Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Neck Stretcher

From: Clara

Jessica- Thanks for your wonderful mailing list. There's not so much volume and no junk! Thanks!

My question is about "neck stretchers". Apparently you can get them from the Dover catalogue. They are "bungee" type cords that go over the poll, then through the bit rings and down to the girth. My instructor got some last spring(I think) for some of the lesson horses. They invite the horse to stretch it's neck down and not move as hollow. From what i could see, they really helped. And they're not used as much any more, because the horses have been shown how much more comfortable it is to carry themselves better. Or that's my conclusion. What is your view on them? Do you think they are more effective than martingales or whatever? or are they a waste of money? Thanks for your time.-- Clara

Hi Clara! Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying horse-sense. I'm not fond of head-setting devices, but I think that your instructor used this one in the only possible way: BRIEFLY and TEMPORARILY, just to show the horse that it COULD move in a certain way. Devices are only good if they are educational rather than merely restrictive or forceful. When you consider using any device, you must ask yourself two questions: first, Does this gadget TEACH the horse something? or does it just FORCE the horse into something, or into (or out of) a particular position? And second, Does this help to DEVELOP the correct muscles in the horse, so that he will then become MORE capable of doing what is wanted? or does it develop the OPPOSITE muscles, by creating pain and setting up a series of resistances?

Like the chambon, the neck stretcher can be helpful if used loosely and for a brief period of time, just long enough to show the horse what's wanted and that it CAN do it comfortably. The proof of the effectiveness, and of the horse's comfort, is whether the horse remembers the lesson and continues to work comfortably in the same way AFTER the equipment has been removed -- and not just in the moments immediately after the equipment has been removed, but weeks and months later.

Sometimes a horse simply doesn't know that it CAN do something, and in that case this sort of device can be educational.

I'm delighted to know that your instructor is wise and sensible, and used the neck stretcher in an appropriate way. Many devices aren't actually TRAINING aids but rather forms of coercion, and shouldn't be used at all. And most "training devices" are used wrongly, and become coercive, either because they are adjusted incorrectly, used for too long, or used on a horse that isn't sufficiently developed or trained to benefit. If the horse is physically incapable of achieving or sustaining a particular position or way of moving on its own, and a device is used to force an approximation of the desired position, that is simply WRONG. It's bad training, and it's not horsemanship.

It sounds as though you have a good instructor -- lucky you!

Jessica

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