Technical paper on carrying weakness by Karin Kattwinkel

How good is your horse’s back? Is it strong enough for the rider’s weight or tired and weak?

Article by horse health trainer Karin Kattwinkel (Dipl. Ing. agr.)

Have you ever asked yourself whether your horse can really carry you? And if so, how long without suffering damage? Are horses actually strong enough by nature to carry a rider?

Certainly not the latter. Because they are “constructed” by nature as grazing animals without a load on their backs. Because their food was originally quite low in energy (steppe grass) and they had to move many kilometres day in, day out to get their fill and find water, they carry more than half of their own weight without having to use muscle power thanks to the neck-back ligament system and some ingenious details in the skeleton. The longer and lower the neck is carried (grazing posture), the less effort is required. In this posture, more than half of the rider’s weight is carried without muscular effort. But also the wide forward stride of the hindquarters makes it easier to carry the rider’s own weight (and also that of the rider). That is why forward-downward riding and skilful driving towards the bit are guarantors for healthy riding horse backs. Unfortunately, you see them less and less.

Pulling” in the front and “stabbing” in the back is just as damaging as “riding without contact”. 

Where ambitious sport riders and imitators pull the horse’s neck short and the nose behind the vertical, the horse’s back is definitely tense. But many recreational riders who deliberately do not want to make these mistakes are also harming their horses. Long riding on a loose rein and/or too little driving also makes the horse’s back tired.

Many horses get into a state of weakness at a young age because they have already been loaded with rider’s weight during unfavourable growth phases and had to “walk on the reins”. Then you buy this old burden with them, so to speak. Most horses do not get out of this condition on their own.

Horse model with low withers
Horse model with low withers

Young horse in overbuilt growth phase or also stretcher exhausted horse – in both the rump lies low and the croup appears higher than the withers. (Photo and model: Ralf Döringshoff)

Horse model with raised torso/withers
Horse model with raised torso/withers

Condition with raised torso/withers – this is the only way to activate the abdominal muscles! (Photo and model: Ralf Döringshoff)

Horse model with low withers
Horse model with low withers

Young horse in overbuilt growth phase or also stretcher exhausted horse – in both the rump lies low and the croup appears higher than the withers. (Photo and model: Ralf Döringshoff)

Horse model with raised torso/withers
Horse model with raised torso/withers

Condition with raised torso/withers – this is the only way to activate the abdominal muscles! (Photo and model: Ralf Döringshoff)

How to recognise carrying weakness

This is when the chest and back sag downwards. This overloads the chest muscles and overstretches the neck muscles. The shoulder blade muscles tense to achieve stability. The croup muscles pull to lift the back from behind. The hindquarter muscles (trouser muscles) pull to stabilise the pelvis. They are often overdeveloped. Often the carrying weakness is associated with blockages in the base of the neck and the neck joints. It is often caused by improper and too early breaking in.

Other or additional causes can be

  • Too heavy a rider
  • Too much weight of the horse itself (pasture belly, pregnancy)
  • Riding for too long for the horse’s current state of training
  • Too short and/or always the same rein measure
  • Use of short and/or rigid auxiliary reins
  • Clamping saddle
  • Clamping rider
  • Active rearing with the hand
  • Disharmonious hoof balance
  • Pain in the legs/hooves
  • Lack of impulsion from behind (hindquarters do not go under)

 

What to do when the horse’s back is tired?

Any measures that reduce the pressure on the back, allow the back to stretch, stimulate the abdominal and thoracic muscles to work again and activate the hindquarters are helpful.

