Long and Low: When Does The Head Come Back Up?

I originally wrote this post for our crew over at Next Level Barrel Racing but I thought it might be useful to the masses, too!

I preach a lot about teaching the horse to move with his head down - withers height or lower is usually my recommendation. This helps the horse naturally activate the “right” muscles - the ones that create the type of supportive spine we can sit on without damaging the horse over time.

And the question I got was:

When does the head come back up? Nose in the dirt won’t work for a race.

So first of all - totally agree. It won’t work for a race.

So when do we start bringing the head up? It depends - the short answer is the head comes up when the horse is ready!

Ready means the horse can maintain thoracic sling and back neutral/lifting while elevating the head.

I personally let that happen somewhat naturally when the horse starts to offer it in groundwork first. In my R+ context I click moments of back lifting and over time that gets us there.

More sling and back lift will naturally bring the head up and rock more weight on the hindquarters.

THIS IS COLLECTION!

This picture of Forrest in the snow is the most elevation he’s ever given me while keeping his back lifted.

Under saddle he’s not strong enough to hold that - and even on the ground right now it just lasts a few strides. We still spend a lot of time in the other postures (below) and will slowly increase the time spent in photo 1 as he continues getting stronger over time!

Recognize that harder things like - adding circles, uneven terrain, speed changes, etc, will make elevating harder, so you might notice here how Forrest balances with a lower head position on the turns and then finds more neutral to elevated posture in straight lines.

You can use the horse’s ability to maintain sling lifting/neutral spine and various head and neck positions as a cue for how to progress the exercises you are doing with your horse.

• If you attempt an exercises and the horse loses the lift and the head comes up/spine inverts - that exercise was too hard. Time to take a step back and fill in some gaps.

• If the head comes up and the spine stays neutral to elevated - he’s getting stronger and working in collection!

• If the horse drops his head lower to balance - you’re okay to keep working here, but recognize that he’s not very strong in this movement yet and needs more time and support to build strength before moving to harder things.