Aberdeen Park Dressage Coaching

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When Finding the Problem Becomes the Problem

There is a strange trend developing in horsemanship that I think deserves some careful consideration.

We have more information than ever before. We have access to research, biomechanics, veterinary knowledge, saddle fitting, dentistry, nutrition, behavior, neuroscience, anatomy, rehabilitation, and an endless vocabulary for describing what might be happening inside a horse’s body.

That should be a wonderful thing. But information is not the same thing as understanding.

And understanding the theory of something is not the same thing as being able to recognize it, feel it, influence it, and know whether what you are doing is actually helping.

I increasingly see riders become so committed to the idea that there is something wrong with their horse that every proposed solution simply uncovers another problem.

The horse is crooked, they are told. Then they discover that the crookedness is caused by asymmetry. Then the asymmetry is caused by compensation. Then the compensation is caused by an old injury. Then the injury has created a neurological pattern. Then the neurological pattern means the horse cannot safely be asked to do the exercise.

And suddenly, months or years have gone by and the horse is no further along.

There is always another explanation, another restriction. Anither professional to be called, and it always results in the horse backsliding and being unable to be ridden.

At some point, we have to ask a difficult question:

Are we actually helping the horse, or have we become attached to finding things wrong with the horse?

Having problems can happen, but problems are not the goal.

Horses absolutely have physical limitations. They can have pain, injury, poor conformation, asymmetry, weakness, inadequate strength, poor coordination, inappropriate equipment, dental problems, and countless other genuine issues.

Ignoring those things is not good horsemanship.

But recognizing a limitation should lead us toward a better question:

What can I do about it?

If the answer is always, “Nothing, because this horse has X,” then we aren’t really training anymore. We are diagnosing, and many people can become addicted to diagnosing as opposed to creating true soundness.

And diagnosis without a path forward can become a remarkably sophisticated form of helplessness.

A horse doesn’t need us to find every imperfection in his body. He needs us to help him function better within the body he actually has. The vocabulary can become a substitute for feel.

One of the problems with learning primarily through theory is that theory can give us the illusion that we understand something long before we actually do.

You can learn what “thoracic sling,” “compensation,” “rotation,” “lateral flexion,” “asymmetry,” or “proprioception” means. You can learn to recognize the words people use to describe movement. You can watch endless videos explaining biomechanics.

You can even become very good at explaining these concepts to other people. But none of that automatically teaches you how a horse feels underneath you. It doesn’t necessarily teach you when a horse is genuinely restricted versus simply inexperienced. It doesn’t teach you how to make a correction without creating three new problems.

And most importantly, it doesn’t teach you how to determine whether the thing you believe is happening is actually happening. That requires practical experience.

Knowledge should make us more discerning, not more afraid. It should give us more tools, not fewer.

The question I want riders to ask, instead of continually asking:

“What’s wrong with my horse?”

I would encourage riders to start asking:

“What is my horse capable of right now, and what can I do to help him become more capable?”

Dressage over poles upcoming dates:

Saturday 29/8 (Full)
Saturday 5/9 - 1.30 and 2.30 available.
Saturday 12/9 (Full)

Two riders per session, located in Wandin North.
Please pm to book, spots fill fast.
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DRESSAGE WITH POLES Saturday 8th August.

✅ 2 riders per session
✅ Relaxed casual environment
✅ Add variety to your training
✅ Improve balance, accuracy and strength.

Located Wandin North.

PM to book. 🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴

The area behind the saddle tells you so much about the horse’s body.

One area I think is really important to learn to look at is the section from the back of the saddle through to the croup.

It’s an area that can get overlooked, because often people are drawn to the more obvious things. The neck, the shoulders, the hind legs, whether the horse looks downhill, whether the horse is stepping under, whether the horse is moving freely. But that area behind the saddle gives us a huge amount of information about what is happening through the spine, how well the hind end is connecting to the front end, and how much ability the horse currently has to carry itself — and ultimately to carry the rider.

For me, this area is one of those places that tells you about the long-term picture. Not in a dramatic, doom-and-gloom way, and not because we can look at one photo and decide everything about a horse. But because the shape and function of that area gives us a really good clue as to whether the body is working as one connected system, or whether it is already living in a level of compensation.

A common thing we see is quite a steep slope down from the croup towards the back of the saddle. So instead of that area looking connected and supported, it drops away. It can almost look like a ski slope running down into the back of the saddle area.

When I see that, I am not just looking at the shape itself. I am thinking about what that shape suggests about the function underneath it.

Often, that kind of shape tells us that the spine is sitting more in extension. The pelvis is not really able to organise itself well underneath the body, the back is not functioning as a strong, adaptable bridge, and the horse is having to find another way to move and carry itself. Very often, that means the horse ends up dropping forwards and loading the front end more than it should.

That can show up in lots of different ways. Some horses feel heavy in the hand. Some feel downhill. Some push from behind, but without actually carrying. Some brace through the base of the neck. Some look like they are moving well because there is plenty of activity, but when you look more closely, the back is not really part of the conversation. The hind end is doing something, the front end is doing something, but the connection through the middle is not really there.

And this is where I think we have to be careful, because a horse can carry on like that for a long time.

They can still be ridden. They can still go out hacking. They can still do schooling sessions. They can still look relatively “normal” to a lot of people. But if the body is repeatedly working from that disconnected, extended, dropped pattern, then over time that has consequences.