These include:

  • Working freely or on the lunge line without a saddle and without a girth at a brisk pace (after the warm-up phase) with many transitions between gaits and at the pace of each gait.
  • Initially work only on large lines
  • Include cavaletti and small jumps
  • Extensive walks in the countryside or as a hand horse
  • Circus lessons: Bowing, complimenting, platform work (only front legs on platform, important: mount with low head)
  • Work on the hand: Shoulder in at a walk alternating with voltes
  • At the earliest in 3 months, cautious re-start (light, well seated rider, optimally fitting saddle, lots of cross-country – uphill and downhill, calm cantering)
Schematic representation of the torso muscles
Schematic representation of the torso muscles

Schematic representation of the suspension of the thorax between the front legs/shoulders (Graphic: Ralf Döringshoff and Peter Selbach)

Schematic representation of trunk muscles with weak load-bearing capacity
Schematic representation of trunk muscles with weak load-bearing capacity

Suspension of the thorax in the state of carrying weakness (Graphic: Ralf Döringshoff and Peter Selbach)

Schematic representation of the torso muscles
Schematic representation of the torso muscles

Schematic representation of the suspension of the thorax between the front legs/shoulders (Graphic: Ralf Döringshoff and Peter Selbach)

Schematic representation of trunk muscles with weak load-bearing capacity
Schematic representation of trunk muscles with weak load-bearing capacity

Suspension of the thorax in the state of carrying weakness (Graphic: Ralf Döringshoff and Peter Selbach)

Horse with markings of skeleton and musculature
Horse with markings of skeleton and musculature

red: m. serratus (neck part and thorax part), yellow: long hyoid muscle and neck part of the m. longissimus, grey: scapula and upper arm (Photo: Peter Selbach)

Rocking helps: By rocking back and forth on the seesaw, many tensions are released and the coordination of the muscles improves. It is a varied exercise for horses.

Longitudinal rocking strengthens the ventral muscle chain and relaxes the topline.
Lateral rocking strengthens the thoracic and thorax stabilising muscles.
The build-up phase should be accompanied by physiotherapeutic exercises such as lengthening the topline via tail traction, lifting the belly via provocation with the fingers along the abdominal seam, closing the hindquarters in stance as well as circus lessons such as bowing or standing with the front legs on a platform while eating from the ground.

More info on this and many other topics at www.equo-vadis.de. Recordings of the webinar series “Raus aus der Trageschwäche” as well as the hybrid calendars with step-by-step plan for therapy and training including instruction videos www.equovadis-shop.com.
FB group “Raus aus der Trageschwäche”.

I would like to thank Karin very much for this important and informative contribution to our blog! It is such a significant topic and really deserves our attention in training.

If you want to offer your horse exceptional deep muscle training, mobilisation and fun rehab (or prevention!), we have another very special offer for you here: The Steigerwald.Trainer for horse rocking will start soon. Here you will learn from the beginnings to the challenging lessons how to use the horse rocker in an optimal and versatile way for health maintenance, rehabilitation training and muscle building. I will accompany you and your horse individually and closely, which is why places are limited, so take your chance and invest in your horse’s health!

Comprehensive online health course with horse seesaw

In February, the Steigerwald. T seesaw trainer starts as an online course. It is suitable for everyone who wants to take this wonderful full-body workout to a really good level with their horse.

A lot has happened since I invented skid rockers for horses in 2014. Initially dismissed as a crank or a gimmick, more and more horse people are becoming aware of horse rockers.

The advantages are manifold! For example, you can train regardless of ground conditions. The arena is muddy or frozen? No problem with the right Steigerwald.T rocker frame. Are the horseflies pestering you and your horse outside? Train indoors. The small space requirement of a horse rocker compared to what you need for riding, lunging or manual work is a real plus.

In addition, training with horse rockers is suitable for all age groups. A young horse easily and playfully learns to know and consciously move its body. Not everyone can offer their horse varied trails. If it lives on an average paddock and a “normal” horse pasture, sensorimotor stimuli are missing. However, these are important for the development and maintenance of a good body feeling.

A large part of the health problems of horses is related to the musculoskeletal system. Training with horse rockers makes an important contribution to prevention and is used very successfully in rehabilitation.

Recently, a veterinarian reported that horses in the brine chamber on the seesaw are much better at sliming down. Rocker training not only has a positive effect on the musculoskeletal system, but also influences the internal organs. These are partly “suspended” from the spine by fasciae and are gently massaged and activated during rocking.

