As a kid, as a human, as a student slumped over my desk, and as a dressage rider, I was constantly reminded to correct my posture and sit/stand taller and straighter. I always thought this was for vanity, but the more I learn, feel and improve on my own riding and strength, the more I recognise how important this concept is; for my own and my horse’s health, biomechanics, and performance.
Correct posture doesn’t just look better, it FEELS better, and more importantly it helps you to MOVE better.
Correct posture engages your core muscles which are majoratively slow-twitch fibres. These muscles are designed to work for a long time without fatiguing (Think glutes, abs, quads etc...). Conformation allowing, correct posture also means your joints, muscles and ligaments are all aligned correctly, and not compensating by being over-stretched in any way. This should reduce:
1. Risk of injury
2. Risk of excessive/abnormal degeneration (such as arthritis)
3. Joint and muscle pain and discomfort
...All crucial things to target!
In humans, it’s easy for the untrained eye to spot good and poor posture. Slouched shoulders for example are an easy giveaway… Horses are a little trickier. (check out the conformation blog for an idea of the “ideal” starting point: )
Because they stand on 4 legs, horses don’t slouch in the same way we do, and the huge variety of breeds and breed specific standards that exist can make it even trickier to determine what is or isn’t correct.
But there ARE equivalents of slouching and poor posture found in horses.
Here is a good example of a slightly “lordotic” back, and poor engagement of topline and abdominal core:
For context, Pokemon had been out of work for about 2 years at this point, and had been pretty unwell, so he deserves a lot of grace from judgment. For the sake of discussion, I think he would be happy to participate for us!
Conformationally, he has quite a long back and short pelvic region for his size (a bit similar to Horacio); this automatically predisposes him to a slightly lordotic posture, even when he was in work, as well as back pain and potentially hindlimb pathology.
The dip in his back, particularly behind the withers, but also the visible dip around his lumbo-sacral joint, the drop of his belly and the loss of muscle over the base of his neck indicate elements of poor posture and poor muscle engagement. Compared to the first picture, taken of Horacio who was in full work at the time, it is obvious how much more Pokemon leans over his shoulders. This is due partially to injury but largely to poor strength and posture.
It is important to remember that posture is not just a static thing; good and bad posture exists both standing and in movement. Consider a horse that stands with his hind legs tipped out behind him? Or the horse whose instinct is to travel everywhere on three tracks, with one hindlimb poking out to the side. Now, without getting bogged down in the potential causes of it, that indicates poor posture, and simply put, it’s not what we want. We want horses that are standing square over each leg, with their spine held “neutrally” aka not curved away like a pot belly pig, or too braced with their back high and head too low.
Horses moving on 3 tracks are inevitably overloading one limb, either by avoiding using some part of their body, or because they are being pulled out of balance (by themselves or a rider). That poor posture and overuse of a limb is increasing risk of injury there.
A huge part of Dressage training, as well as rehabilitation/strengthening efforts, is to correct poor posture. The reason for this? To condition and strengthen bodies to be more symmetrical, stronger, and hopefully have longer and better careers as a result, regardless of their job/discipline.
Feather, by comparison, is built a little bit bum high, and a little bit low in her neck. Unlike the boys, she is more prone to a slightly roach-back posture in her lumbar spine, known as “kyphosis”. For Feather, this posture predisposed her to overloading her front end. It was difficult to achieve relaxation and get her stronger over her lumbar back and hindquarters. Without that relaxation, this area was tense, and where there is tension there is incorrect and ineffective engagement of muscles. This in turn meant it was harder for her to take weight and use the full power of her hindlimbs effectively, and so her weight and energy would get tipped to her front end.
From the Physiotherapy side of things, I did a lot of work handwalking her up and down hills, I used NMES and H wave machines to help strengthen and tone her back, glutes and hindquarters without hammering her already overloaded front legs in training. Daily balance pads and balance exercises before I rode, a lot of hindlimb and forelimb mobilisations, and A LOT of baited stretches to maintain as much flexibility and comfort through her topline and neck, were all used to keep her body as comfortable and as strong as I could.
From the dressage side of things, teaching her to condense her movement in to a smaller space, where she could learn better control was what developed the controlled power and balance we needed for the Grand Prix movements. Relentless searching for the fine line between having her energy in front of my but not getting strong and downhill... Always an art of negotiation with Feather!
All 3 horses, despite being built quite differently, made it all the way up to schooling Grand Prix movements, and Feather even competed at Inter II. One of the many benefits of Dressage, is it gives us a chance to train horses regardless of their basic conformation, but to target a blueprint of posture that they should all be able to achieve.
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