01/10/2016
Here is a good diagram that someone has shared on FB that shows correct head position, inverted, and overbent.
Generally speaking, I think most riders will prefer above to overbent, because it is easier to coax the head down from too high than up from too low.
That, at any rate, has been my experience. It is almost as if, once the horse learns to curl under, he gets "stuck" there.
Which is why it is so potentially lethal to use draw reins, bitting rigs, all those leverage devices that give you more power to bring the high head down.
Because so often the horse goes from above the bit, which, generally, can be carefully fixed, in a gently negotiated way, to behind the bit, which is so hard to correct.
I used to not get this, but there are about 5,098 things about horse training and horse riding which I used not to get, and every day I'm sure we all find new ones about which we can say, "I wish I had known then what I know now."
That should probably be the title of a very fat book!
