Cadence Stables

Puts into perspective the dressage princesses (riders that is) around here that can not handle the littlest movement or noise during their dressage test (or for that matter when training at home).

The 2 most common mistakes riders make when trying to achieve Contact and Connection - Nope, it’s not what you think An independent hand is a delicate thing tha...t seems to escape the full understanding of many riders when trying to understand and implement Contact and Connection. Contact means that your hand is making contact with the bit - yep, you heard it right, it’s not enough to have contact with the reins. Your hand has to be able to feel a constant contact with the bit in the horse’s mouth in order for communication signals from your hand to travel instantly to the horse without a delay due to no contact, loose contact, choppy contact etc. Connection means that your contact is CONSTANT yet supple enough that the communication from the hand can travel through the bit to the hind leg of the horse and in return, the communication of the hind leg can travel through the top line and back to the riders hand. This never-ending circuit of motion and feel allows for small minute adjustment to be done by the rider to ensure that the horse is moving through optimally. This circuit can’t be achieved if your hands are dependent on your body. In other words, the balance of your core and seat have to be stabile first, otherwise it’s likely that you will use your hands to balance your body and you’ll do so by pulling on the reins. You need to be able to balance independently of the horse in seat and core, in order for your hands to become quiet. Why do my hands need to be quiet you ask? Because, if your hands are bouncing around, they won’t be able to maintain a steady contact in the mouth of the horse and the circuit will be broken. Failing to have the correct length of reins and riding with no contact or a loose contact (loose contact can be a short rein with slack in it) will also break the circuit. No contact is self-explanatory, it’s a no brainer. Loose contact however is tricky for most riders to understand. Often when asked to pick up a better contact, riders respond by shortening the reins. In most cases this doesn’t help the contact though, because the riders hand is still unable to maintain constant connection and is either choppy in an on/off kind of way or has no connection just on a short rein. Good contact and connection looks like this: The horse is in a frame with his head on the vertical or slightly above. There is a stretched rein without slack going between the bit and the rider’s hands. The feel and tension on the rein are light, flexible and constant. The hind leg steps forward into the rein, it is not stopped by the contact. The 2 most common mistakes riders make: #1 They think that they should have light hands so the horse can be light. Light hands is often misunderstood by riders who with good intentions don’t want to cause the horse discomfort by riding with ‘heavy contact. This shows up in the form of the rider who rides with open fingers and a loose grip on the reins. The horse will be out of frame, on the forehand and hollow. Even though the tension on the rein is very little, the horse will be resisting or leaning against it utilizing the under muscles of his body. If you are this kind of rider, you are doing your horse a disfavor. True lightness comes from improving the balance of the horse, one of the steps in this journey is good contact and connection. In the beginning a horse might be heavy on the rein due to being unbalanced. Your contact will therefore most likely match the weight of the horse and feel heavy for a while until the horse with the help of lifting half halts learns to lift his withers and shift the weight towards the rear. #2 They think if the horse feels light, it is light. Many riders think that their horses are light in the mouth when in actuality they are just evading contact by going above or behind the bit. This problem is first and foremost caused by riders who have inconsistent contact and connection. Horses like the stability of constant connection and of course they like it even better if that constant connection can be maintained with the lightest of tension whenever possible. The solution to this problem is to ensure that the horse is taught to ride in a frame. You can’t have contact or connection without the horse holding its head on the vertical line or slightly above. All bits only function when the nose is on the vertical - this is the definition of on the bit. If the nose is not on the vertical the horse is off the bit - compare it to either being on or off a bicycle. You can’t be both, it’s either or and it’s obvious that if you are off the bicycle you no longer have any control or influence over it. It’s the same thing with the horse. If your horse is off the bit you no longer have contact or connection. If the horse is above the bit, the horse is resisting your contact and leaning on it, building his under line. If your horse is behind the bit in a false frame, the horse is also resisting your contact through avoidance and probably still building his underline. Both are caused by incorrect contact and connection. Conclusion: Proper contact and connection means that the horse must be in a frame with his nose on a vertical line and a forward stepping hind leg. How much the contact weighs depends on the balance/education level of the horse. The rider’s hands must maintain a steady and constant connection for the horse to relax on a stretched (no slack) yet following rein. If you feel like this blog post helped you better understand contact and connection, I would love to hear from you and hear about your experiences with your horse. (PM me!) I personally, had many experiences of trainers being unable to explain to me what correct contact and connection is. Probably because they didn’t really know themselves. After many years of training myself, it’s now my mission to help riders understand words like contact and connection in a way that they are actually able to implement:-) Shared from Dolly Hannon

