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NOVEMBER 2006 • VOLUME 15 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
Myth, Fallacy, accepted truths. One of the reasons given for accepting Long and low, roundness as the mode of training, for expounding on rollkur as a training method is the concept that we need to lift the lumbar back. What happens to our acceptance of these training methods if the basis of the concept, if the reason for the training method comes into question? Let's look at the concept that it is good to lift the lumbar back. When we look at a horse that is standing it is normal to expect the withers and the hips to be higher then the rest of the back. The training of dressage has us accepting the concept that while a horse in his normal balance is normal that to create the ultimate athlete that we need to create a new balance point for the horse one where he carries more weight on his hind legs and less on his front legs and this is called collection. It is because we are supposedly striving for collection. (Saying supposedly as true collection is not something that we always get to regularly see.) So in the process of striving for collection, we look at markers that show us visually that the horse is collected. One of those markers has become the lumbar back. We want to see a round back. A round back showing a back that has become active and engaged. But how is the horse supposed to round his back if the two things holding his back up, his hip and his withers have not changed?
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