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Less Is More Horsemanship Forum
Welcome to the Less Is More Forum. This forum is to post questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, principles, concepts and ideas regarding Natural Horsemanship and more importantly, the philosophy of "Less IS More". This is a place where like-minded people can come to throw away all the old traditional ways of training, and riding, and begin to experience a new FREEDOM in their relationship with their equine partners. Whether your goal is to learn more about natural horsemanship, get support for your own personal Less Is More belief, find solutions for problems that are hindering your relationship, begin a journey of discovery or healing, this is your home. Regardless of what the current "fads" are in traditional circles or natural horsemanship circles, I encourage you to think 'outside the box'. Feel free to post a message.
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| Viewing Page 1 of 1 (Total Posts: 11) |
| Author | Comment |
Brittany Tarpley
Sep 18, 07 - 4:06 PM |
Imbalance Issues??
Hi Michael, I have a question about imbalance in horses. Someone at my barn has said that Blade is very unbalanced at the canter. She said that I need to round pen him to help him learn to balance himself on a circle at the canter. Should I do this? I would never round pen my horse for "taking the edge off" or for "respect", but I was wondering if I need to do this to help him with balance? Could he learn this on his own if I just ride him? Blade is fine cantering if he is going in a straight line, but if I ask him to canter in a circle, he always breaks into a trot and sometimes will not even canter in one full circle. He also bucked one time when I was cantering him, and the lady at the barn said this was probably because of his imbalance. Anyway, I was just wondering if round penning would be the answer to this, or if maybe it is something other than imbalance after all. I understand you do not see him, so you cannot be sure exactly what is going on, but I would really appreciate any advice you can give me. Thanks, Brittany |
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Michael Gonzalez
Sep 18th, 2007 - 4:27 PM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Brittany... Right now I am at work but will try to sit down later and respond...yes, it very well could be a structural issue. Now i am not the expert nor do I have tons of experiences with this...but Connie, who posts here regularly is pretty good at this kind of stuff. Hopefully she can post and throw some suggestions your way. Connie, if you read this feel free to post and help out! Michael |
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Brittany Tarpley
Sep 18th, 2007 - 4:35 PM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Okay, thanks Michael. And yes Connie please post! :) Brittany |
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Connie
Sep 18th, 2007 - 7:42 PM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Round penning your horse is not going to do much good if there is another problem. I my self don’t like to round pen There are other ways to bring your horse in to balance rather than round penning it. The key word is he also bucked one time when you were cantering him. The next key words is He always breaks in to a trot and sometimes will not even canter in one full circle. This leads me to think that he could be out of adjustment in the lumbar, or pelvic area. My question is this. Being I am not there to see the horse in person you are going to have to be my eyes. I want you to stand so you can see all of his back , from wither to tail. I want you to look for any bumps or rises in the spine along this area. Why I want you to do this is because I thing your horse is out of adjustment in his lumbar area. My email is flyinghooves@yahoo.com If you could get a picture of his back for me that would be great. Also If you could get a picture with you standing a little above him and look straight down his spine from hips to poll and take a picture of it for me. Why I ask is because you might need to get a chiropractor out to adjust him. There are a number of reasons why a horse could be Crooked. The most common is the horse is one sided. If this is the case they there are exercised you can do from the saddle to help with this.  Connie |
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Brittany Tarpley
Sep 18th, 2007 - 10:05 PM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Thanks Connie for the reply! I will certainly get you those pictures as soon as I can. I do not like to round pen either, but that is what I was told to do, and since I do not know anything about imbalance in horses, I decided to ask about it on this forum. Thanks again Connie, Brittany P.S. I don't know if this would have anything to do with his imbalance, but he is back at the knees. |
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Michael Gonzalez
Sep 19th, 2007 - 7:48 AM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Way to go Connie...thanks for the input!!! I also suspect that he is out of alignment somewhere but I dont have the experience to know exactly where like you do. I once had a big palomino at Wild About Horses Equestrian Center in WestPoint. She was great but all of a sudden she wouldnt canter hardly at all and even seemed to limp on her front end at the trot...drove me crazy. In those days I still round penned a little bit...not much...but would try to get a horse to round their barrel some. You know what I mean. Anyway...after two weeks of trying to "train" this out of this horse and watching this big pretty QH mare get more and more grouchy, I gave up. I was reading an article about chiropractic issues in horses and one of the horses in the article had the EXACT same problem as the mare I was working. Called Dr. Ziglar and within a couple of weeks, this mare was back riding smooooth !!!! Anyway....knew you could up with a better diagnosis...thanks again Connie!!! Michael |