Geza Hazslinszky-Krull was a demigod to me in my teen years. He was one of the most beautiful riders I have ever seen on a horsea monument of perfection in sea...t and aids. As is always the case with great riders, the art comes from within. This man’s legendary goodness, refinement, politesse, and diplomatic elegance gave pleasure to all around him. - Charles de Kunffy, Dressage Principles Illuminated See more

https://horsesandpeople.com.au/the-ripple-of-her-legacy-a/ Wobblers is a very interesting syndrome, and more research is pointing towards the C6/7 and other cervical vertebrae malformations. Symptoms include an unsteadiness in balance, and tripping. These horses appear to lose the ability to sense where/how they are placing their feet. There is no treatment or cure, but perhaps with some studying of pedigrees and advances in diagnosis that does not require autopsy we can... start to eliminate this condition through breeding. In the worst case scenario with these horses they will go down and be unable to get up again. Milder cases will remain rideable although triply and reluctant to come round. The vet I had originally talked to said it occurred mostly in geldings with TB bloodlines. The horse in question at the time was a warmblood gelding with TB in him. That information was told to me several years ago so it may have changed with more information. See more

5 Common Rider Errors in the Leg Yield In one of our Facebook groups somebody recently asked a question about the most common mistakes that riders make in the l...eg yield. Many riders struggle with the leg yield, especially in the trot. So I decided to discuss the subject in a blog post in the hopes that it will be of interest to others as well. You can apply this discussion also to the real lateral movements. Most of the points I address are universal and tend to occur in all lateral movements. 5 Main Mistakes There are 5 mistakes that happen very frequently and that make it almost impossible for the horse to perform the leg yield correctly. 1. Overbending with the inside rein This is probably the most common mistake of all. Many riders tend to exaggerate the bend in general and overuse the inside rein. The bend should feel and look like a continuous shallow curve that runs through the horse’s body. There should be no kink at the base of the neck. Overbending blocks the inside hind leg and almost forces the horse to drift with his outside shoulder. This way, the outside shoulder is faster in moving sideways than the inside hind leg, so the inside hind leg never manages to catch up and cross. 2. Outside rein too long This mistake goes hand in hand with the first one. When the inside rein is too short, the outside rein is usually kept too long. This contributes to the kink at the base of the neck and the drifting of the outside shoulder. The job of the outside rein in the leg yield is to frame the outside shoulder, to connect the base of the neck to the shoulder, and to help to connect the outside hind leg to the weight and the ground. 3. Leaning/contorting torso A mistake that many riders make in all lateral movements without realizing it is to lean sideways or to contort their torsos in some way. This is usually triggered by the horse not moving sideways, so the rider intuitively uses her upper body as a lever to push the horse sideways. Unfortunately, this does not address the underlying reason why the horse isn’t moving sideways, but disturbs the horse’s lateral balance. So, rather than solving one problem, it creates a new one. It is better to stay relatively straight and vertical with our torso, and to shift the weight by applying a little more weight to the seat bone that is pointing in the direction of travel. You can also let your pelvis swing more in the direction of travel together with the horse’s ribcage. 4. Not enough pelvic rotation This is very common because changes to the pelvic position are not usually taught in traditional riding lessons. Or the rider is rotating her pelvis, but the amount of the rotation is insufficient. The pelvic position and the weight aids together form the center piece of all the lateral movements and turns. They give the horse the big picture of what the rider wants to do. Leg and rein aids are only the small print that fills in the details. If the rider doesn’t give clear instruction via her pelvic position and weight placement, the horse will not understand the leg and rein aids. That’s where a lot of resistances against the leg and rein aids come from. 5. Gripping with inside leg Gripping legs in lateral movements are often the result of incorrect weight aids. If the weight aid tells the horse to go to the left, and the leg aid tells the horse to go to the right, there is a conflict and the horse has to decide which aid he tries to listen to. Weight aids are more primary than leg aids, their effects are more immediate, and horses understand them intuitively. Leg aids, on the other hand, have to be explained to the horse first, and when there is a conflict between the more intuitive aid and the less intuitive aid, the horse will tend to tune in to the intuitive aid and ignore the less intuitive one. That’s why horses will often go with the weight, but against the leg, which then makes most riders grip or kick with their legs, instead of resolving the contradiction by changing their weight aid. Sometimes gripping legs are a result of poor timing of the aids. When the leg aid is applied at a time when the hind leg is not available (e.g. because it is supporting the body mass and is unable to lift off at that moment), the horse will tend to ignore the leg aid, which then leads many riders to grip or kick. Insufficient core muscle engagement and therefore instability of the seat and lack of balance can also be a cause of gripping. In this case it’s a survival mechanism to avoid falling off. Tips For Riding Leg Yields All lateral movements require a certain lateral and vertical flexibility