Although I don’t follow equestrian sports to any great degree nowadays, even I can’t escape some of the images coming out of Paris and find myself, as I often do in life, looking around me to see if anyone is seeing what I’m seeing.
I’m sure I could, if I rummaged for long enough, find images of horses working in a way my eye considers nearer to correct form, but without doing that I am once again being faced with disappointing image after disappointing image of top-level horses working not only consistently behind the vertical but sometimes with only one foreleg on the ground in the trot. I mean…?
So all this got me thinking again about the whole “behind the vertical” thing. While seeing it at this level of the sport disappoints me greatly, I think its rights and wrongs have been done to death. Yes, the pole should be the highest point.
And then there is a part of me that would so dearly love to have a conversation about this subject of the horse being behind the vertical in the name of discovering more about its truths, in the pursuit of learning, so that we might be better for our horses and not just horrified about what someone over there is doing. We tend to see BTV these days and immediately go into meltdown, which often prevents us from taking the conversation any further.
The truth of my riding is that I often find myself behind the vertical, so to speak. Many of the horses I work with come with dysfunctional relationships with the bit, little idea of what their core muscles are for and hind legs like overcooked spaghetti.
On the way from here to there, there are so many reasons one can find oneself with a missing horse’s head in front of you to one degree or another.
Should I find myself in this position then some of the questions I might ask myself are…
Check your balance and hands. Are you carrying the bit up into the corners of the horse’s mouth or have you crept to the down there place?
Am I asking the hind legs to come forward enough at this moment and
what is the state of this horse’s ability to carry the weight of his head and neck on the amount of hind leg he is currently being asked to use?
What am I feeling under my seat? Is there an undulating back still there or not?
What is this horse’s current mental relationship with the bit? What does he think is expected of him in contact?
And any number of other things of this nature…
Horses drop behind the vertical for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes, just sometimes a better access can be gained by a lateral mobilisation of the neck, which might temporarily see the horse’s next offer as dropping behind the vertical.
If a horse is allowed, to the best of our ability, to have full access to the whole range of motion in his neck then it’s a constant dance, especially in the early days between any position that could turn up, and there are even times perhaps, when insisting on the full weight of the head and neck being carried is not useful for the horse in that moment.
So for me, it’s about being engaged, mindful and interactive rather than having a panic attack as soon as I lose sight of the poll.
Over time I find that the horses I ride simply spend less and less time being or offering to be behind the vertical as a natural progression of their training. As they strengthen their core and improve their ability to flex and carry the hind leg with greater ease this issue just seems to melt away for the most part.
So what are we seeing when horses at Grand Prix Level are consistently behind the vertical? We can only assume that some of the questions in my checklist above are not being asked during the training process, because these are not rehab horses or youngsters with noodles for hind legs, these are supposed to be “finished” horses. Olympic standard horses.
It’s true to say that I have never trained a horse to Grand Prix level from scratch so I’m sure there is someone on the planet who will be delighted to let me know that I don’t know what I’m talking about but I say, Hmmmm…
What I do know and nobody can take away from me is the joy I experience from the feeling of an undulating free back underneath me, which always vanishes the moment the horse is restricted or slips unintentionally behind the vertical.
Sometimes I can find myself carried away with something or another and lose this feeling or the awareness that I’ve lost this feeling, but it’s always such a relief and all so obvious when it returns.
Time spent in this place can be limited as the strength required for longer periods of time needs to be developed but there is no finer feeling than riding a 'whole horse', whatever level he is working at.
Yes, the pole should be the highest point but the realistic consistency of this is surely progressive to some degree?
So when we are viewing many of the top-level horses working consistently behind the vertical are we always simply seeing coercive or restrictive riding, or are we also seeing horses who are not prepared with enough awareness and time simply in order to carry out the level of work they are being asked, with the poll at the highest point?
It seems to me that what we are seeing today is often a combination of both. If the horse is struggling with strength and balance you will often find him arriving in your hand. It’s really not rocket science, and yet it seems to be…
In the name of not simply moaning about it, my proposal would be perhaps, to introduce age restrictions related to the movements required in each level of test.
Maxine Kemp is a classical riding trainer and transformative life coach based in East Suffolk UK who is dedicated to simplifying and demystifying the journey to greater peace well-being and empowerment for humans and their horses.
"It’s not supposed to be that difficult."
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That favourite photo of yours is an absolute beauty!