But how do you get there with your horse? As always in life and in training, many roads lead to Rome and I would like to make it possible for all horse lovers to find out and successfully follow the path that suits their horse with the rocker trainer online course. The biggest challenges are beautiful, flowing rocker wapps and correct hank flexion for the advanced riders.

You can expect the following contents:

  • Prerequisites: Politeness, walk along, stop, stay
  • Moving with feed points
  • single steps forward and backward
  • Moving hooves manually (modelling)
  • Tail and nose target
  • Walk on limited ground
  • Reduce padding and stabilisation
  • Create luffing movements
  • Transitions to independent rocking
  • Extending independent activity to the target: Ten flowing teeter-totter bends
  • Two-legged bob for the forehand
  • Two-legged rocker for the hindquarters
Steigerwald.T-2BW
Steigerwald.T-2BW

An all-round carefree package! Simply everything you need for a healthy and sound training with a horse from the beginning up to the really demanding lessons.

You’ve already bought an existing webinar on rocker training and you’re not sure how much is new? Don’t worry, for one thing: This course is much more comprehensive and special: I personally coach you and your horse on your way. On the other hand: All purchasers of an existing webinar on seesaw training will receive the full purchase price credited to the online course!

Not all details have been finalised yet. However, it is certain that we will limit the number of participants so that I can coach you individually. So if you already know that this is the right thing for you and your horse, take the chance and secure your place for more health and joy of movement: Steigerwald. T seesaw trainer as an online course

Back activity on the horse rocker
Back activity on the horse rocker

Horse Seesaws: Which size fits?

What are the questions that horse people who are concerned with sensible gymnastics through seesaw training ask? Of course, a lot is about how to get the horse to move on the seesaw in such a way that his musculoskeletal system gets the greatest possible benefit from it. But before the beautiful muscles can sprout, the right size of seesaw has to be chosen. In our seesaw shop

we offer the so-called full-body seesaws. We created the name because, on the one hand, the whole horse’s body is trained on it and, on the other hand, there is usually not much more space on such a seesaw than for a whole horse’s body.
In the seesaw shop there is a size finder that is based on the horse’s stature, but I would like to address a few other important factors.
An easily measurable parameter for the right horse rocker is the so-called “wheelbase.” There are square and rectangular types of horses, which come in different lengths for the same stick size.
To determine the wheelbase, I recommend the following procedure: You stop your horse from moving and measure the length from the tip of the front hoof to the ball of the equilateral hind hoof. Then let your horse walk a few steps, stop again and measure again. After five measurements, take the cut and find the length your horse needs for full body rocking.

Now, many equids often lie exactly on the border between two rocker sizes. We offer them in 1000, 1250, 1500 and 2000 millimetres length in the footprint. This is also the reason for the product designations, e.g. T-1500 of the Steigerwald.T horse saddles.
What if your horse has a wheelbase of 160 centimetres? Of course it can also bob nicely on a Steigerwald.T- 1500, if it puts itself together a bit there. But it can only bob in this way, because there is simply not enough room for all the other positions. The particularly beneficial effect of the loose swinging on muscles, fasciae, tendons, ligaments and joints cannot be achieved in this way. The reason for this is that your horse has to build up and maintain a certain tension in order to be able to stay on the reduced and unstable support surface at all. The stretching, relieving component of the “teeter-totter” movement is therefore considerably less.
Of course, the “rocking mountain goat” is a great workout and a real eye-catcher especially for people who find it hard to believe that you can get horses on such training equipment at all. Anyone who has ever sat on a horse’s back and felt the different types of seesaws will confirm that there is a lot of tension in the whole body when it pushes itself together on the little horse seesaw.
That’s why I recommend a larger size when choosing a horse rocker. You can place your horse sometimes more open, sometimes more closed, sometimes slightly sawhorse-like like a rocking horse, sometimes more at the front end, sometimes more at the back end of the seesaw. And then you have a much greater variance in the strain on the muscles.
Then, of course, there is the question of how old your horse is, or whether he has physical problems such as spavin or problems with his spine. In this case it makes sense to make the task easier for such a candidate.
Especially stepping on the seesaw is easier if there is more space. This also applies to horse-human teams that do not have much experience with ground work or clicker training. An experienced trainer can set the horse tricky tasks such as a shire on a two-legged see-saw with fewer mistakes and more success.

