The collapsed hip, a very common manifestation of a number of serious faults in the seat, has its origins in the anatomical problem of being asymmetrical. We are built differently on each of our sides; we even have different organs lodged on different sides. We are certainly right- or left-handed, depending on functions of our central nervous system. As a result of one side predominating, our musculoskeletal progress also develops unevenly.

Yet, the goal of most athletic endeavors is to achieve trained (learned) ambidexterity. We certainly propose ambidexterity as one of our major gymnastic goals for our horses: “Straighten your horse and ride him forward!”

To diagnose a collapsed hip, one observes the rider from the front and from the back. Let us suppose that the rider’s right hip is collapsed. Then this is what one would see:

1. The right stirrup looks (or is) shorter, the right ankle is stiff with the toe turned out and down more than on the left side.
2. The right knee is higher and more forward than the left one.
3. The right seat bone is pushed toward the center of the saddle while the rider “hangs away” from the horse’s spine to the left of it.
4. The whole torso is shifted to the left of the horse’s spine, while leaning at an angle to the right.

To compensate for the majority of the torso’s weight being to the left of the horse’s spine, the rider attempts to regain his balance by lowering his right shoulder and leaning his torso to the right. This will make the rider appear concave to the right and stretched taller on his left side. In such a position, the rider sits crookedly. Since riding is based on harmony, such a seat would impair progress.

Collapsed hips are a direct consequence of specific stiffness in the rider. Stiffness may be limited at first to an isolated area but will inevitably spread to other parts of the rider’s body. The collapsed-hip syndrome is usually caused by ankle stiffness initially. If a rider cannot absorb the motion of the stirrups by properly resting his toes on them, following them with supplely rotating ankles, the ankles will stiffen. Supple ankles are a result of correctly positioned legs that hang parallel with the horse’s sides. By posting unevenly, by sitting into the hollow side of the horse, or by maladjusted and/or uneven length of stirrups, riders with stiff ankles turn the foot out more or press down with one foot more forcefully on the stirrup. This slight change in that small ankle area can push one entire side of the rider off to one side, out of balance, and produce a collapsed hip!

By sitting on a chair at home, putting both feet on the floor, then pushing the right toe down, pulling the heel up, one can feel the right seat bone move to the center of the chair and the hip collapse. In the chair, one can reproduce the whole syndrome.

To correct the problem, one must eliminate its cause. Therefore, learn to mobilize and supple the ankles by following the motion of the stirrups. Lift the toes up and sink the heels down. The collapsed seat bone side should be pushed forward. Take all leg contact away from the saddle and ride in a walk with both legs lifted away from saddle contact. Feel how the seat bones can be pushed forward into place and how the lower back must work in order to keep them there!

In all turns, arcs, and circles, where the horse is expected to bend, one ought to ride with the inside bone pushed forward and down. We feel heavier on the inside seat bone because when bending the horse, the rider’s outside knee and thigh must be pushed back and down, steadying the lower leg on the outside slightly behind the inner one in order to bend the horse. The heels must stay down to secure stretched calves.

By riding with the outside leg properly back, one automatically feels heavier on the inside seat bone without leaning on it. Then push the inside seat bone forward, downward, inward, and not sideways toward the center of the saddle.

Becoming an athletic horse is not done by food alone. The formal education of any animal, including the human, is heavily influenced and even determined to some degree by heredity. The animal is born with a genetic package of assets and limitations. Formal education should address a horse that is limited by his inborn abilities, aptitudes, talents, and potential. He will also have experiences prior to the beginning of his formal education. Consequently, the horse’s background warrants some attention.

The genetic makeup of a horse is very important in determining how much education the horse will be able to receive. It determines how well the horse will perform. The best upbringing, the best education, the best training will not eliminate hereditary shortcomings, whether they are of a physical or mental nature. This is the reason why selecting the right young horse for our educational purposes is paramount to riding and competition success.

The upbringing of the young horse from his birth to the time his formal education commences is of great importance. The best hereditary traits can easily be thwarted, inhibited, or ruined by incorrect upbringing. A young horse can easily be physically stunted and mentally ruined long before he is mature enough to receive formal education or training. Damage in early life can cause shortcomings that are difficult to overcome and correct.

