Jethro and Michael Alway at the Horses Inside Out Clinic. Photo by Wise Images Photography
It was a hot July day when roughly 200 attendees piled into the arena at the Morven Park International Equestrian Center for the Painted Horse Demonstration from Horses Inside Out, sponsored by HCS, USA Saddlery. Starting at 9am, world-renowned clinician Gillian Higgins and a team of volunteers had been painting the musculoskeletal system onto 11-year-old show jumper-turned-eventer, “Jethro,” and “Whisper,” an 18-year-old Grand Prix dressage horse. The job took several layers of water-based paint and at least four fans to get the horses dry and painted in time for the 4pm clinic. Both horses are owned by four-star eventer and horsemanship trainer Michael Alway and USDF Silver and Gold medalist Marion Alway.
The clinic was hosted by HCS, USA Saddlery, in conjunction with the North American Saddlery School. According to HCS, USA Saddlery co-owner Amber Markley, the company hosted the clinic to offer education for horse owners that’s sorely lacking in the USA. “Being saddle fitters, it’s really important for us to educate our clients. We find that if we educate our clients, they become better horse people,” Amber said. “We just absolutely fell in love with Gillian during our travels to the United Kingdom and we thought her way of teaching anatomy really brings it to life. We felt that this was a hole in our American education system that we could help fill.”
Equine anatomy is a subject that can easily become tedious and dry, but Gillian made it fun. “For me, it’s not just here’s a bone, it’s called this, but it’s about trying to give people the opportunity and the tools to assess movement in order to improve performance and comfort,” she said.
The audience of riders, farriers, saddle fitters, and even a few men from the U.S. Army Caisson Platoon, sat on the edges of their seats as Gillian covered everything from how the horse’s back works to exercises you can do at home to improve your horse’s performance.
Going into the clinic, Gillian’s goal was to “try and give people ways to improve the horse’s way of going without having to kick or pull or tie down or put an excessive amount of pressure on the horse,” Gillian said. “I hope that the audience could see that actually the things that we did to improve their way of going was so simple, like using the canter to improve the trot and those walk/trot/walk transitions to improve the trot.”
Gillian Higgins holding a bone up to Whisper at the Horses Inside Out Clinic. Photo by Wise Images Photography
Gillian had the audience out of their seats and doing some interactive exercises to better understand equine biomechanics at least twice throughout the night, including raising their arms and poking their neighbors to demonstrate the effect of the leg on the external abdominal oblique muscle. Her husband, Doug, was quickly appointed “bone-holder” for the evening as he displayed equine vertebrae in the beginning of the night, while Gillian explained not only the anatomy, but how better understanding anatomy can impact your everyday training and riding. The two horses, Jethro and Whisper, had a grand entrance complete with music and applause, which Jethro didn’t really appreciate, but he warmed up to the crowd by the end of the night.
The clinic was a unique mix of educational seminar, gorgeous riding, and lesson auditing. The first half of the night began with an interesting speech by Kay Hastilow from HCS, USA Saddlery on saddle fitting, followed by a presentation on anatomy basics, complete with real bones, by Gillian. The second half of the night focused on exercises on the lunge and under saddle. Michael Alway and Jethro demonstrated equine biomechanics and anatomy under saddle, while Marion Alway demonstrated the same principles in-hand with Whisper.
I’m going to be honest, I left with roughly six pages of notes. If my hand hadn’t cramped, I would have had more. Everything Gillian said had practical applications to the sport horse. Whether you ride Western or English, event or drive, Gillian provided attendees with real world exercises they could use to maintain their horse’s long-term soundness. Every exercise was discussed in relation to the equine musculoskeletal system and was demonstrated by Jethro and Whisper. It was amazing to see exactly what happens to the horse’s skeleton in the piaffe, as performed by Whisper, or over a fence, as performed by Jethro. The painted horses were almost like holding an extra large x-ray machine to a horse in motion.
While some of the clinic covered the basics– i.e. what happens to the horse’s spine in collection, the lessons were brought into sharp relief thanks to the ability to see the spine move and change as Whisper demonstrated a long and low stretchy trot versus a lifted and engaged trot over poles. I left with a new appreciation for what is happening to my horse’s body when I ask for collection and new ideas on how I can work with her biomechanics for better performance.
One of my favorite takeaways was Gillian’s Four Ways Horses Support Back Posture:
- Gillian’s first bullet point was a simple equation: When the horse’s head lifts, the back hollows, creating reduced back support. When the horse’s head goes down, the back goes up, creating more back support. Yes, this equation is simplistic and it’s much more nuanced than I can capture in one bullet point. I will note that Gillian went on to discuss how you have to balance providing back support with long and low under saddle exercises, while also reducing weight on the forehand.