The spine is not meant to be stuck in one position. It needs the ability to move between flexion and extension. It needs adaptability. The pelvis needs to be able to contribute to the movement. The back needs to be able to transmit force and support the rider. The abdominal system, thoracic sling, hindquarters, shoulders and neck all need to be part of the same functional system.

When that bridge through the body is not working, other areas have to take over.

That might mean the front end takes too much load. It might mean the neck braces to hold the body together. It might mean the hind end pushes without truly supporting. It might mean the back becomes tight, weak, sore, or restricted. Over time, that sort of function can leave the horse more vulnerable to issues through the spine, soft tissue, muscles, ligaments, hind end, front end, or neck.

So no, I am not saying that every horse with a slope behind the saddle has a specific problem.

But I am saying it is worth paying attention to.

Because that area is telling you something.

What I would like to see, ideally, is a more connected area from the croup to the back of the saddle. Not rigid. Not braced. Not artificially held. But supported. A back that looks like it has the potential to lift. A spine that looks like it has the ability to move. A pelvis that looks like it can be involved in the movement, rather than sitting behind the horse while the rest of the body carries on without it.

When that area is more connected, the horse has far more options. The hind end can contribute more effectively. The back can participate. The front end does not have to carry quite so much of the load. The neck does not have to become the place where everything is held together. The horse has a better chance of developing strength that is actually useful, rather than just adding more power on top of poor function.

And this is really the point.

We are not just trying to make horses do exercises.

We are trying to improve the way the body is functioning.

Because a horse can do all the “right” exercises and still do them in a form that reinforces the same compensations. But when the body begins to connect better, the same exercises can suddenly become much more valuable, because the horse is using them in a way that supports comfort, strength and long-term soundness.

So I think this area behind the saddle is something we should all get better at looking at.

Look at it when the horse is stood still. Look at it in the field. Look at it before you ride. Look at it during training. Look at how it changes over time. Is the area becoming more connected, more supported, more functional? Or is the horse staying in that same dropped, extended pattern?

Because the line from the croup to the back of the saddle tells you more than just what the back looks like.

It tells you about the health of the spine.

It tells you about the connection between the hind end and the front end.

It tells you how the horse is currently organising itself.

And it gives you a really valuable insight into how sustainable that body is likely to be if nothing changes.

Dressage with poles superstars! 🤩🐴🤩 Wow these two talented young riders Tia and Piper & their beautiful ponies were amazing today! 🙌 No combination too hard for these clever pilots. 👌🐴⭐️🩷

DRESSAGE WITH POLES …..A couple of spots available this coming Saturday 11/7. Located in Wandin North. Please pm to book.

Bookings for dressage over poles this coming Saturday 20/6. Please pm to book!
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Sometimes I think we've forgotten what a normal horse looks like.

Not a perfect horse.

A normal horse.

Because a horse can't (and shouldn't have to be!) be perfectly calm every day.

Sometimes they're fresh.

Sometimes they're spooky.

Sometimes they're grumpy.

Sometimes they're lazy.

Sometimes they're carrying a little more condition than we'd like at the end of spring.

Sometimes they're looking a little rough at the end of winter.

Sometimes they get a mud fever scab.

Sometimes they lose a bit of topline.

Sometimes they have a few bumps, scratches and imperfections.

Because they're horses. They're not robots or motorbikes, but living, breathing, thinking, feeling, sentient beings.

And yet increasingly, every little imperfection seems to need a diagnosis, a supplement, a treatment, a therapy, a protocol or a product.

A horse that's fresh needs a calming supplement.

A horse that's overweight needs a metabolic product.

A horse that's underworked but full of energy becomes a horse with a behavioural problem.

A horse that's shedding oddly needs a new supplement to help with coat health.

Now before anyone gets upset, I'm not saying genuine health issues don't exist.

Of course they do. Lots of them. Because horses.

Good horse ownership absolutely does mean paying attention. We should notice when things change. We should investigate things that don't seem right.

But we shouldn't constantly be searching for problems that may not actually exist.

Somewhere along the way, I think we've started losing sight of what normal actually looks like.

We've become so accustomed to advertisements, before-and-after photos, miracle transformations and perfect looking horses, behaving perfectly on social media that we've started treating normal horse behaviours and normal horse fluctuations as though they're defects.

Horses just cannot exist in a perfectly managed, perfectly balanced, perfectly predictable state every day of the year.

Horses are alive and breathing, just like us.

Some days we wake up feeling fantastic.

Some days we're tired because we slept badly.

Some days we're stressed.

Some days we're hormonal.

Some days we eat too much.

Some days we eat too little.

Some days we're full of beans.

Some days we'd happily spend the entire day on the couch.

None of us look, feel or perform exactly the same every day of the year.

Why would we expect our horses to?

They're living creatures that respond to seasons, weather, workload, age, hormones, pasture conditions, social dynamics and a thousand other variables.

That's life.

The irony is that in our quest to optimise every little thing, we create stress where none previously existed.

We start chasing tiny imperfections that aren't actually problems. We spend money solving things that never needed solving.

We've become convinced that every quirk has a cause and every cause needs a solution.

Sometimes there is an issue. But sometimes the horse is simply being a horse.

And sometimes the thing that needs adjusting isn't the horse. It's our expectations.