Racehorse evasion: Haunches Right

Leo's biggest evasion is dropping behind my leg and throwing his haunches right.

• Anytime I ask him to go slower and he doesn't agree, he will throw his haunches right, drop his head behind the vertical, and drag me around the ring. 
• Anytime he gets frazzled and begins to implode, he drops his haunches right and starts to slow down. I know when an implosion is coming because when I put my leg on to either 1) send him forward or 2) move his haunches back to the left, he won't do it. Back in North Carolina, when Leo imploded, I had to get off because he got so upset he just wouldn't move forward and would start going backwards or spin and run in the other direction. Now, in most occasions, when Leo starts to implode, we can work through it. 

It's like a security blanket. When things get tough, or he's confused, he starts to throw his haunches in.

Why does he throw his haunches right?

Ann Marie was helping me jump school last week and she said it's something he learned at the track. As a teen, Ann Marie exercised racehorses. She said to slow the horses down, the exercise jockeys will hold the left rein, turning them into the rail. The horses learn to throw their haunches right and continue running through the bridle. Sideways.

How come no one has clued me into this before? Well, I haven't worked with anyone that has exercised racehorses on the track before so that could be why.

Today, I asked Daniel Clasing about it. Daniel has been boarding his 3-star horse, Houston, at the farm the past couple weeks in order to prep for the Aiken eventing season. He's on the wait list for Rolex (crazy) and if that weren't impressive enough, the kid is just 26. I saw on his facebook page that he exercises racehorses so I asked him about the haunches right thing.

He said Ann Marie speaks the truth. Evidently, few trainers bother breaking or training their horses properly (Daniel cited Michael Matz as an exception to the rule). Most of the time, the exercise riders don't have the strength to slow the horses down, so they rely on their inside rein and the horses naturally will throw their haunches right. The leg means nothing to a horse on the track, and there is never a correction to the haunches swinging right.

Ways to correct haunches falling right

• Like Phoebe DeVoe, Daniel recommend leg-yielding off the rail while going to the left. And like Phoebe, he said only do it for a couple strides, then allow the horse to go straight, do it again for a couple strides, etc. He said it's more important to teach the horse to obey your leg, not that you need to completely eradicate the issue/behavior.
• Rebecca Howard had an effective approach to correct this while going to the right which focused on moving the shoulders so they are in-line with the haunches. Counter-bend left, opening right rein to move the shoulders right, right leg to move the haunches left or at minimum prevent them from dropping right. 
• Another fix when cantering to the right comes from Courtney: Ride shoulder-fore down the long sides to straighten out the body. Leo finds this quite challenging. 
• Courtney also has me leg-yield on a circle, at both trot and canter, to get Leo to accept and move away from my right leg. The canter is really challenging for Leo so sometimes this actually exacerbates the problem - if Leo starts to resist and implode.  I have to read his mood before attempting it or move on quickly to something else should he get overwhelmed. 
• 1/19/13 Phoebe DeVoe Lesson Update: Following Rebecca Howard's approach, Phoebe said I needed to gain control over Leo's shoulders - then whatever he does with his haunches won't matter because I will be able to align his shoulders with his haunches. We worked on shoulder-fore on a circle at both trot and canter. It involved leg-yielding on the circle but leading with the shoulders, not the haunches. Also a great exercise! 

Did someone say "leg"?

Though our horses are supposed to accept and listen to our leg, and this is a fundamental training principle, they learn very quickly how to train us not to use our leg. Even Daniel admitted this. We always think we're the only trainer in the rider-horse relationship, but they are training us too.

Looking back, I realize both Apollo and Leo trained me not to use my leg - but in different ways. Apollo would buck when I put my leg on (and fall behind my leg). So I rode more "softly" and didn't use my leg as much as I needed to so I didn't upset him. Leo will over-react to my leg and go faster than I want. It was worse earlier in his training than it is now. He didn't have much strength and didn't accept any contact, so this resulted in a very uncomfortable trot or canter. Again, my solution was to ride "softly" and not use my leg so much. Little did I know, both horses were training me not to use my leg.

Leo's education has progressed dramatically so, in most instances, I can now correct straightness problems with my leg. But I still run into problems because I am not in the habit of riding with my leg on consistently. For example, when jumping I might feel like we have too much canter to a fence and I will take my leg off. Then I loose the quality of the canter (what little it might have had), stutter at the fence, and have a sloppy jump - all because my leg isn't there to support. On a rational level, I know my leg still has to be on (regardless of speed) in order to develop the canter and support the jump, but I am in the habit of taking it off. My horses have trained my body well.

Daniel said, he's been taught to ride with his calf on all the time. The seat remains light and the leg pushes the horse forward into the bridle.  The idea being that the horse becomes less reactive and the rider can develop the quality of the canter. (He trains with Phillip Dutton.) Ultimately, the horse needs to learn what the leg means and it does not mean jump forward and be spastic. If you never take your leg off, their evasions are never rewarded. It also helps build confidence in your horse because you're always there, supporting them!

Exercise

This is an exercise Daniel used with a young horse who was overly reactive to the rider's leg:

• Put a fence in a place where you can ride a large circle over it (30m)
• Develop your canter with constant leg pressure through your calf. Do a couple circles just developing a balanced canter, leg always on pushing the horse into the bridle. Do this until the horse settles into the bridle and stops reacting to the leg. (You can do this just on the flat too). 
• Approach the fence; same canter; leg on still
• Jump fence, leg on over fence (Sally says this will help you retain the quality of canter after the fence. And for Leo, it prevents him from getting too low in the bridle on landing)
• Canter away and around the circle, leg still on
• Do several loops over the fence
• Based on what I saw, the canter and jump will get much steadier as the horse stops reacting and settles into the leg contact. The horse also went from taking long spots, to jumping from the base of the fence. 

It's nice being able to pick the brain of all these advanced riders at AOPF!