Last year I attended a dressage clinic as a spectator. I witnessed and heard several things I liked and a few things that made me wince.

One thing that caught my attention was when the clinician said, “When a horse has a dip in the neck, just in front of the wither it is a sure sign that a horse has been ridden incorrectly.”

If you look at the photo, you’ll see I have circled the area the clinician was referring to and it is clear the horse has a dip in its neck exactly like it was described.

My take on the claim that this anomaly indicates incorrect riding is that I agree and I don’t agree. In other words, such a dip in the neck can be a sign of a riding problem, but its appearance can also have no relation to the riding.

Let me explain. If you are not into the biomechanics of horses and movement, don’t worry. I’m going to try to oversimplify the structural details to avoid putting you to sleep.

The dip is normal in most horses. If you observe lots of horses you’ll see the majority have some degree of depression in front of the wither. You’ll see it in foals, broodmares, trail horses, paddock ornament horses, barrel racers, dressage horses, eventers, retirees, polo horses, plow horses, etc. It’s super common. All but one of my horses exhibit it to some extent.

In the most simple terms, it is the result of the relaxation of the muscles that position the base of a horse’s neck. This causes the base of the neck to drop.

(Note: the base of the neck is that region of the spine column in the neck that inserts between the shoulders of the horse and before the withers)

When this happens the spinal column is pushed down at the point it inserts between the shoulders. At the same point, the muscles on the top of the neck get dragged downward. The muscles that are pulled down is what you see when you look at the dip in front of the wither. In essence, it is the result of horses crashing on their forehand during movement. It’s caused by horses not being in self-carriage.

If you think of the dip in those terms, since most horses spend their life with the base of their neck in a downward position it is perfectly normal for a horse to exhibit a dip in front of the wither. It is only horses that are ridden regularly with the base of their neck elevated that are likely to show no dip because they will have developed the correct musculature to prevent that from occurring. It takes quite a lot of specific work, increased gradually over time, for a horse to develop the strength to carry themselves correctly for long periods. So it is not surprising that so many horses have a drip in their top line.

The bottom line is that the presence of a dip in front of the wither is a sign of under-development of a particular set of muscles that aid in self-carriage. It can be caused by riding that jams the base of the neck down or it can be caused by a lack of work or by work that does not require the base of the neck to elevate (eg, endurance riding, camp drafting, games, plowing, jumping, etc).

It is not possible to point at a horse that has a dip in its neck and conclude it is caused by incorrect riding or training. It may simply be because the horse only gets ridden once a week or is a world champion endurance horse.

Jumping to conclusions can sometimes lead to a fall.