of the horse’s haunches. If this mobility is lacking, any sidestepping exercise will be difficult. An important part of the problem is that the hind legs don’t flex enough under the weight. They touch down and push right away, which makes the crossing almost impossible. In the leg yield the inside hind leg is supposed to cross in front of the outside one. This is only possible if the outside hind leg flexes its upper joints and supports the weight long enough for the inside hind leg to cross. If the outside hind leg touches down, skips the weight bearing and flexion phase, and starts pushing right away, it sends the body of the horse straight forward without allowing the inside hind leg the necessary time to cross. You can create this window of time that is needed for the inside hind leg to cross by half halting (outside stirrup + outside rein) into the outside hind leg to slow down the tempo. The half halt allows you to hold the outside hind leg on the ground longer, and to flex its joints under the weight, which then creates an opportunity for the inside hind leg to cross. In severe cases, you may even have to stop into the outside hind leg a couple of times. Then you can create the leg yield position by asking for a couple of steps of turn on the forehand. As soon as you have the intended angle between the horse’s body and the line of travel, you can walk on while trying to maintain the same angle. After slowing down the outside hind leg, bring your outside hip forward and your inside hip back. This rotation of your pelvis should create a rotation of the horse’s pelvis. Shift your weight in the direction of travel so that you can take the horse sideways with your weight, instead of pushing him away from your weight. In addition, you can apply a driving leg aid with your inside leg to support the rotation of your pelvis and your weight aid. You may have to take your outside leg off at first to create a clear gap for the horse to move into. If you apply pressure with both legs, the horse will be confused. Conclusion Everything I described for the leg yield applies to the regular lateral movements as well. The rotation of the rider’s pelvis and the weight shift in the direction of travel form the center piece of the aids. They convey the big picture to the horse. Leg and rein aids can then regulate the details. It is important that the rider’s torso remains vertical when looking from behind. Leaning sideways can easily upset the lateral balance. The reins need to frame and guide the horse’s shoulders without overbending the neck.The leg aids support the seat and weight aids. In leg yielding and in shoulder-in the inside leg supports the sideways movement, while the outside leg supports the forward movement. In haunches-in related lateral movements it is the opposite. Thomas Ritter www.artisticdressage.com Read this article on our Blog: https://www.artisticdressage.com//5-common-rider-errors-in Subscribe to our email newsletter to get thought-provoking articles (like this one!) about the art of dressage delivered straight to your inbox: https://ritterdressage.activehosted.com/f/47 p.s. A few quick notes... ONE.... We are at the end of the first week of our brand new Topline Makeover Course. This is a course exclusively focused on using groundwork to improve your horse's musculature development, balance, and body awareness. This week we have focused on simple longeing with a longeing cavesson to obtain relaxation, steadiness, attention, correct bend and carriage, and to develop wth gaits of the horse. We are using footage of us longeing the horses we are working with to demonstrate and explain the nuances and this week we featured a young-ish Lusitano gelding named Izir. This course is a beta course which means we are creating it as we go which enables us to answer the issues and questions that come up for the course members. This enables us to create a course that doesn't just teach what we think you need to know, but it actually serves the members' real needs. This week we issued a survey to find what the members wanted us to prioritize and the results were overwhelmingly in favor of focusing on: - Practical Exercises to do with the horse - Refinement of each method (longeing, double-longeing, work-in-hand, and long reining) - Applying Feldenkrais-inspired bodywork to help the horse So.... this is what we will give the highest priority in the course. It isn't too late to get in on the fun. We are only at the end of the first week, so you have not missed too much if you get in now (in fact, I still have more new video footage to add to Module 1 over the weekend on how to use the longe whip for different desired outcomes). We would love to see you join us! Join us here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/topline-makeover-cours TWO... If you're not interested in groundwork but you are needing some inspiration for your riding, allow me to tell you about our 3-pack of Arena GPS eBooks. These are digital books jam packed with riding exercises to suit a variety of needs, and to help kickstart your riding motivation when it starts waning. Each exercise includes an easy to follow diagram, instructions, and tips for riding it best. For example, on Page 39 of the Arena GPS 1.1 we have an exercise called, "Zig Zag Leg Yield and Lengthen the Strides." The zig zag of the leg yield creates the desire and power in the horse to lengthen the stride afterwards. These are just some of the many ways you can use leg yield biomechanically, gymnastically, and therapeutically in your riding. In this special bundle of three of our top Arena GPS eBooks, you get more than 105 exercises! Plenty to keep you motivated and inspired. Available in several currencies: EURO, USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, NZD, and ZAR. You can download it to your phone, tablet, or computer. You can print it and take it to the barn! Arena GPS 3-pack: https://courses.artisticdressage.com/store/6mRuSQwM