Like all living organisms, the horse exists in several contexts as a result of his interaction with his environment. The horse’s “present” condition as we work with him in training does not exist in a vacuum. It represents two relevant dimensions: (1) The “present” of the horse is a result of his past; his memories, in particular. By the same token, his present is becoming the past of his future; whatever we do to him now, he will remember. (2) The horse will always spontaneously interact with his current environment, which, while training, includes us.

Therefore, to experience his world sympathetically is the first and foremost principle in the upbringing of a horse. We must consciously adopt an attitude of empathy toward the horse. We should try to experience the world (including ourselves) through his senses and as if through his thinking. This attitude presumes not only a willingness to empathize and an eagerness “to play at being a horse,” but also a solid academic knowledge of the horse’s nature.

To know our goals for the horse and chart our course to fulfill them constitute the second most important element of a successful training plan. Goals should be formulated in a hierarchical pattern. The cumulative, overall, paramount goal should always to be to develop our horse’s innate potential to its utmost. If we select our young candidate horse properly, then his potential will guarantee that, as he develops it, he will also fulfill our competitive ambitions, as if by coincidence. Lesser, interim training goals will have to be designed for years, months, weeks, daily lessons, and even minute to minute. Since training is hierarchical, lesser goals must always be supportive of greater ones. We cannot hope to succeed in a year’s program unless we do those things from minute to minute that will enhance and contribute to the yearly goal. In a brief outline of training suggestions, I will suggest major goals for about a one-year period.

From birth to six months of age, a foal is nurtured and nourished by his mother; therefore, his life is with his mother. They may be part of a herd of broodmares and foals or they might be in an area just as a pair. In either case, they should be in a large area where they can move about at leisure and at their chosen gait. Food should be plentiful and include natural pasture. When herding to pasture is necessary, it should be done at a leisurely walk, allowing opportunities to feed all the while.

From six months to two years of age, the weaned foal ideally should join a herd of similarly aged youngsters. The horse is a herd animal with well-developed social instincts. For his unfolding, the society of other horses is essential. Competition horses shying from others, kicking at others in a warm-up ring, reveal great social inhibitions and resultant impairment. Horses raised correctly in a herd usually will not exhibit such undesirable and abnormal behavior. While sheltered overnight in a more confined and well-protected area, the young horses should remain free (untied) and together in their shelter. During the daytime, and weather permitting, they should be herded out to pasture for the day’s duration and back at evening time. As they grow older, both the length of the herding distance and the quality of its challenges can be increased gradually. The morning and evening herding times are those of purposeful exercise. Young horses should travel an ever-increasing distance on their feet and be moved over terrain that will contribute to good hoof and joint development.

These twice-a-day exercise periods should present physical and mental challenges in the form of small climbs, slides, ditches, ravines, brooks, ponds, logs, etc., as the local terrain naturally offers. Should the area be void of surface challenges by nature, herding paddocks should be constructed that will contain obstacles built to accommodate the desirable exercises.

From two to three years of age, formal schooling of the horse begins. The young horse should be separated from his fellows periodically and eventually, for most of the time. He is tamed and made accustomed to human companionship. He should receive a halter to wear, be groomed, housed in a separate box or paddock, and his hooves trimmed and shod. He becomes familiar and, if handled properly, friendly with people.

At first, he should be handled in the halter, then eventually lunged. At first, he will be lunged from the center of the circle. His balance will develop, and his familiarity with and love of people result in his obedience to his handler. Once the young horse obeys verbal commands given from the center of the circle on which he is lunged, he can be trained to accept two lunge tapes. The second tape is added around the outside of his body, running below his tail and above the hocks and leading to the handler, who holds it in the center of the ring. Lungeing on two tapes, or long reining, adds to the control of the horse, especially encouraging him to bend onto the arc of the circle. It also prepares the horse for the next step in his training. Care should be taken to use lunge lines (tapes) that are sufficiently long for this purpose (i.e., 10 meters, or 33 feet). Great care must be taken to avoid accidents whenever handling a horse. However, when lungeing a horse, potential for mishaps and accidents greatly increases. Riders must never be in “shooting range” of their horse’s hind legs, never stay within kicking range of a horse. As a matter of principle, riders and handlers should not spend time behind the girth line of a horse and do all passing from one side to the other in front of the horse.

