POINT OF VIEW
I said, ‘Oh! He stretches the upper muscle system and the neck.’ At the end we recognized that we were both right. When the horse relaxes the muscles and starts chewing, his mind gets ‘to the ground.’ This is why we should talk more with horsemen from different disciplines.”
UNIQUE PRESENTATION Dr. Heuschmann literally painted the skeleton, tendons, ligaments and muscles on a horse at the clinic I attend- ed and then explained in detail how they work and how easily they can be damaged. The demo horse was then shown at the walk, the trot and the canter. No matter what discipline the attendees/riders are in-
terested in, his bioMechanics lecture applies to them, be- cause it is all about the horse. Everyone wants a balanced, happy horse: jumpers, reiners, trail riders, and of course, dressage riders. According to Dr. Heuschmann, many of today’s injuries like suspensory problems are completely man-made, and can be avoided by correct, classical training and riding.
Here he has painted the skeleton, tendons, ligaments and muscles on a horse at the clinic.
BENEFITS TO HORSES AND RIDERS At this clinic, one of the participants was a beautiful chestnut Warmblood gelding who was very nervous and anxious. In fact, he ran backwards and put a hole into the arena rail while he was being lunged to get him ready for
A Glimpse Inside
THE NEW BOOK: COLLECTION OR CONTORTION? The horse’s neck, Dr. Heuschmann says, should never be bent more than the trunk (body) of the horse. Below we see an in- correctly bent horse (left), com- pared with one that is bending properly
(right). In the first example, the vertebral column kinks to the inside in front of the shoulder, giving the illusion of a cor- rect bend. Why is the neck so important? “If a horse has an unstable,
loose, or wobbly neck, in front of the withers, he cannot be ridden in the proper balance, nor can he bend, straighten, or collect. Only a neck that grows with stability out of the shoulder, and is stabilized by the muscles in front of the shoulder can contribute to the correct bend of the trunk. As seen is these illustrations, the incorrectly bent horse has an unstable neck. The second Illustration shows a
48 July/August 2017
correctly bent horse, with the neck properly supported and stabilized by the muscles in front of each shoulder,” he explains in his new book.
“Flexion at the poll is an ab-
solute prerequisite for develop- ing correct bend of the trunk,” he continues. “Without flexion, there is no bend!” The book fur- ther explains that the effect of the rider’s inside leg, which en- courages the horse’s hind leg (on the same side) to step under, is what ultimately creates the flex- ibility of the poll in the same direction (bend of the poll and flexion at the poll).
BALANCING ACT In Balancing Act, published in 2011, Dr. Heuschmann explores
a multitude of topics with one overarching message: “A training philosophy that diametrically opposes one of two partners can never lead to harmony. Imagine a dance pair where the leader wants to force harmony and suppleness using muscular strength against his partner and, when nec- essary, devices to force an unnatural position.”
Illustration above by Susanne Retsch-Amschler from Collection or Contortion? courtesy of Trafalgar Square Books
Andrea Haller
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