Hello Everyone,
This month we are still talking about knowing how our horse moves so that we can better help them in their movement. We are going to talk about a Disengagement. What is a Disengagement, and how knowing what the foot falls in a disengagement are can help our horse.
To disengage your horse is a psychological move for your horse. Most people think that all it means is the horse moves his rump around his front quarters, but it is much more than that. To do a correct Disengagement of the hindquarters your horse has to be mentally and physically soft.
When the horse does a disengagement and is moving his rump to the right his left hind leg should be crossing over his right hind leg. This is where it starts to get into the psychological part and shows you whether your horse is soft and trusts you or not. This is why: For a horse to run away they have to have their hind feet separate and ready to run, if they cross their hind legs they can not run off. Try it yourself, stand with your legs apart and have your friend try to push you over, it is going to be easier for you to stay standing up. Next try to run off, your feet are in the right position to run off so you can run off easily. Now, while standing, cross your legs, have your friend try to push you over, it is really hard for you to stay standing up. Next try to run off, that is going to be really hard also, what you are going to have to do is fix your feet by uncrossing them to run off.
Now, horses knowing that they can’t run off in this position are not going to want to put themselves in that position unless they trust you and are soft in the body. What they will sometimes do when asked to disengage is they will bring their feet together and disengage but never cross the one foot over the other, or they will cross their leg behind the other one instead. So when asking your horse to disengage, make sure the feet are crossing over each other (if you are on the right side asking your horse to disengage his rump to the left, his right hind leg should cross over the left).
A disengagement has many uses:
1. To get your horse soft and relaxed and trusting in you.
2. To have some emergency brakes while riding your horse.
To mention just a couple.
When your horse disengages, his rump should swing away and his front feet should walk around in a small circle. If your horse is sticking his front feet and not moving them, you are not getting a true disengagement. If he is sticking his front feet (like some teach) he is going to start getting stiff and brace against the move. Also when the front feet stick your horse’s rib cage gets very stiff and rigid. You want your horse to be fluid and soft. So he should have his front feet moving in a small circle while his hind feet move in a disengagement.
So, while riding, to ask the horse to disengage to the right, you are going to bend your horse’s head around to the right and put your right leg on him a little behind the cinch, then you are also going to turn your head and look back at your horse’s hindquarters. By looking back at the hindquarters you put your hips in the right position to cause your horse to put his hips in the right position. By putting your leg back you are asking that inside hind leg to step farther and more under your horse’s rib cage. Your disengagement should be a small balanced full circle.
The disengagement is not only helping you with control, but it also is going to build the correct muscle in your horse’s hindquarters and back. The more a horse’s hind leg comes up under their rib cage the more muscle they build in their hindquarters and back.
When asking for that disengagement to the right with your leg, you can get your horse to step farther and better by putting a little bit more steady pressure on his side when his left hind is not under his body. Before it steps under his body if you just put a little bit more leg pressure on, the horse will step farther under his body. So have a little push and relax in your leg in time with his stepping.
So have fun with this task and I will have more next week!
If you have any questions or comments you can email me anytime, chelsie@chelsienaturalhorsemanship.com
Thank you everyone for all your kind and positive emails and keep them coming!!
Thanks,
Chelsie Kallestad
www.chelsienaturalhorsemanship.com
928-713-3468
