This is Lindsey Auclair and her 7-year-old RPSI gelding Marius EWSZ, also known as “Banana.” Here is what Lindsey had to say: “We’re working Second Level with thoughts about more advanced collection and learning our changes shortly. He is a quirky, weird, wonderful fellow with comfortable rhythmic gaits. The photo is from a particularly difficult ride.”

I often hear during a lesson or a clinic the complaint of why the horse has to show his difficult side today because he can be so much better. And I am always answering that I am there to help when it is needed, and when everything is going fine and smooth I cannot help them as much! I myself have had some of my most valuable lessons on days that were “particularly difficult.”

Stretching Toward the Contact

The photo shows Banana in trot and even though he is active from behind, he clearly a bit too tight in the neck and his nose is behind the vertical. Lindsey is in rising trot, just before landing and looks very concentrated and attempting to be upright in her body. 

Banana is active behind but does not step far enough forward and under. The horse ideally should step all the way under the rider’s seat. When the horse stays a little shorter, the balance tips more forward. So to keep his balance, Banana shortens his neck by curling a bit behind the vertical. He does not look “pulled” back; he needs this to keep his balance. Only with a more forward hind leg will he be able to lift his back and raise the shoulders, and then he can reach out with the neck to the contact without tipping out of balance.

One can imagine that stretching toward the contact is a bit like “looking over a cliff.” It is a great view, but if you are not secure on your base, you will not take the risk. Here, the activity of the horse’s hind leg, the strength of his back and the security of the rider will have to become the anchor for the horse to dare to reach forward into the contact in balance.

Adjusting the Rider’s Position

Looking closer at Lindsey’s seat and balance, I notice that she carries her shoulders, chest and hands beautifully, but her leg position is slightly turning out and her lower back has a tendency to hollow. If you stand on the ground similar to a riding position with slightly bent and spread legs, you can feel that if you turn your legs with the knees and toes out, the lower back will hollow more. Doing the opposite—turning the heels out—will result in more abdominal activity and filling out the lower back. 

When landing back in the saddle with the rising trot, the seat bones should move forward as if the hamstrings pull them toward the knee. The interplay of the hamstrings with the lower abdominal muscles keeps the pelvis more upright and the lower back won’t hollow. In the saddle, this requires secure contact on the stirrups during rising as well as when lowering the seat back to the saddle. This explains why riders should keep a slight inward rotation of the thigh and the knees and toes should point forward. This position allows the most secure balance and allows maximum elasticity to absorb the horse’s movement. 

If you try jumping up and down on the ground, you will quickly feel that the lower back has less stress when the feet and knees are pointing forward. However, when they point out, the lower back and hips cannot be as elastic.

The Rider’s Influence on the Horse

The horse’s topline is the rider’s backline. This statement has been an eye-opener for understanding the balance between rider and horse for my own riding and teaching.

Modern training methods don’t only look into muscles, but the fascial connection is becoming more important. We have a superficial backline fascia that connects top to bottom. It starts at the eyebrows, runs over the head, down the neck and spine, along the hamstrings, past the backs of the knees around the ankles and all the way to the big toes. Any elastic strap will only secure something when it is pulled and stretched. A hollow back can be like a loose rubber band and does not provide elastic stability. Understanding this, the fascial backline connection can become the anchor for the horse to find the balance into a more open frame and start daring to “look over the cliff.”

When Lindsey is riding with more awareness to this backline in her own seat, I would recommend the following exercise—first in walk, later in trot and canter: Ride the horse forward to the bit, then let the reins get longer and allow the horse to follow and stretch. There will be a point when instead of lower ing, the horse will tuck in the nose. At this point, use leg and encourage the horse to move a bit more forward and very slightly lift the neck up an inch before returning to stretch deeper again. 

When you hold a bridle in your hand on the crownpiece, the bit should hang directly under the crownpiece. If the horse has true self-carriage and is supple, the bit should hang under the poll. By tucking in the nose, the horse does not need to provide lift and self-carriage, and the bit hangs more passively under the second and third vertebrae of the neck rather than the poll. It will feel soft in the mouth for the rider, but it is not connected and any transition or change can result in bracing and unwanted tension or movement of the neck.

Playing with the horse’s balance around the point where they can “look over the cliff” and slowly encouraging him for more by supporting him with good activity and a securely anchored seat and backline can be very rewarding.

I am positive that working on this basic element will be the key for Lindsey and Banana to find better balance and self-carriage and advance into the collected movements with more harmony as a partnership.

About Susanne von Dietze

Susanne von Dietze is a leader in equestrian biomechanics. A physiotherapist, licensed Trainer A instructor and judge for dressage and show jumping, she gives lectures and seminars throughout the world, including at the prestigious German Riding Academy in Warendorf. She is a native of Germany and now lives with her husband and three children in Israel, where she competes at the international level. She is the author of two books on the biomechanics of riding: Balance in Movement and Rider and Horse, Back to Back. 

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Practical Horseman.