Sometimes, my riding and teaching week has a theme, and a couple of weeks ago, that theme was "Oh no!! The spur mark!". That week, a student of mine got spur marks as she warmed up for a dressage test, another gave her horse a spur mark in a lesson on one side, I gave one of my horses a spur mark on his right side during a test.
So, what are the myths and truths of spur marks?
- I disagree with FEI and EFA rules that spur marks ALWAYS constitute abuse to the horse, but if you have the misfortune to give your horse one in competition and you will definitely be made to feel like low-life scum. There are examples where the use of the spur is abusive, and sometimes this leaves a mark, sometimes it doesn't.
- My studies that week show that spur marks involve a few things combined:
- A horse that is not obeying one or both legs, i.e. he is not going foward enough, or staying obedient to the inside or outside leg aids. This causes the rider to repeat the leg aid, stronger and more often. However, not all horses that lack forward get spur marks....
- A rider with a lifted heel or a spur that pointing up. Just to stop anyone getting haughty about their own position, have a look at my picture. Its a cool shot, but you can see that while my spur is fine (it is pointing downwards) my heel not down. I have broken this
ankle, and it does not go or stay down in the heel like it used to - this puts me at risk of spur marking a horse if it is not forward enough, or resists this leg.
So what can you do about spur marks??
- To help with the heels down issue, don't just think about shoving your heels down as this will only push your whole foot and stirrup forward (no horse will stay 'in front of your leg' if there is no leg on it!!) and give you a weak, ineffective calf. Think higher up - push your KNEE down into your heel. If the stirrup presses harder on the ball of your foot, its not quite right. You should feel like you have a greater surface area of calf on the saddle and the horses side. This is how it helps, by making the strong calf muscle the initial way that you ask for forward, not the spur.
- Check your spurs are not pointing up, and if they continue to mark horses after you have ensured they point down, you can adopt a nice big towel under your saddlecloth. There are also different types of spur - a new one that I have seen has a metal ball on the end, which rotates when its put to the horses side, rather than rub or chafe.
- Make sure that your horse stays in front of your leg (easier said than done!). Your horse should always apply himself to the principles of inertia (an object at rest, stays at rest until is stimulated to move) and momentum, and if you set a particular speed, he SHOULD stay there, until told otherwise. Rather than you kicking him forward every single step, he should stay at the pace that you have set, maintained by just inside leg (inside calf muscle) through to outside rein. And what if he doesn't?? You ask for him to be forward in this order - Nudge, kick, stick. Ask, tell, demand. If you consistently ask in that order, you will train him to be reponsive to the lighter and easier of the demands (he doesn't actually want to get hit with a stick, now does he?)
Most of us will have had some issue with a spur mark before, so if you have any suggestions yourself, feel free to write back a comment.
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