Questions about Castle--- As anyone who knows me, knows I love to educate, and I love questions. I received a question today that I would like to address as I often get asked this question. The question was Why is trotting Castle with his nose at knee level, or below the withers a desired activity? The answer to that question has many different reasons that I could really go very far into with the anatomy of the horse and how they use their body. I am actually thinking of doing a training tip on it, so I can explain why in great detail as to why I do it with Castle. The answer is that with a racehorse off the track their muscles tend to be in what I call a holding pattern. A racehorse extends the head and neck, opens the stride, and hyper extends the hind end. This is a whole set of different muscles that are used. A racehorse or any horse for that matter whether they raced, jumped, do dressage, even trail ride can all benefit from this exercise. I do it with every horse I touch. The horse uses three main muscles of the neck. The area of the poll, the long neck muscle, and the underside of the neck to pick the head up and move forward. If a horse is taught to relax those muscles, and drop the head, then the horse will learn to use other muscles to travel with, aka the top line muscles. The area right directly in front of the withers is very hard to get to. This can only really be worked if the holding muscles of the neck let go. It is then that you can break into muscles that need to stretch into contact on the bridle. I am not a trainer who uses any kind of devices. I will not put a horse in draw reins, tie downs, or matingales. I use my body and hands, and my brain to think of how the horses structure works. I develop and change muscle so its permanent for the horse to move differently. I often am told well having a horse low like that will put a horse on the forehand the answer to that assumption is absolutely not. This is how I put a horse into what I call their range of motion. Castle just stepped into novice frame. He will be below the area of his withers, and then move to intermediate once the muscles develop and are strong enough. Then he moves into level frame. It is after that he may be able to be picked up and move for a few steps in a lifted frame. That is advanced range of motion, or later on collection. His chest will lift, and the muscles surrounding that area will develop enough to hold his frame. I could go on and on, and often fill up entire clinics for hours on this very subject. This is how horses are trained for western, english, dressage, speed events. Makes no difference. Any and every horse will need to revamp muscles. To allow the long back muscles to become long an flat first. To stretch like rubber bands instead of being constricted or stiff causing the back to hollow. I see all to often a rider who is just setting a horse in a pose or head set. That is what I call the candy cane effect. Looks like a horse with a hollow back and set in frame work with only the head coming towards the chest. Especially in speed events a horse must be taught to politely run into contact, and remain on the bit so the rider can direct that power in the direction it needs to go without losing the hind end where all the power generates from.They need to learn to coil and spring. If they run with their head in the air, they will only be above contact. It will result in lameness down the road. I do not do this exercise by pulling down either, I do it by pulling in an upward motion. It teaches the horse to take that contact and stretch it down, and away, and I have full control of that in my hands. For Castle he didnt understand why he had stretch out and away, He is so used to pulling with the raising muscles of his neck that if this exercise was not taught, this horse I am going to venture to guess would have come up lame later. Too much concussion, and weight on the front limbs, and not enough pushing power from behind. He is now level, and learning to step through. I will try to make a tip later this week. It is a very important process, and does take some time to understand. The results are incredible, and the movement of the horse changes drastically for the good. I have done this on hundreds of horses in every discipline, younger, and older. Every single one of my horses knows it, and if you are my student you definetly know this exercise. It is the gateway to many great things with your horse. I hope that helps a little. Thanks for the questions. I appreciate you all taking Castles journey too. Its an education for all of us.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 01:33:32 +0000
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