Are you balanced?

Are you Balanced?

Are you balanced with your horse? Now, you’re probably already thinking I’m referring to your balance in the saddle so you don’t fall off, right, ….. wrong! I’m gonna leave this to your riding instructor.

So now your may be thinking balance in diet, …. wrong again!

I’m going to discuss two other types of “balance” that I believe are critical to your horse’s health both physically and mentally.

Muscle Balance

First, let’s talk about balancing your horse physically. To move in varying directions (including backing) the horse uses different sets of muscles. Example: If you only move your horse in left turns, (left leads), the horse is using specific muscles to accomplish this. If you only turn right using the right lead, different muscle sets are now being strengthen. If you don’t use and strengthening both sets of muscles equally, this can lead to muscle atrophy on the less-used side. Un-balanced muscles may lead to skeletal issues, then, it’s chiropractor time!

My rule of thumb, If I lope five circles on the left lead, I lope five circles on the right lead. If I leg yield or “two-track” five strides to left, I balance this by conducting the same movement five strides to the right. English riders are good at paying even finer attention to this type of balance by using correct “diagonals”.

Mental Balance

Pay particular attention to mental balance. You must balance uncomfortable impressions or events with comfortable or “good” impressions or events.

Your horse will learn to resent you and never be comfortable with you if you only apply pressure achieve something and never release that pressure. If you only reprimand your horse when they behave undesirably and never reward your horse for doing something correctly, it probably won’t be long before the horse will learn to resent you.

If every time you go to the pasture to retrieve your horse you only drag him in, saddle up and work, it may not be long before he decides he doesn’t really want to be with you (i.e. hard to catch). However, if you balance your time spent with your horse with more pleasant activities like grooming, feeding (while he’s with you) and just plain hanging out, this will make a difference!

I often walk into our pasture and spend time just hanging out with our herd and petting them as they walk up instead of bringing them in for work every time…. Balance!!!