As a veterinarian, one of the things that I love most about Cowboy Dressage is that it is the ONLY equine discipline that I can think of that I believe is actually good for the horse's body. Nobody that rides and loves horses truly wishes them harm. Of course the things that we ask our horses to do put unnatural stresses on our horse's bodies and minds. The horse wasn't truly meant to naturally carry a person. We have evolved in concert with the horse, each shaping the evolutionary and cultural path of the other species through our interaction. John Trotwood Moore said, "Wherever man has left his foot print in the long assent from barbarism to civilization, we find the hoof print of the horse beside it". But, the conscientious horseman wants to leave the smallest human footprint on the horse as possible.
Within equine sports medicine specialties we recognize and categorize lameness and performance related injuries as they are associated with specific disciplines. Barrel racers have hock issues. Reiners have fetlock, hock, back and sacro-illiac issues. Race horses have forelimb injuries. Dressage horses experience cervical trauma (from Rolkur, generally). Western pleasure horses have navicular pain. It's tough being a horse and I treat all kinds of performance related injuries even in my humble rural practice. When you ask your horse to be an athlete, some soreness is to be expected. But, we can mitigate that damage with proper conditioning and balanced riding.
Let me tell you about my horse, Chico. Chico is a 13 year old Morgan gelding. He has performed in various equine sports with back country riding being our primary source of time under saddle until the past 2 years when we started focusing on our Cowboy Dressage training. As a 10 year old, Chico began to develop uneven hoof growth. I noticed what I called his "homey walk", especially in the winters without shoes. When left barefoot without the constant correction offered by my farrier Chico began to be club footed on the left front hoof. It was most marked in the winter months reaching over a 5% deviation from the left to right foot. I could hear it in his foot fall pattern when he walked down the barn alley. Imagine, if you will one of the characters from Fat Albert doing his exaggerated extra cool sauntering walk and the rhythm that would create. That's the way he would walk. There was no lameness per se and I couldn't track down a source of pain. Flexion and x-rays were clean. It was also about this time that I began to notice I was having trouble with saddle fit. My saddle seemed to suddenly ride low on his withers and often off to the right so that I felt like I was constantly having to adjust it back over to the left. Massage and chiropractics helped only minimally. Chico continued to be off 2-4 degrees from the right to the left hoof on each trim. My farrier would get the hooves even only to come back in 8 weeks to find them uneven again.
At no time did I feel this was a performance issue. Chico never felt "off". He was never lame or inconsistent in his gaits. I knew something somewhere was off but I'll be jiggered if I could figure out what.
Then last fall as I was preparing for the Cowboy Dressage final gathering in November and doing only Cowboy Dressage I noticed a marked change in my saddle fit after just one month. Evenly and consistently working my horse's bend and lateral movements seemed to fix my saddle fit issues. At the end of September I was struggling to find pad combinations that didn't cause whither rub and by the first of November I was having no trouble at all.
When I rode at Cowboy Dressage school in April with Eitan he noticed the "stickiness" in Chico's shoulders. Chico has always been somewhat bracey through his shoulders. We have struggled with it since he was two. With Eitan's help I worked through much of that braceyness that week at CD school and have continued to exercise and work those shoulders since I have been home. Eitan noticed Chico's stomping gait and we talked about the source of the problem but didn't really worry about it. Like I said it's not a lameness, more of a mechanical or physical brace.
So this spring I have had little opportunity to do anything other than Cowboy Dressage with Chico. I have been traveling and teaching and spreading the word about Cowboy Dressage since I came home. With teaching and it being the veterinarian's busy season that has taken up all my time leaving no time for my coveted mountain riding. My farrier was here today to reset our shoes before heading off into the mountains on our annual week long back country trip for which I feel woefully unprepared this year.
Maybe I am more prepared than I have ever been. When my farrier checked Chico's feet, he was only off by 1 degree. That's the first time in 3 years that he hasn't been off by as much as 4 degrees at a farrier visit. The hollows that he has carried behind his withers for the past 3 years are gone. He is even with excellent muscle tone through his entire body and top line like I have rarely seen him. He is also quiet, content and happy mentally.
In researching the various associated causes of non congenital club foot in horses I have found that for Chico the most likely cause was due to voluntary pain contracture. The horse, feeling some source of pain (rider imbalance, saddle fit, injury) moves away from the source of pain, carrying more weight on the opposite side and under weighting the affected "clubby" side. This is a condition that becomes chronic and is exacerbated by muscle memory until it becomes the horse's normal way of travel.
I don't know for sure what caused Chico's voluntary pain contracture. Perhaps saddle fit or poor rider balance (hey, I'm not infallible!) but the exercises and bending and stretching that I am asking him to do in Cowboy Dressage is without a doubt fixing it. I have not had a change in saddle, rider or anything else other than discipline of choice that has created these changes in my horse.
Cowboy Dressage is like yoga for horses. We ask our horses to softly and properly come into various body positions beginning with bend and the soft feel that we ask for in the working gaits followed by the downward stretching of the free gaits. With properly training your horse's body and your hands and soft feel we can help our horses to rehabilitate after damage that was done in a different venue. Veterinarians will likely never publish articles about the injuries associated with Cowboy Dressage horses. We aren't going to make a lot of money keeping these horses sound. Cowboy Dressage is going to do more for keeping Western performance horses sound than phenylbutazone has ever done.
I am passionate about Cowboy Dressage because I am passionate about the horse. Keeping horses happy, healthy and mentally and physically sound may put this veterinarian out of business, but I'm okay with that. That just gives me more time to ride my horse!!
Monday, June 29, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
What I learned in school: 1 Week With Eitan Beth-Helachmy
Dan and I were lucky enough to get to spend a week with Eitan and Debbie Beth-Helachmy at their beautiful Wolf Creek Ranch in Grass Valley, California in April. There were five of us in this week of Cowboy Dressage school, Dale Rumens-Partee and her lovely assitant, Mackenzie Teal and the wonderful and always entertaining Susan from Australia. Of course since we got home everyone has been asking us to share what we learned. Like most personal journeys on individual quests it's very hard to put into words, but I'm going to attemp to summarize the highlights, at least for me, from this amazing week of horsemanship, fellowship, and friendship.
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| Whisper and the geese under the tree |
Wolf Creek Ranch is in a gorgeous setting; nestled in a quiet valley between the hills with a creek running through it. At least at this time of the year in early spring it is so vibrant and green it almost hurts the eyes. It is carefully tended and so clean you hate to drop even a stem of hay. We were greated as we pulled in by the stately presense of Santa Fe Renegade and his donkey Whisper romping in the big pasture with the Canadian geese.
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| E is for Easter Sunday! |
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| Eitan, Dale and Dan. Makenzie was fixing her saddle! |
Day 1 of school we rode in the outdoor arena which is lined by trees and creek. The challenge court was set up and we used several of those obstacles for helping our horses establish bend. We also worked on the short walk and short jog to improve our upward transistions and really soften our horses from head to tail. If I had to pick a running theme for my time with Eitan it would be bend.
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| Me and Chico jumping the big log |
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| Dan and Salsa galloping through the field |
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| Dale and Buc chillin in the creek |
We were blessed with good weather on either end of our week with Eitan and Debbie but the middle of the week we saw, hail, snow, sleet and rain, rain, rain. It was hard to complain when we knew the local areas were desperate for the moisture. We moved into the covered round pen for one on one sessions. Each horse and rider got an hour or so with Eitan in the round pen. These sessions were invaluable. There is magic that happens in that roundpen and having Eitan help you mold and shape your horse and refine nuances of your body position and communication was immensely helpful. I was moved almost to tears several times watching the changes happen in both horse and rider. For me personally the roundpen sessions were a chance for me to work on lowering my energy and helping my horse respond to the energy in my body. It was great to work on changing my posting to help the free jog and lengthen and shorten my horse's stride by the energy in my posting. We also worked on bend and lateral movements while in the round pen. Did I mention that we worked on bend? Well, we did. Then we worked on bend a little after that.
