Rigging, Martingales & More
An extreme but relevant example of rigging…
Many of us horse people have used some form of rigging with our horses, whether it be for training purposes on the ground or under saddle.
Often we see and hear of martingales being used to keep a horses head down while traveling. Typical reason for use is to prevent the horse from traveling around with their head high - thus inverting & hollowing their back and completely disengaging through the core. So, the theory is, because the horses head is now down because it is restricted, their core is more likely to engage, therefore the back will lift - and - all of our problems will magically go away. There are ‘full-body’ rigs like pessoas or the equiband, along with many other types of flexible, bungee style systems that claim to work based off of ‘pressure & release’. Maybe that theorized core engagement will now also happen in the hind end.
Other forms of rigging include draw and side reins, often used to train or drill various aids or ‘introduce’ a horse to bending or collecting their bodies, but unfortunately these systems are often used incorrectly. Even if used ‘correctly’ and the horse is going around moving as we think we desire, we may be setting these horses up for biomechanical dysfunction and therefore causing or enabling compensations to continue in their bodies.
Why?
Two reasons out of many others that initially come to mind and stick out:
1.) the pressure and release of these systems is too variable and inconsistent for it to mean anything to the horse
2.) horses are prone to bracing throughout their bodies because of their prey animal nature
Think about it in your own body - you decide one day to wear an older, and now, very tight fitting pair of jeans that you dug out of the closet. You’re a little uncomfortable, but you look really good, and everything is just fine, so long as you walk at a slow pace, very straight, narrow & avoid spreading your legs or bending down. Without fail, you get more comfortable, forget, and gingerly squat down to grab something on the bottom aisle at the grocery store. Next thing you know, the crotch of your jean gives to the small window it had and the pressure causes the jeans to rip big time. Now you must walk straight & narrow again, so that nobody sees your panties (if you’re wearing them). Naturally, you’re feeling really insecure and focusing so hard on maintaining this, that you forget to breathe deeply and regularly. This all becomes uncomfortable after a while, your legs and back are starting to feel tired and you can’t wait to get home and take the jeans off, so you can move comfortably again, and no longer have to worry about embarrassing yourself further.
Stick with me here.
When a horse steps into a deep corner of footing in the arena, their center of balance will change momentarily, as more of their weight is now dropping into their front legs. Their body needs to adapt to this change, so they lift their head to balance, but because of the rigging, they’re suddenly hit with a smack of pressure at an undefined amount depending on the velocity of which their head rises. The horse is unable to understand what they suddenly did wrong, and what they need to do differently, in order to avoid these random ‘bursts’ that vary in amount of pressure (and release) as they move.
Evidence shows that horses do learn from pressure and release, and as equestrians, we are always striving to use ‘light aids’. We achieve light aids very strategically with refined pressure and release. When pressure and release is inconsistent (and I don’t mean in frequency, but rather in amount of weight, if you will) horses then learn to brace, especially against pressure, because they aren’t able to differentiate between the various amounts of pressure that come and go. Now we must tighten that martingale another hole because they’ve become desensitized to the first. Therefore, in movement, they will brace against these rigs and frames that we have forced them into. The horse may appear to be traveling “better”, but to do so, they are bracing throughout their entire body in anticipation of these random ‘smacks’ no matter what they do or how they move.
Bracing = tension in the musculoskeletal system. Biomechanical failure spirals throughout the horses body, compensations become abundant, and unraveling them becomes nearly impossible. Where is the chicken? Where is the egg? Why are there a dozen eggs? Who arrived to the party first?
A horse will not learn self-carriage, unless they can fully explore self-carriage. It is called SELF carriage, after all, not forced-carriage.
When a horse is moving, they use their head (and neck) to balance their entire body. Therefore, a horse will place its head where it needs to in order to balance out their center of gravity.
A horse carries ~ 60% of their weight on the fore and ~ 40% in their hind. This means that the fore is heavier and it is designed to be that way. We often try to shift the focus to the hind, with the goal of driving from behind, pushing from behind, alleviating the fore and while eventually, yes, this is the goal to achieve many upper level movements & more, we cannot forget that the fore houses more of the horses foundation and it too needs to be developed as such. Without a strong foundation in the fore (again, where most of the horses weight is & therefore their center of gravity is) we cannot have a true foundation in the hind.
No, we don’t want our horses traveling around with their heads high, back inverted and cores disengaged. The way to teach them proper movement is not through rigging, but rather strategic physical development, often beginning with in-hand work that eventually transfers to under saddle. If the horse has been moving in dysfunction, we have to unravel that first, or simultaneously.
