

Endel Ots is one of eight athlete-and-horse combinations selected to the 2024 Paris Olympics U.S. Dressage Team Short List.

Thanks to Cosequin Equine for our coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, including rider interviews, competition reports, horse spotlights, photos, videos and more.

06/12/2024