When a potential boarder was viewing a facility for her horse, the barn owner asked her what she rode. “Hunters,” she answered, but then quickly answered “the right way.” She went on to explain that her main goal with her young horse now was just to get him moving forward off his hind end. The barn owner was a dressage enthusiast and she answered “Oh good, because you can’t imagine how many people don’t know to do that.”
Back to front is the simplest explanation used to describe how a horse should be ridden—from the back end, up over the back and down the front. By driving from the rear, he should come down softly into your hand as he works correctly through his back and lifting his belly.
Yet so often in the search to get “flexion,” so many riders crank their horses noses in their chests unnaturally without riding the horse from back to front. Instead, they ride the horse from front to back. Sadly, these horses are usually outfitted with draw reins and other contraptions to crank their noses in while the rider forgets about the engine from which the horse’s energy should come. This unnatural forced flexion is often seen in dressage and sometimes in hunters. (Though, in hunters, the strung out, on the forehand look is far more common.)
When working your horse, either in hunters, dressage or any discipline of riding, always remind yourself to work him from the back end. Think of yourself as driving from the back seat of a car. Keep his front end light up in front of you and allow him to come to down to your hand as he finds his flexion. If he is very long, you may later have to compact him or take more contact for greater collection, but for the normal hunter schooling or low-level dressage training, keeping a fluid movement forward, straight through a softly rounding back and neck to subtle flexion will help build your horse correctly and prepare him for greater demands placed on his strengthening hindquarters, whether they be in jumping or collection. By correctly building his musculature, frame and carriage by riding him back to front, you’ll be far more likely to have a mount that is sufficiently conditioned to withstand rigors of more advanced training. You will also make a more comfortable, balanced horse that will be less likely to break down in work as his peers that have suffered from poor conditioning and poor training may do.
How you can tell you’re on the right track and riding back to front:
§ Your horse moves off your seat and leg, and he doesn’t feel like he’s falling on his forehand or pulling you down.
§ He halts without getting all strung out.
§ You can see his belly muscles as he works.
§ He makes a soft roundness over his hindquarters, back, neck and down to his nose.
§ He is relaxed and happy.
§ His head carriage shows relaxation.
§ His forehand feels light and you can feel the push from his hindquarters under you.
§ His back isn’t hollow or sway backed.
§ He isn’t developing a huge underneck muscle (ewe-necked, a flaw).
§ He is developing a nice topline over his crest and back.
§ His nose tips down but slightly in front of the vertical. (In other words, on the vertical would be when his nose points straight down to the ground. Behind the vertical would be if his nose curves backward more toward his chest.)
