danee wrote:
Has anyone found a "head peice" that really encourages a horse to bend laterally at the poll (Atlis and Axis) instead of swinging his neck like a gate?
Obviously rider/handler technique speaks a lot here, but I"m thinking about gear that might give clearer signals.
If you are good with urging your horse up into it, an old worn out halter works as well as any new tech stuff.
In the end it IS the rider.
And I think there is a risk in using pressure directly from the hands in trying to open the poll at the Atlis and Axis to side, lateral, flexion.
But if you use the softly fixed hands technique, then ask with your cues that call for forward movement, the horse can chose to give softly and on a very short arc.
The danger?
Stiffen your neck, holding it still, and then tilt your right and left and see how it feels.
Now try it by extending your neck as far up as you can, and do it again with your neck soft. So it bends.
Feel the difference.
Feel that stiffness and discomfort just below your ears when you hold your neck in a rigid fashion.
And how your neck muscles, when you do this soft and bending the neck, stretch and you want to do it MORE it feel so good?
Funny, it does feel a bit uncomfortable the latter way, but still you want to do it again and harder.
But trying to tilt just your head, at your Atlis and Axis, the end of your spine where it joins the head, causes all kinds of distortions.
Pushing the horse forward against your very slightly fixed hands ... don't assume standard Dressage style ... gives him a change to develop his neck strength and get that nice tapered muscular shape, head to shoulders along the sides.
A smooth bend, that is a bit more nearer the poll and less and less as the base of the neck is approached.
I've done this with Dakota, and as little as I ride him, his neck has improved considerably. I think it's why he rolls back over his hocks so easily, even though I'm not asking for it, when he turns on the lunge line on the 'reverse,' cue.
But then, I might not be understanding what you are asking.
Donald Redux