Читать книгу Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation - Geoff Teall - Страница 25

If your horse is heavy and dead to your hands, his lowness, heaviness, and unresponsiveness are all symptoms. The underlying cause, in many cases, is a lack of balance.

If your horse isn’t correctly balanced, he isn’t using his hind end properly. Rather than being balanced over his haunches and using the hindquarters for impulsion, his hind end trails behind him. Therefore, leaning on your hands is the only way he can balance himself.

For many, the quick fix in this case would be to use a stronger bit, such as a gag bit or a Pelham, that would allow the rider to forcibly lift the horse’s head up while riding the horse forward.

If the problem stems from the horse’s hind end, however, trying to fix it from the front (using more bit) isn’t going to help. Pulling the horse’s head up won’t make him lighter in your hands. It also won’t be effective in teaching him to balance himself.

Instead of focusing on the symptom of heaviness, you must address the cause if you are to make a permanent change.

In order to use his hind end for forward impulsion, the horse has to become responsive to your legs. He should move forward from your leg. He should use his hind end to balance himself. Only then will he be able to respond to your hands and get light with his front end.

All the bits in the world won’t make an unbalanced horse move correctly. The best they will do is mask the problem for a time. But, you can use the art of riding—your equitation—to affect your horse’s way of going. Exercises that target the cause of the problem, rather than the symptoms, will result in a horse that moves and responds correctly without relying on equipment for his balance.

Two exercises that are good for improving a horse’s ability to work off his hindquarters are “Push, Don’t Pull” (see p. 148) and “Trot a Round” (see p. 226). Working the horse on these and similar lessons will help correct the root cause of his heaviness. It will enable him to be better balanced and to carry himself properly. Then, there should be no reason to mask the problem with harsher tack.