Seminar Review
By Coralie Smyth
The structure of this weekend was innovative, and consisted of an “Equitana style” seminar on Saturday (a dismounted talk using riders as guinea-pigs on their horses and then with demonstrations on the Equisimulator), followed by one-on-one lessons on Sunday (using horses with specific schooling problems, with Heather on the microphone explaining to the audience what she was doing).
Heather’s system is about lightness for the horse, and this was the underlying theme of the seminar. She concentrates on balance and core stability, synchronising the horse/rider movement and using the aids in harmony with the horse.
Balance and core stability
On Saturday, the first rider (an eventer) warmed up her lovely grey horse and then was asked to ride sitting trot. Although she was constantly in touch with the saddle, she had a loose mid-section which immediately attracted Heather’s attention.
Heather explained about
the importance of core stability in the sitting trot and how it affects
the rider’s balance, and pointed out how this also affected the
way the horse moves, saying that if the rider merely flexes the lower
back in and out, often collapsing the ribcage in the process, it does
indeed stop the seat from bouncing in the saddle, but leads to a very
wobbly middle section. This not only looks ugly, but also makes the rider
sit heavily on the horse’s back. It is also the greatest cause of ‘dancing’ hands,
because when the rider absorbs the movement with both halves
of the buttocks working in one piece, the hands go up and
down with it.
This is one of the many unconventional elements of Heather’s system — that in order to move with the horse we should not use our seatbones simultaneously, but instead should lift and fall alternately.
To illustrate this, Heather asked for us to think of this simple equation — we have two halves to our seat and the horse has two halves to his back; put two and two together in sync, and it becomes one. In other words, as one side of the horse rises, so one of our seatbones should rise, not both.
In order to easily correct this wobbly mid-section, Heather put the rider on the Equisimulator. She demonstrated how to allow the seatbones to rise and fall in harmony with the two sides of the horse’s back, so that the rider would be moving in a way that totally mirrored the back of the horse. The machine was started at the walk, her hand still guiding the rider’s back and pelvis, and gradually brought the tempo up to a trot, with the rider still absorbing the movement with ease, while her mid-section was still. We could all see the difference, and when the rider re-mounted, she was clearly more stabl.e in her mid-section and her horse appeared to be rounder and softer.
the driving seat
Heather maintains that one of the most common things to impede the free, forward movement of the horse is the rider driving with the seat. This was apparent on the Equisimulator — if the rider pushed with both seatbones, the machine just didn’t work. She referred to riders who are often seen on 'lazy' horses, trying to urge the horse forwards by pushing their pelvis forward strongly, rather like a child operating a swing. “ This actually has the opposite effect on nearly every horse, stopping the movement from being able to happen. The horse's back works in two halves, and so should the rider's seat.”
Her theory is that by pushing both seatbones forward and
back, the rider depresses one side of the horse's back
as it rises and blocks the travel forward of the hindleg
on that side. This causes the
horse to get slower and slower, and in the case of sensitive
trained horses, will stop them dead in their tracks.
The usual response from the rider is to think that the horse is being lazy and therefore give them a kick and a wallop or two with the whip to get going again, whereas in fact the poor horse is trying to tell them 'I can't move , you are stopping me!' — and the horse gets another kick as his reward.”
strong abdominals
During the whole of the the two days, Heather often stressed the importance of strong abdominal muscles for good riding, and also for lightness on the horse’s back. She said that most sports require a very high degree of tone in that region and in riding it is essential to have the upper body control, that leads to better control over everything else. Sit-ups, fitball exercises and also Pilates were recommended.
After the lunch break (where many of the audience had a chance to ride the Equisimulator) the next rider was another who also needed more core stability in sitting trot, not because of a wobbling mid-section, but because of a collapsing midriff. This time Heather introduced a back support belt — but she put it on back to front (i.e. with the wide section of the belt on her front) to make the rider aware of what was happening with her mid-section. Heather also uses the back support on a rider's side if they collapse their hip. It doesn't stop them doing it, but it does make them aware they are doing it, so they can correct it.
Synchronisation
One of Heather’s major concerns is the rider’s lack of balance in rising trot. This is one of the major reasons for creating her own saddle design, with the stirrup bars set back so that the stirrups hung down directly under the rider’s seat, instead of to the front, causing the rider to adopt a chair seat. Using a volunteer on the Equisimulator, mounted with this innovative saddle, she used her hands to guide the rider’s back and pelvis, so that instead of rising up and down, locking the knee and coming back down with a double bump, the pelvis made an arc, in a forward and back manner. In this way, it was the horse’s movement which propelled the hips forward again without effort on the part of the rider, and her seat returned to the saddle like a feather.