- Second, back support increases when the hind limb reaches underneath the horse. This causes the pelvis to tuck, therefore rounding the back and providing better back support.
- Here’s where things really get interesting: Horses can also support their back by using their thoracic sling muscles. A properly developed thoracic sling supports good back posture by lifting up the horse’s withers, thereby better supporting the saddle and rider.
- “Without abs, there is no back,” Gillian said when she came to her fourth bullet point. Contrary to popular belief, she explained, the back muscle (longissimus dorsi) does not lift the back. Instead, the flexor chain muscles in the abdomen lift the back. Next time your trainer gets after you to better engage your horse’s abs, know that without ab engagement, your horse physically cannot lift their back, and you are riding in a false collection.
I knew some of this list prior to the clinic, but I never really knew why encouraging the hind legs to track under the horse was optimal for back support. Seeing the painted muscles contract and change shape right in front of my eyes offered another level of understanding. Gillian approached the topic of back support from the perspective that the horse’s back wasn’t designed to support the weight of the rider, so it’s up to us, as our horse’s personal trainer, to change our horse’s posture and way of going to create that support.
Jethro ridden by Michael Alway at the Horses Inside Out Clinic. Photo by Wise Images Photography
Gillian’s mantra throughout the clinic was, “if you don’t move it, you lose it.” She encourages horse owners to put their horse’s joints and muscles through their full range of motion on a regular basis. Otherwise, that range of motion will quickly become restricted
I left the clinic with several exercises to incorporate into my Thoroughbred’s daily routine. Gillian is all about easy ways to improve your horse’s posture without adding significant time or effort into your day. She gave us ideas on ways to improve our horse’s posture just walking to and from the pasture. Exercises included backing up to increase range of motion in the horse’s lumbosacral junction, two or three small circles in each direction to create more bend in the ribs, and walking over poles or logs to build fitness in the horse’s core.
If you want to incorporate one exercise from Gillian’s clinic, then I would say add more poles into your everyday rides. Not only do poles require the horse to lift their legs higher, which builds core fitness, poles also encourage the base of the neck to lift and increase back rotation. When you’re riding over poles, remember Gillian’s advice, “Let the poles do the work.” As she counseled Michael, don’t rush the poles. Instead, sit back and let the horse think as he moves through them. If the horse begins to rush or suck back, the spacing of the poles themselves will correct the issue.
When Michael rode in on Jethro, Gillian began critiquing his ride, explaining what happens to the horse’s skeleton over poles and fences, as well as at the walk, trot, and canter. At the beginning of the ride, Jethro was demonstrating a moderately lackluster trot, which Michael told me beforehand he’s been working on. Gillian immediately picked up on his goal and introduced several exercises to improve it. By the end of the clinic, Jethro was strutting around the ring in a nearly ground-shaking powerful trot.
I caught up with Michael Alway after the clinic to get his perspective on the clinic. “I thought it was great. It was a good learning experience as a rider. It was also a good learning experience for my horse,” Michael said. “When he gets tense, he wants to get jiggy and quick. He gets a little forward and then if I use too much rein, he goes behind the vertical, so it all snowballs. She gave me some really good exercises on how to interrupt that. At the end, I was trying to kind of control him through the poles because he’s so powerful. And as soon as I let the reins go and let the poles do the work, it was amazing. It’s a totally different feeling.”
Jethro and Michael Alway at the Horses Inside Out Clinic. Photo by Wise Images Photography.
HCS, USA Saddlery and the North American Saddlery School did a great job hosting the clinic. According to co-owner Amber Markley, “We hope that at least the attendees will leave thinking about how we’re putting the tack on in correlation with how their horse is built, how their horse stands on his own four feet, and how their horses move,” Amber said. “Because if they can start to think about and understand the principles [of equine biomechanics], they’ll understand how the tack is meant to function as well.”
The inaugural clinic was a definite success with good feedback from volunteers, riders, and attendees. If you missed out this year, rumor has it there just might be another Painted Horse Demonstration from Horses Inside Out, HCS, USA Saddlery, and the North American Saddlery School in 2024.
Coverage of this event was sponsored by HCS, USA Saddlery and the North American Saddlery School. Thinking of becoming a saddle fitter? Check out the North American Saddlery School here. If you want to drool over some gorgeous saddles or get your tack fitted, check out HCS, USA Saddlery here.
