Notes on equitation and horse training/Question 28

by J. Jacoulet and C. Chomel

XXVIII.

Part played by the neck in equitation.—When a horse is left to himself and is free to apply his own natural methods, he makes uses of his head and neck as a balancer to keep his forces in equilibrium or to modify their action. If he wishes to go forward, he pushes out his head and extends his neck in order to shift the center of gravity in the direction of the desired movement. If, on the contrary, he wishes to go back, he pulls in his head and shortens his neck, thus starting the mass in the movement to the rear. In lateral movements, oblique or circular, it is the same; the shifting of the head or neck to the right or left prepares, favors, and controls the animal's action.

At a walk, the head and neck are in constant motion in order to take weight off the legs that are moving to the front and place weight on those that rest on the ground.

At a gallop, the balancer is alternately raised and lowered according as the horse is supported on the hind quarters or on the forehand and is extended or brought in according as the gait is rapid or slow.

This shifting of the head and neck that we observe in the horse at liberty should be noted when the horse is ridden. The rider should be completely master of the neck, and when he gives his horse the signal for a movement should be able at the same time to set the neck in the position most favorable to the execution of the movement. The neck is therefore a steering gear as well as a balancer, and suppling exercises that involve this region necessarily take up a large portion of the time devoted to training. But it is to be noted that these

supplings must be confined to the upper part of the neck. The neck must always offer an elastic resistance, suitable to its functions. If it were too flexible and too easily moved it could neither react on the hind quarters nor control the movements of the forehand.

The kind of neck to select.—The importance of the part played by the neck shows the importance that should be attached to its good conformation. A rider should always select a long and powerful neck, with the head well set on. And it should be remembered that we said that in training it is more difficult to raise than to lower the head; a high neck branching firmly from a sloping shoulder will diminish the difficulties of training and will permit the rider to produce more easily a brilliant, well set up horse.

Different positions of the neck.—The neck should always preserve its muscled pose and even have a certain amount of rigidity. Its position should be the same as that assumed naturally when the horse at liberty, is in high spirits, and standing still.

If, contrary to this principle, the experiment is made of raising the head and neck too high, the play of the shoulders may be freer, but, at the same time, the loins and all parts of the hind quarters will be weighted down and the haunches and hocks will be hampered in their action. As a result, movements of the hind quarters will be constrained, unequal, and jerky, and the gait will lose both speed and regularity.

If the neck is too low, the hind quarters will be more at liberty but will not (for that reason) fulfill their functions any better; for, since they can not be brought up toward the center of gravity except by a special, momentary, and forcible application of the lower aids, they will promptly go back again and will be relieved of the weight which is their proper share in an equal distribution of forces; weight, we repeat, that tends to set the hind quarters; weight that, when the neck is held at a suitable height, naturally and properly falls back from the shoulders upon the haunches. If the hind quarters are too free and do not carry their proper share of weight their action is not favorable to smooth gaits.

Therefore the position of the neck should be neither too high nor too low. The neck must be able to shorten or lengthen itself according as the face approaches or departs from the vertical.

The head when drawn back should bend the neck without breaking ^[1] it; when extended forward, it should stretch the neck without raising it. When the horse is posed in this manner, the reins will retain full power and both the front and hind legs will cooperate in any movements, either lengthened or shortened, that the rider may exact.—Count D'Aure.

Different positions of the head.—In order that he may feel with uniformity the touch of his rider's hand and in order not to impede his breathing, the horse's face should be set a little forward of the vertical. This position should be taken for ordinary gaits and for simple and regular movements.

The more we wish to shorten the gait the more the face should approach the vertical plane; on the other hand, the more we wish to increase the speed the more the face should depart from this plane.

In these last two cases the position of the head may also be considered as normal since the gaits depend thereon.

The head may assume a faulty position; that is to say, one too near or too far from the vertical; this may be due to defective conformation of the forehand, faulty fitting of the bit, undue sensitiveness of the chin groove or bars, or finally, and this is most frequently the case when horses throw the nose into the air, to a defect in the conformation of some part of the hind quarters.

These faulty positions can be combatted by the rider not only by a judicious use of the aids, but by a careful selection of the bit, an attentive fitting in the mouth, and a studied adjustment of the curb chain.—Count D'Aure.

Influence of conformation.—All horses can not be ridden in the same manner. General principles of conduct and training remain the same, but supplings vary according to the defects of conformation that must be overcome.

A horse of good conformation is easy to train; all that is necessary is to teach him the language of the aids, and when he understands everything becomes simple to him. When, on the contrary, proper balance is wanting, it is necessary not only to instruct him, but also, by means of protracted and well understood exercises, to establish an artificial equilibrium that will correct natural defects.

A horse with croup too high and whose weight is on his shoulders will not be trained along the same lines as one with high forehand or weak hind quarters. In one case we must raise the head and force the weight back; in the other we must lower the head and load the forehand. A good horseman must therefore study his horse's conformation and adapt his methods of training to the kind of resistance he encounters. This, in order to develop in the animal, in action, a balance which is rarely to be found in young horses.

1. The bend should be near the poll; the rest of the neck remains practically the same in all positions, or, as it is called, "unbroken."