If the seesaw is to be used more on a trail and for riding over, the T-2000 is a good choice. Due to the longer overhang, it has a fixed end for stepping on and off. This allows horses that need to balance the rider in addition to their own body to move safely into instability. It is approved for up to 800 kilos in wood and up to 1000 kilos in stainless steel and can also be managed by less experienced teams with a little practice.
After all, gymnastics training should be gymnastics with fun! If the tasks are easy to understand and manage, especially at the beginning, the joy is greater on both sides. In the Steigerwald.T Online Academy you can find great webinars on seesaw training (LINK) and there are now some seesaw trainers who can help with questions.
But back to the size of the seesaw. Horses are known to be herd animals and it is possible that several horses share a rocker. The following applies here: Smaller equids can move any size of see-saw, my two Shetty geldings with their 100 and 105 centimetres of stature and 102 and 98 centimeters wheelbase respectively can move all horse seesaws well up to the T-3000. If you have a pony with a wheelbase of 115 centimetres, for example, it will be able to perform versatile seesaw training on a T-1500 or T-2000. A big advantage of a larger footprint horse rocker is that you can rock up and down together with your horse. There are three variations:
1. you let yourself move and let your horse do all the work.
2. you move your horse. This is wonderful for loosening up his muscles and strengthens your hindquarters 😉
3. you find a common groove of alternating activity and passivity. A wonderful way to move together with your horse!
There is no right and wrong, every seesaw moves differently, every hoof length change in position changes the whole balance structure. For transport, I always recommend using a handcart. This is a good way to move all the seesaws from A to B on your own and is easy on the back.
Whichever seesaw you choose and whichever one you are already using, enjoy the valuable training time you spend together with your horse!

Variety in training with horse rockers – The rotary plate

With this blog I would like to introduce you to the Steigerwald.T turntable as well as its advantages for health-promoting horse rocker training.

A Steigerwald.T horse rocker in round or oval offers endless training possibilities for a full-body workout.

I have been using this innovative therapy aid and training device for many years. My very first turntable consisted of the edge of an old wagon wheel on which I had screwed planks and a rubber mat. From the bottom there was a stable screw supported by a hemisphere.

The second was made from an old cable drum from civil engineering 😅. In the meantime, we have practical and more manageable ones at our Steigerwald.T horse rocker shop.

On it, every movement opens up new incentives for more health through conscious movement. Fitness, mobility, safety – the turntable offers endless possibilities.

The charm lies in the variable simulation of tilting movements, which provoke corresponding balancing movements. A turntable can be used in as many ways as few other gymnastic equipment for horses.

  • Trains the deep muscles as well as the core muscles in the abdomen and back
  • Improves strength endurance
  • Develops cognitive and sensory-motor skills
  • Improves coordination skills and thus surefootedness
  • Strengthens concentration
  • Creates flexibility in the brain through new movement patterns
  • Perfect physical preparation for trailer rides
Variety in training with horse rocker

You should definitely introduce your horse to instability in small steps. After all, it has to cognitively process what you want from it. On the other hand, the many small muscles along the spine have to get used to their new task.

As preparation and for the introduction, I recommend my course “Starting with seesaw training” and then, building on this, the live webinar on training with the turntable on 30.05.2022.

In training you can encourage your horse with several options after getting used to it:

The compass needle: Your horse turns on the spot. Hoof by hoof, it finds its footing on the limited surface – or not, as each repositioning changes the entire balance structure. In this way, it learns to move on a small, unstable surface and to stabilize itself at the same time.

The rocker: Due to the absence of runners, you only have to be careful that there are no unsightly pock-pock impact moments. But if your horse stands on only one half of the turntable, you can train nice, even swinging back and forth. The same applies to rocking from left to right.

