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Challenge - Healing the Horse by Challenging his Body 

Asking why we need level arenas? 

Why riders insist that they need perfectly manicured arenas? 

Why the constant complaints in stabling facilities with uneven arenas? 

We see riders blame uneven arenas for horses that trip. They blame it for horses not picking up their feet. They blame uneven arenas for not being able to make perfectly round circles. They blame it on their horses having problems doing shoulder-ins, picking up the right canter lead or an inability to switch leads. The problem is 'always' that dang arena footing. 

How could they possibly expect to work with their horses if the arena surface is not level and absolutely perfect? 

And in some ways, they are not wrong. 

Although it seems ridiculous to expect that a horse that can run through belly-high grass, twist and turn across the plain, never knowing where the next dip or rabbit hole is going to be, can't handle a few inches difference in height between one side of the arena and the other. 

But these horses do need it. Or at least many do. These horses seem to have no sense of balance or nimbleness, no ability to deal with anything that isn't perfectly flat. 

And one of the most important questions that you might want to ask is - why? 

Truth be told, it's true the average dressage and trail horse suck at balance. At least when we are up on them. Hence all the worrying about working on level ground. Which is a pretty sad statement considering that the dressage horse is supposed to be the ultimate athlete, and the trail horse is supposed to be able to go on forever, crossing over anything that nature sends his way. 

But where the horse struggles to balance in the first place, he is even worse at rebalancing, and that awareness might help us figure out what the problem might be, where it started in the first place. 

Because the beginning of finding the right answers is finding the right questions. And this is where we need to figure out what is missing. What is the horse missing that he is having these problems? What does he need that he doesn't have now? Maybe asking ourselves a bigger question. What is the key ingredient that every horse needs to rebalance their body?  

And if we are going to be honest with ourselves, we have to take into account that the same isn't true of those who live without us. The wild mustang never has the choice to work on a perfectly manicured, even ground. His ability to survive depends on his ability to fully engage his body, no matter what is beneath his feet. 

So, we are faced with the fact that somehow in their relationship with us, we take something away from them. We take that key ingredient, that single thing, that the horse needs access to, so that he can rebalance what is his. 

And I don't know if most riders really care. After all, why should they? They don't really need it. They go out every day, catch their horses from their corrals, which are usually pretty level, into the barn to saddle up and then onto the perfectly manicured arena. Then they return, going from the flat surface of the arena, back to the cobblestone or cement walkway of the barn, and out they put their horse once again. The horse goes from level ground to level ground to the next piece of level ground. Day after day after day. And we never ask what implications that has for our horses. 

Even trail horses often follow established trails that, for the most part, are pretty level; you don't usually expect to run into a two-foot hole in the middle of a trail. 

And because the horses are never in a challenging environment footing-wise, the riders are often not even aware that they are missing anything. 

They have no idea that they might be handicapping and limiting their own horses in some way. If for no other reason than they don't see their horses trip and fall when they are on top of them. The horses always find ways to compensate for what is being done to them. Easy to do when the ground is not challenging. 

Sadly, they are also unaware of the physical consequences to the horses. Physical issues some veterinarians are starting to become aware of, including to joints that are underutilized. Creating real long-term problems. But we will go into that further another time. 

Mobility, the ability to morph and change, is key to the physical health of the horse. The ability to adapt, rebalance, step up or down, and spin on a dime has kept the horse alive for thousands of years. A sprained ankle, after all, makes you vulnerable to predators. You can't afford to get hurt, and you have to run and run fast to avoid fangs and claws, and you never get the right to choose how good the footing is going to be in that moment. 

You could be clambering over rocks, knee-deep in mud at the side of a water hole, slipping through snow and ice, and you have to be able to instantly adapt to the change in terrain. 

Change, the horse has to be able to change because there are no flat arenas with perfect footing in the wild. 

And somehow, we don't see how we limit those who live with us as we try to give them the best of everything, and in the process, we don't realize from the very beginning, we take their mobility away. And without meaning to, we take away their health. We take away what they were born to do. And that is move. 

Move with grace, agility and ease. To have instant access to power. For them to discover how to challenge their bodies on ground that isn't perfect. 

If we can give them this gift back long before we climb on their backs, we will have done more than anything else we could possibly do in any other way in creating the athlete he was always born to be. 

   Volume 1