The horse is warmed up daily on the lunge tapes from the center of the circle on which he works. Later, he should also be driven from behind by long reining. The two tapes are held and handled as if driving a horse hitched to a buggy. The trainer must follow the horse on foot at an ample distance to prevent being kicked. He should aim to teach the horse to walk straight in front of him without excitement. Anytime the horse deviates from the straight line of his progress, the trainer must step directly behind him, making himself invisible, and insist on the horse’s continued trust in him. All this work must be done without threatening the horse. When the young horse lunges well, both on a single tape controlled from the middle of a circle and from double tapes being driven from behind, he is ready for the next step of his education.

The horse should then be driven in a buggy or cart. There are several good books on how to teach a horse to pull and what proper equipment should be used while doing so. The importance of driving a horse from a buggy, or rather his pulling something, is enormous. As you have gathered by now, during each step of the horse’s training, attention is paid to both his physical and mental development. By driving a horse, he will be straightened. He will develop his muscles further, while developing strength and stamina. He will acquire rhythm, especially through periods of trotting. He will develop the trotting muscles. He will be able to perform transitions that are gymnastically important for muscle and joint development. The horse will become supple, especially through transitions. He will learn to accept the bit and the handling of aids that communicate to him through complex equipment. Mentally, the horse’s attention span will increase. He will be expected to keep his focus on small but meaningful communication signals. He must submit to his driver through trust. From the buggy, his handler can communicate to him, place demands on him, and intensify meaningful gymnastic exercises.

Driving is a great pleasure to the horseman and teaches him good hands and the use of the whip as an aid rather than an instrument of punishment. Being driven should be a joy to the horse. Pulling a light buggy or cart should be no strain; yet, the pleasure of traveling on straight stretches at a good clip, liberated from a tedious lungeing circle or the boredom of walking on two long tapes, should encourage his impulsion and zest.

From three to four years of age, the well-founded horse should move under saddle with his rider on his back for the majority of the training time. The horse can still be lunged to warm him up in order to supple and relax him before each session of riding. He can occasionally be driven from a buggy. At the age of three most of his training time is spent under saddle, and he becomes a riding horse. The foundation of his career as a sport horse functioning under a rider is now being laid. The horse should move in a generous frame, free of hindrances and interferences from the rider. The rider should concentrate on harmonizing with his horse. This is not a simple task, for the young, saddled horse will lose his balance often. He will be uneven and insufficient in his gaits. He will rush. He will “fall through” turns. He may be stiff in his joints, reluctant to use his muscles, tire easily, and resist. These are all the expected symptoms of the shortcomings that are due to lack of physical fitness. To help the horse, the rider must sympathetically follow the shifting center of gravity of the young horse with his own center of gravity, in order to harmonize. The rider should plan to ride his horse over open country as much as possible. Freedom, both from the rider’s restrictions and from confinement in a small arena, is essential. Under the foreign weight of his rider, the horse will be gymnasticized and find his balance best by moving over irregular terrain, by climbing, sliding, and taking small leaps.

About two or three times a week, the horse should be gymnasticized in an arena. These sessions should include cavalletti work. (Good books on cavalletti work are available for you to consult.) The arena work should be more demanding mentally, but less demanding physically than the cross-country work.
This year in the horse’s training is critical for his future career. It is during this time the horse learns all the basic aids. His rider must teach him the meaning of these aids. Therefore, being overdemanding is a mistake. The literature that is concerned with how to train young and green horses is vast and should be consulted.

From four to six years of age, the horse should be “generalized.” His education should be that of a combined-training horse’s training. He should be dressaged, moved over open country, and jumped in an arena. Horses should not jump higher than four feet before they reach four years of age, for their joints can be overtaxed and permanently damaged. The time has come for working the horse more intensely.

Competition may be pursued during these two years. The horse should learn all about the competition environment, including the mental state of his rider. All competition environments alter the behavior of both rider and horse.