Watching the other riders with their horses was so helpful. Everybody always wants to be the one on the horse, but I learned just as much about teaching and gait quality from watching Eitan interact with each of us in our group. We had 5 very different horses in our group. I have a 12 year old very forward thinking Morgan. Dale's young saddlebred gelding was most similar in that he was very forward as well, but he carries himself so differently from my Chico that it was really fun to watch Dale and Buc figure out the long and low. Dan's horse, Salsa is a cute little cutting bred Quarter Horse mare. She is soft and kind but hasn't had a lot of bending or softening. She made huge changes during her round pen sessions. Dan was challenged just with the terminology of shoulder in, shoulder out, haunches in, haunches out, but they both figured it out together and the improvement in the quality of her movement was emense. Mackenzie was on Dale's good quarter horse gelding, Joe. Joe is a big stout ranchy horse with a long stride and a ton of heart. Watching that horse get soft and round then go long and low was a treat. Joe has been doing Cowboy Dressage longer than the rest of the horses and was farther along. It was a so helpful to watch the refinement in his movements. Our australian friend was on Bonnie, a gorgeous palomino Morgan mare that has also had extensive training. Bonnie is a character and she and Susan have a great understanding going on. Watching the two of them banter back and forth with Susan chatting her up in Aussie accent was so much fun.
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| Makenzie and Joe working on bend in the 8-a-gone. |
By day 3 and 4 of Cowboy Dressage school there is some neat stuff happening between horse and rider. Finally the teaching that has been going on in the past few days is starting to click and there are momemts of absolute softness and brilliance. This is where you learn to let go. When the perfect bend or haunches in that you have been struggling with for the past three days finally happens it feels so amazing that all you want to do is get it back and hold onto it. That's when Eitan makes you stop and get off. Another one of the big lessons for this cowgirl was learning when to stop pushing and take what the horse has offered and reward that try by moving on to something else or even just getting off and calling it a day.
It's hard to describe the intense mental exercise that is accompanied by this type of riding. When you are intensely mentally aware of every step your horse is taking and the communication that is happening between horse and rider through all the aids and concentrating on waiting for that one perfect step of bend, softness and controlled energy it becomes addictive. Both Dan and I were having trouble sleeping by nights 3 and 4 and would go to bed mentally searching for that soft feel, that bend, or that perfect soft short jog.
On Day 4 we also had the opportunity to spend an evening with Lyn Ringrose-Moe, of Cowboy Dressage World. Lyn is heading up the instruction of our judges through her judges boot camp program. We went to Lyn's to get some insight into to gait quality and what the judges are looking for and how much you can improve a horse's gait through simple changes on the rider's part.
Jon and Lyn rolled out the red carpet for us. We had 4 very different horses to watch in the arena that evening. We had a champion western pleasure mule, a reined cow horse a heeler horse and a cowboy dressage trained warm blood. All of these horses moved so differently. The working walk and working jog were all across the board in speed, head carriage and foot fall. 3 of the riders were brand new to Cowboy Dressage and their horses had little to no experience and training outside of their chosen discipline. Lyn helped us to see the faults in the movements of the horses, which were pretty easy to spot as she had the riders just ride on a free rein around the arena. I will admit to having extreme doubts about the ability of the little heeler horse to soften and round at all. That horse was built down hill and evaded the bit through over flexion. Consequently he carried his hind end out behind him like he was pulling a hindquarters cart. When Lyn had the rider lift her hands, but give rein and move that horse forward his gait changed from a 4 or 5 in quality to an 8 or better in just a few steps. All of the horses looked much different from each other but when when you looked at each horse as an individual, (which is what we do in Cowboy Dressage) you could see the quality improve in all 4 of the horses. The amazing BBQ that Jon put together while we were watching horses move was the icing on that cake that evening.
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| Chico and I on day 5 |
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| Dale and Buc on Day 5 |
Like the climb up the mountain to see the guru in his robe at the summit, each rider and horse probably has a different list of "a-ha" moments from their week at Cowboy Dressage school. I gathered enough tidbits of knowledge that I know it'll take me the entire year just to work on those before I'm ready for a new list and new journey next year. I want to thank Eitan and Debbie and Miguel for the wonderful hospitality and Debbie for the great hot lunches. Thanks to Santa Fe for just being amazing out in your pasture and for stopping everybody in their tracks when you just walked out for your morning romp. I also want to thank Dale, Mackenzie and Susan for being our schoolmates. What a great group to ride and learn with. We've already got our spots reserved for next year.
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| Dan and Salsa on Day 5 |
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| Until Next Year!!!! |
Sunday, May 3, 2015
The Cowboy Dressage Gaits
One of the things that uniquely defines the cowboy dressage horse is the quality of the gaits. Being first and foremost a western discipline, dedicated to the production of superior western
horses, we ask for movements and gaits that showcase the ability and strengths of the western horse. Looking back at the heritage of the cowboy and western lifestyle, we strive to capture
the very best of what the cowboy was and is supposed to be and recreate that in our modern equine partners. How do we define the the western horse's gaits? Do we use the benchmarks established by classical dressage? Do we use the traditional western descriptions and terms? Is there truly a difference in the western jog and the english trot or is it just nomenclature? This article will attempt to lay to rest those debates and help define the terms and vision of the movement of the
Cowboy Dressage horse.
Cowboy Dressage showcases three gaits; the walk, the jog and the lope. In the creation and development of those gaits we also ask for lengthening of each off those gaits and mark the distinction between the shortened gait and lengthened gait by using the terms working and free. A working gait is one preformed on a softened frame with the horse working off of soft contact on the bit. A free gait is one where the horse is showing lengthening of the stride and working off a long rein with light contact. For example, the working walk is defined as follows:
Working Walk : Four beat gait with forward reaching steps. The head and neck should swing naturally as a result of a relaxed back and free shoulders. The horse maintains a light
contact with the bit with his nose slightly in front of vertical.
The confusion and debate in the discussion of the Cowboy Dressage horse and his gaits generally doesn't start with the walk. As luck would have it, almost all disciplines expect the same
basic qualities in the walk and agree without dissent that it is a 4 beat gait. Discussion of the jog and lope can be fraught with a little more obscurity and confusion which unfortunately arises
from the "dressage" in Cowboy Dressage.
In creating Cowboy Dressage, we attempted to select some of the basic principles that are to be valued most in dressage to apply to our western horses: an emphasis on slowness of
training and a step-wise training program, the benefits of markers and a court for establishing accountability in training and visual benchmarks for horse and rider, a tried and true scoring
system that is easily adaptable and useful for our Cowboy Dressage shows. What we didn't adopt in Cowboy Dressage were the gaits required and desired by the competitive modern
dressage rider and this goes beyond just nomenclature.
Let's consider the difference between the jog and the trot. A jog is a distinctly western gait. Unlike the difference between a couch and a divan, it is not just a regional language variant. The jog is a two beat gait that is meant to be smooth, quiet and comfortable. In it's purest form it is relaxed and easily on both horse and rider. It is the quiet confident gait used by the western horse when moving between pens, or between groups of cattle with low enough energy to not spook the rodear up and over the next hill. It originated on the ranch and was meant to be an all day energy saving gait. Back in the dawning of Western Pleasure classes it was also one of the defining gaits of a horse that was supposed to be first and foremost a pleasure to ride. Cowboy Dressage defines the working jog as follows:
Working Jog: Two beat gait and forward with even and elastic steps. The back is relaxed and the shoulder is free. The hind legs should step forward and under the horse. The horse maintains light contact with the bit and his nose is slightly in front of the vertical. The rider must sit the working jog.
