Gerd Heuschmann tells us about the importance of developing the topline:
“This, in my opinion, is where the problem starts – with a three or four-year-old horse, with an the inexperienced rider on this young horse in a rather short topline. A very nice looking topline, but the muscle system is untrained so what happens? The neck ligament is loose, there is no tension developed in it, so it doesn’t help to carry the rider’s weight. When the horse has only been ridden for four or five months, the muscle system is weak. To develop the muscle system takes one and a half to two years – so the horse has no alternative, it has to use the back muscle to carry the weight. If you look at a horse that has been ridden like this for ten years, you will end up with a back that is very hollow. If you take a young horse and go on training in this way, shortening the neck, never giving him the chance to develop step by step, if you make him short, and to come up in front, you end up with a real problem.”
Images show how it should be done, we see enough bad ones…
Exactly. There is a right and wrong way to do this. How is this even up for discussion? It’s beyond me.