What is the proper head position for a horse? It depends on who you ask. It can also depend on the specific breed or training discipline.
Head Position – Dressage
A classical dressage rider would likely tell you that the poll should be the highest point and the head should not be behind the vertical.
They habitually ride with contact to maintain a continuous connection.
A highly schooled dressage horse is made through years of suppling and strength building to achieve true collection.
But only a small percentage of that correct form is actually attributed to head and neck position.
It’s mostly that the horse has learned how to travel in a balanced way, which causes the head and neck to be right.
Head Position – Western
A western world rider may say the head should be lower and the reins should have some slack. The horse should be soft in the poll and maybe even behind the vertical or somewhat over flexed.
Typically, their main focus is that the horse stays relaxed and soft in his neck, withers, poll, and face.
So which head position is more correct?
It depends.
Sometimes, softening the poll and neck and getting some lateral and vertical flexion can help get the rest of the body and feet operating more smoothly and efficiently.
At other times, the best plan is to simply ride the feet and worry about shaping the form and body later on.
But the end goal is, you need both. To have just as good a connection to the feet as you do to rounding the back, lowering or raising the head, and breaking at the poll.
A horse’s conformation can also play a part in head carriage. That’s why you see certain breeds more prevalent in certain disciplines.
Head Position Myths
There’s a common saying, ‘When the head goes up, the butt goes down’.
But we know this isn’t always true because we’ve all seen horses with their heads way up in the air, and they’re definitely not squatting in the back end. They’re hollow and rigid. A long way from any state of collection or proper balance.
Another interesting example is the Mexican charro horses. Their competitions are similar to reining but on way slicker ground. Their sliding stops are much longer than a regulation reining pattern. The charros worry less about frame and head position. They just want the horse to squat their back end and hold it. Their head may be up in the air, but they’re still sliding 60 feet when they stop.
Contrary Opinions
Most reiners will say that if a horse is not round in his topline and lifting his back, he can’t get his hind end under him to slide. Mexican charro horses have proven that’s not always true.
Dressage riders may say that when a horse’s head is low like a reiner, he’s apt to get on his front end. Again, that depends on if he’s coming from behind and has impulsion from his back legs. You will see a reining horse run down the center of the pen with his head long, low, and stretched out. But he still gets his back end underneath him and slides to a stop.
Then again, one common dressage exercise is ‘long and low’ where they ride with a lower headset to stretch the horse down and forward. It is one of the suppling exercise to work towards collection. So they ride with the head low to eventually ride with the poll as the highest point.
You will also hear some say that a horse must be soft in their poll and have their chin tucked in to have compression – a gathering of the stride and a rounding of the back. Reiners and Mexican charros prove that wrong with noses poked way out. They are not ridden with contact or driven into the bridle, but they still really get on their hind end.
Types of Collection
To make it even more confusing, there’s different ideas of collection.
For more detailed info about collection, read the article: Collection | What It Is And What It Is Not
Compression type collection – horse gathers his stride and goes from a long trot to a springy, soft slow trot. This is often referred to as collection, but it’s more of just shortening a stride.
True collection – some of the weight naturally carried on the front end (especially the left front shoulder because horses are naturally crooked) is shifted to the hind. A collected horse becomes truly straight and balanced with an even distribution of weight on all four feet.
Think of a horse slowly going down a hill. Most of them will reach some state of collection. He’ll get his hind legs under him while going forward without dumping onto his front end.
The goal of collection is to shift some of his weight to his back legs so that his body weight is evenly loaded on both ends. And then travel forward without shifting the weight back onto his front feet.
When you really dive into it, you see how little of being collected has to do with the head position.
Head Position and Collection
A horse can be in a collected, balanced state and have a completely natural head carriage like he would out in the pasture.
He can also be elevated in his poll, round in his neck and have his face perfectly on the vertical, but still have a larger percentage of his weight on his front end and not be in the optimally balanced position.
If you talk to reiners, their horses are in a balanced, athletic frame. If you talk to dressage people, the reiners are not, but the dressage horses are.
Variables
Each discipline has its strengths and weaknesses. A well-trained dressage horse is typically closer to a truly balanced carriage. But at the same time, if you try to do a reining style rundown or cut a cow on a dressage horse, there would be quite a learning curve. It wouldn’t automatically look like when you cut a cow on a cutting horse. The dressage horse would still have to learn how to do the run down or cut the cow, even if he’s perfectly balanced.
There are so many variables and factors that come into play.
