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Leonises
30 Aug 2009 22:15
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Is anyone aware of how long a horses neck should be when working in a correct outline?
Should the horses frame lengthen when extending? What happens when a horse's neck is too short?
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Horse Hero Guru
31 Aug 2009 23:36
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Hi Christian
This sounds like the old question ‘how long is a piece of string?’ I suppose the answer is that the neck should be long enough to get from the withers to the ears but I don’t think this is what you mean!
I am a little unsure what you are asking. Are you talking about your horse’s conformation, in which case the neck should match the rest of the body – a short cresty neck on a long horse does not look good, nor does a long thin neck look good on a short backed horse.
Do you mean how should your horse be carrying its head and neck? Again there is no real answer as it depends on what you are doing – are you hacking, jumping, schooling, doing grand prix dressage? In the very early stages of schooling it is best for the horse to work ‘long and low’ (look at the videos of Laura working with her young horses doing lots of free walking on a loose rein) then, as training develops, the horse should be worked forward on to the bit so that the head is carried higher, aiming for the horse to bring itself to the state where the face is slightly in front of the vertical with the poll being the highest part of the neck. This of course is not to be confused with pulling the horse’s mouth in to its chest with the highest point half way along the neck.
I think you have answered your second question in the question itself. If the horse is extending you want the whole of the horse to extend, not just bits of it.
To work properly a horse must be going forwards. In early stages the majority of the power will be coming from the front end, and through training and helping the horse develop better balance we help it to use the power from its hind quarters. The neck is almost irrelevant – its position and length depend on how the whole body is working – as the horse becomes balanced and confident with power coming from the biggest muscles in its body (the quarters) it will become lighter in front and the neck will appear longer.
I hope this is what you are asking – if not please write again and explain what you are worried about
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catrin
01 Sep 2009 09:14
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Gosh Christian, this is a tough question to answer in brief in written form but here goes:
The length of the horse's neck in work depends on a lot of things such as his natural conformation, his level of training & the movements being performed.
In general the neck should stay relaxed & the head in front of the vertical. A young horse would work in a long, relaxed outline most of the time whilst a grand prix horse will vary from an "up" frame whilst performing movements such as piaffe to a long & low frame when relaxing or as an extra schooling check to see if the movements can be performed in a frame.
In an extended trot the neck should telescope out a bit to allow the horse to take bigger strides & increase the ground cover.
A neck that is too short is generally a tight & tense one & this tension passes on forwards into the jaw & mouth, affecting the contact & backwards along the back, causing tightness in the paces as well.
There are lots of great videos on here that address the neck in training, us dressage riders seem to obsess about it! Some that I would suggest as a good starting point are Laura riding her young horses & Maria Eilberg on Two Sox. Good Luck!
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Fiona Price
01 Sep 2009 12:44
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The next article in the editorial section of the site is on this very subject with photographs to illustrate. It is by Anna Ross Davies and coming soon!
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