The Training of the Hypermobile Horse
The principles we use to train hypermobile horses are largely the same as the principles of the 4DimensionDressage Method.
However, hypermobile horses do require a slightly different approach.
What do hypermobile horses need?
First, the build of the hypermobile horse is different (see hypermobility in horses). They are long-lined, long-legged, have a long neck, and have a large front, with more weight shifted to the forehand.
For these horses, vertical balance is even more important. First, they must learn to place their torso precisely in the middle of their shoulder blades to maintain balance and to load both front legs evenly.
Hypermobile horses can compensate incredibly well and develop all sorts of contortions in their bodies. Therefore, we first want to eliminate all the contortions, straighten the entire spine, and stabilize it.
Stability
A horse's ability to stabilize depends on the strength and tone of its muscles and connective tissue. This is precisely the tricky part with hypermobile horses. They're often considered highly talented, true athletes because of their flexibility, but we're dealing with an animal weighing 600 to 700 kg. All those kilograms need to be held together and kept upright. The more flexible the connective tissue, the more difficult this becomes.
“Hypermobile horses should therefore not be trained primarily for suppleness, but for stability!”
Length in the neck
Hypermobile horses find it difficult to lengthen their neck. This length in the neck causes a heavy weight (the head) to extend far out in front of the body. This creates leverage. This leverage is countered by:
- core stability
- the transfer of weight to the hindquarters
Both techniques are challenging for hypermobile horses. Core stability, of course, due to the increased flexibility, and shifting weight to the hindquarters is difficult due to the increased angles in the hind leg, which tend to push the hind leg forward.
All this means that we first need to teach a hypermobile horse balance to build sufficient strength and stability without a rider on its back. Once the horse demonstrates that it can easily organize and stabilize itself in the correct posture without having to carry a rider, we can begin training it under saddle.
Sensitive and spooky
Because hypermobile horses are often very sensitive, nervous, and spooky, training with length in the neck presents an additional challenge. It's very tempting to "hold these horses closer" and curl their necks, as this provides more control, and the horse pays less attention to everything around it because its field of vision is limited.
Low neck strain
The major disadvantage of this, however, is that it overloads the lower neck, leading to injuries such as synovitis and osteoarthritis. Hypermobile horses also frequently have a congenital condition in which the cervical vertebrae are misaligned because they are not properly stabilized by the surrounding connective tissue.
This can cause nerves to become pinched. Training a horse in a low-back position (LDR) or rollkur position increases this risk. On the other hand, the vertebrae can align better and stabilize in a good position if we train with length and train the neck muscles so that they take over the function of the connective tissue.
Injury sensitivity
Hypermobile horses are more susceptible to injuries throughout their bodies. They benefit from sufficient exercise, but not from extensive and strenuous training. Their recovery time is longer. It takes a hypermobile horse longer to strengthen its connective tissue and muscles. This varies greatly from horse to horse. Therefore, we can't work with fixed training schedules; instead, we must monitor each individual horse to ensure its tissue is responding well to the training, and if not, we must adjust the intensity.
Short quality training
Hypermobile horses benefit from relatively short training sessions where quality is paramount. This means you need an experienced trainer who can get the horse balanced and stabilized in a healthy posture as quickly as possible. We literally want to waste as little energy as possible training TOWARDS the desired point. We want to get there as quickly as possible so we can train the body in the correct posture and strength.
“The less time we train out of balance and in an incorrect posture, the lower the chance of injury.”
Sufficient tone
The horse needs sufficient activity, otherwise, its muscles and connective tissue will remain hypotonic (under-tension), preventing it from stabilizing its body, increasing the risk of injury. Over-activation leads to over-pacing, throwing the horse off its natural rhythm. This also increases the risk of injury. The correct level of activation, therefore, depends on the individual horse and its current stage of training.