For example, just because I become an expert at gymnastics, doesn’t mean I’ll be good at playing baseball. They require different strengths, modes of practice, and levels of skill.
It can be interesting to watch how many horses actually disprove the common trains of thought.
“If his head goes up, his butt will go down.”
Not according to the warm up pen at a speed event.
“When his head goes down, he gets round in his back and brings his hind end underneath himself.”
Not according to the horse that’s trotting around with his nose almost on the ground. But when you ask him to rate down and get on his back end, he curls his chin to his chest and speeds up.
What Is Your Goal
Do you want him to simply not push against your hand and to develop a supple neck and poll?
It’s pretty easy to get a horse to go around with their chin tucked in.
It takes a little more to have them break at their withers, lower their head, and stretch out with their nose. This long and low exercise stretches the topline and encourages the horse to lengthen his back. It’s great for creating some natural suppleness and softness.
To do this, your timing has to be such that he doesn’t run into rein pressure as attempts to lower his head and stretch out his neck.
Too much of ‘long and low’ could get a horse pounding around on the front end. So you need to balance that out. Do the opposite and encourage a higher headset.
Elevate the head to where the poll is highest point and the nose is tucked in. But then have them drop their head and stretch their nose out.
A well rounded horse should be easily able to switch between both.
Head Position and Bend
We need to be able to bring the horse’s nose all the way to our foot. But we also need to be able to bend it just an inch or two and not more. Actually, the first inch is the tricky part. Once they give a few inches it’s pretty easy to bring it around. But our communication should be such that the horse can do either one.
I heard someone say that the neck should work laterally and vertically like a tree branch. Solid but pliable at the base, and then as you go further out, it becomes more flexible.
Contact or No Contact
I would rather my horse allow me to ride with some contact to bend or soften and tuck their chin than to have my reins completely weightless. At that point, we’re teaching them to avoid contact, and you’ll never get them to drive up into your hand. Contact is not pulling or jerking on your horse. It’s riding very close so that you have a steady, soft, and full connection. It’s a sweet spot in between a horse pushing through your hand and a horse completely yielding to stay behind your hand and hide from any contact.
But I also balance out that time spent riding with contact by also spending time riding on a loose rein.
Head Position and Biomechanics
How does head position relate to carriage and balance, equilibrium, mobility, and the biomechanics of the horse?
It depends.
On how you communicate and how he perceives it.
On how you ride and progress your horse along in his education.
Caution
Be careful not to tell yourself, I should never get my horse in a low head position because so-and-so says that gets him on his front end.
Well, it can be, but not necessarily.
Some horses are on their front end, yet they have a high head set.
Also be very careful when so-and-so says never bend your horse more than a few inches.
If he feels like he swallowed a telephone pole, then you probably should over bend him for a week or so. Exaggerate flexing his ribcage and shoulders and neck. Then refine this by adding some outside rein support and teach him to bend correctly.
Sometimes it’s not a bad idea to ask him to arc evenly throughout his whole body, lower his head, tuck his chin in a little, and be soft and giving, even if he gets behind the vertical a little.
You would not want to continue to ride him like that, but it’s a means to an end.
Ray Hunt would say, “I ride my horses crooked in the beginning, so I can ride them straight later on.”
Some maneuvers are a means to an end.
Get The Legs Before The Head Position
Which brings me back to the point that it’s imperative for a horse to understand what to do with his legs.
And then you can refine that by helping them learn to round their back and maybe elevate their head with some and drop their head with others.
With some horses, you may need to ride them around with a low head carriage for a while just to get them more stretched out in their topline. Once that’s good, you might need to start trying to elevate their head a little bit.
Get to where he knows you’re talking to his legs. You can control the tempo and placement of his legs. In my experience, this is much more important to get first before worrying too much about head position.
When the legs are operating clean and balanced correctly, you may find that a correct bend and head position almost shape up on their own.
Listen To Your Horse
If this article has made you more confused than ever, I hope you will dive into studying the deeper levels of all this stuff. Listen to the horse. They are always more right than any human.
What your horse needs will depend on where he’s at.
They’re not all at the same place.
With some, you might encourage a higher headset.
With others, you might need to encourage something different.
Don’t get locked into any one way of thinking. All the different horse disciplines have good things to offer. Don’t reject an idea just because it’s different or you’ve never tried it before. I like to dabble in all of it.
Keep an open mind and embrace whatever seems to work for you and your horse.
Listen to my PODCAST on this topic.
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