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[RC] Rounded Frame - k s swigartLiz Dorner said: This may sound like the most ignorant, obnoxious question ever, but I'm curious. Has the concept of working in a rounded frame always been a concept in training or is this relatively new? This is not a new concept. I don't know how long it has been around, but at least for centuries as it is the basic underpinning of the "classical" horsemanship of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. It probably pre-dates that, but I don't know enough to know that for sure. I've been riding for 16 years and only in the last couple years have I been introduced to this. I rode saddle seat for most of those 16 years, and we were always taught to keep the horse's head way up with his nose tucked, which is also unnatural for him. This way of travelling (saddle seat), as near as I can tell, is a fashion statement. No saddle seat rider I have ever asked has ever been able to give me a better reason for asking their horses to move in that way. So why is it that man thinks he knows how the horse should carry himself better then the horse does? With respect to the rounded frame, man thinks that he knows better how to carry a horse AND rider than the horse does naturally. A horse's natural inclination when an unnatural amount of weight is put on its back is to hollow the back and stiffen the spine. It is up to the rider to teach the horse that this isn't the most effective way to carry this weight. Since this is counter-intuitive for the horse (and the horse does not naturally have the muscles for doing this), it takes time and work to teach a horse that it would be much happier if it rounded its back instead. Another example of a "natural incliniation" that is not in the long term interests of structural soundness is the way that most infants learn to stand and walk. In an infant, the most "secure" way to stand is to lock the knees (in the same way that a horse "locks" its back by hollowing it under a rider's weight). So when infants teach themselves to stand and walk, they stand up, lock their knees, try to take the first step by unlocking one knee (which is actually quite difficult), swinging/shuffling the leg forward and relocking the knee, for stability. Many people never learn NOT to walk in this way (so they are still doing it when they are 50...or until their knees give out :)). However, a much more effective way to stand and to walk is to not lock your knees, and your entire frame will stay more structurally sound if you don't. It does, however, require more muscles (which are much easier to rebuild and rejuvinate than bones and joints). Same is true for horses. They will carry a riders weight much more effectively and stay more structurally sound if you teach them to round their backs under weight rather than succumbing to their natural inclination to do the more structurally stable (i.e. rigid) thing and hollow the back. This is, BTW, one of the reasons that it is hard for many horses when the first start under saddle, to "take the first step." They have "locked" all the joints of their spine to hold up the weight, and unlocking something in order to move a leg is very destablizing. And this is also why, when I first start horses under saddle, I let them (or even encourage them) to move off before I have barely put some of my weight on their back. That way, they are moving and before they get a chance to lock up. "Stand still to let me get on" is a lesson that comes a long way into the learn to carry weight process. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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