In this position, your horse is forced to stretch and relax the ligament and muscles over his top line. The muscles we are especially concerned with relaxing are the muscles which sit directly underneath the saddle. We want a springy, relaxed feel. In the trot forgive me, think Western Pleasure horse jog. Your horse should have a relaxed low frame, base of the neck low to match the height of his wither not lower. While following his movement, I want you to imagine that you have two pieces of Velcro attached from each seat bone to the saddle. You are wanting and needing to follow the movement of his back.Is this the type of movement that we are wanting ultimately? Absolutely not However, what is happening here is you are teaching your horse how to relax his top line, and use his abdominal muscles to engage and push his back up into the saddle. Hopefully, during this exercise you did not have any problems sitting.Once your horse understands this basic premise, it is entirely up to you to increase the energy without loosing the frame and creating tension. How? Take it in small increments. Find on any given day how much movement you can handle make it a game, play with it, or how much movement your horse can create without getting tense over his top line.

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