Here are some photos showing the foot fall patterns in the working jog:
The Cowboy Dressage working jog should look much different than does today's Western Pleasure jog. While the two gaits have the same origin, much of the Western Pleasure horses have lost the forward and elastic steps that we are striving for in Cowboy Dressage. Having a free and relaxed shoulder gives the horse a quality of gait while maintaining elasticity and comfort of movement for both horse and rider. This is not a jarring gait but a soft two beat gait. Proper propulsion in the gait is evident, even in the softer frame, by the horse reaching forward and under himself. Propulsion in the gait is the force that moves the horse forward. Without proper propulsion the gait dies and ceases to be a forward movement. The Western pleasure horse jogging in painfully slow increments around the ring is lacking in propulsion. Impulsion is the upward force in the gait and it is the beginnings of creating suspension in a modern dressage horse.
Cowboy Dressage defines the lengthened or free jog as follows:
Free Jog: Two beat gait with forward movement allowing lengthening of even and elastic steps. The horse is relaxed and allowed by the lengthening of reins to lower his head and neck and to stretch
forward. The horse maintains light contact with the bit with his nose slightly in front of the vertical.
Posting is an option.
When you compare the Cowboy Dressage Jog with required gaits in other disciplines the difference and value of this gait becomes even more clear. If you consider the lofty trot favored by
dressage the horse is asked to display a moment of suspension in the gait and there are those that believe that without that suspension the gait is both incorrect and somehow exhibits
different (and therefore incorrect) footfalls. The moment of suspension does not create the beat of the gait. The beat of the gait is created by the rhythm of the feet striking the ground. The moment of suspension only serves to increase the concussion of the feet as they strike the ground. The dressage horse creates suspension by increasing impulsion not propulsion in gait.
It is also true that suspension in gaits is often an illusion of sorts. Many believe that a true trot only occurs when there is a moment in time, however brief, when all four feet are off the ground.
While a large and lofty trot will exhibit suspension when accompanied by increased impulsion, most horses do not exhibit suspension characterized by levitation and instead will just shift weight from the diagonal pair before the other pair leaves the ground. It's true that you can have a trot with suspension, but it is false that only a "true trot" will have suspension. Instead there is a moment between diagonal pairs when the weight shifts from one pair to the other without accompanied impulsion or complete suspension. The horse can and does correctly perform a trot at liberty without a rider both with and without suspension but will most commonly choose to trot without suspension and exhibit a gait with flat propulsion.
The reason for this should be obvious. While increased life and adrenalin can create increased impulsion in a horse, it is not the most efficient or comfortable form of movement. The
increased concussion and elevation does not make the the horse cover more ground. It only serves to increase the concussion on the joints and muscles as it lands.
You can also create suspension by increasing the speed of the gait. This is the case when you view the difference between the lope and the gallop. The lope is a three beat gait that is relaxed and soft. It is characterized by the footfall pattern of the leading leg, diagonal pairs and then the off hind leg. A four beat lope is created when the footfalls of the diagonal pair are split and hit the ground not together but separately so that you have the beats of four feet hitting the ground. Notice that in none of the descriptions we have mentioned for footfalls in gaits is there a beat accounted for in suspension phase. The three beat lope in the Cowboy Dressage horse does not have a moment of suspension. Instead the off hind follows so closely to the leading foreleg that it touches the ground before that leg leaves the ground and removes the suspension in the gait. There is no change in beats of the gait because you still have 3 sets of feet hitting the ground independently. The off hind, diagonal pairs, then leading foreleg. The footfall of the off hind following so closely on the leading foreleg still creates a footfall beat the same as if you stood in place and marched one foot at a time. The beat of the gait is exhibited by footfalls, not suspension. By increasing both impulsion and propulsion from the lope to the gallop you create life and speed and introduce a moment when all four feet are off the ground in true suspension. As the stride length changes and the weight of the horse is carried forward with speed and impulsion into the gallop it ceases to become a 3 beat gait and becomes a four beat gait with the front leg of the diagonal pair hitting the ground first.
Here are the foot fall patterns in the lope.
Lengthening of the strides is accomplished primarily through the use of propulsion. We ask the horse to stretch the limbs forward and out and not up in elevation or in speed. Because there in no increase in impulsion in the free (lengthened) gaits called for in Cowboy Dressage, these gaits also do not include suspension and should be as comfortable to ride sitting as they are posting, and having a soft, willing partner that is a joy to ride should be a primary goal of every Cowboy Dressage participant.
While the discussion of the nuances and differences between gaits can be confusing and overwhelming the take home message for the Cowboy Dressage enthusiast is simple. Cowboy Dressage asks for your horse to have an easy rhythmic gait that is correct and soft for both you and your horse. That end goal will look different from one horse to the next but the softness exhibited should be easy for even the casual observer to see. We aren't going to tell you how your horse should look. We are only trying to help you understand how your horse should feel.
horses, we ask for movements and gaits that showcase the ability and strengths of the western horse. Looking back at the heritage of the cowboy and western lifestyle, we strive to capture
the very best of what the cowboy was and is supposed to be and recreate that in our modern equine partners. How do we define the the western horse's gaits? Do we use the benchmarks established by classical dressage? Do we use the traditional western descriptions and terms? Is there truly a difference in the western jog and the english trot or is it just nomenclature? This article will attempt to lay to rest those debates and help define the terms and vision of the movement of the
Cowboy Dressage horse.
Cowboy Dressage showcases three gaits; the walk, the jog and the lope. In the creation and development of those gaits we also ask for lengthening of each off those gaits and mark the distinction between the shortened gait and lengthened gait by using the terms working and free. A working gait is one preformed on a softened frame with the horse working off of soft contact on the bit. A free gait is one where the horse is showing lengthening of the stride and working off a long rein with light contact. For example, the working walk is defined as follows:
Working Walk : Four beat gait with forward reaching steps. The head and neck should swing naturally as a result of a relaxed back and free shoulders. The horse maintains a light
contact with the bit with his nose slightly in front of vertical.
Because one of the goals of Cowboy Dressage is to create a soft and willing partner, relaxation and willingness through all of the gaits is important. If you consider the tradition of the
working ranch horse, having a calm and willing partner that possessed an easy to ride gait was of considerable value. It is the same in Cowboy Dressage.The confusion and debate in the discussion of the Cowboy Dressage horse and his gaits generally doesn't start with the walk. As luck would have it, almost all disciplines expect the same
basic qualities in the walk and agree without dissent that it is a 4 beat gait. Discussion of the jog and lope can be fraught with a little more obscurity and confusion which unfortunately arises
from the "dressage" in Cowboy Dressage.
In creating Cowboy Dressage, we attempted to select some of the basic principles that are to be valued most in dressage to apply to our western horses: an emphasis on slowness of
training and a step-wise training program, the benefits of markers and a court for establishing accountability in training and visual benchmarks for horse and rider, a tried and true scoring
system that is easily adaptable and useful for our Cowboy Dressage shows. What we didn't adopt in Cowboy Dressage were the gaits required and desired by the competitive modern
dressage rider and this goes beyond just nomenclature.
Let's consider the difference between the jog and the trot. A jog is a distinctly western gait. Unlike the difference between a couch and a divan, it is not just a regional language variant. The jog is a two beat gait that is meant to be smooth, quiet and comfortable. In it's purest form it is relaxed and easily on both horse and rider. It is the quiet confident gait used by the western horse when moving between pens, or between groups of cattle with low enough energy to not spook the rodear up and over the next hill. It originated on the ranch and was meant to be an all day energy saving gait. Back in the dawning of Western Pleasure classes it was also one of the defining gaits of a horse that was supposed to be first and foremost a pleasure to ride. Cowboy Dressage defines the working jog as follows:
Working Jog: Two beat gait and forward with even and elastic steps. The back is relaxed and the shoulder is free. The hind legs should step forward and under the horse. The horse maintains light contact with the bit and his nose is slightly in front of the vertical. The rider must sit the working jog.
