I am not into stereotypes, but it is you that dressed him in those colour co-ordinated outfits!   Straightness means the horse’s body and footfalls following the line you are riding. When viewed from above, you would see three straight lines: one represented by the centre of the horse’s body, the other two evenly spaced either side of this line parallel to it, representing the horse’s foot falls (tracks).   Straightness is very important even from the beginning. While it is near the end of the Scales of Training the basic fundamentals should be worked on from the beginning.   If your horse is supple it can be straight. If it is not supple it can not be truly straight. A stiff horse is not a straight horse!
Straightness on a straight line is an easy concept until you start to ride down the long side of an arena. If you look at a dog trotting along you, you will normally see that they move with the hind quarters to one side. They may be going in a straight line from “A” to “B” but the dog is travelling on an angle. Your dog is one sided and not straight; sorry! It is similar with most horses.   The horse’s hind legs are set further apart than the front legs. If we are to ride the horse straight, the front legs must travel evenly spaced just inside of the track of the hind legs. The common thing to see is a rider riding very close to the edge on the arena. This means the shoulders and hips of the horse are up against the long side. Because the hind legs are wider apart from the front the horse has to travel with the quarters a little to the inside. We have just made our horse crooked. The easy thing to do is to ride a little off the long side; 30cm or so is plenty.   Once we start to ride the horse straight and slightly off the long side, we soon discover we need outside aids. Otherwise the horse falls back to the track with the shoulders. It is important not to ride the horse on this line by relying on the inside rein. This often results in the horse’s shoulders still on the long side and too much neck bend to the inside. I like to ride my horses with a little flexion, but flexion only to the inside while on the large arena track. This again checks my outside aids and maintains the horses focus on the inside of the arena.   Once the horse is straighter, the transitions become more effective. This helps with the beginning of collection and acceptance of the aids.

  copyright 2008 Dwight Pedlow                                     - Return to previous page -