You could easily think those two things are not related, but they are actually very closely related and here is why.
One of the ways that we can explain good, healthy or optimal biomechanics is that the horse moves in the most comfortable, balanced, efficient and effortless way possible with the least amount of stress and strain on the body to perform whatever movement or activity that we are asking them to do. So if we turn that around, we could say that poor biomechanics means that the horse is moving in the an uncomfortable, unbalanced, inefficient, effortful way that stresses and strains the body. When we say it like that poor biomechanics doesn’t sound very good and you might see that asking our horses to do things with poor biomechanics is not going to cause them to feel good or cause them to enjoy their experience of riding or even doing groundwork with us.
As soon as we want to do more than just hang out with our horses, biomechanics and how they use their body matters, because you will either be causing your horse to feel good or feel uncomfortable, maybe even to the point of being in pain. When your horse feels good (mentally, emotionally and physically) through participating in what you are doing that will be relationship building. If what you are causing them to do feels “ bad” that will be relationship destroying.
If we are not asking much of the horse or asking them to maintain things for too long it might not be that bad but once we start asking for more it will become a pretty big problem.
So what are some examples of asking for more.
Wanting to go faster than a walk or do anything at speed.
Wanting to ride more than 15 mins.
Wanting to ride up and down hills (anything other than flat ground).
Carrying more weight – carrying the weight of even a light person is a challenge for horses. The heavier the person and the heavier the saddle the harder it is for the horse and this is amplified when the rider doesn’t move in synchronicity with the horse or carry themselves in self-carriage.
So as you can see asking for more doesn’t mean asking for anything really extreme or big !!
Let’s use ourselves as examples to help us understand this.
The first example is demonstrated in this little video of picking up a chair. It is a demonstration that was used by Carol and Lesley from BALANCE International, some of my mentors in equine biomechanics, to demonstrate this concept to me. It was very memorable and a great example for me so I hope the same for. Try it yourself – but be careful – don’t hurt your back as that is what can happen with poor biomechanics. So maybe if you have back issues especially lower back issues don’t try it !!!!