"The whole point of rising trot is to free the horse’s back of weight. If the rider is trying to maintain too upright a body position, or is allowing the lower leg to slip forward, this will push the seat to the cantle, depressing the very area that we are trying to encourage to lift and round, and often slowing the movement of the horse who is impeded by the rider’s weight landing heavily on this sensitive area.”
With all riders Heather took great care to emphasise how important it is to be still in the saddle, and to be light on the horse’s back. This was especially obvious when riders were doing sitting trot. “If the rider moves more than the horse does they will lose balance and rhythm — the rider must have strong abdominal muscles in order to achieve this. Pilates, fit-ball work, sit-ups will all help to keep the ribcage from collapsing down onto the pelvis.
biomechanics made easy
It was nice to hear a precise description of the rider’s biomechanics at the canter — many in the audience commented on this as they did the pelvic movements in their chairs. At times it was like a seated Mexican Wave, much to Heather’s amusement. She explained that in canter, the rider’s back flexes in and straightens in much the same way as sitting trot, but in the one/two/three rhythm of the canter. The shoulders should not sway back and forth during this movement, but must stay directly above the hips.
The seatbones, which are shaped like rockers, rock onto their front edges and then back to the lowest part of the seatbones. The movement must never go beyond the point where the rider tilts onto the back of the seatbones. This will cause the waist to collapse, and the weight to drop heavily onto the cantle, depressing the horse’s back and making him hollow. The feeling is one of ‘sucking’ the horse’s back up, lightening the seat but without drawing the buttocks off the saddle, allowing the back to come up into the seat, and increasing, not flattening, the jump in the canter stride.
Heather said that when training horses it is important to have the walk-trot and halt-trot transitions working very well before asking for the halt-canter transition. Sometimes she will wait for as long as a year before asking for this, but then it comes easily. She said that if the horse is pushed into canter as a result of the trot speeding up, he will go on the forehand, and this will become something that later on will have to be corrected.
As Heather worked with a rider who was having a little difficulty with shoulder-in she encouraged the rider to use their leg when the horse’s belly was swinging away, causing the hindleg to step under further, thereby increasing the length of stride, and enabling the back to swing. We could see quite a marked difference in the movement when this was done.
Invisible Aids
It was gratifying to see Heather riding, and riding absolutely in the way she teaches. She rode a green horse who previously was continually resisting the rider’s aids, and at all times was still, and in a perfect position. This horse became much softer and rounder within minutes under Heather’s guidance.
We were able to hear her running commentary while she worked
with this horse, first saying that the aids of the weight
and seat are the secret of truly invisible communication,
and that when a rider is
always moving all over the place, the horse would become
deadened to the sensitivity of the weight aids.
When asking the horse to turn, Heather said that twisting the rider’s shoulders to the inside is not an effective aid and could often create problems. Turning the horse was achieved by advancing the inside hip and squeezing with the calf of the inside leg.
Another constant theme of the seminar was the use of the rider’s hands. Heather showed how the horse could feel even the tiniest movement of the reins through the fingers on the end of the rein, even though there is no tension, just the weight of the reins alone.
“ It is this variation of tension that creates contact. If the horse pulls against me, then I will close my fingers with equal tension, but never using my hand to pull back. Neither do I close the fingers of both hands at the same time. Instantly the horse yields his jaw, I open my fingers and yield the tension on the reins in reward, but at the same time, close my legs a little more to keep the hindlegs stepping under and the back coming up. If the horse tries to raise his head again, the process is repeated, until, often in a very short space of time, the penny drops, and the horse will stay soft and relaxed in his jaw, on a very light contact, freeing the rest of his body from the tension that prevents him working through.”
a question of bits
In answer to a question about her thoughts on bits, Heather said that the bit is the key to achieving relaxation of the horse’s jaw. This is essential, because if there is stiffness and resistance there, it will set off a whole chain of tension throughout the rest of the horse. When the horse relaxes his lower jaw, his head will go down of its own accord, freeing the back to round up, and enabling the hindlegs to step further under the body.
The feedback on this seminar was uniformly positive, with many people congratulating Northside Riding Club on the very professional organisation of the two days with Heather.
Coralie Smyth is an equestrian consultant based in Somersby