Does your naturally gaited horse travel in a hollow fashion? You know, pacey, choppy, and short strided caused by tension, a sagging back, trailing hind legs, lack of a soft and supple connection from back to front. No worries, there are ways we can help our naturally gaited horses improve the quality of their naturally smooth gaits.

How to improve a naturally gaited hollow back

By Jennifer Klitzke

Dang! It’s been nearly four months since I rode my naturally gaited fox trotting horse Lady due to snow, ice, and darkness. Never the less, I was thrilled to be back in the saddle on this March day.

From time to time throughout our ride I felt Lady’s back sag. Reviewing the video footage of our ride confirmed it. Ugh! A hollow back is an undesirable quality in dressage: it is hard on the horse’s body and doesn’t produce quality of gaits the horse is capable of.

As it relates to the naturally gaited horse, I pondered…do the biomechanics of the natural four-beat gaits hollow the horse’s back? Gosh, I hope not. Would engaging the horse’s abdominal muscles to lift the back to a neutral position change the quality of the naturally smooth gaits for better or for worse? (For better I would hope.)

Would teaching the naturally gaited horse a “round” gait—such as a quality trot [on cue] develop muscles that would strengthen the horse’s top line? Yes, of course.

Even better, could a quality trot on cue improve the naturally gaited horse’s smooth gaits? Yes, I believe this can.

No doubt, the diagonal timing of trot would break up the lateral timing of pace—and even improve the lateral canter. A quality trot teaches the horse to step deeper under its body with the hind legs and this would aid in improving its natural gait as well—at least for the naturally smooth gaited breeds that desire a deep stride like the Tennessee walking horse.

While I rode, there were a few things I did each time I felt Lady’s back sag. I transitioned to something that would lift her back. The last thing I wanted to do was reinforce a sagging back by continuing in that frame.

I transitioned Lady from gait to a few circles of quality trot on cue before transitioning back to the smooth gait. Pictured below Lady is performing a nice forward, connected working trot. Notice her neutral back and how her hind leg is reaching deeper under her body compared with the top photo.

Another back raising exercise were moments of a long and low walk on a loose rein. You can see how the back is raised to a neutral position versus the sagging position in the top photo.

Another exercise to transitions to a quality trot on cue and a long and low walk, are diagonal steps of quality rein back. As you can see in the photo below, a quality rein back teaches the horse to bend its hindquarter joints, the horse steps deep under its body and, engages its abdominal muscles to lift the back.

During our 40 minute riding session, we did about eight halt/rein backs, four in each direction. The rein back isn’t about speed, rather quality steps. Often it will be the third or fourth step when I feel the back raise and I’ll do two more quality steps before moving forward into gait. (For a detailed description with video about how to teach your horse a quality rein back, see Back and Forth to Better Movement).

Pictured below is Lady’s fox trot after a quality trot on cue, long and low walk, and quality rein back. We still have room for improvement, but I see how these exercises made a difference during our ride time.