The king’s way: Your horse shifts his weight from the back to the front, to the right, to the back, to the left, to the front again… And this in a fluid loop, so that part of the outer edge always keeps contact with the ground and there are no floating moments. None of mine have got that far yet. But you have to have goals too 😉 .

The Shaker: Through a hula-hoop-like movement coming from the entire torso, the plate rotates a bit on its hemisphere. The plate is in a hover for a moment, but moves to one side. The longer the shake provides the rotational movement, the better.

The Buddhist: Your horse keeps the plate in balance as long as possible so that the outer edge does not touch the ground.

In this video you can see different training options with the turntable.

Would you like to teach your horse these highly interesting movements? The live webinar for the brand new training will already take place on 30.05.2022 at 19:30. Secure your place and register here.

Steigerwald.T Seesaw-Trainer

Frieda on the the horse seesaw

The enthusiasm for horse seesaws is growing at an impressive pace. The many positive effects on a wide variety of horses and ponies mean that more and more equids are enjoying the benefits of a rocker. The Steigerwald.T seesaw models can be used in many different ways: Even simply stepping on or over them promotes the work of the deep muscles and is a real challenge for the coordination skills. However, if you want to achieve the best for your horse, it is worth working towards independent, flowing “seesaws”. This activity strengthens the muscles and, most importantly, gently softens the fascia. To do this, your horse shifts its weight rhythmically back and forth. And please do all this without bending the joints or using the neck.
Teeter training is complex, training teeter-totters requires good timing and a certain amount of practice. And this is where the Steigerwald.T seesaw trainers come into play: they guide you and your horse to muscle training with fun and understanding. To receive the certificate, practical participation on a weekend at Hof Steigerwald is a prerequisite. On both days, all participants train with horses of different levels of knowledge. From stepping on a confined surface to first instability, creating rocking movements, independent rocking wapps to Hanken flexion, everything is included. So you not only get a comprehensive picture of the structure and procedures in teeter-totter training, you also learn practically which pitfalls to avoid and what to change if things don’t go as planned. And that is quite often the case with horses in real life ? .
Then it’s a matter of training two “journeyman horses” and documenting the training by video and writing. Regine Witten from Plus-R Pferdtraining met the challenge with flying colours with two Icelandic mares. You can find the training sequences for 10 bobbing wapps for a click as well as from the first step to the hank bend on Youtube.
This year, Simone Mender from Simones Pferdetraining and Nadine Senekowitsch from Positv Fairstärkt have fulfilled the requirements and help interested and committed people train with the horse seesaws. We are very happy that even more horses will be able to enjoy seesaw training and congratulate them!

InterHorseFair – 4 weeks 3D online horse fair

InterHorseFair 2020

On the 11th of December the InterHorseFair opens its virtual doors for the first time.
An online horse fair…… Who would have thought it possible? This time last year I would at least not have expected to be represented online at horse fairs. The live fairs were too nice. The contact with people, the expert discussions and the exchange among like-minded people. I have always enjoyed these times very much. In 2020 everything will have gone differently than planned for most of us.

Out of necessity, Arien Aguilar and his team launched an online horse fair in spring, in a very short time. With an overwhelming response! I think it is fair to say that it was a complete success. Looking, shopping and training from the comfort of your own home is very trendy. In my opinion, the huge advantage of an online horse fair is that it is horse-friendly! No transport stress, no tight, loud boxes in full stable tents and no noise in the exhibition hall itself.

Now, many online congresses, challenges, online workshops and zooms later, the digital possibilities seem more and more familiar to us and we have come to appreciate this option.

From 11.12.-08.01.2021, the Equimondi team has once again provided the equestrian world with the opportunity to watch a veritable firework display of great trainers, workshops and demonstrations from the comfort of their own homes. Very comfortable without having to travel, searching for a parking space and queues in front of the ticket office. You can book your ticket here.

Of course we at Hof Steigerwald are part of the event. Our themes: Horse seesaws, True Horse Agility, Medical Training and learning behaviour/clicker training.

I will also be speaking about Medical Training at the 1st international virtual CONGRESS ON EQUINE HEALTH.

