X-ray Vision: Assessing the Spine of a Horse Under Saddle

How can I tell if the back is lifting or core is engaging when I'm riding?

Or when I'm looking at horses being ridden and there's a saddle in the way?

This is a very common question and it's an important question! So I'm glad you asked :)

There are two really clear things you can look for that I've marked in these photos.

RED: the underline of the belly - what's the shape? Different horses are going to have different "normals" here, but it's easy to see and easy to compare moment to moment with the same horse. If it's saggy and dropped in a deep "U" shape, the core is likely inactive and the back is not lifting. If it's a wider and flatter curve, then we're heading in the right direction!

GREEN: check the back just behind the saddle - what's the shape? Is there a steep angle from the sacrum to the back of the saddle, or is it flattish? A steeper angle tells me the core is not active and the back is not lifting. Flatter tells me we're heading in a better direction!

Remember, there is no magic number for correct spinal angle measurements, and these are just measured with the drawing app on my phone, so it's not particularly scientific. What it is useful for, though, is comparing the same horse to himself over time.

This mare had a 14* measurement in the beginning of the ride, and ended with 10*, which tells us more objectively that we are actually making meaningful change - in addition to the overall changes in posture and less saggy belly (the more subjective changes).

I often encourage my riders to watch the head/neck height of their horses as a quick screen from above. We’re aiming for withers height or lower. In a developing horse, this puts them in a place where it requires less muscular strength to lift the back. It doesn't necessarily mean things will be perfect just because the head is low - and we always need to be careful about hyper fixating on a headset...

((zoom in and then zoom back out and look at the whole horse!))

but when you're sitting on top of the horse and still developing your "feel" for what a lifted back and engaged core *feels like*, keeping an eye on that head height is very useful and easy to see.

And when in doubt - film yourself so you can watch it back and compare if things look like what you thought they felt like (or not) so you can keep improving that feel.

If you want a deeper explanation for why withers height and lower is my recommendation for a developing horse - you can check out my free online course called Biomechanics Basics.