Dressage work to get her in a more rounded frame will help, but her neck is short as well as ‘inverted’, so there is only so much you can do.
That said, she is still young, and may acquire some length as she finishes growing (I have read that the spine is the last part of the skeleton to finish growing: horses grow up first, then out.
Easiest and fastest way to get rid of the upside down neck is to ask her to work from back to front and come on to the bit. No gadgets needed, no side reins/drawreins/chambon or anything. Simple basic dressage work which will help her endurance too by building her topline and making her work correctly.
While I know you don’t want to probably do too much in the arena there is no reason why you can’t do this out on the trails.
I suspect that during her “arab moments” you’re allowing her to brace against your hands. I see these kinds of necks all the time on endurance horses. When she’s racy on the trail, try doing some jaw/poll yields instead – pick up your left rein and ask for enough flexion, so you can see the outside corner of her left eye. Hold the rein (IOW, don’t pull) until she puts slack in the rein, which means she’s softened at the poll. Count to three and do it again. if she’s really high, you’ll probably need to do this about 50 times before she’ll become really soft. Then do it on the other side.
Once she’s soft, make sure she’s traveling straight and ask her to step under with her inside hind leg without speeding up (lengthen her stride). She may toss her head in protest because it’s hard work. Just ignore it and let her ping pong between your hands/reins and keep asking until she steps under. Then reward her with a neck scratch or whatever she likes.
Since you’ve ridden dressage, this should be second nature for you. Same principles. If you do this work correctly over the winter, you should see results by spring.
PS – I wouldn’t do any lateral work with her until she has a better topline and her HQs are more built up. Arabs are notoriously good at bending and introducing lateral work before they have sufficient musculature to perform it just encourages them to overflex. Same with more aggressive bits. And once they start going behind the bit, it’s hard to fix.
What a lovely girl you have!
A couple of comments since I teach a person who regularly 100 miles three horses (trak x arab). Is the horse really upside down? Or is the horse just looking at a distance? The topline is quite nice, but the horse is likely tired and looking far away, so the underneck is out slightly. However, the horse is gather behind, and fairly balanced.
With my students endurance horses we uses dressage theory as a basis for figures/balance. Merely by allowing a lower(ing) of the neck, it should help relax the under neck. If this does not ‘work’ then work on positioning (laterally, on circles etc) will help the horse to learn to seek forward/down/out. This then makes a great impact on the ability of the horse to swing through the back and take longer slower strides (which makes the heartrate/etc lower). This students horse always wins conditioning.
A comment (which is problematic with arabs), the saddle could be a smidge more back, particularly if its treeless. Treeless saddles MUST be placed three fingers behind the bony back edge of the shoulder blade, which is almost impossible on shortback/arabtype horses.
Do not attempt to get a distance horse rounder per se. You want such a horse longer, but still out to the bridle. By asking the horse to mobilize the jaw, chew, and allowing it, the horse will relax and go longer. Slowly, methodically, without gadgets. You do not want the jaw to yield per se, you want the horse to chew and then allow the streching. It is not giving you want to engender, it is the ability to follow the hand. The only tossing of a head that might happen is if the rider is clumsy/sustained too long in their request. Equally there is no reason not to pulse the horse out on a circle (a form of leg yeilding), but again ask/relax/ask/relax. Aids are applied for a step, not strides, and not holding to force yeilding.
I noticed that distance horses don’t seem to be muscled the same as horses engaging in other disciplines unless they are cross training. Thanks for the description, ideayoda–it makes sense.
My OTTB doesn’t have a muscular topline (or an upsidedown neck), but he attacks the trail and does hills with no problems. I keep having to remind myself that he isn’t muscled like a dressage horse or hunter because we aren’t doing those sports! He’ll come down to the bit if I ask him, but otherwise he carries his head where he chooses, sometimes low, sometimes high. I don’t really worry about it unless he isn’t listening to me. Lately I’ve been “asking” more, since he ran away with me on the one distance ride we attempted (RO’d out). I’d like to be sure I can recapture his attention when he gets overly excited, so practice, practice, practice!
A2, it sounds like your mare is doing really well at her job. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” 
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