There are athletes in all sports that have more natural talent than most of the others, and if those gifted people also have the drive to excel, they often DO e...xcel. Then, it is not uncommon for some of them, in later years, to become teachers. Because they achieved success and fame, it is also not uncommon to have students flock to them--- However, and not in all cases, but in some, the highly gifted athletes who could "just do it," may not always know exactly HOW they did it. They did not have to break various skill sets down into more bite sized component pieces the same way some who were less talented had to, Those less naturally gifted athletes, through having had to learn the basic pieces, are often more able to explain the building blocks process better than those to whom it came naturally. The point here is that the competitive success of an athlete may or may not be correlated to that person's ability to teach a sport or discipline. The ability to teach and the ability to compete are not the same.

24 Carrot Quote When competing, ride the horse, not the test. - Charles de Kunffy

Charles de Kunffy Quote of the week: "Effective aids are not exhausting to the rider and not souring to the horse."

https://www.doctorramey.com/the-biggest-fallacy-in-medici/ I often ten wonder if we should be treating everything. I have watched a lot of people spend fortunes on a fix that never is 100%, and yet they continue down the next rabbit hole because doing nothing is not an option. Sometimes doing nothing is the best option, but that would be my opinion.

A beginning rider wants to work on intermediate horsemanship. An intermediate rider want to work on advanced horsemanship, but an advanced horseman works on the basics.A beginning rider wants to work on intermediate horsemanship. An intermediate rider want to work on advanced horsemanship, but an advanced horseman works on the basics.

"At the top of the classical training tree is collection. Collection is, by definition, increased weight bearing by the haunches. Any time the center of gravity... of the horse is shifted forward, or the haunches of the horse shirk the task of assuming more weight, the horse is, relatively speaking, moving on the forehand. Whenever the horse goes relatively more on the forehand, the ultimate goal of collection is thwarted." ~ Mr. Richard Williams Journal of Equitation and Culture, Vol 9 https://bit.ly/3g6xVlN

"The top line muscles develop only when the following three conditions are met: 1. The horse is in front of the legs, i.e. the hind legs push enough for the imp...ulse to travel along the spine to the bit. The rider is able to feel each hind leg touching down as an impulse in the rein of the same side. Any muscle blockages or false bends (energy leaks) that would interfere with the energy transmission have to be removed. 2. The hind legs engage enough so that they touch down underneath the rider’s heels. This engagement can be produced by riding curved lines and sidestepping with the bend against the direction of travel. 3. The hind legs allow the half halts to go through, i.e. the rider is able to create a connection from the body mass and the reins, through the horse’s legs, to the ground. When these three conditions are met, the horse will also be relatively well balanced and straight. If the horse is behind the aids, he will not engage his hind legs enough. If the hind legs lag behind instead of engaging, they can’t support the back and they are out of reach of the weight and rein aids. If the hind legs are out of reach of the weight and rein aids, half halts can’t go through." (Thomas Ritter) Painting: Laura Hughes, www.laurahughespaintings.com

