Correcting Over Flexion
This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I’m here today with our student Kristen Balch who is lungeing the horse Contigo. We had a question come in on the internet yesterday, a person trying to learn how to stretch their horse and when she stretches her horse, the horse curls back behind the vertical. How can this be remedied?
Now usually that tells me that the horse has been broken at the third vertebrae in the neck or at least has been loosened there by use of draw reins or something like that during the course of his life. That is something that we find very often when we first go to stretch the horses, they curl back behind the vertical because their neck has a bend in it already. In other words, it’s already crinked over in the middle, so when you get them to stretch they tend to look like their coming behind the vertical, which at first they do, and it’s a hard situation to solve.
A horse broken in the third vertebrae is what I consider to be the worst fault a horse can have, it’s like having a crimp in your wiring so to speak. It makes everything short circuit in the training and until you correct it, it can be very difficult to get the horse to work through the back. So what I’m suggesting here, and I suggest this to everybody, once your horse learns how to lunge correctly, that is to stretch into the contact with the bridle, as you can see with the horse in the video, side reins become unnecessary. With the horses that have learned to crank over like that, as soon as you can get them to stretch correctly, I am suggesting that you lunge them without anything on. I think it is a good idea to lunge horses without any tack on once they learn to lunge correctly and will stretch on their own, proving once again what a natural thing this is for horses to do because they will go into this frame once they learn it all by themselves. Also a little encouragement helps every now and then!
So with the horses that have been broken back in the neck, this is one approach you can take to helping correct that. Lunge them without anything on because as soon as you put side reins on those kind of horses, even long ones, they tend to come down and once again curl behind the bridle. Once you can get them to stretch down like this go ahead and get rid of the side reins and even lunge them without tack on. This is wonderful for their backs, it gets them really swinging without that tack up there on their backs in the warm-up. This is a nice warm-up before you put the saddle on them. As soon as Kristen is done lungeing, she will put the tack on and away she goes. The back has had a good chance to warm-up and stretch before we put anything constricting on it at all.
So once again, I hope that helps a little bit. I will be talking about some other riding techniques to help some other problems as well, that is the over flexion of the neck problem as you stretch the horse and the horse coming behind the vertical. We will also talk about that under the saddle a bit as well. So once again, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride, thank you so much for joining us today!
4 responses to “Correcting Over Flexion”
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Hello! First of all I want to say I absolutely love your videos. I check for them, and watch them religously. It’s sad to say that there aren’t many people around that do dressage correctly anymore. Your such an inspiration to me and a lot of riders. I hope you know what a wonderful person you are to this sport.
My question is; I lunge my horse and he does stretch down, but as soon as I get up on him he curls behind the vertical, not horribly but he does. He does this with just the slightest of rein pressure, I can ride him with just my thumb and pointer finger holding the reins. He’s an OTTB and I am not sure on how to go about fixing it? I was wondering if you would be able to do a video on it or have any ideas? Thank you so much Will and Karen.
Much love,
Erin
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Kali says:
The problem you have is a common one and is caused by the horse having
been over flexed in the neck at some point. Watch some of the videos
of our new project horse and you’ll see him doing the same thing. The
good news is that is you just push him a little more forward, even if
that means faster at this point, ( forward means to engage forward
under the body a concept that is miss understood by many today) If you
get him into his working trot, that is the point as which the back
engages along the entire top line, in time the neck with straighten
out and he will come ahead of the verticle. Expect it to take 6months
to a year to fully correct and build the top line. so be patient!We also have a video service if you’d like me to take a long and
advise you that way. that’s the best really because I can really see
what’s happening.Thanks for your interest in Classical Dressage and doing it right!
Liz says: I know this is an old thread but just a few questions I have a big 17h Zangersheide gelding who has been draw reined and his mouth is like concrete he will just set his jaw and pull away from the rein pressure especially on the lunge. He’ll throw his shoulder out and his haunches in, both on the lunge and under saddle it’s just easier to correct under saddle because I can use my leg/ whip on his inside hind and outside rein to block the shoulder. Should I just continue to ask him to stretch down and straighten his neck when I ride him before worrying about bend? Should I just try to get it at the lunge before riding? Is it just whatever gets the best results?
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Answered by Art2Ride Associate Elisabeth Spetschinsky:He is falling and leaning on its inside shoulder and putting his haunches in because it is not yet working through the back, so in answer to your question the best thing to do is to go on lunging, you might use a cavecon without a bit to reeducate his mouth, go slowly at first and push into the trot only when you start seeing him with a correct curve on the circle, there would be no point in pressuring him forward before that as it will only throw him in a counter bend with haunches in, i would not ride at this point as it is not safe to ride a horse leaning on the bit which might get out of control and wait until your horse builds strength in the back which will show on the lunge, you will see the back become mobile when the horse is stretched
Hello! First of all I want to say I absolutely love your videos. I check for them, and watch them religously. It’s sad to say that there aren’t many people around that do dressage correctly anymore. Your such an inspiration to me and a lot of riders. I hope you know what a wonderful person you are to this sport.
My question is; I lunge my horse and he does stretch down, but as soon as I get up on him he curls behind the vertical, not horribly but he does. He does this with just the slightest of rein pressure, I can ride him with just my thumb and pointer finger holding the reins. He’s an OTTB and I am not sure on how to go about fixing it? I was wondering if you would be able to do a video on it or have any ideas? Thank you so much Will and Karen.
Much love,
Erin
The problem you have is a common one and is caused by the horse having
been over flexed in the neck at some point. Watch some of the videos
of our new project horse and you’ll see him doing the same thing. The
good news is that is you just push him a little more forward, even if
that means faster at this point, ( forward means to engage forward
under the body a concept that is miss understood by many today) If you
get him into his working trot, that is the point as which the back
engages along the entire top line, in time the neck with straighten
out and he will come ahead of the verticle. Expect it to take 6months
to a year to fully correct and build the top line. so be patient!
We also have a video service if you’d like me to take a long and
advise you that way. that’s the best really because I can really see
what’s happening.
Thanks for your interest in Classical Dressage and doing it right!
I know this is an old thread but just a few questions I have a big 17h Zangersheide gelding who has been draw reined and his mouth is like concrete he will just set his jaw and pull away from the rein pressure especially on the lunge. He’ll throw his shoulder out and his haunches in, both on the lunge and under saddle it’s just easier to correct under saddle because I can use my leg/ whip on his inside hind and outside rein to block the shoulder. Should I just continue to ask him to stretch down and straighten his neck when I ride him before worrying about bend? Should I just try to get it at the lunge before riding? Is it just whatever gets the best results?
Answered by Art2Ride Associate Elisabeth Spetschinsky:He is falling and leaning on its inside shoulder and putting his haunches in because it is not yet working through the back, so in answer to your question the best thing to do is to go on lunging, you might use a cavecon without a bit to reeducate his mouth, go slowly at first and push into the trot only when you start seeing him with a correct curve on the circle, there would be no point in pressuring him forward before that as it will only throw him in a counter bend with haunches in, i would not ride at this point as it is not safe to ride a horse leaning on the bit which might get out of control and wait until your horse builds strength in the back which will show on the lunge, you will see the back become mobile when the horse is stretched