Training Tips

September 2000 - The Process of "Collection"

If you’ve been around horses and have ridden for any length of time, you undoubtedly have heard phrases referring to horse’s mouths as being “tough, heavy, and hard”. Have you ever stopped to think about these phrases? Are they accurate? What makes a horses mouth be non-responsive?

When you stop and think of the phrase “tough mouth”, it implies that the tissue of the mouth has lost feeling, or has become numb, or insensitive. My personal favorite is “This horse lost his mouth”. He did? Where did it go? In most cases, horses that have been labeled as “heavy” in the mouth actually have just as much sensitivity as any other horse. How can this be? When a horse is said to have a heavy mouth, the sensation of dullness is not because the horse doesn’t feel what’s happening in his mouth, it’s because he’s tuned it out. Why would he do that? Most probably because he either cannot figure out how to come off of the bridle, or the rider has actually prevented him from finding comfort. And, just what is that sensation of soft that we feel anyway? Does it really have anything to do with the horse’s mouth? It does, but maybe not in the way that you think!

What the rider perceives as the sensation of “soft” in his hands, through the reins, is actually the flexion of all of the joints in the horse’s neck and ultimately, his entire body. In reality, there is no such thing as a “hard mouth”, only stiff necks and bodies. A “hard mouth” then, is actually the reaction of a horse’s body to what is happening to his mouth!

When talking about “soft mouths”, it helps to have an understanding of what physically has to take place within the structure of the horse in order for him to give the rider a “soft feel”. Any time a rider attempts to achieve a different frame with his horse, the result is a manipulation of that horse’s natural balance. What must occur within the structure of the horse that enables him to change his frame, yet balance himself so that he can remain “light in the bridle” is called the process of collection.

A common perception of the term “collection” is that it is a gathering together of the horse, resulting with his haunches underneath him and his nose is in a near vertical position. Actually, the first part is correct, but the nose, or head position, comes later. Collection is what enables the rider to position his horse’s head in any position that he wants. Collection is a three step process involving a series of muscles that contract and, just as importantly, relax. The first step in the process of collection is called engagement of the hindquarters. Engagement is when a horse drops his croup, and “tucks his butt” underneath him. A perfect example of engagement is a reining horse when he hits a sliding stop. His hocks are way under him, with his croup sloping downward as if he were “sticking his tail in the dirt”. Engagement is actually the flexion of the lumbosacral joint, which is achieved by the contraction of a muscle called the “illiopsoas”. This muscle lies underneath the horse’s pelvis.

The second step in the process of collection is the rounding of the horse’s back. This is achieved by the horse contracting his abdominal muscles, and relaxing the long muscles lying parallel to his spine, the Longisimus Dorsi. The result of both, engagement, and the rounding of the back is called “Bascule”, or “coiling of the loins”.

The third and final step in the process of collection, is the raising of the base of the horse’s neck. The spine in a horse’s neck is comprised of seven vertebrae, which are shaped in kind of an “S”. As you look at a horse’s neck, the spine does not follow the general outline as defined by the muscles and ligaments that we can touch, and know as his “neck”. Instead, it curves gently from the poll for two vertebrae, and then slopes and drops downward away from the visual “crest” of the neck, and finally gently curves into the body of the horse at more or less the midpoint of the shoulder. It is this final curve of the neck, at the base, or “root” of the neck that is the third and final key to the process of collection. A muscle that is also is underneath the spine, called the “Scalenus” muscle, contracts and causes the lower three segments of the “S” shape to flatten, or raise. The effect of this can also be said to be “a raising of the withers”.

When all three of these steps occur, a horse has the ability to hold himself up off of the bit and feel “light” or “soft” in the mouth. You’ve probably heard of the term “head carriage”. It is the neck, supported by the horse’s shift of hind leg position underneath him that carries the head and, hopefully, not your hands!

Next month I’ll talk about the other key components that, combined with collection, specifically enable a horse to be truly “soft”.

[ LaCroix Home ]