Brindabella Farms

An interview with Barbara J. Joyce

Barbara Joyce is Assistant Director of the SCRT™ programs. She teaches, trains, and coaches competitive riders and their horses to winnings in dressage and huntseat outside Springfield, Missouri. In this two part interview she considers the matter of straightness, that is, how the body carries itself as it copes with a number of dynamics including gravity, balance, flexibility and dominance. In Part I, she considered the influence of the rider on the horse's straightness. In Part II, she looks at the straightness in the horse.

Q: What do you mean by the term "straightness"?

BJJ: A lot of horses have trouble traveling straight. Riders put emphasis on the horse's bending yet to bend easily and fluidly, the horse must first be able to travel straight. Both the rider and the horse are highly influential in whether the horse travels straight.

When a horse is ridden straight, his (or her) nose lies in a straight line back to a center point between the shoulders, and the shoulders are symmetrically related on either side of the hips. An aerial view of the horse reveals that the straight horse actually has the shape of an equilateral triangle. That is, the tip of the nose is the apex of the triangle. A line drawn between the hips forms the base of the triangle. The legs of the triangle extend from the nose to the hips. The shoulders lie symmetrically along these legs. Thus, if you are riding along the arena wall, only the horse's outside hip is adjacent to the wall; the outside shoulder is slightly off the wall and the nose even more so, centered symmetrically between the shoulders.

Q: So, what does the rider have to do with the horse's straightness?

BJJ: A great deal. In fact, riders and horses have much in common. We are born with a dominant arm and leg and a passive arm and leg. That is, we humans tend consistently to use for example, the right hand for more complex tasks; we are "right-handed". (Or the left hand if we are left-handed.) We may notice also that we use one leg in a more dominant way. For example, is it easier for you to hop on your left leg or your right leg? The easier leg for hopping is usually your dominant leg. The horse's body works in this way as well. The opposite arm and leg often are not as strong or coordinated as the dominant limbs.

Q: As you are talking, I get this image of a body tilting or unbalanced, in other words not straight. Is this what you have in mind?

BJJ: Often pretty close. Stand back about twelve feet facing a full length mirror, and look at your body. Do you stand straight? Are your shoulders directly opposite each other so that if you put a carpenter's level between them, the bubble would be right in the center? Is your neck arising straight out of the center of your shoulders? Does your nose line up with the center of your neck? Or do you tend to tilt your head to one side?

Q: Tilting my head feels natural, I admit.

BJJ: The problem for the horse is that if any part of your body is "tilting", the horse will be inclined to tilt also. That makes traveling straight a major challenge.

Q: Whoops. I guess I had better straighten up!

BJJ: Now, start walking slowly toward the mirror. Do you walk straight or do you sway from side to side? Or do you lean to one side? Does your head tilt? Before you can expect the horse to travel straight, you have to be sure that you are walking that way.

Q: I can see I am going to need to practice walking straight. I never thought about that before.

BJJ: These problems of body carriage are very common among riders. Often they are the result of habits started when we were very young. They can be influenced by the sports we play and even our occupation. For instance, turn now so that your side is facing the mirror.

Look at how your head, neck, shoulders, trunk, hips, and legs relate to each other. Does your chin jut out? Do your shoulders slump forward? Does your back feel comfortable? Do your hips move freely with your trunk or do they feel stiff? Are your knees and ankles flexible or do they feel stiff?

Q: I admit my posture could be better. What do my slumping shoulders have to do with my horse's traveling straight?

BJJ: If your shoulders are slumping, they are tight and they are not doing the job they are supposed to do to help your body stand and walk straight and fluidly. Therefore, your horse will have trouble traveling straight too because his shoulders will be tight. If your shoulders are slumping, your neck is probably trying to compensate by jutting forward, and this causes a cascade of other body stresses, usually in the joint between your head and neck, as well as in your lower back, hips, knees and ankles. Your horse feels all this, and travels accordingly.

Q: Wow! My poor horse. I guess I had better pay attention to sitting up straight when I am working at my computer.

BJJ: If you do, in fact if you sit squarely on your seat bones as though you were riding, you will feel more comfortable at the end of the day. Now, let's go back to the beginning, and talk about dominant and passive limbs. Imagine you are holding the reins, and you want the horse to travel straight. Are you applying equal pressure to the reins, or are your dominant hand and arm pulling more strongly than your passive arm and hand?

Q: I never thought of that!

BJJ: Most riders don't, but this asymmetry can tremendously influence how your horse is traveling. You may think you are asking the horse to go straight, but the horse is getting another message.

Q: O.K. I see I have some work to do on myself to get this straight. (Excuse the pun!) Where do I start?

BJJ: Maybe a good way is to get on your horse, allow the horse to walk forward and simply feel your body. Be aware of your body. If you can get a friend to lead you that will allow you to concentrate on the way your body moves with the horse's body. Close your eyes. Start with your feet and moving slowly upward in your imagination, be aware of how each part of your body, feet, ankles, calves, thighs, hips, and so forth moves with your horse's motion. Let all your body parts move. Breathe slowly in and out, letting your body release any tension. It can then dance in slow motion with your horse's body. By the way, we are so used to carrying tension in one or more parts of our body that when we release it, it can sometimes hurt!

Q: Just thinking about doing this feels good.

BJJ: Yes, and your horse will feel good too. If you tend to be uptight, starting each riding session with conscious breathing and letting go of tension is a great idea.

Q: I figured out that I am right-handed and left-legged- those are my dominant limbs. I can tell that my left hip is stiffer than my right. So now what?

BJJ: The dominant hip is often stiffer than the other hip. Keep that full length mirror handy. Start moving your body in front of it, slowly. Then, let your body move gently any way it wants to. Work up to a half hour of this slow dance several times a week. Let your arms and legs move. And breathe slowly and deeply in and out. You will be amazed at the fun of this, and how much better your body feels. Because you are moving in all directions, both hips will begin to release and so will your other joints. Your horse will like it too.

Q: So what about equalizing the strength in my arms?

BJJ: Find an exercise program that will help you. Lifting weights, hatha yoga. there are plenty of choices to build strength bilaterally. A good program will also improve your coordination and balance. Use those passive limbs in unaccustomed ways. Use your left hand to do things like combing your hair and opening doors that your right hand usually does. You will be pleasantly surprised at how natural this will feel in a few months. After awhile you may feel little difference between your dominant and passive legs. Your body will move more fluidly and comfortably. I bet your head won't even think of tilting by then!

Q: I always thought riding was about the horse, making the horse do something. Now I see that riding is a lot about getting myself in shape so my horse is able to do something... like traveling straight.

BJJ: You are right. Furthermore, we can't expect to evaluate and improve the horse's straightness, unless we are neutral in terms of our own body carriage.