High Head Carriage

[shoveltrash]

Marengo - a quick update:

my instructor & i were amazed today with Iverzon's progress on what we've been discussing here......he is now stretching *down* into the side reins 85-95% of the time on the lunge!  we've only been working him at this for one month :blush:

i mounted for a brief bit of walking under saddle, and he FINALLY (a first) offered a tiny *bit* of stretch/relaxation at walk!  his stride lengthened, his head lowered, and i REWARDED lavishly (= i got off & praised like HECK :lol: ).

so it DOES work!!!  coming from someone who's working on it *right now*
Trish

[Camacoona]

I'm not sure why I havn't come across this thread before?!?!  I hope you don't mind me commenting.

I use clicker training combined with classical ridden principles.  I started clicker training to give Ketchup focus in in-hand work for Piaffe and the starts of spanish walk.  I have recently transferred this to ridden work for a number of horses and it works a treat (well a click and a treat to be precise! :lol: )  Ketchup could get very short and tense in her neck especially in walk to canter transitions, but now with the aid of the clicker, no problem at all, it breaks the schooling up into managable chunks, and  I like it and Ketchup loves it :P , She is a greedy madam.  I always said she would walk through fire to get a few pony  nuts

Omar

[dakoda]

I too have a high-headed youngster, Friesian Sport Horse. The lunging with loose side reins or draw reins is great. Also long-lining was very useful once he started reaching down and out for the contact. Indy also gets really bored, so the lunging is awlays kept to about 20 minutes. But when under saddle don't be afraid to let the head up when their warming up and trying new things. They need it for balance and all of a sudden they need to balance you too. They may have found it lunging, but under saddle is a whole different story. My trainer lets Indy trot and canter with little contact. Some days his head starts off sky-high, but when Indy gets his balance, he looks for the contact himself. As he's only been worked for a couple of months, they don't spend a whole lot of time in contact.  Be very patient, if you don't rush it, it'll be there forever.
Rachelle

[Marengo]

Just to give you a bit of an update. Been working Crystal a little on the lunge with side reins and a Chambon and she's starting to get the idea. We went out for a little hack last night in the rope hackamore and she was much rounder and softer in walk. However, in trot she still brings up her head. BUT I was asking my husband about how she looked (he was out on his mountain bike with us) and he tells me she is flexing at the poll when she does this and that the tummy muscles are working, in other words, she's not as hollow as I imagined. What I think it is is that she is very short backed but long striding and she's using her head carriage to help her keep her forequarters out of the way. When I get a lower head carriage in trot, she tends to carry her quarters a little to the side.

All the same, this will still require work but I thought it was interesting that, at the moment anyway, she's requiring this high head carriage to raise her forehand.  

[dakoda]

On the weekend, my just turned 4 yr old Friesian Sport Horse, definately high-headed boy was in a Walter Zetll clinic. Walter insisted on moving the horse forward in light contact first before anything else, not crazy forward, just forward enough to find Indy's natural rhythm. During this, the riding command was to release, release and release, hard to do on a forward going young monster. The idea was to push him up from behind so that he looked for cantact on his own, and after just a couple of turns around the arena at walk and trot, Indy found his own balance, not forced, but perfectly on the bit, and all on his own. To immediately ask for contact at this point in his training would probably shut him down, instead he was allowed to have Schung (i think that's how it's spelled), or swing through his back. It was amazing to watch the transformation. And the swing lead to the balance or self-carriage and the looking for the contact. The canter will take a little longer as everyone knows it's hard to give up control and release, release release, when the horse is young, unbalanced and has the stride of an elephant    I'm some glad it's the leasee dealing with that, HA! I think I've decided I want him back as a push-button 12 yr old  :P