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| Collection and Headset […in the Tennessee Walking Horse] Walking horse owners often hear the advice to "set his head and collect ‘im up!" and far too many of us are willing to try it. After all, isn’t that what the "walking horse bit" was designed to do? But what is collection, and do I really need it with my walking horse? What does headset actually do for him and why? Pardon me for giving you my take on this "sage bit of wisdom" but I believe headset and collection of the walking horse has become so overwhelming popular as a tool to break up a lateral two-beat pace into a not-quite-so-lateral four beat stepping pace, in both pleasure and show horses. The perpetrators of this mostly mechanical manipulation use it to encourage a racky lift and fold in the front feet, increasing the arc of those feet, slowing their placement and allowing the back feet to impact first. This breaks up the pace creating a smooth but racky, stepping pace; adding to that is the snappy fold and lift is flashier for the show ring. Wow, a two-fer! But is it really collection? I’ve often wondered if they just don’t know any better, or are attempting to somehow legitimize their riding technique by calling it that, but nothing could actually be further from the truth. Collection is either true or false; and if true collection, I then considered it on a scale from "light" to "high" collection. True collection is not a product of pulling in the headset, or "framing" up a horse. Collection comes from self-carriage; a gathering of the horse’s body from the hocks, through the croup, spine and neck, all the way to the nose. He must pull himself in or gather himself to offer the rider balanced impulsion for forward movement. It’s something that is given by the horse when "asked" for, not forced or held in by the rider. The neck should be gracefully arched from the wither all the way through the poll in a continuous line. I illustrate what collection is by using the analogy of a little league baseball player. The first time a child gets up to bat, his coach must help him position his body to make a proper swing at the ball. As he gains experience, the batter learns not to simply stand there on flat feet, holding up the bat. He learns to flex at the knees, roll up on the balls of his feet, shifts his weight back and leans his upper torso forward in anticipation. He "gathers" himself to add power, smoothness, quickness and grace to his forward swing. This is similar to what your horse should do when collecting himself, as he prepares to engage in forward propulsion with energy. A little league coach can position the batter’s body all day, and still get a flatfooted posture and a lifeless swing without much power. Something similar to this happens when a horse travels while held into false collection with a hollow spine. His feet getting strung out, and he not only has difficulty in maintaining a four-beat gait, but sacrifices balance and impulsion as well. Usually the rider believes he is collecting the horse by pulling his nose into "headset". Frequently we see riders forcing headset using serious leverage from curb action bits in an effort to frame the horse. They’ve been told that’s how you ride a walking horse, but unfortunately they are just cramming him into the bit. What far too many don’t realize is that pulling the head up in this manor can actually cause the spine to hollow out, which in turn encourages that two-beat off-gait (the pace) from the horse. It becomes a catch-22 with the rider cramming the horse more and more until finally the horse begins moving his front feet in that racking manor, creating a stepping pace and the rider becomes satisfied with a smoother ride. It becomes a complete picture for those that recognize the story it tells: weak, flat neckline just in front of the withers; over-flexed muscles at the poll with bulging resistance muscles along the front of the neck with the head held overly high for the conformation. The infamous "U" neck that in reality indicates that a horse is locked from jaw throughout their shoulders. These horses are trying vainly to find relief from the severe curb action by trying to hold their mouth behind the bit. When what we really should want and look for is a horse’s neck showing a nicely engaged arch from the withers to the nose indicating good self-carriage and allowing a natural rolling motion in the shoulders. Then there is the concern of how much ‘true’ collection do we want and need in a walking horse? Horses can and do move around all the time in a four-beat walk with absolutely no collection. So the first thing you need to understand is that collection isn’t necessary for a flatfoot walk or the running walk; both can be executed adequately with a balanced carriage. Too much collection or "high" collection will probably push your horse into a nice jog trot. High collection occurs with significant "rounding up" in the spine, and the pulling under of the back feet, croup and neck. It's what the dressage horses are drilled for. But most of us don’t want our walking horses moving in a jog trot; we want more forward and not quite as much "up" movement. I should note here that high collection is actually a good thing for a horse moving in a two-beat trot which creates impact. The engagement and collection of the rounded top line provides greater support for the rider’s weight, front to back and helps prevent orthopedic stresses from developing over time. But because our gaited horses should be traveling in a level and smooth manor without significant impact on the skeletal structure, the possibility of this decreases along with the benefit and necessity of collection. So what do we ask our walking horses for? I like to use the term "light collection", particularly for horses being ridden in an English or Saddleseat discipline; but only after they have learned a good flatfoot walk with no collection. Light collection can add balance, grace and animation to the horse’s carriage producing a more elegant stride, executed with more impulsion. It can help the horse maintain backend engagement as the speed of the walking gait is increased, keeping the front light. Again, it must be given by the horse and not forced by the rider. The horse needs to learn to carry the walking gait first to develop the muscles needed. He can then be asked to add light collection and engagement while maintaining the correct isochronal gait. The horse should keep a neutral spine, neither hollowed nor overly rounded, to preserve the correct gaiting form, but may be encouraged to tuck the croup engaging the backend, as well as arch the neck in a graceful and continuous line. This neck carriage will engage those muscles directly in front of the withers for proper lift and development as the headnod works from the rolling and reaching shoulders. But this is as much true collection as I recommend for a walking horse. To go past this would invariably start encouraging an upward lift, since high collection is all about "up". Horses working in a western discipline with lower head and on loose rein should not require any collection other than a brief half-halt to gather in preparation to execute more complex reining maneuvers. Again, it’s the horse doing the gathering, not the rider. What I want to stress is that trying to force false collection through a headset is the absolute last thing to do to cure the pace in a horse. False collection creates many more problems than it solves, never mind the fact that the horse is off-gaited, stiff and usually heavy on the fore. I recently had a mare brought to me for gait correction, that carried herself in just such a manor, and realized upon watching the owner ride her that he needed to learn as much as the mare. His hands were held high with an eight inch curb bit pulling the mare’s head even with his chest, and she was traveling with a very short-strided and choppy pace, clearly as uncomfortable as the rider. The first thing I did was put a snaffle bit on this mare and ask her to lower her head so the poll became level with the withers and round her neckline. From this posture she can more easily learn to find and keep her spine neutral. At that point I could feel the tension drain from her frame and could feel, and hear, her stride go to even timing as well as see the headnod start to develop. Within a couple of sessions she softened her entire neckline and started to engage the bit; and with that her stride went from a choppy pace to a nicely loose and correct flatfoot walk with 24 inches of overstride. It will take this mare many months to develop the muscles needed for this gait to become automatic and consistent. It will be up to the owner to resist his desire to pull the head high and push for speed; to not cram her into the bit. She will eventually be able to lift her head up higher as her muscles develop and the stride becomes cemented into her muscle memory. True, light collection can be a good thing in a walking horse when it’s given by the horse. I hope I‘ve illustrated that the false collection of the "U" neck is a flag for incorrect gait, poor balance and uncomfortable posture; that we should look for correct carriage and muscle definition in our walking horses. The old "collect ‘em up" attitude using the infamous walking horse bit has done quite a disservice to the breed and riders as a whole. We need to move this bit of "sage old wisdom" into the myth category.***I also want to encourage you to stop in and read THE BEST ARTICLE out there on TRUE COLLECTION written by Dr. Deb Bennett. http://www.equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/true_collection.html Well worth the time, and has wonderful photographs and graphic illustrations.
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