We’ve spent most of our lives being taught what “straight” means.
This is straight: |
This is straight: —
This is straight: □
And this is straight: ▭
They all have one thing in common: no bend.
Horse straightness in dressage works a little different and I’m here to tell you that this is also straight:
It is… if you’re a horse.
There are plenty of highly technical articles explaining straightness, natural crookedness, asymmetry and biomechanics in horses. But the basic principle is actually much simpler:
A horse can have a straight spine and still not be travelling straight.
And conversely:
A horse can have a slight bend through its body and be functionally straight.
The reason comes down to the shape of the horse.
Horses Aren’t Rectangles
Look at a horse from above.
The horse is relatively narrow through the shoulders and wider through the hindquarters.
Now imagine that horse travelling along the arena wall with its spine perfectly parallel to the wall.
At first glance, that sounds straight.
But it isn’t.
Because the hindquarters are wider than the shoulders, the hind feet will naturally travel on tracks slightly outside those of the front feet.
So although the spine is straight, the horse isn’t necessarily travelling straight through its limbs.
This is where dressage straightness starts to make more sense.
Horse Straightness in Dressage Is About the Tracks
In dressage, we aren’t trying to make the horse into a rigid ruler.
We want the hind feet to follow the tracks of the corresponding front feet.
The left hind should follow the left fore.
The right hind should follow the right fore.
This is often described as the horse travelling on two tracks. Each pair of legs following the same line of travel.
To achieve this while riding along the arena wall, the horse may need to carry its shoulders very slightly in front of the hindquarters.
In practical terms, this can look like a very mild shoulder-fore position.
The head and neck may be positioned slightly to the inside, with a small amount of bend through the horse’s body.
Now the spine is no longer perfectly parallel with the wall.
Yet the horse is travelling straighter.
Why?
Because the hind feet can now step into the tracks of the front feet.
Straight Does Not Mean Rigid
This distinction matters because riders can become obsessed with keeping the horse’s body perfectly parallel to the arena wall.
The wall then becomes the definition of straightness.
But the wall doesn’t tell you where the horse’s feet are travelling.
The tracks do.
A horse can look beautifully parallel to the wall while the hindquarters travel on a completely different line from the shoulders.
Likewise, a horse can have a subtle degree of positioning or bend while its hind legs are travelling directly behind its front legs.
The second horse is the straighter horse.
What About Natural Crookedness?
Every horse has some degree of natural asymmetry.
One side may feel easier to bend than the other. One hind leg may tend to step differently. The horse may prefer to carry its shoulders or quarters slightly to one side.
This matters in training, but we don’t need to turn it into a complicated argument about whether horses are “left-handed”, “right-handed”, hollow on one side or stronger on another.
The important part for the rider is much simpler:
Notice where the shoulders are. Notice where the hindquarters are. Notice where the feet are travelling.
Straightness is something we develop through training, not something we create by forcing the horse’s spine into a perfectly straight line.
Straightness on Curved Lines
The same principle applies on circles and curved lines.
A horse travelling correctly on a circle is obviously bent.
But it can still be straight.
On a circle, straightness means the horse’s body follows the curve of the line and the hind feet follow the tracks of the front feet.
If the quarters swing out, the horse isn’t straight.
If the quarters fall in, the horse isn’t straight.
If the shoulders drift away from the intended line, the horse isn’t straight.
The question isn’t:
“Is the horse bent?”
The question is:
“Are the shoulders, body and hindquarters aligned with the line of travel?”
So What Does Straightness Actually Mean?
Straightness in dressage is alignment.
The horse’s front and hindquarters are organised so that the hind legs follow the path of the forelegs and the horse travels evenly along the intended line.
Sometimes that line is straight.
Sometimes it’s curved.
And sometimes achieving straightness requires a small amount of bend.
Which brings us back to the seemingly ridiculous statement we started with:
A straight horse can be bent.
Kapeesh?
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