Forwardness explained (often misunderstood)
Posted By Iris on March 14, 2010
If you want to work your horse, he needs to be forward, in longeing and in riding. But ‘forward’ is often misunderstood…
A horse being ‘forward’ does not necessarily have something to do with speed, actually, it might be better to say it does not have anything to do with speed, other than that a horse that is not forward is sluggish and not fast. But a horse that is fast is not necessarily ‘forward’ in the good sense.
First of all, every horse is different so every horse has his own speed in where he (or she) can get to optimum connection and relaxation. So what is ‘forward’ for one horse means sluggish for the other or raging for yet another… But like I said, being ‘forward’ is not so much about speed, the horse just needs to alert, active and focused on you and his work and his body has to be working together. It certainly does not mean he is charging like there is no tomorrow because than it is hard to communicate with him either!
Forward is more about being ‘forward’ in the horses’ mind… A better word for it may be ‘attentive’ or ‘active’. Sometimes being ‘forward’ is even very slow, but still ‘forward’ in the mind; think about passage or even piaffe. When a horse is ‘active’ and attentive he will have an even pace and rhythm without ‘falling apart’.
Sure, sometimes when you are longeing it is good to make the horse go a lot faster at first(especially with a horse that is not ‘forward’ in his mind) just to get his hindquarters engaged, to then slow him down a bit to the rhythm in which he will find balance and relaxation. But this does not go for every horse! Some horses will get tense and won’t find relaxation this way. They will get into a really fast rhythm and their back gets tense, obviously this is not what you want! In this case you want a slower rhythm but you might want the same activity though, just with bigger steps. You will have to pay good attention to the horse, always keep thinking about the rhythm you want from him (read the article about ‘Telepathy’ and the one about longeing) look at him to see what his ideal rhythm is and keep him in this rhythm.
Most important to look for when you want the horse to get to relaxation in his work: Is the horse focused on you, can he find his balance, and is his rhythm even. Are his hindquarters as active as the front; do the back feet go into the footprints of the front feet and does he have long strides (this also has to be balanced). When all this is answered with a yes, after a little bit of work like that, the horse will find his relaxation and starts to lower his nose, chew and sometimes even sneeze… When this happens, let him go on for a little bit in relaxation and then go to the other side. If this does not happen, maybe you are pushing to hard and let off a little. Or maybe this is not such a good day, just ask for what he is able to offer and then try again tomorrow.
Very important with any work: don’t go over the horse his limit, don’t think that by pushing him he will get there faster or easier, on the contrary, you will only damage the horse by tensing him and making him sore… Go to the horses limit without going over it and let him find relaxation. This will make him stronger in a healthy way
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