The horses spinal alignment
Riding your horse in proper alignment.
Here is the picture showing correct (right) and incorrect (left) balance and alignment in the horse’s skeleton.
( Note: the image is from the wonderful book ”Collection or Contortions?” by Dr Gerd Heuschmann)
The horse on the right side is in balance- see the nice and even blue line, tracing the spine.
This means that the rider has an easy smooth ride and can balance, centred, over the top of the horse, as well as align himself with the curve.
The horse on the left side is out of balance, with areas of crookedness circled in red.
The rider then feels the need to shorten the inside left rein, to compensate for the loss of balance in the horse
This doesn’t help, as the horse usually becomes more out of balance, slipping over the outside shoulder more, as well as the saddle sliding out to the right.
Better aids for this issue are ;
The rider needs to block/ align the outside shoulder and support the horse to be more upright, through the use of the outside upper leg/ knee.
And, lift the inside rib cage through the lower leg /calf into a soft seat and hip.
Easy! ?
Hopefully the picture helps with your understanding of what happens underneath the saddle that affects the horses skeleton.
Incorrect alignment of a the horses back on the left- and correct alignment and balance on the right.