Form VS Function

Yesterday I learned that Wanda has ATR. (For those of you who don't know -and I didn't until yesterday- this just means she has horizontally grooved teeth) Basically, her teeth don't slide backward and forward easily at all, kinda like human teeth. So, when she goes to set her head in that "classical" dressage position her jaw won't slide forward like it's supposed to.

This got me to thinking about form vs. function. The point of that head set is that the horse is reaching for the bit and rounding its back. When it reaches the max stretch, the jaw should move fairly freely. At least, this is my understanding of how it's supposed to work. But Wanda's jaw won't ever move freely-hers will always be "stuck". This goes a long way toward explaining why she has ALWAYS felt so stiff in her poll to me when my trainer tells me she's where she's supposed to be. For her, it's not the way her body works. Add to this the fact that her L5/6 joint has pretty bad arthritis and you have a horse that will never look classically perfect. Her pelvis will never flex the way another horse's would because it physically can't.

The good news is, now that I know this, I can adapt our training methods to work WITH her body, instead of against it. She will always, for example, need a lot of stretching in her back to warm up. She will also probably always need more help than other horses to tuck her pelvis under her and "sit". I don't think it's impossible for her to do, but she will need more help than some. And , as long as she is stretching as much as she can toward the bit and is using her back correctly while her jaw stays loose, I'm not going to worry about what her nose looks like. She'll never be truly comfortable with her head in the classic "on the bit" position so we'll have to work together to figure out what her head looks like when her jaw is relaxed and she's working well. My trainer and I are going to need to work together to develop a new picture of what dressage for Wanda looks like. I'm a little nervous about talking to my trainer about this idea of varying our expectations for her but I definitely want to do what is best for my horse. And the point of dressage is to help our horses move the very best they can, with whatever body they have.