At age six and beyond, the horse has reached full maturity. He should be appropriately specialized. In order to pursue greater demands in performance, time spent with the horse must be focused on particular tasks. The horse will either be more suitable for dressage or jumping or for continuation of combined training. One of these areas of specialization should be selected and pursued with the appropriate training.
The great competition athlete is a horse that is raised through motion and exercise. In a species that survived by flight, the “survival of the fittest” will favor those individuals who grew up moving.

The following illustration can aid visually our understanding that the harmonious seat results from balance, relaxation, and appropriate flexion. Certain parts of the body should be relaxed while others must be flexed!

Note in the illustration that, in my opinion, harmony through the seat is not only a by-product of balance, relaxation, and flexion, but also is synonymous with controlling the horse’s actions.

A balanced seat is the “vertical seat,” which appears to be “leaning behind the vertical” because the nape of the neck and the shoulder blades should remain behind the seat bones. The term “vertical” implies a vertical spinal position. The neck of the rider as well as his tailbone are both part of the spine. In order to produce a weight vector perpendicular to the ground, the line from the shoulder joints to the tailbone, rather than the line descending from the shoulder joints to the crotch, should be vertical. The weight of the torso acting perpendicularly downward should be able to propel the pelvic structure horizontally forward in front of the spine. The rider progressing horizontally harmoniously results from his utilization of his weight’s vertical gravitational pressure transformed through the lumbar back into a horizontally forward thrusting pelvis.

An incorrectly sitting rider with an arched back hollows and tenses the lumbar area and pushes the buttocks out behind the movement, which will cause his own abdomen to undulate and rock forward and back, acting as a shock absorber. In such a case, the rider’s weight and driving force will fall toward the crotch and cannot enter the saddle to influence the horse. The sense of direction in the seat will come from feeling that the weight of the shoulders back and down arrives in the saddle at the back of the seat, pressing the seat bones forward and downward toward the withers in the direction of the horse’s movement.

In order to increase the tempo of the trot, the rider increases the drive with the legs, also increasing the pressure of his seat by rounding the small of the back, while contacting a steady, even rein, which yields as the horse’s stride lengthens. Driving by the legs should be done with simultaneous pressure of both legs.

To increase the driving potency of the seat, the rider can increase the seat pressure by isometrically firming his abdominal muscles. Meanwhile, the lumbar back must continue to accommodate generously the ever-lengthening swing of the horse’s back, which is caused by the lengthening strides.

The aids must be firm but calm and should be repeated until the horse steps with his hind legs forward, under his center of gravity with full power. It is crucial to keep a metronomically even two-beat rhythm. Should any violation of the clarity of the two-beat occur, the horse must be slowed to a shorter trot that is comfortable enough for him to recover his balance and rhythm.

The desire and willingness of the horse to go forward can be built best on long, straight lines, which if lacking in an outdoor space, can best be found on the diagonal of an arena. However, as the horse becomes willing to perform this powerful movement, extensions should be ridden on shorter, straight stretches. The horse, which is not yet able to carry himself and his rider naturally in the extended trot, may find the shorter periods of extensions easier at first.

As the horse increases his tempo by stretching into ex tensions, he will freely swing his legs from his hips and shoulders. At the beginning, this movement might result in the lowering of the neck and head position. It is not considered a fault and should not be corrected by tightening or disturbing the rein. As the horse matures in this movement, he should become capable of longer overstriding with his hind legs, increased engagement of his joints and muscles, and improved balance. With maturity of skills and increasing strength, the head and neck position will automatically come into its ideal place. A horse moving with impulsion and in balance will inevitably present the correct neck and head position. The motion should remain harmonious with unity in the timing of the diagonal pairs of legs touching the ground with precise synchronization.

Riding must first be understood, then it can be practiced correctly. That is, there is no successful riding without academic knowledge of its goals and the various means of attaining them. It is not the quantity, but the quality, of daily work that produces success. Good riding strategies are based on scholarly knowledge of the physique and nature of the horse, the correct, tried, and proven ways of getting the best results from him, and reasonable, well-planned goals.

Riding goals fall into three basic categories:

1. Long-term goals are the most general. In essence, they include the aspirations of developing the horse’s natural abilities to their ultimate extent and of specializing him in the areas that give us pleasure, that is, in cross-country, jumping, or dressage, after a proper foundation in the rudiments of all three.

