The ManeStream Quiz 1 – My Thoughts

Thanks to everyone who commented on the walk photos in the first ManeStream quiz! It is surely a challenge to look at a static photo of a horse or rider and mentally put the image into motion. Good practice for us all, and you all did a great job of explaining why you chose the one you did.

One of Junior's "before" pictures, showing his unproductive postural habit. When he bunches himself up on the forehand like this, there's no way to create forward motion.

I, of course, have both my own perspective and priorities and the benefit of some inside information. First, I’ll say this was a photo shoot from early on in Junior’s stay at dressage camp. And, in general, I was very pleased to see him looking relaxed, happy and generally loose in many of the photos from this group. The main challenge I was working on than was his tendency to drop way behind the bit, lifting his neck artificially at C-2/C-3, tucking his chin to his chest and generally wadding himself up in a little ball that couldn’t move forward at all.

This session was one in which I felt I was starting to achieve some consistency at inviting him to lift the base of his neck and back so his neck could start to telescope forward and he would eventually find my hand. That’s what I like best in Photo A, seeing that long neck coming out of nice, open shoulders and the soft knee lifting to reach forward. If you look closely, though, you can see in A that when he did stretch, he also started to lift that C-2/C-3 area very slightly.

Also, to my eye, the energy just looks like it is tipping forward, gathering in the hindquarter, coiling a bit at the loin, but then getting lost a bit across a slightly hollow back and dumping out the shoulder onto the ground right in front of his nose. There is some decent push from that inside hind, but it’s just not getting through all the way.

Photo B was my choice because it just looks like there is more horse in front of my leg, as Diana noted. His topline is lifted slightly better and he’s tracking up more. And his neck looks like a cohesive unit through which energy can flow freely, though I would have liked to see him stretching into the bit more. Still an open shoulder and nice softness to the knee that promises a nice long stride as Lisa noted and without any hint of hyperextension.

I see what Paula means by it looking like there is a bit of restriction in Photo B, but I see it as a tiny blocking of the front end to give the back end a chance to come under and remove some of the weight from the forehand. A very subtle half halt, created by a momentary slowing of the rhythm of the following seatbones and no hand at all, lest he return to his hedgehog habit.

Heels do look a bit jammed down, though (not on purpose, just in that moment) and looking down even that little bit has tipped my torso ever so slightly forward of optimum. Cause or effect of the slight hollowing in the lower back? Or just that moment in my using the full range-of-motion of my pelvis and my upper body counter-balancing? Could advocate for either side of that one pretty easily.

In Photo B, I see the energy clearly generating in the rear, coiling at the loin and running unimpeded all along the neck to shoot out his forehead right between the eyes. That gives us a much longer line to follow! And that level neck made me very, very happy indeed!

Isn’t this fun!? Hope you’ll play again next time!