I’m just going to say it knowing very many horse people are going to be horrified and disagree. But somebody needs to say it.
I bring this up because I read somewhere that horses are wanting to be straight and balanced in their work. I don’t agree.
Horses don’t care about being straight and balanced. No horse spends time worrying about how it could be straighter and move with more balance. They don’t even know they are crooked and there is a better way. How many of you know how crooked you are until your body starts to hurt when you put it under stress or you reach the age your back hurts getting out of bed in the morning or you need hip surgery on only one side of your body?
I know horses don’t give a hoot if they are straight or crooked because I’ve talked to thousands of them and when I’ve tried to help them be straighter and better balanced it always begins with an argument and some resistance.
I’d say, “Stop falling on your inside shoulder”. They’d say, “This is how I do it. Don’t tell me not to fall on my shoulder”.
I’d ask, “Why is your inside hind not engaging correctly”. They’d say something like, “Because that’s how I roll. Now get your inside leg off my ribs before I report you to animal welfare”.
Horses don’t like change. They move the way they move because it feels normal and it suits the moment they are in. They are crooked because crooked feels normal in that instant. They are imbalanced because it feels right at that second. They carry that posture because it’s how they feel at that moment. They don’t care that they could be straighter, more balanced, and carry a better posture. For them, it is what it is and anything different doesn’t feel right under the circumstances in that moment.
If horses cared so much about this stuff you’d see more straight and balanced horses in the paddock. And we wouldn’t have to work so hard and spend months and years getting it better. I see horses that have been trained to work with a high degree of straightness and balance when ridden in the arena but still move in a paddock like they never had a straight moment in their life. They do that because it feels normal to be crooked when moving around without a rider to keep them straight.
I read articles and watch videos by experts in biomechanics and the various bodywork disciplines about the importance of a horse being straight and balanced
There is no question that teaching a horse to travel with more straightness and using their body in a more balanced way is better for the long-term health and soundness of a horse. It helps slow the wear and tear to their musculoskeletal system as they age. It also helps them to reach their performance potential. But again, horses don’t care. We care. Owners and riders care. But horses don’t care.
In a recent post, I discussed the principle that horses are discomfort avoiders. Avoiding discomfort is what motivates behaviour. If you subscribe to this idea, then it is logical that if horses found crookedness and imbalance uncomfortable, we would not have to work so hard at creating straightness and balance. But that’s not the case. Creating straightness and balance is a lot of work. Assuming there is no injury or physical handicap, horses are both physically and emotionally comfortable in how they use their bodies. If they weren’t they would search for an alternative.
Many trainers want to blame crookedness on poor riding, poor training, bad gear, or something. But essentially, horses (and most mammals) are crooked by nature and they become accustomed to a crooked way of operating until it feels so normal that any attempt to change it is a stress in their life. Our failure is to not intervene early enough or effectively enough to make straightness the new normal. But in most cases, horses are crooked even before the first person puts a halter on them. They weren’t made crooked by humans. They aren’t yearning for somebody to show them the joys of straightness and balance.
It’s a lifetime struggle to build straightness and balance into the work with a horse. Nature made them crooked and not perfectly balanced from the day they first stood up. For the betterment and welfare of our horses, we owe it to help them become much better at using their bodies. But don’t kid yourself that it is on their wish list in the same way that it is on ours.
We are having a slight disagreement about what it is to be straight on a circle.