2. Intermediate goals are often guided by competition goals and are designed to meet deadlines. Various exercises will be evaluated on show dates. These goals give us time limits and serve as motivation for achievement within certain time periods.

3. Daily goals address the major gymnastic needs by regular repetition of tasks, which develop the desired results. While these should be knowledgeably planned, the rider must remain flexible enough to be able to adjust these goals according to the very needs of each moment of each schooling session. This implies quickness in responding to the needs of the horse and inventiveness in responding to his needs appropriately.

Artists and human athletes work in a similar manner, and in their activities, we can find parallels with riding goals. A painter will have an overall goal of depicting certain things on canvas. He may paint for commissioning patrons or for exhibitions that press him with deadlines. But as daily work continues, he finds himself constantly adjusting to the needs of each particular canvas and subject matter. When he begins, he has a general idea of what to paint and how to do it. Yet, as he goes along, he alters his composition, color scheme, and texture in order to eventually achieve the desired results. Discovery of the correct means may happen along the way.

Riders are often victims of our cultural dictates. These include our notion that any change is progress. Some of us believe that true progress can best be depicted on a graphic line that proceeds onward and upward.

Preoccupation with change is contrary to sound riding goals. Not all that is new is progress. That notion may serve the purposes of technological innovation and commerce. However, adding new movements and figures just to keep busy in daily work may result in a stiff horse with a false superstructure. Hurrying training, making shortcuts, introducing artificial aids, may all be technologically ambitious. But riding is not a technology and the horse is not a machine. Efficiency, speed in traveling and in solving problems, may be highly valued in our age. But none of these values is applicable to horsemanship. Should a rider be misled by popular values, the long-term, general goal of producing a supple horse that performs according to his natural abilities will have been lost.

True progress will take place only when something better replaces the status quo, that is, when there is athletic improvement rather than just change taking place in the horse. Therefore, I suggest we consider an Eastern (instead of our technologically minded Western) view of progress. The Eastern view of progression (particularly Hindu) can be depicted as a stretched-out soft coil of spring, viewed in profile as consecutive circles that loop through one another.

With this image in mind, we can visualize riding strategies that involve constantly revisiting the places where the rider and his horse have been before. When schooling goes wrong, the rider should take the horse back to simpler tasks he can perform gymnastically correctly and continue development of new efforts only after his natural gaits and proper posture have been regained. Most important in classical training is that we maintain the natural beauty of the horse and improve only on his natural tendencies. We must accomplish that only by kind methods and in the horse’s own time. He is, after all, a living creature who has earned our love and respect over centuries of loyal service.

As the rider pursues the classical teachings of riding, he must have the patience and humility to change plans when the horse indicates that he cannot cope with an excessive rate of schooling. When we change schooling plans, we keep in mind that the horse begs for simplification, not complexity.

In daily work, the rider must keep in mind that we should be first and foremost a listening device, and when the horse signals stress, we simplify tasks by revisiting the simpler known ways, by pursuing the familiar, and by reviewing the foundations. Repetition reinforces learning and habituates development. This training method will yield true progress!

While observing the workings of nature, which we are a part of, biologists discovered a long time ago that the development of the individual microscopically repeats the development of the species. The human embryo and fetus pass through developmental stages that recapitulate in brief the evolutionary development of the human species from the one-celled organism through aquatic, amphibian, and terrestrial creatures to the shape and complexity of a human adult.

In riding, daily work on any level must consist of a recapitulation of the total progress we hope to have achieved with the horse to date. Therefore, regardless of his current gymnastic accomplishments, the horse will have to be started each day at the most basic level of achievement, starting with relaxation, and briefly progressed through a review of the more sophisticated achievements, such as balance, rhythm, elasticity, suppleness, impulsion, collection, engagement, and cadence. Repetition of the developmental phases in daily work will produce a cumulative effect on the horse’s athletic development by accelerating it. Progress is made from embryonic beginnings to fully sophisticated accomplishments. Each developmental concept, such as relaxation or cadence, has a minimal, feeble beginning that, with knowledgeable care, develops progressively in time to its full sophistication.