I had a lovely, satisfying session coaching an adult novice rider on her big plank of a Quarter Horse. He was ever so obliging and lolloped around in walk, trot and canter, doing what he was told but always with his lower neck muscles (brachio- and sternocephalicus) slightly engaged and his nose slightly poked. This had the effect of hollowing his whole way of going, making it impossible for his slightly out-of-balance rider to sit effectively on his bounding paces and making both of them uncomfortable, particularly in canter. He usually tipped her back into trot about half a circle later, causing an out of balance rush.
The fix was just so simple, but so incredibly effective, that I really wished I'd taken some before and after footage! Before, particularly in canter, the horse was on the forehand, flat, unbalanced, rushing and motor-biking through turns. After... well!
First I taught the rider how to steer! She had a really ingrained habit of steering the horse like a bicycle, dropping the outside rein and overusing the inside hand, pulling it back towards her body. By teaching her to keep an even pressure on both reins, looking with her eyes and her chest in the direction she wanted to go, opening the inside rein and keeping the horse's neck straight (and at 90 degrees to the shoulders), the balance through turns improved already. It also left her contact steady to start to implement flexion.
The next step was teaching both horse and rider how to isolate the bending of the neck just into the poll, turning into what we usually term 'flexion'. There's seven vertebrae between the poll and the withers and the joints between them are all more flexible than the poll - it takes time and repetition to show the horse we want him to just ease his head left or right (until the rider can see, variously, the eye, the cheek piece of the bridle or the nostril... each horse will be different!) but while maintaining a straight neck from poll to withers. It's also important to watch for twisting so if the horse's ears aren't level with each other, you can lift up the hand on the side of the lower ear to even things up.
Soon, this dear old gelding was smoothly flexing left and right in the halt, with his crest muscle flipping back and forth over the nuchal ligament. He seemed to quite like this and gave several big sighs and yawns! Horse yoga! It's a fun way to tell if the poll is truly flexing. Sometimes if horses are a bit musclebound or tight in the neck it can take a while but this guy was pretty quick.
Into the walk and then trot, and JUST by keeping his neck straight and implementing inside flexion on a 20m circle, his whole way of going changed. Suddenly that propped, nose-poking posture was gone. His lower neck muscles were beautifully soft and wobbling, showing complete disengagement, and crest rose up in front of his withers. His abdominal muscle suddenly activated, showing as a marked muscle line, like you can see in very fit racehorses and eventers. It was great! But it was when we stepped into canter that it became MAGIC!
I had also coached this rider about how to lift instead of push with her seat at a canter and by employing a different seat action, maintaining inside flexion and a straight neck, the funny old horse was TRANSFORMED! His stride was suddenly like a little rubber ball, bouncing along! The rider could sit tight in the saddle extremely easily and he now looked like he was travelling uphill, not dragging himself along by the forelegs. SO SATISFYING! So simple! But not easy.
This rider was an absolute pleasure to teach, thoughtful, trusting, willing to listen and willing to give things a try. And the horse was a total gem, he really seemed to appreciate learning (or maybe relearning?) a different way to use his body.
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