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: We have considered the need for the rider's body to be "neutral" in carriage in order for us to evaluate and, if needed, to correct the horse's straightness. How does one evaluate straightness in the horse?

BJJ: The horse is evaluated both unmounted and, if ridable, under saddle. The best way to evaluate the straightness of the unmounted horse is the long wall of the arena with the horse at liberty. A chute placed along that wall can be helpful in allowing the horse to travel free.

Q: What about longeing the horse?

BJJ: Anytime you attach a line to the horse's halter, you influence to some degree the horse's way of going. Allowing the horse to move at liberty gives you more accurate feedback on straightness.

Q: So, what do you look for?

BJJ: Is the horse traveling in a straight line or is it drifting, moving diagonally while attempting to move straight or exhibiting other problems of moving straight forward? Just as we prefer to write with our dominant hand, the horse tends to travel towards its dominant side, in other words, not straight.

Q: Right away then, you notice that while the horse may not seem blatantly crooked, it may tend not to travel in a straight line?

BJJ: True. In fact, if you turn a horse loose in an arena and ask him (or her) to move forward, he will often seek out the arena wall and move to the right or left, whichever reflects his dominate direction. This is helpful information in evaluating straightness.

Q: Why?

BJJ: The horse is usually telling you that the direction he chose is likely the way he moves most comfortably. He will tend to move in that direction more frequently than moving toward the passive side, resulting commonly in the over- development of the muscles of one side compared to the other. In fact, some horses can be emphatically resistant about moving toward the passive side.

Q: So, this influences his straightness?

BJJ: Very much so, and it also influences his balance. Let's use you for an example here. Imagine that you are hopping on your dominant leg. And for two weeks every day you hop twenty-five times the length of a room on that leg. You notice the leg is getting stronger and stronger, and maintaining a straight line gets easier too. Then, after two weeks you decide you will hop on your other leg. What happens? Chances are you will lose your balance, and have trouble traveling the straight line from one end of the room to the other; you will notice this leg isn't as strong as the other one either. The horse has to travel on four legs, so if one side, for whatever reason, is less developed than the other, he will have trouble traveling that straight line.

Q: In other words, the horse must travel straight and fluidly, mounted or unmounted?

BJJ: Yes, starting with the walk. Until the horse can travel straight and freely at the walk mounted and unmounted, there is no point riding him at the faster gaits.

Q: Will bending and lateral movements improve the horse's ability to travel straight?

BJJ: Unfortunately not. The horse must be able to travel straight before more complex movements are undertaken. Bending and lateral movements are accomplished correctly (and safely for the horse) only if the horse starts from straightness and can return to straightness at any moment.

Q: Let me take a leap here, maybe backwards. I get the idea that as part of training our horses, we need to be working them equally in each direction unmounted?

BJJ: Most definitely. That way the horse's two sides are more equally strengthened which means the horse will be better balanced and coordinated. He is thus usually happy to travel in either direction--straight!--and safer to ride.

By the way, when you first are asking a horse to move in the non-dominant direction unmounted or under saddle, he or she may put up a lot of resistance. New students commonly tell me, "My horse will only go in one direction." Almost invariably, these horses resisted traveling to the passive side during training, so the student gave up trying.

Q: And I bet these horses have trouble traveling straight?

BJJ: In fact, they often don't and the student thinks the horse is lazy or stubborn. Actually the horse may feel quite unstable, and even fearful, because of the imbalance of his two sides.

Q: So how do you correct the problem?

BJJ: I like to start with plenty of regular, unmounted ground work, longeing the horse in both directions an equal amount, gradually building up their strength and balance (and confidence) regardless of whether they are going to the right or left. This essential unmounted work takes time, and often, patience to school the horse out of old habits and concerns.

Q: I can see how important the rider's body carriage and balance are especially to young horses.

BJJ: A green horse must be ridden straight from the beginning--no easy task for the horse who often wobbles at first trying to accommodate the rider's weight and body movement.

Q: What are some of the problems even good riders can cause in young horses?

BJJ: Sometimes in their zeal for the horse to go straight, the rider will push the horse's outside shoulder to the wall of the arenBJJ:This actually puts the horse in a state of crookedness; any exercise that is done from that position will only result in imbalance and possible resistance. The rider's "correction" actually makes it impossible for the horse to travel straight.

Another problem occurs when the rider becomes comfortable with a horse's lack of straightness, failing to notice what is happening, and thus perpetuating the dilemmBJJ:In his book, The Ethics and Passions of Dressage, Charles de Kunffy states, "Therefore we must relentlessly pursue the double, interrelated principles of straightening the horse in order to ride him forward."

Q: To sum up then, traveling freely forward and straight are the primary initial of goals of the rider for the horse?

BJJ: Yes. Suppling exercises such as bending and lateral movements should be introduced only when they can enhance the horse's straightness, and make it stronger. A successful blending of suppleness and straightness produces self-carriage.