Here are some photos showing the foot fall patterns in the working jog:
Here you can see all four feet on the ground briefly as the horse changes diagonals. There is no moment of suspension at the jog.
Here again the change from right diagonal to left diagonal. The left diagonal pair has already hit the ground before the right diagonal finishes their flight pattern.
The Cowboy Dressage working jog should look much different than does today's Western Pleasure jog. While the two gaits have the same origin, much of the Western Pleasure horses have lost the forward and elastic steps that we are striving for in Cowboy Dressage. Having a free and relaxed shoulder gives the horse a quality of gait while maintaining elasticity and comfort of movement for both horse and rider. This is not a jarring gait but a soft two beat gait. Proper propulsion in the gait is evident, even in the softer frame, by the horse reaching forward and under himself. Propulsion in the gait is the force that moves the horse forward. Without proper propulsion the gait dies and ceases to be a forward movement. The Western pleasure horse jogging in painfully slow increments around the ring is lacking in propulsion. Impulsion is the upward force in the gait and it is the beginnings of creating suspension in a modern dressage horse.
Cowboy Dressage defines the lengthened or free jog as follows:
Free Jog: Two beat gait with forward movement allowing lengthening of even and elastic steps. The horse is relaxed and allowed by the lengthening of reins to lower his head and neck and to stretch
forward. The horse maintains light contact with the bit with his nose slightly in front of the vertical.
Posting is an option.
Here is a sequence of the free jog demonstrating foot fall patterns, again without suspension.
Right diagonal pair weight bearing
Here is the moment of shift from the right diagonal pair to the left diagonal pair without a moment of suspension.
Left diagonal pair weight bearing.
When you compare the Cowboy Dressage Jog with required gaits in other disciplines the difference and value of this gait becomes even more clear. If you consider the lofty trot favored by
dressage the horse is asked to display a moment of suspension in the gait and there are those that believe that without that suspension the gait is both incorrect and somehow exhibits
different (and therefore incorrect) footfalls. The moment of suspension does not create the beat of the gait. The beat of the gait is created by the rhythm of the feet striking the ground. The moment of suspension only serves to increase the concussion of the feet as they strike the ground. The dressage horse creates suspension by increasing impulsion not propulsion in gait.
It is also true that suspension in gaits is often an illusion of sorts. Many believe that a true trot only occurs when there is a moment in time, however brief, when all four feet are off the ground.
While a large and lofty trot will exhibit suspension when accompanied by increased impulsion, most horses do not exhibit suspension characterized by levitation and instead will just shift weight from the diagonal pair before the other pair leaves the ground. It's true that you can have a trot with suspension, but it is false that only a "true trot" will have suspension. Instead there is a moment between diagonal pairs when the weight shifts from one pair to the other without accompanied impulsion or complete suspension. The horse can and does correctly perform a trot at liberty without a rider both with and without suspension but will most commonly choose to trot without suspension and exhibit a gait with flat propulsion.
The reason for this should be obvious. While increased life and adrenalin can create increased impulsion in a horse, it is not the most efficient or comfortable form of movement. The
increased concussion and elevation does not make the the horse cover more ground. It only serves to increase the concussion on the joints and muscles as it lands.
You can also create suspension by increasing the speed of the gait. This is the case when you view the difference between the lope and the gallop. The lope is a three beat gait that is relaxed and soft. It is characterized by the footfall pattern of the leading leg, diagonal pairs and then the off hind leg. A four beat lope is created when the footfalls of the diagonal pair are split and hit the ground not together but separately so that you have the beats of four feet hitting the ground. Notice that in none of the descriptions we have mentioned for footfalls in gaits is there a beat accounted for in suspension phase. The three beat lope in the Cowboy Dressage horse does not have a moment of suspension. Instead the off hind follows so closely to the leading foreleg that it touches the ground before that leg leaves the ground and removes the suspension in the gait. There is no change in beats of the gait because you still have 3 sets of feet hitting the ground independently. The off hind, diagonal pairs, then leading foreleg. The footfall of the off hind following so closely on the leading foreleg still creates a footfall beat the same as if you stood in place and marched one foot at a time. The beat of the gait is exhibited by footfalls, not suspension. By increasing both impulsion and propulsion from the lope to the gallop you create life and speed and introduce a moment when all four feet are off the ground in true suspension. As the stride length changes and the weight of the horse is carried forward with speed and impulsion into the gallop it ceases to become a 3 beat gait and becomes a four beat gait with the front leg of the diagonal pair hitting the ground first.
Here are the foot fall patterns in the lope.
In a right lead the left hind leg initiates the stride. Beat 1.
The diagonal pair of the inside hind (RH) and outside fore (LF) strike the ground together. Beat 2
Then the inside foreleg (RF in the right lead) strikes the ground and carries the stride forward. Beat 3.
This shows the left hind leg striking the ground before the right foreleg has finished it's stride. This eliminates the suspension in the gait but doesn't change the beats.
Lengthening of the strides is accomplished primarily through the use of propulsion. We ask the horse to stretch the limbs forward and out and not up in elevation or in speed. Because there in no increase in impulsion in the free (lengthened) gaits called for in Cowboy Dressage, these gaits also do not include suspension and should be as comfortable to ride sitting as they are posting, and having a soft, willing partner that is a joy to ride should be a primary goal of every Cowboy Dressage participant.
While the discussion of the nuances and differences between gaits can be confusing and overwhelming the take home message for the Cowboy Dressage enthusiast is simple. Cowboy Dressage asks for your horse to have an easy rhythmic gait that is correct and soft for both you and your horse. That end goal will look different from one horse to the next but the softness exhibited should be easy for even the casual observer to see. We aren't going to tell you how your horse should look. We are only trying to help you understand how your horse should feel.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Cowboy Dressage In a Nutshell
My husband Dan and I were recently asked to describe Cowboy Dressage "in a nutshell". I am sure the person inquiring was more interested in getting the short version from a pair of enthusiasts than he was in really hearing the answer but it made me realize that describing Cowboy Dressage in a few words accurately is highly difficult. It's a struggle to try and describe something that is so near and dear to your heart in a way that doesn't tend to border on mystical when you are as passionate as we are! But, it is a conversation that needs to happen more and more as folks look at this growing discipline and wonder if maybe it is for them. So, maybe you have been asked as well and are looking for some way to provide answers to your inquiring friends. If so, I have provided the internet's favorite approach to frequent queries in the form of the beloved FAQ. I will endeavor to remain completely non-mystical in my descriptions!
1. What is Cowboy Dressage?
Cowboy Dressage is a new discipline in western riding that takes some of the best principles of classical dressage training and applies them to the traditional training of the western horse. It is a method of training and being with your horses that encompasses much more than riding. It is a lifestyle and a commitment to kindness and partnership with your horse.
2. Isn't Cowboy Dressage and Western Dressage the same thing?
No, no, and double no. I get this question at least once a day and often more than that. They are definitely not the same thing. Cowboy Dressage has actually been around much longer than Western Dressage. Cowboy Dressage began with the unique style of a single horseman, Eitan Beth Helachmy. Eitan and his winning Morgan Western Pleasure champion Holiday Compadre introduced what became branded as Cowboy Dressage at the Morgan Grand National show in 1993 during a very entertaining victory lap. Eitan showed that his stallion could as easily go from a western pleasure jog to an extended trot to a reining spin and sliding stop and then a canter pirouette all with soft feel, lightness and partnership. They shattered the rules about what a Western horse was supposed to do and look like and a new style was born. Western Dressage was the first concerted effort to turn Eitan's Cowboy Dressage into a new discipline. Western Dressage was very early on adopted by the USEF and during that process the goals and "look" changed from what Eitan's Cowboy Dressage is meant to be. Western Dressage and Cowboy Dressage are now two separate entities; similar in taking principles of dressage and applying them to western horses but different in their approach, goals, and overall look.
