Eclectic Classroom – Straightness and Collection with Deb Bennett, Ph.D.

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“Sometimes you’ll hear ‘dropping in’ or ‘falling in,’ but you may also hear ‘falling out.’ The contradiction between ‘falling in’ and ‘falling out’ reflects the prevailing confusion—a horse can’t do both at once—or can he? One instructor will say, ‘your horse is falling out’ and explain that means that he’s ‘dropping’ the inside shoulder—meaning that shoulder is carried lower than the other one. Sometimes they will say, ‘he’s overbending (or overflexing) laterally’ and that means the same thing. On the other hand, the instructor might say ‘your horse is falling in’—meaning that he’s over flexing in the opposite direction so that he lies on the inside shoulder, giving him a tendency to fade in toward the center of the arena or the center of the circle. This horse will also be ‘dropping a shoulder’—but it will be the outside one, not the inside one. How confusing this all becomes when a clear mental picture is not supplied! Whichever phrase you hear, and whichever shoulder the horse is ‘dropping,’ it comes down to the fact that he is traveling crooked.” – Deb Bennett, Ph.D. from “Bogus Ideas in Horsemanship – Dropping A Shoulder – Getting the Right Mental Picture”

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Join Eclectic Horseman contributor Deb Bennett, Ph.D., for a discussion on the straightness and collection. This article will be a jumping off point for the discussion, please read before class.