May 2008 • VOLUME 33 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Challenging Concepts: Disengagement

Many people think of the concept of disengagement as one that is related to those who ride and train in a western style, a cowboy method of training, if you will. The truth might surprise some, especially if we were to associate the concepts of disengagement with a very famous historical figure - Faverot de Kerbrech - a famous student of Francois Baucher.

In the western world, disengagement of the hindquarters is described in several different ways. The basic concept is a displacement of the hind end.

A title in Kerbrech’s literature is "A way to make the lower jaw yield by a displacement of the rump.” Sounds quite familiar, doesn’t it?

In the western world, the distinction is not to use disengagement to make the lower jaw yield but to use the disengagement of the haunches as a method to gain control of the horse. A way to take away the flight response.

The actual description of what disengagement is, by western trainers, is that it occurs when the horse crosses his hind legs. That when the hind leg crosses, the engine is in neutral. That it stops the horse’s forward impulsion.

It must be hoped that the trainer means to stop the horse from going forward, rather than to stop the horse’s forward impulsion. Even in halt, levade, piaffe, and reinback, we truly do need the horse to maintain their forward impulsion, but it is quite possible that they are using the correct words - that this training technique causes the horses to lose all of their forward impulsion.

One explanation of how to do it, is to drive your horse forward then