Horizontal Imbalance

Because of the relatively heavy head and neck, horses carry more weight on the front legs than on the hind legs? We call it the horizontal imbalance.

This unequal weight distribution between front legs and hind legs is one of the 8 dimensions of natural asymmetry.

Naturally, all horses carry about 3/5th of their weight on the shoulders and 2/5th on the hind legs.

For example, let’s say that a horse weighs 500 kilos. Then 300 kilos are carried on the front legs and 200 kilos on the hind legs.

Horizontal imbalance: a problem?

As long as the horse enjoys his time in the pasture and no-one is riding him it's not a problem.

It will only become a problem when the horse has a rider on his back.

Then the horizontal imbalance and the extra weight on the horse’s fragile front legs can cause many problems.

Symptoms when riding a horse

When a rider rides a horse that moves in its natural horizontal imbalance, the following symptoms can arise:

• The horse leans on the rein and uses the hand of the rider for support, like a fifth leg.
• The horse can overreach because the front legs are too slow leaving the ground.
• The horse shows little shoulder-freedom.
• An unbalanced horse can become tense. Such a horse has problems relaxing and can show resistance to the rider.
• A tense horse will not give the rider a light, equal, elastic and vivid contact with the bit.
• An unbalanced horse will lose its rhythm when making transitions in tempo.
• The horse moves “downhill”.
• Due to the weight of the rider that is added to the front legs, strain injuries can occur.

So, the horizontal imbalance makes riding much less fun and can even cause some serious issues.

How to handle horizontal imbalance

How can we enjoy our riding more and prevent our horse from strain injuries?

The answer is simple: we need to rebalance our horse and prepare our horse for riding.

This means, every horse needs Straightness Training.

Thanks to the logical system of progressive exercises we can shift the center of mass more back and as a result, the horse will start to move ‘uphill’:

What about your horse's horizontal balance?

• Does your horse feel heavy on the reins?
• Does he have a ‘hard mouth?’
• Does he stumble a lot?
• Are the back hoofs taping the front hoofs during riding?
• Or does he feel light in your hands?
• And is he moving ‘uphill’?

If you are concerned that your horse moves too much on his front legs, or simply would love the feeling of more lightness during riding, it’s really worth learning more about Straightness Training.

Your next STep

You’ve now learned about natural asymmetry, which is the hidden force behind your struggles. 

Straightness Training helps you end your struggles once and for all, and create balance and harmony with your horse.

Join the FREE Straightness Training Masterclass and learn exactly how to create real change:

• Sign up HERE for the "How to Make it Possible" masterclass »