3. Do I have to show to do Cowboy Dressage?
Definitely not. The whole purpose of Cowboy Dressage is to make Western horses better at their jobs. Learning and embracing the principles of Cowboy Dressage and using the court to train your horse will make your horse better at his job whether he is a ranch horse, trail horse, cutting horse, gaming horse or western pleasure horse.
4. Isn't Cowboy Dressage just Dressage in western tack?
Nope. I do think that Western Dressage more closely resembles Dressage in western tack than Cowboy Dressage does. In Cowboy Dressage we strive for self carriage and for the horse to get off the bit, not reach for it. You will hear the term Soft Feel talked about almost continuously in Cowboy Dressage. While that concept is a mystical journey all unto itself, it basically means full body soft communication with your horse. A Cowboy Dressage horse, properly engaged will feel almost weightless in your hands and soft and willing between your legs and seat. The gaits we are striving to achieve in Cowboy Dressage also make it unique. The Cowboy Dressage jog and lope are shortened versions of the trot and canter and have no suspension. Western Dressage specifically defines their desired gaits with suspension.
5. Can I participate in both Cowboy Dressage and Western Dressage?
Absolutely! Depending on which area you live in you may find more opportunities to participate in one discipline over the other. A Cowboy Dressage horse will show well at a Western Dressage show and often vice versa. The tests are different between the two disciplines as are the goals and scoring sheets. Remember that in Cowboy Dressage it is all about Soft Feel and partnership so much so that your Soft Feel and partnership scores are multiplied by 3. Riding with too much contact, a horse behind the vertical or a horse with suspension may not score as well at a Cowboy Dressage show.
6. Do I have to join an association to participate?
Not with Cowboy Dressage! Cowboy Dressage features membership with a handshake at www.cowboydressageworld.com. All you have to do is agree to embrace the principles of kindness and softness and confirm your membership with an electronic "handshake" to join the movement. The growth of Cowboy Dressage has been completely organic and is spread by horse folk just like you giving it a try and bringing their friends. There are no dues and few rules and we welcome all breeds, ages, and western disciplines.
7. Do I need special tack?
Nope. Cowboy Dressage has a few rules about tack but by and large all forms of traditional Western tack are accepted. Mechanical hackamores, side pulls and bitless bridles are not currently allowed, but bosals or loping hackamores are. Any western saddle is welcomed and at a show you are only required to be in western attire. There are no points awarded for silver or fancy outfits. It's all about you and your horse.
8. What if my horse isn't good at arena stuff?
Well, that's kind of the whole point of participating is to get your horse good at this arena stuff. You don't need an arena to practice the principles of bend, transitions, straight lines and softness. Much of that can be accomplished on the trail. You can also set up the Cowboy Dressage court in a field, meadow or pasture. Helping your horse to understand these simple principles will make it better at whatever job it is you do with your horse.
9. How do I get started?
The best way to get started is to visit www.cowboydressageworld.com and join with your handshake. The tests, principles, rules and goals are all outlined there. You should also check out www.cowboydressage.com, which is Eitan and Debbie Beth Helachmy's webpage. There are DVD's, video clips and books that will help you learn what this is all about. All it takes is a piece of flat ground and a measuring tape and you can set up your own court and get to riding!
1. What is Cowboy Dressage?
Cowboy Dressage is a new discipline in western riding that takes some of the best principles of classical dressage training and applies them to the traditional training of the western horse. It is a method of training and being with your horses that encompasses much more than riding. It is a lifestyle and a commitment to kindness and partnership with your horse.
2. Isn't Cowboy Dressage and Western Dressage the same thing?
No, no, and double no. I get this question at least once a day and often more than that. They are definitely not the same thing. Cowboy Dressage has actually been around much longer than Western Dressage. Cowboy Dressage began with the unique style of a single horseman, Eitan Beth Helachmy. Eitan and his winning Morgan Western Pleasure champion Holiday Compadre introduced what became branded as Cowboy Dressage at the Morgan Grand National show in 1993 during a very entertaining victory lap. Eitan showed that his stallion could as easily go from a western pleasure jog to an extended trot to a reining spin and sliding stop and then a canter pirouette all with soft feel, lightness and partnership. They shattered the rules about what a Western horse was supposed to do and look like and a new style was born. Western Dressage was the first concerted effort to turn Eitan's Cowboy Dressage into a new discipline. Western Dressage was very early on adopted by the USEF and during that process the goals and "look" changed from what Eitan's Cowboy Dressage is meant to be. Western Dressage and Cowboy Dressage are now two separate entities; similar in taking principles of dressage and applying them to western horses but different in their approach, goals, and overall look.
3. Do I have to show to do Cowboy Dressage?
Definitely not. The whole purpose of Cowboy Dressage is to make Western horses better at their jobs. Learning and embracing the principles of Cowboy Dressage and using the court to train your horse will make your horse better at his job whether he is a ranch horse, trail horse, cutting horse, gaming horse or western pleasure horse.
4. Isn't Cowboy Dressage just Dressage in western tack?
Nope. I do think that Western Dressage more closely resembles Dressage in western tack than Cowboy Dressage does. In Cowboy Dressage we strive for self carriage and for the horse to get off the bit, not reach for it. You will hear the term Soft Feel talked about almost continuously in Cowboy Dressage. While that concept is a mystical journey all unto itself, it basically means full body soft communication with your horse. A Cowboy Dressage horse, properly engaged will feel almost weightless in your hands and soft and willing between your legs and seat. The gaits we are striving to achieve in Cowboy Dressage also make it unique. The Cowboy Dressage jog and lope are shortened versions of the trot and canter and have no suspension. Western Dressage specifically defines their desired gaits with suspension.
5. Can I participate in both Cowboy Dressage and Western Dressage?
Absolutely! Depending on which area you live in you may find more opportunities to participate in one discipline over the other. A Cowboy Dressage horse will show well at a Western Dressage show and often vice versa. The tests are different between the two disciplines as are the goals and scoring sheets. Remember that in Cowboy Dressage it is all about Soft Feel and partnership so much so that your Soft Feel and partnership scores are multiplied by 3. Riding with too much contact, a horse behind the vertical or a horse with suspension may not score as well at a Cowboy Dressage show.
6. Do I have to join an association to participate?
Not with Cowboy Dressage! Cowboy Dressage features membership with a handshake at www.cowboydressageworld.com. All you have to do is agree to embrace the principles of kindness and softness and confirm your membership with an electronic "handshake" to join the movement. The growth of Cowboy Dressage has been completely organic and is spread by horse folk just like you giving it a try and bringing their friends. There are no dues and few rules and we welcome all breeds, ages, and western disciplines.
7. Do I need special tack?
Nope. Cowboy Dressage has a few rules about tack but by and large all forms of traditional Western tack are accepted. Mechanical hackamores, side pulls and bitless bridles are not currently allowed, but bosals or loping hackamores are. Any western saddle is welcomed and at a show you are only required to be in western attire. There are no points awarded for silver or fancy outfits. It's all about you and your horse.
8. What if my horse isn't good at arena stuff?
Well, that's kind of the whole point of participating is to get your horse good at this arena stuff. You don't need an arena to practice the principles of bend, transitions, straight lines and softness. Much of that can be accomplished on the trail. You can also set up the Cowboy Dressage court in a field, meadow or pasture. Helping your horse to understand these simple principles will make it better at whatever job it is you do with your horse.
9. How do I get started?
The best way to get started is to visit www.cowboydressageworld.com and join with your handshake. The tests, principles, rules and goals are all outlined there. You should also check out www.cowboydressage.com, which is Eitan and Debbie Beth Helachmy's webpage. There are DVD's, video clips and books that will help you learn what this is all about. All it takes is a piece of flat ground and a measuring tape and you can set up your own court and get to riding!