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Connie
Sep 19th, 2007 - 8:56 AM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Michael, I knew you could have came up with it too. If you were not so bummed out with working over time. Brittany, I will explaine a little more on the balance of the horse so you can maybe under stand it a little better. Some people only know if the horse is unbalanced but in truth they don't know what is causing the imbalance in their horse. When a horse becomes unbalanced it could be do from different training methods. It could also be from the skeleton being out of adjustment. Or sore muscles that will not release from their contracted state. Here is a little more insight on Balance in the horse. When horsemen refer to balance in a horse, they can be speaking of many different kinds of balance. They might be talking about the balance the horse exhibits when moving free, or perhaps the way the horse organizes and uses its body when under saddle in the various styles of riding, These are forms of Dynamic balance-balance while moving. Anatomical balance has to do with the specific design of the joints of a body and how the muscles hold the bones of the skeleton together in such a way that the joints work with in the parameters of their design. This is balance based upon the way the structure (skeleton and Muscles) was designed to work. When opposing muscles of a pair have equal tension on either side of a bone-no muscle tension pulling the joint in any direction, we refer to this as anatomical balance or anatomical position; the bone is stabilized between the tow opposing muscles of a pair with equal tension. Good anatomical balance and movement is greatly dependent upon correct tension in the muscles that operate the joints and move the skeleton. A well balanced horse is going to have a greater preponderance of its joints held in place by muscles that are working according to the design of each specific joint. In addition to the problems created by lateral asymmentries , lateral crookedness also has a great influence on Longitudiinal balance, If the two sides of a horse cannot work to the same degree, it prevents the horse from driving from the hindquarters evenly, it can’t lift its back and it cannot take even contact with the bit. |
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Connie
Sep 19th, 2007 - 9:16 AM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Brittany do you let any one else ride your horse?. I was woundering because if you could have some one else ride your horse and ask him for the canter. See if they get the same resolts with him as you do when ask to canter. Why I am asking is some times, if the rider is unbalanced it will make the horse unbalanced. Some times we don't relise this happening until the horse trys to tell us by refusing or coming up with a problem such as yours at the canter. Another thing is Saddle fit, if the saddle is not fitting the horse right it could cause unbalanced movements in the horses stride. Right now I am trying to elemanate the first thing that comes to my mind in why your horse is doing this at the canter. There is another way to see if by chance it is either saddle or rider that is causing the unbalance in the horse, and that is free lunging the horse in the round pen to see if the horse can canter with out a saddle or rider on it. I use this as a last resort if every thing else checks out before. This is about the only time I use the round pen and that is to cover every means of trying to find out what is going on with the horse. Connie |
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Brittany Tarpley
Sep 19th, 2007 - 9:44 AM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Thanks Michael, I really appreciate how you try to help everyone who asks a question on your forum. Thanks Connie, I am starting to understand it a lot better now! I have free lunged my horse in the round pen a couple times, and the first time he reacted the same way, not wanting to go into the canter, breaking into the trot after the first circle, etc. I got about two laps around at a canter, each way, and then I stopped for the day. I have done this about 3 more times and the next time I did it he was pretty much the same way as the time before. I could get about two laps at the canter. However, the next time I did it, it seemed like he was getting better. That time he did it four laps at the canter each way. I have only done it one more time since then, and that time he was able to do six laps. I stopped round penning him, because I hate it, but my trainer said it would help him find his balance if I did it. So that is why I did it those few times. Does this tell anything more to you? Also, he can stay in the canter better on his left lead than on his right lead. Connie, I will email you the pictures tonight, Thanks, Brittany |
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Michael Gonzalez
Sep 19th, 2007 - 1:30 PM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Brittany... One last question...unrelated... Did your mom get my response to her email? Are you going to participate in my clinic in Edwardsville with Blade? Michael |
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Brittany Tarpley
Sep 19th, 2007 - 2:21 PM |
Re: Imbalance Issues??
Hi Michael, Yes, my mom got your email. Thanks for the quick reply! She is really sorry that she didn't email you back. Absolutely! I am going to participate in your clinic. I have been trying to get a hold of Mary Price so that I can hold my spot. I just wasn't sure whether or not she was going to be able to hold the clinic since she cannot find an indoor arena. I am looking forward to participaing in it! Brittany |
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