What Brings A Horse To Balance?
When we look at balance in a horse, we need to take a holistic approach.
Healthy movement in a horse starts with a calm mind and their emotional and mental needs being met, creating a feeling of self-carriage. Self-Carriage isn’t about perfect posture, it is a combination of the horse being mentally connected, spatially soft and thinking under pressure while in motion.
Once self-carriage is present, we can start helping our horses with any imbalances they may have. Just like us, horses naturally have a small amount of crookedness. Our role is to help our horses understand how to readjust their bodies in a way that helps them feel strong and capable of carrying a rider. This asks us to become students of our horses and to develop an understanding of how our bodies affect theirs and how our aids are being received. Heaviness in the hand is a reflection of imbalance in the body. Understanding this and what the heaviness signals allows us to readjust what we’re doing so that we can help bring our horses back to a calm balance point.
So how do we know things are in balance? When we hit the sweet spot of balance, the horse’s movement becomes fluid, rhythmical and it feels like the horse’s “engine” is easily maneuverable. The horse will start to settle and feel more relaxed.
Basic balance is a great first step of understanding the flow of movement from head to tail and begin the process of helping our horses move at their best. Balanced movement is important for all disciplines. Whether you are a trail lover or a high level competitor, ensuring your horse is feeling balanced is important for their longevity and wellbeing.
In Relational Horsemanship, we are striving for various degrees of self-carriage. A balanced horse has begun the process of self-carriage. We must show up with our own self carriage, in order to help our horses perform at their best. What does that look like? For me, “carrying myself” has meant that I’ve had to develop a way of being under various degrees of pressure. It’s helped me learn how to handle the uncertainties of life with a measure of grace, confidence, relaxation, and compassion. When I show up this way for the horses and try to the best of my ability to mentor them through their process of developing a healthy and empowered set of self-regulatory skills, their self-carriage is revealed. We do this by helping our horses understand this through connection, thoughtfulness, and relaxation. Through this work they can learn to control the pressures that would normally cause them to worry. This allows them to show us how they want to move and use their bodies when they’re not stimulated by fear and anxiety.