To achieve better skills for closing the horse behind, a rider can do what I call the coil exercises. In them, we can position the horse, for example, in a ri...ght circle. The rider must place his left leg back, the right hip forward, inward, and toward the withers. Positioning is more than bending; it is properly bending a horse with his poll dropped. Positioning is bend with postural change involving a deeper poll. After positioning and coiling the horse to the right, change direction and coil the horse counter bent. When he engages and collects, and flexes his hips, you can then change him over to the left circle with left bend. Then the rider can coil into a left circle, change rein in counter bending, and upon collection change to true bending on the left circle. This exercise is similar to riding a serpentine, on which each turn starts with a counter flexion and a counter positioning. The rider’s leg positioning is changed appropriately, alternating from left back on the right circle and right back on a left circle. The outside leg is the guardian of the closing of the horse and that is why it should not move to create rhythm and impulsion. The inside leg of the rider should take care of that. The outside leg is used for bending, engaging, closing the horse. The rider’s legs should not work like windshield wipers on a car. - Charles de Kunffy, Dressage Principle Illuminated, page 99 PHOTOS: A: Using the outside leg and outside rein straightens and bends the horse. The author is riding a horse that is tracking straight, but positioned through the neck in preparation for bending. The outside rein determines the degree of positioning by preventing the outside shoulder from escaping. B: The rider’s outside leg is stretched further back in order to close the horse’s haunches. The horse’s poll is higher than it was in figure A. When positioning the horse and he is still tracking straight, bend the neck with the poll lowered. You should not pull the inside rein or the horse could overflex, lose freedom of his haunches, and as a results, go behind the bit.

The basic schooling philosophy of riding is rooted in the Baroque World View (or Weltanschauung). There are two basic commitments for riders, both of them bor...n of our love and respect for the horse. One of these is to rebalance the horse under the added weight of his rider and his equipment. This is a never-ending process that remains at the heart of a young horse’s training. Later, when the horse’s strength is increased and his skills multiply, the balancing of the horse costs his rider less effort and concentration. However, the perfecting of the composite balance of horse and rider is a never-ending task. Beyond the reestablishing of the horse’s natural balance and the resulting clarity of his gaits under his rider, there is still a larger commitment. Nothing less is called for than the human genius to develop an aesthetic living, moving monument born out of his horse’s natural, inborn gifts and abilities. - Charles de Kunffy, The Ethics and Passions of Dressage, prologue

My dad used to outride for Dale Flett, and I have grown up indirectly knowing most of the wagon families. Great people. This is an interesting series on the challenges of wagon racing.

My opinion about strong bits and other mechanical devices is unless it is a safety issue, learn to be a better rider instead. There is no reason why almost every horse can not go in a snaffle.

Notice the bent elbows. Hahaha.... My most common critique of most riders! Notice how the bent elbow allows for a softer following hand (and later a softer connection with the reins)

The Horse on the Bit an Explanation The horse on the bit is an unfortunate expression because it is potentially misleading. Long accepted as part of the cla...ssical idiom, however, its use will continue. . . . A definition of the concept includes a horse that is longitudinally flexed by stretching his topline and expanding the spinal column, thereby allowing the energy of his hindquarters to travel unencumbered through his entirety without blocking it by tension in his muscles. A longitudinally stretched horse is, as a by-product, flexed. However, flexion is not sufficient to produce the correct equine movement unless it is part and parcel of stretching the spine by way of stretching the nuchal cord, which is a ligament that spans the horse’s length from poll to dock. Contributory to, as well as resultant of spinal stretching is the horse’s ability to flex those muscles that are indispensable to correct locomotion and carriage under the riders added weight. These muscles interrelate in a complex system of sympathetic responses, which means that when one of these muscles is flexed, a group of others will join it and also flex. The horse’s top neck muscle is one of several muscles participating in a sympathetic response system. Should the rider succeed in flexing that muscle, rather than just flexing the horse at the poll, which is merely a joint with no ability to expand or contract as muscles do, the rest of its sympathetic muscle group with also flex. These include the abdominal muscles that carry the rider’s weight and allow continued freedom of articulation of the back muscles (swinging as energy transmits unhindered) and the muscles in the croup and buttocks that push the stifle joint forward and upward. The rider can activate the flexion and elasticity of this important sympathetic muscle group by either starting with the relaxation of the horse’s neck, sending his neck and head forward and downward, or by sustaining his posture but increasing the activity in the muscles of the haunches, which propel the stifles and ultimately convey the energy of the hocks. The rider can create the flexing of the horse’s top muscles that induce longitudinal flexion and relaxation through stretching, by starting either at the horse front (most suitable for tense and fast horses) or at his haunches (most suitable for lazy, sluggish, weak and, therefore, slow horses). In any case, the rider needs to stretch the horse, not merely flex him, for flexing is possible by a short, tense inhibited horse too. Stretching eradicates tension and forestalls inhibitions of movement and posture. - Charles de Kunffy Dressage Principle Illuminated Pages 72-74