Friday, March 20, 2015
How Old is Old Enough
It's interesting to me that now that horses are used primarily for pleasure or entertainment instead of as a means of survival or transportation that we are less patient with putting them to work. Perhaps that is a reflection of our throw-a-way society. Or maybe it is the fault of the the veterinary community that has perfected the band-aids necessary to keep a horse working when it maybe shouldn't be. Or maybe it's the fault of the high end competitive venues that have turned towards making money off of equine children rather than equine adults and the rest of us just follow suit.
I'm talking about the incredibly controversial issue of skeletal maturation and optimum age of starting a young horse. There are many misconceptions and widely spread misunderstandings in this area of the horse world. The modern horse world seems to be more and more impressed with the advanced abilities of a young horse as showcased in a futurity. We prize that young horse who achieves enormous amounts of money earnings early in his career and then retires to the breeding shed as a 3 or 4 year old.
You can see this change in almost every aspect of the horse industry, but maybe nowhere so dramatically as in the American Racing industry. Where race horses used to have to be at least 4 before they began competing in long heats of 4 mile feats of endurance, the concept of the quick sprint futurities was introduced to allow betters a "glimpse" of the talent coming up. Racing of 2 and 3 year olds in shorter more "humane" races became the norm and were immensely popular for the ability to stage a shorter race in a track that could seat more people, allow for more prospective betters and overall increase the excitement of the race. Soon the only horses racing at maturity were cheap claimers or geldings that didn't have a career in the breeding shed to look forward to. What has occurred in the racing industry is a significant drop in the number of starts a horse will have in his life paired with an increase in the number of breakdowns.
The same has occurred in the western reined cowhorse industry. What used to be a competition for a mature bridle horse (generally 6 or older) was then turned into a futurity for hackamore horses. As the snaffle bit increased in popularity for it's ability to accomplish more advanced training more quickly the snaffle bit futurity was born. This is a high dollar competition for young Quarter horses that are 3 years of age. In order to compete in this highly demanding and physical sport those horses are often started under saddle at 18 months.One of the sad parts about this is that right there on the first page of the NRCHA rule book is the purpose of the association: "The purpose of the NRCHA is to improve the quality of the western reined stock horse: to perpetuate the early Spanish traditions of highly trained and well reined working cow horses;" It has traveled quite a way from the goals at it's inception.
Sadly the tradition of the early Spanish horseman were to not put any metal in their horse's mouth until age 5 or 6 and to bring them along slowly to protect not only their physical well-being, but mental well being. Spanish tradition would start a horse at 3 or 4 with very light riding with a hackamore until he was ready to move into the two-rein at 5 or 6 and only after he was carefully prepared would be be straight up in the bridle and riding one handed. For many horses this wasn't until they were 7 or older. Today, a 7 year old reined cow horse is likely ready to retire from the show ring. Not always, but often. It's like seeing Billy Etbauer still riding in the NFR. Not impossible at his age, but very rare.
But it's not just high dollar performance horses that are being started as 2 year olds. Conventional wisdom seems to push folks to start their backyard pleasure horses sometime during their 2 year old year. The conscientious owner knows to wait until "the knees are closed". This piece of equine wisdom is referring to the growth plates at the distal radius. While you can't actually tell by palpating the horse if that growth plate has fused or not, many folks feel that you can and use this colloquial rule of thumb for starting youngsters under saddle.
What we know about rate of skeletal maturity is that the growth plates in the equine body slowly fuse between 1.5 years and 5.5 years. Across the board. There is no truth to the myth that some breeds of horse mature faster than others. All horses reach skeletal maturity at about 5 1/2 to 6 years of age. This really shouldn't surprise us as we know that the horse continues to erupt molars until they are 6. Why shouldn't the timing for completion of growth be at about the same time.
What may not be common knowledge is that it's not the legs that are the slowest maturing part of the body. The growth plates of the knees mature ( or close) at about 2 years for the small bones and 3 years for the distal radius and ulna. The very last growth plates to fuse are in the equine vertebrae. All 32 of them. The last of those are the ones in the base of the neck.
The reason this is relevant to our young horses that we plan to ride well into their advanced years is that the process of riding our young horses can contribute to not only excessive wear and tear on their young joints (the hocks also don't fuse until 3.5 years) but strain to their backs and necks as well.
The process of teaching a horse to be ridden at a very young age teaches the horse to protect itself from back pain. To do this the horse braces his back and drops his shoulders and hollows out so that he can help take the weight of his vertebral column. It's a minor thing at first and one that every young horse being started under saddle goes through to a certain degree until their back muscles get better at carrying that weight. But if you persist in riding a young horse who's vertebral column is not able to bear that weight even with muscular conditioning, you create a habit caused by pain that becomes deeply ingrained and prevents the horse from properly learning to round up and use his body.
The next step in training a young horse after getting on their back (especially in many of today's "natural horsemanship" methods) is the one rein stop. This is accomplished by repetitively pulling the horse's head over to your foot and limbering up the neck until it is quite soft and "rubbery". Isn't this putting added stresses on the last vertebrae to fuse in the horse's entire body? Pain here causes stiffness in the bridle that causes the horse to flex by turning his head at the atlas rather than flexing his entire vertebral column. With vertical flexion he then learns to brace his withers and instead of flexing along his entire column will flex at the third vertebra to protect the rest of the cervical vertebrae. All of this might look like a broke young horse to the uninitiated, but in truth it is a horse with reflexes built on pain. Those horses can never move in a true collected frame.
So while the now common and widespread practice of putting a 2 year old to work in a rigorous training program undoubtedly leads to increased incidences of breakdowns in race horses and the widespread practice of injecting young horse's joints to try to stave off juvenile osteoarthritis, the other long lasting effects of braces and pain through their back and neck are less often addressed.
Does this mean that we shouldn't start our horses until they are fully skeletally mature? That, for me, is a harder question to answer.
Paired with the data of skeletal maturity is the data that exists on mental maturity. Horses can and do learn to learn. One of the great things that have been bred into the Quarter Horse performance horses is their ability to calmly and easily learn what is expected of them. They are almost "born broke". This is because they have been selected for train-ability which is really the capacity to learn. (Whether that makes them the smartest breed of horse or just the most trainable is a discussion for another time!) For most folks that work with young horses and start colts the ones that have had an introduction to good handling and training as yearlings are much easier to start as 2 or 3 year olds. That ability to retain a lesson and understand what is being taught is a learned behavior. The younger they learn that, the easier they seem to be to train and quicker to trust.
Therefore, I believe the answer lies in moderation, as with most things. I think you have to take into consideration your youngster and your training program. I am 100% not in favor of futurities that demand a horse be put into rigorous training as a 2 year old. I am also not in favor of any practice that deems it common and prudent to inject a young horse's joints in order to maintain joint health or cover-up a lameness and keep them working. But, that's just me. I have many colleagues happily preforming these procedures and building their retirement accounts much faster than I am.
I don't think you necessarily need to completely stay off your horse until they are 4. I think you can teach a horse some valuable lessons, expose them to important stimuli and situations and in general build their confidence and ability to learn as a young horse. I personally put 10 short (all but one of them were under 20 minutes) rides on my 2 year old this summer. He had already had about a month of various groundwork exercises to establish some basic commands and improve his comfort with me and the tack. Riding sessions would generally consist of going both directions at a walk and a trot with some simple directing with the hackamore. We established whoa and the beginnings of a back. I pushed him into a lope just to get him to feel it and then allowed him to trot again. That was it. I did take him on one short trail ride just to expose him to an area other than our arena and home trail. In my mind, that was about all he could handle.
This year as a 3 year old I will put some more rides on him throughout the summer. He will be lightly ridden and exposed to basic commands and stimuli in a rotation with the other horses. He'll probably be ridden about twice a month lightly through his 3 year old year. He certainly won't be loping circle after circle, going on 4 hour trail rides or schooling on spins and sliding stops. He's almost 15 hands and probably 900#. Had he been smaller (or I bigger) I would have waited until he was 4 to start the process.