Will we see and hear each other?

speakers of the congress on equine health

Seesaw training international and other seminars

(Deutsch) Termine 2020 auf Hof Steigerwald[en:]dates 2020 at Hof Steigerwald

Now it’s already high summer and the planning of the 2021 dates is in full swing. There have been some important changes for the next seminars in 2020, the good news first:

Due to increased demand, I am holding an English-language seminar on horse seesaw training on October 3rd-4th at Hof Steigerwald. After my presentation “Benefits of seesaw training” at the annual conference of the ABMA in March had to be cancelled, this is a nice opportunity to bring this great topic closer to horse lovers outside the German speaking countries.

Horse seesaw and osteopathy with Antje Wirtz from Pferdereha Friesland will take place on October 24th. A one-day seminar for all those who want to learn more about the effects of bouncing training on the musculoskeletal system of our horses. Which seesaws are suitable for what? Which musculature is used in what? How to train it sensibly? are among other things questions that Antje and Nina will answer clearly.

Chicken module 1, the introduction to another dimension of clicker training, takes place from November 21st-25th. This seminar is open to all people who want to improve their training skills. The proven mixture of theory and practice provides deep insights into the laws of learning.

And now for the regrettable part: Our open house is cancelled. Even though it has always been great to spend the first weekend in September in a spirit of positive reinforcement, we will have to be patient until next year. Then it will be “11 years Hof Steigerwald”, which is also a good reason to celebrate in a very special way.

The Steigerwald.T Online Academy continues to grow and delights and teaches from the comfort of your home computer. The constantly growing offer ranges from “Ninas Basics” to “Delfis Weg” and individual topics such as “Training Plans” to “Training Specialist Horse” and the “Steigerwald.T Medical Trainer”. Check back from time to time, new contents are added regularly and we#re on the way to translate our webinar content into English.

Steigerwald.T at the EQUITANA 2019

We are on tour for you, because …

…the Equitana – one of the most important global horse fairs – will open its doors in Essen for 9 days! We are very happy to help enrich the Equitana with animal-friendly Steigerwald.Training, our equine gymnastics equipment and horse rockers.

In Hall 6 at Equimondi at booth No K29, you are welcome to hammer us with questions, try out our various horse rockers, have a chat about animal-friendly training and any other horse-related topic might be on your mind!

You can watch our live performances at the Cavallo Ring and Hall 6. You will see True Horse Agility and Medical Training with positive reinforcement. Come and see my two own horses, Frieda and Amadeus, showing that they not only have fun at work on their home turf, but also in the unfamiliar surroundings of a show ring. We will also demonstrate that positive reinforcement is an animal-friendly and effective way of training, that can be implemented with any horse – you only have to know how. You can watch us train horses of other trade fair participants that we have never met before – that will be a particularly exciting part, even for me! Thanks again to all the Facebook friends who helped find volunteers for this challenge.

In addition, I really look forward to stimulating round table discussions about dominance with regard to horses. And there will be even more. In the Horse Health Forum you can watch me talk and demonstrate the importance of the cooperation signal.

For times and places please refer to the timetable below or on the Equitana home page.

meet us at the equitana

Horse Rockers and Medical Training at the Pferd und Jagd

meet Nina Steigerwald at Pferd&Jadg

Horses seesaws and Medical Training at the “Pferd und Jagd”

At this year’s “Pferd und Jagd” Hof Steigerwald is represented at the Equimondi’s Horse Health Forum in Hall 26. We will demonstrate Medical Training and gymnastics equipment on-stage. At our booth in the Expert Village, we will share and discuss the Steigerwald.Ts: True Horse Agility, Training pet perfect, Training & Therapy equipment and paddock Trail.

On 6 December we will conduct a live demo of medical training at the symposium for horse health professionals in Hall 19 (Convention Center). And I have written an article for the exhibition’s magazine about this event with the veterinarian Ann-Kathrin Bäcker. Equimondi put together a great program featuring new insights, methods and therapeutic approaches. We look forward to seeing you!