The Learning Center
Bending Of A Horse
Part 2
Bending In The Half Pass
Half Pass Is A Variation Of Travers
As a judge and clinician, I have observed that many riders have difficulty creating sufficient bend when doing a half pass. I believe that this is primarily due to many riders thinking that they must try to bend their horse around their inside leg like a “C” by bending the neck and pushing sideways. The problem with this thinking is that the horse can not bend its thoracic vertebrae laterally. Bending of the neck to the inside simply pushes the outside of the horse more to the outside and creates some compression of the ribs on the inside. The result is a crooked horse which will have difficulty showing bend or good crossing of the legs.
Bend is created through rotation of the pelvis of the horse which creates engagement of the hindquarters. That rotation occurs in the lumbo-sacral and sacral-iliac joint, which is in the loin of the horse, behind the saddle. When a horse rotates the pelvis and engages the hindquarters, the front of the horse can freely move ahead of and to the inside of the hindquarters. The center of the chest of the horse will be pointed toward the desired target letter but the hindquarters will be almost parallel to the long track. Half Pass is really a travers on a diagonal line.
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10M Half Pass From "E" To "G"
20m Half Pass from “K” to “B”
Depending upon the steepness of the angle the half pass is traveling, more or less bend is required. Figure 1 shows the bend in a horse traveling 10m from “E” to “G” as in the Prix St Georges Test and Figure 2 shows the bend in a horse traveling 20m from “K” to “B” in the Grand Prix. The center of the chest of both horses is directed toward the target letter but because the angle is steeper in Figure 2, more bend and more engagement of the hind quarters are required.
Both horses are flexed to the inside but neither horse has its neck overbent to the inside and freedom of movement is maintained.
Further discussion and diagrams can be seen in Harmonic Dressage Part 2: Techniques of Harmonic Dressage and the Training Pyramid.DI’m a paragraph. Drag me to add paragraph to your block, write your own text and edit me. Photos courtesy of Christian Simonson and Zeaball Diawind and Adrienne Lyle and Wizard
Both horses are flexed to the inside but neither horse has its neck overbent to the inside and freedom of movement is maintained.
Further discussion and diagrams can be seen in Harmonic Dressage Part 2: Techniques of Harmonic Dressage and the Training Pyramid.DI’m a paragraph. Drag me to add paragraph to your block, write your own text and edit me. Photos courtesy of Christian Simonson and Zeaball Diawind and Adrienne Lyle and Wizard