I AMRanch

Collection....what is it? I had one person say to me that it was just forcing a horse's head into a position. SO WRONG. I know another mini driver who said to me that a collected mini was only for the show ring. She just wanted to go down the road and not worry about any training. Again, SO WRONG. 

First off, what are the benefits? When a miniature horse pulls a cart in a collected manner, the horse uses muscling that is not normally used if he is not collected. He will be using his stomach and back muscles to support himself. You can see a change in the mini's body if he is moving consistently in a collected manner. The mini gets a more rounded look. When they don't move in a collected manner, structural issues will arise sooner and at a younger age. Below is a photo of the same horse. In the top photo, he had not had any consistent driving work. In the bottom photo, he had been driven for 1.5 years. 

Yesterday, I was watching Lisa drive Ruger and he was skipping as he trotted. This inconsistency was coming from him not working off of his hind end. I yelled over to her to concentrate on his hind end and get him to drop it, and to do this mostly at the walk, until he got the feel. I slept in this morning and came to the barn to catch the tail end of her work with him. HUGE change in him. She was glowing and saying she was not sure what exactly she was doing differently, but she was focusing on getting that rear to drop and the withers to rise.

I had used an analogy with her. I grabbed hold of my long driving whip and said think of collection as if you were pushing on both ends of this whip; compressing it by pushing each end towards the other. What happens to the whip? It bends upward and rounds. The bit in your horse's mouth needs to be soft and light, but you need to be able to push your driving mini towards it with your verbal cues and light use of the whip. All of our minis must accept a tapping of the whip as communication, just like a riding horse would accept your calves and leg pressure.I always being my request with verbal cues or light rein cues, but the tapping whip has to be there to back it up. But, it is important to ask verbally a few times first, so you can drop the use of the whip as the horse understands. As your horse compresses, his back will lift and round, just like the whip.

All collection starts from the hind end. The head set is not the big deal. Folks often ask about the head, because they are not butt watchers. I tell everyone to watch the hind ends and the hocks. The horse must be  driving from his hindquarters, rounded in his back, soft throughout his neck and shoulders, and the head is the balance to counteract that energy. BUT, if you are holding the face tightly with lots of pressure on the bit. you will lose all fluidity in your horse. So, the amount you can urge the hind end forward is limited by the horse's ability to stay soft and light on the bit.

There has to be lateral softness in a horse where you can ask him to bend either way while driving. This goes back to my lateral bending emphasis which is somewhat described in the video below.

If you only focus on getting that head set and if you use the overcheck to force the head up, you will lose all softness in the neck and shoulders. A horse being forced will not look rounded, it will break at the poll to get away from the bit, have a hollow back and not be engaging its hind end. 

Now, all of this is theory....getting each horse there is an art that I don't have perfected. Each horse comes with their own set of problems. I was working lil Cameo with Jess. She is much like Beamer above where there is so much "go" in them. Thunder is all about the "whoa" and not into the "go". Thus, there is not a set way to go about this. With Cameo, our focus was on just getting her to walk collected and high in the bridle while staying soft. We could take her to a slow trot and she stayed soft, but if I had to tap her with a whip to get her to bend her body a certain direction, she way overreacts and bolts a bit. So, Jess needs to talk a lot with that whip. GENTLY, teaching Cameo to move away from the pressure and not to bolt and go fast. Ruger and Thunder are the opposite. I can ask for more speed and impulsion with my voice and they are happy to ignore me. I have to a bit sterner with the whip and teach them that my voice means more energy. BUT, that energy needs to go up and not forward. How do I keep them soft? With all the lateral bending....