I don't feel that lack of skeletal maturity means no work or riding at all, but I think it means conscientious riding and training to preserve not only your horse's mind but his physical ability to be a good sound partner throughout his entire life. I want to be riding my horses well into their third decade and possibly longer. There is nothing sadder to me than a 6 year old that is too lame to be ridden in the show pen anymore because it was ridden too hard as a youngster. That's like seeing a teenage girl that trained too hard as a gymnast and now has collapsed bones in her wrists and deformed radius. Too much work too soon. We need to be smarter than this for our horses. Increasing the usable upper age limits of our horses through smart training will go miles to decreasing the numbers of unwanted or crippled horses out there.
I'm talking about the incredibly controversial issue of skeletal maturation and optimum age of starting a young horse. There are many misconceptions and widely spread misunderstandings in this area of the horse world. The modern horse world seems to be more and more impressed with the advanced abilities of a young horse as showcased in a futurity. We prize that young horse who achieves enormous amounts of money earnings early in his career and then retires to the breeding shed as a 3 or 4 year old.
You can see this change in almost every aspect of the horse industry, but maybe nowhere so dramatically as in the American Racing industry. Where race horses used to have to be at least 4 before they began competing in long heats of 4 mile feats of endurance, the concept of the quick sprint futurities was introduced to allow betters a "glimpse" of the talent coming up. Racing of 2 and 3 year olds in shorter more "humane" races became the norm and were immensely popular for the ability to stage a shorter race in a track that could seat more people, allow for more prospective betters and overall increase the excitement of the race. Soon the only horses racing at maturity were cheap claimers or geldings that didn't have a career in the breeding shed to look forward to. What has occurred in the racing industry is a significant drop in the number of starts a horse will have in his life paired with an increase in the number of breakdowns.
The same has occurred in the western reined cowhorse industry. What used to be a competition for a mature bridle horse (generally 6 or older) was then turned into a futurity for hackamore horses. As the snaffle bit increased in popularity for it's ability to accomplish more advanced training more quickly the snaffle bit futurity was born. This is a high dollar competition for young Quarter horses that are 3 years of age. In order to compete in this highly demanding and physical sport those horses are often started under saddle at 18 months.One of the sad parts about this is that right there on the first page of the NRCHA rule book is the purpose of the association: "The purpose of the NRCHA is to improve the quality of the western reined stock horse: to perpetuate the early Spanish traditions of highly trained and well reined working cow horses;" It has traveled quite a way from the goals at it's inception.
Sadly the tradition of the early Spanish horseman were to not put any metal in their horse's mouth until age 5 or 6 and to bring them along slowly to protect not only their physical well-being, but mental well being. Spanish tradition would start a horse at 3 or 4 with very light riding with a hackamore until he was ready to move into the two-rein at 5 or 6 and only after he was carefully prepared would be be straight up in the bridle and riding one handed. For many horses this wasn't until they were 7 or older. Today, a 7 year old reined cow horse is likely ready to retire from the show ring. Not always, but often. It's like seeing Billy Etbauer still riding in the NFR. Not impossible at his age, but very rare.
But it's not just high dollar performance horses that are being started as 2 year olds. Conventional wisdom seems to push folks to start their backyard pleasure horses sometime during their 2 year old year. The conscientious owner knows to wait until "the knees are closed". This piece of equine wisdom is referring to the growth plates at the distal radius. While you can't actually tell by palpating the horse if that growth plate has fused or not, many folks feel that you can and use this colloquial rule of thumb for starting youngsters under saddle.
What we know about rate of skeletal maturity is that the growth plates in the equine body slowly fuse between 1.5 years and 5.5 years. Across the board. There is no truth to the myth that some breeds of horse mature faster than others. All horses reach skeletal maturity at about 5 1/2 to 6 years of age. This really shouldn't surprise us as we know that the horse continues to erupt molars until they are 6. Why shouldn't the timing for completion of growth be at about the same time.
What may not be common knowledge is that it's not the legs that are the slowest maturing part of the body. The growth plates of the knees mature ( or close) at about 2 years for the small bones and 3 years for the distal radius and ulna. The very last growth plates to fuse are in the equine vertebrae. All 32 of them. The last of those are the ones in the base of the neck.
The reason this is relevant to our young horses that we plan to ride well into their advanced years is that the process of riding our young horses can contribute to not only excessive wear and tear on their young joints (the hocks also don't fuse until 3.5 years) but strain to their backs and necks as well.
The process of teaching a horse to be ridden at a very young age teaches the horse to protect itself from back pain. To do this the horse braces his back and drops his shoulders and hollows out so that he can help take the weight of his vertebral column. It's a minor thing at first and one that every young horse being started under saddle goes through to a certain degree until their back muscles get better at carrying that weight. But if you persist in riding a young horse who's vertebral column is not able to bear that weight even with muscular conditioning, you create a habit caused by pain that becomes deeply ingrained and prevents the horse from properly learning to round up and use his body.
The next step in training a young horse after getting on their back (especially in many of today's "natural horsemanship" methods) is the one rein stop. This is accomplished by repetitively pulling the horse's head over to your foot and limbering up the neck until it is quite soft and "rubbery". Isn't this putting added stresses on the last vertebrae to fuse in the horse's entire body? Pain here causes stiffness in the bridle that causes the horse to flex by turning his head at the atlas rather than flexing his entire vertebral column. With vertical flexion he then learns to brace his withers and instead of flexing along his entire column will flex at the third vertebra to protect the rest of the cervical vertebrae. All of this might look like a broke young horse to the uninitiated, but in truth it is a horse with reflexes built on pain. Those horses can never move in a true collected frame.
So while the now common and widespread practice of putting a 2 year old to work in a rigorous training program undoubtedly leads to increased incidences of breakdowns in race horses and the widespread practice of injecting young horse's joints to try to stave off juvenile osteoarthritis, the other long lasting effects of braces and pain through their back and neck are less often addressed.
Does this mean that we shouldn't start our horses until they are fully skeletally mature? That, for me, is a harder question to answer.
Paired with the data of skeletal maturity is the data that exists on mental maturity. Horses can and do learn to learn. One of the great things that have been bred into the Quarter Horse performance horses is their ability to calmly and easily learn what is expected of them. They are almost "born broke". This is because they have been selected for train-ability which is really the capacity to learn. (Whether that makes them the smartest breed of horse or just the most trainable is a discussion for another time!) For most folks that work with young horses and start colts the ones that have had an introduction to good handling and training as yearlings are much easier to start as 2 or 3 year olds. That ability to retain a lesson and understand what is being taught is a learned behavior. The younger they learn that, the easier they seem to be to train and quicker to trust.
Therefore, I believe the answer lies in moderation, as with most things. I think you have to take into consideration your youngster and your training program. I am 100% not in favor of futurities that demand a horse be put into rigorous training as a 2 year old. I am also not in favor of any practice that deems it common and prudent to inject a young horse's joints in order to maintain joint health or cover-up a lameness and keep them working. But, that's just me. I have many colleagues happily preforming these procedures and building their retirement accounts much faster than I am.
I don't think you necessarily need to completely stay off your horse until they are 4. I think you can teach a horse some valuable lessons, expose them to important stimuli and situations and in general build their confidence and ability to learn as a young horse. I personally put 10 short (all but one of them were under 20 minutes) rides on my 2 year old this summer. He had already had about a month of various groundwork exercises to establish some basic commands and improve his comfort with me and the tack. Riding sessions would generally consist of going both directions at a walk and a trot with some simple directing with the hackamore. We established whoa and the beginnings of a back. I pushed him into a lope just to get him to feel it and then allowed him to trot again. That was it. I did take him on one short trail ride just to expose him to an area other than our arena and home trail. In my mind, that was about all he could handle.
