Cob Jockey

We're now about three weeks into using the Equicore Concepts band system, so I thought I'd give an update.

Mah precious

I'm in love with them.  Although I don't think they're for everyone or every horse.

All of the rest of the photos in this post are courtesy of Austen, who took some AWESOME photos of us at my barn a couple of months ago

My trainer and I have seen dramatic changes in Connor.  His default way of traveling is different, for the better.  He lifts his back, engages his abs, "puffs out" underneath me, has more impulsion and  better hind end engagement.  He also travels with his underneck soft and open by default, which is a freaking miracle with this horse.


It's not fool-proof though, it requires a lot from me for them to be beneficial to him.  He likes to translate all that impulsion the bands give him into splatting on his forehand, and/or going really fast as an evasion. It's very much a finesse thing to get him to use the bands for good and not for evil.


Pulling is always bad, but I feel like it's extra bad when using the bands - the horse has something around his butt saying "GO" and your hands are saying "WHOA".  The good news is, with that much impulsion and engagement, it's easy for me to sit with a good, solid position, and my half halts are SO much more effective, so I'm less inclined to pull.


Three weeks in, we've just now worked him up to the point where he's ridden with them for an entire 45 minute ride.  I'm not sure how many weeks I'll ride with them until I try my first ride without them - maybe a month?  I want that muscle memory and the muscles themselves to be good and used to this new way of riding before I play around with riding without them, but I also don't want to still be riding in bands 100% of the time as we approach our first show of the season in April.

My heart.  He's the actual best.

Some horses will benefit a lot more than others with these, I don't think they're a miracle one-size-fits-all thing.  For a pulling breed that wants to travel with his hind legs behind him, his head high and his underneck engaged, they are ridiculously helpful.  If your horse isn't a pulling breed, I think you'd still see a difference, but it may not be quite as dramatic as I've seen.



PSA: Your horse needs to be super solid if you want to use these without a ground person.  You have to walk around your horse while pulling hard on his butt with a rubber band in order to put these on (did I mention they're under an enormous amount of tension when adjusted correctly?), and the fact that Connor doesn't voluntarily leave the scene when I do this at the mounting block every day is a testament to what a Good Boy he is.

(Even though he's great with them, I still only ride with them under very carefully chosen conditions (The indoor. On non-windy days.  When our resident skunk isn't around.  And it's not raining. After lighting a votive candle at the nearest church)).


Finally, is this a shortcut (negative connotation)?  They ARE a gadget - which I am not opposed to on principle, look at how much humans can accomplish when they add resistance training.  And maybe I should be able to achieve these fairly basic principles of Dressage without a gadget.  But after struggling to solve these problems for years without really ever overcoming them (and since I'm using them to help him recover from back pain and atrophied back muscles) seeing the possibilities that the bands have laid before us is enticing.  I feel like I'm self-aware enough to use them in an effective way and then hopefully set them aside for infrequent use.

If anyone ends up getting them, let me know, I'm curious what you think.