Beals Horsemanship

08/05/2024

02/01/2024

01/29/2024

Still one of my favourite illustration. I will often use a plastic banana to demonstrate those movements and talk about the "banana bend" 🍌 😄

Do you find them helpful...?!

01/07/2024

09/18/2023

09/12/2023

How much bend???
Imagine two parallel walls smashed right against your horse’s shoulders. Taking the nose past that wall (4) takes away their power.
This comes in handy, because sometimes we DEFINITELY want to take away their power. Over bending definitely helps with getting horses supple. Sometimes “taking the neck away” (like during transitions) can help a horse use their core to balance instead of using their neck to balance. But make no mistake- it helps them learn balance by knocking them off balance, and then the horse has to find their balance in spite of the neck positioning. This is obviously not something you want to do all the time, or for long periods of time. But if you have a horse that throws their neck up to transition, this extreme bend can interrupt that behavior and teach them to find a new way to use their body.
Most circles only require about the amount of bend in sketch (2)- about half way to that imaginary wall. We want the horse to bend at the poll, with no head tilt, and keep the base of the neck fairly straight. If you practice any counter bend, (2) is the most bend you would want. So if you are tracking left (big arrow) with a little outside bend (2), you only want to go about half way to the point of shoulder.
Three (3) is a lot of bend, while maintaining balance. Like (2), the bend should come mostly from the poll joint, while keeping the base of the neck fairly straight. This is the amount of bend you would want for a 10m circle or a walk pirouette.  If you want the horse to have access to his full power, this is the most bend you can ask for- any more and you’ll throw him off balance and take away his power.

08/28/2023

Sand horse! This is a very clever artist making their own beach horse