"Sitting is not being static, it is feeling what is happening in the back of the horse. We must feel that the entire body of the horse gets up to the hand, en...ding up in what is in his mouth and remains stable. It is not enough that the fingers are relaxed; we also need our wrists to be relaxed and not rigid." (Antoine de Coux, The Wisdom of Master Nuno Oliveira, 2012) Painting: Tatiana Yabloed, www.singulart.com/en/artist/tatiana-yabloed-4807

The primary goal of longeing is to help the horse balance himself without the weight of the rider. This is achieved by establishing a round circle in a steady t...empo that is neither too fast nor too slow. Correct arena patterns, such as a round circle or a straight line that is truly straight, help to straighten the horse and to find his lateral balance. A crooked horse, on the other hand, will always leave the arena pattern by drifting in or out, which creates an imbalance in the direction in which the horse is drifting. A steady tempo (strides per minute) helps the horse to find his longitudinal balance. Together with straightness, it forms the foundation of balance, which is the prerequisite for relaxation (Losgelassenheit), permeability (Durchlässigkeit), impulsion, and collection. During the initial training at the longe line as well as during the retraining of correction horses, the rider’s main task is to even out all the irregularities that occur. When the tempo becomes too fast, you have to slow it down. When it becomes too slow and sluggish, you have to energise the horse and speed up a little. When the horse drifts in, you have to send him out to the circle line. When the horse drifts out, you have to turn his shoulders so that he comes back to the circle line. Whenever the horse drifts away from the line of travel, he gets crooked and loses his balance, which will lead to a tightening of the back and inverting. When the horse speeds up or slows down, he will also lose balance and invert. The rounder the circle becomes and the more metronome-like the tempo becomes, the more the horse will start to make a steady contact with the longe line, to relax, and to bend his spine. Most horses will start to stretch forward-downward, too, when they find their balance. Thomas Ritter

Mistakes give rise to interesting new observations that increase your understanding of the inner workings of riding, and they become the inspiration for new exe...rcises. This way, mistakes are no longer framed in a negative way and therefore depressing, but they become great learning opportunities. You also realize that mistakes are not the end of the world, but that you can quickly recover from them by changing something in your seat and aids. This frees you from the fear of ruining the horse. For myself, this was omnipresent until I made this realization and changed how I viewed mistakes. In case you have come to look only at the mistakes and the negative aspects as a result of past lessons, try to focus on the positive in your next ride, i.e. focus on what TO do instead of what NOT to do. Ask yourself: - Which arena marker do I want to ride towards next? - Where are the shoulders and hips of my horse? - Which leg is supporting the majority of the weight? - How can I facilitate the next turn, the next transition, the entrance into the next movement? Don’t think: - What am I doing wrong again now? If a mistake happens, think: - What can I learn from this observation? - What can I do differently next time? This makes the entire ride more relaxing, more enjoyable, and more positive for both horse and rider.

"Effective aids are not exhausting to the rider and not souring to the horse." ~Charles de Kunffy

In this photo, Elizabeth Ball is preparing the horse for a corner. The positioning precedes the bending. The neck is well bent inward, with the poll dropping de...eper, yet sustained as the highest point of the horse’s anatomy. The rider’s aids prevent the outside shoulder from escaping, and compress the haunches inward enough to prevent them from falling off the line. In short, correct bending is an act of straightening, because it is based on precise spinal alignment that promotes the evenness of strides, so the hind legs continue toward their corresponding forehands. Note that the rider’s ankle is flexed, her upper leg is deep and adhesive, and her lower leg is flexed into the stirrup. Her elbows are pressed down from the shoulders, which are rotated back and down, and her hands are together. Dressage Principle Illuminated, page 108

Always be humble

A horse doesn’t have a problem of evading his rider. Evasion is nature working for itself to be effortless, as nature always will. That’s why rivers are flowin...g downhill, not uphill. Nature seeks tranquility, and therefore when the alien weight of a rider intrudes on a horse, he wants to be lazy about involving his haunches and surrendering the power and whereabouts and direction of the haunches to his rider, simply out of nostalgia of the natural state when he was unencumbered and not required to do something he doesn’t volunteer to do. It becomes man’s rationality versus nature’s laziness and seeking the status quo. The avoids submitting to the rider with three common evasions: inversion/over flexion, misalignment, and rushing. - Charles de Kunffy The Ethics and Passions of Dressage, page 92

This is the most common form of lameness that I see. Changing farrier, saddles, and training to assist the horse in a better more balanced way of going often solves most lameness.