Dr Heuschmann’s top tips

How to get a horse to be a backmover as opposed to a leg mover

  • Aim for a rhythmic horse, a supple horse, with contact.
  • Put the emphasis on this in first two years of training.
  • Soft swinging back - the swing comes from the haunches.
  • Do not hang on the rein, no chance of being supple if you do.
  • Ride horse forward and straight on open wide lines.
  • If horse is behind the bit with too round a neck, the back is lost.
  • You lose the hindlegs, the horse is stiff on one side and won’t take the loose rein on the other side.
  • Horses have a natural crookedness - same as people, favouring one side.
  • Old masters say, ‘ride to the loose and give on the heavy’ to solve this.
  • Can only get a horse straight through both reins when the body is not tense, it must be loose and supple.
  • The horse will tell you where he wants to go with his neck, it is not our decision.
  • Don’t bend the horse in the first year.
  • We want to bend the horse from the poll to the sacrum, with no kink in his shoulder.
  • The correct bending of the horse takes five to seven years – a long process.
  • If you have maximum bend, you are in Haute Ecole (high school) collection.
  • Horse must be straight, neck falling into the nuchal ligament so that neck connects to the back.
  • Solid contact on both reins – leg on.
  • Stretch both sides and the horse can start to bend.
  • Must be straight through both reins before bend is possible.
  • Horse with ribcage up – a high centre of gravity – is light on his feet.
  • Soft chewing mouth influences the poll which so important in good riding.
  • Horses are flight animals – they want to go
  • Anything that goes wrong is always the person’s fault – not the horse’s fault.

    • Common mistakes

  • Rider wants to look good in the mirror. No place for arrogance on the back of a horse.
  • Rider wants to have horse round or have a nice form immediately.
  • It is a step by step process. Like children, the horse can’t be expected to go to university before he first goes to baby school.
  • Horse with ribcage closed, his legs hit the ground heavy and hard, you can hear this.
  • There will be no soft swing possible from a stiff back.
  • Drawn rein horses – horrible to retrain, they are crooked, they are done (finished).
  • If you are using draw reins to pull the head down, this is abuse, an animal welfare issue, nothing to do with classical riding.