This year as a 3 year old I will put some more rides on him throughout the summer. He will be lightly ridden and exposed to basic commands and stimuli in a rotation with the other horses. He'll probably be ridden about twice a month lightly through his 3 year old year. He certainly won't be loping circle after circle, going on 4 hour trail rides or schooling on spins and sliding stops. He's almost 15 hands and probably 900#. Had he been smaller (or I bigger) I would have waited until he was 4 to start the process.
I don't feel that lack of skeletal maturity means no work or riding at all, but I think it means conscientious riding and training to preserve not only your horse's mind but his physical ability to be a good sound partner throughout his entire life. I want to be riding my horses well into their third decade and possibly longer. There is nothing sadder to me than a 6 year old that is too lame to be ridden in the show pen anymore because it was ridden too hard as a youngster. That's like seeing a teenage girl that trained too hard as a gymnast and now has collapsed bones in her wrists and deformed radius. Too much work too soon. We need to be smarter than this for our horses. Increasing the usable upper age limits of our horses through smart training will go miles to decreasing the numbers of unwanted or crippled horses out there.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Top Hand
Do you have what it
takes to be a Cowboy Dressage Top Hand? If so be ready to ride at our 2015
Gathering and Finals Show Nov 5-8 at Murieta Equestrian Center, Rancho Murieta,
CA.
This is a new division
just for our Gathering and Finals Show. We are looking for the best of the
best, a Top Hand.
Look for details to
follow this summer. We can tell you this
much:
- · It will be a $200 non refundable fee
- · Preliminary tests will be on Thurs Nov 5th
- · Top 5 high scores will come back on Sat PM Nov 7th to compete for the event High Point.
- · Both the preliminary and the championship tests will be judged by 3 judges.
- · Both test will not be known until just before competition time
- · Riders can ride more than one horse
- · Top scores will be the accumulative scores from all 3 judges in both the preliminary and Top 5 tests.
- · Eitan, Lyn and Garn will judge the top 5.
- · The top 5 will ride a different test from the qualifying tests and will then return to ride a different horse from the top 5 . (riders will be required to switch horses. This will be determined by a draw)
- · All order of go times will be determined by a draw
- · High Point will receive a Cowboy Dressage Saddle and Buckle. Top 2-5 will receive a buckle and Top 10 will get ribbons.
- · Top Hand is open to amateurs and open riders. No juniors.
- · The awards are in addition to the awards usually given at this show.
·
Final details will be at
www.cowboydressageworld.com in the next few months.
·
This is subject to
change so keep in the loop.
In the tradition of the Cowboy and the ranches of the west there is no higher compliment than being christened the top hand. All Cowboys worth their salt strive to be worthy of such a title. It is not a title given lightly nor one that is awarded to a man that hasn't put in their time. It is a title of honor and respect. While the Cowboy needed to be a man of many skills, including some of the dirtier ground crew work, the highest skill of the Cowboy and the one most respected was the horseman. In all the skills the Top Hand had mastered, it was his skill as horseman that most earned him the title.
In Cowboy Dressage we honor the tradition of the Cowboy and the lifestyle of the West while building partnership and harmony with our horses. We believe that in order to create the ultimate horse we have to be the ultimate partner for that horse. By working to improve communication with the horse through soft feel we aim to create the perfect working partner that is soft and willing and capable and able to take on any job on the ranch or in the arena.
Creating that partnership and relationship with a horse requires a rider that is dedicated to the goal of soft feel. While it takes time to develop true partnership in a horse, a rider that embodies soft feel can cultivate partnership in any horse that he mounts. A true horseman can quickly adapt to communicate with each horse that he comes into contact with. You might say the rider that has embraced the principles of soft feel and partnership in Cowboy Dressage is worthy of being called a Top Hand.
As we in Cowboy Dressage honor the Cowboy we also honor the horseman and no skill in the horseman is as highly valued in Cowboy Dressage as the skill of soft feel and partnership. Do you think you have what it takes to be a Top Hand? Cowboy Dressage World is poised to give you the opportunity to find out.
While the end goal of Cowboy Dressage is not the competition we feel that it is right and fitting to honor the Top Hands out there that have dedicated the time and energy to become worthy of the title. Though we no longer have the ability to prove our worth while riding for the brand each season, we can get together to showcase and honor the work we have done with our horses and recognize the men and women that have made themselves worthy of being deemed Top Hand.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
New Year's Cowboy Dressage Clinic
Photo Credits to Mrs. Chris Holloway, Post Falls, Idaho
It takes a lot of grit to come out for a clinic in the middle of a North Idaho winter. Grit is something that comes easily to a dedicated group of North Idaho horsemen. The temps hovered around a frigid 15 degrees or so the first day and a balmy 20 degrees on the second day. There was snow on the ground and still they came ready to learn and ride and grow in Cowboy Dressage.
The clinic was sponsored by the Northwest Saddle Sisters and featured the charismatic clinician, Dale Rumens Partee from Snohomish, Washington. We had two sessions, one on New Years Eve and one on the 3rd of January that was open to riders and spectators alike. Though we had new snow fall that limited the ability of some folks to haul in we were still able to have 8 riders for our final date on the 3rd. For those of you that were stymied by weather, here is what you missed!
but for all folks that are learning Cowboy Dressage or teaching a young or new horse partnership and softness. I think a lot of the clinic attendees were surprised to find some holes lurking in their groundwork. I know that almost every person had some difficulty leading their horse properly from the right side. Because Cowboy Dressage emphases balance in the horse, the partnership on the ground splits the pattern between leading the horse on the right and leading the horse on the left. It sounds easy until you try to do it with bend, softness, and accuracy! Dale was able to help us find our holes and fix them so that we could lead and position our horses as easily from the left as the right.
The other wonderful part of a ground work is that it gives you a way to go back and fix maneuvers that aren't working for you under saddle. For instance, I have a problem with my horse executing a proper turn on the haunches. In Cowboy Dressage this is a forward movement. To be executed properly the horse must almost walk a small circle forward with bend but moving only his forehand while the hindquarters stay in place. They pivot on the inside hind leg. Some programs, especially cow horse programs, teach that the turn on the haunches is a backing maneuver and it is often taught to back the horse a few steps to shift that weight onto the hindquarters and then open the hands forthe forequarters to come through.
When performing groundwork exercises it is important to be particular. By not being particular in how my horse was stepping I had allowed him to develop the habit of not initiating that turn with the correct leg. When you are particular about which foot should move first, suddenly your groundwork takes on new meaning to the horse. It's not just drilling or mindless lunging, it's a dance and that's when you start to have partnership and feel and without that you won't be able to properly execute a partnership on the ground test.
Most of us had skipped learning how to do the partnership on the ground when we started cowboy dressage. We were anxious to get onto the riding tests and like most folks we really wanted to get to the loping tests! Imagine our dismay when we found out we couldn't even do partnership on the ground properly. This clinic really emphasized for the participants how important it is to get that groundwork solid if you hope to go on to have success under saddle.As we moved onto the riding portion we again worked on some basic horsemanship exercises before moving onto riding Cowboy Dressage tests. This allowed us to again clean up some holes in our horses and our partnership. I think the thing that surprises folks that are new to Cowboy Dressage the most is how difficult it is to ride with accuracy. When you read a Cowboy Dressage test, say Walk/Jog 1 it sounds elementary. It's just some circles and some straight lines. No fancy roll backs, spins, obstacles or even loping are required.
There are so many great things to learn when it comes to Cowboy Dressage. Softness. Accuracy. Cadence. Bend. Straightness. All great things for horse and rider. But the most important thing and the beautiful thing to watch as you work on these things through Cowboy Dressage is to watch the development of partnership and harmony through soft feel. When you learn how to communicate with your horse softly and accurately the partnership grows and it's so rewarding to watch some one that was struggling with their horse being with them at the beginning of the clinic suddenly make that final turn on to the center line for the last test of the day and have it be soft, accurate and lovely in every way. Cowboy Dressage builds better horses and better riders but ultimately it builds better partnership and therein lies the beauty.
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