Question: “I attended a clinic this past weekend. The clinician said when disengaging the hindquarters, the horse should walk a small circle with the front feet, not pivot. At the very least the inside front foot should lift up and down, not stay stationary. He said the reason is that the horse should have its weight balanced on all four feet. So, according to him, if the horse is pivoting more weight is on the pivot foot than the other feet. I can’t wrap my head around this idea. I worked hard to get my horse to pivot. Thoughts?”

Martin’s Answer:

“There may be reasons to pivot and there maybe reasons not to pivot. It’s not that one thing is always right and everything else is always wrong. It may be appropriate for the horse to just step the hindquarters around and stay in a tight area, it may be OK if they don’t move the pivot foot.

If you’re preparing the horse to disengage the hindquarters when they already have a certain amount of momentum, they may not be able to pivot and therefore need to know how to step the hindquarters around as a front end while it is moving forward. Hope that helps.

Thanks for your question,
Martin”