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Just how much a sensitive horse is affected by being even slightly out of balance is something I am just starting to realize. I am an amateur, obviously, but I never really worried about balance because I have a quiet seat, legs, and hands, and I’m not a large person. Plus, I am very careful when I push the horse a little out of his comfort zone.

A few things have recently made me more aware of this. I watched a Robert Dover segment on YouTube about half halt and he said something that really stuck in my head. He was giving the example of a person running, and then running while giving somebody a piggy back ride. Of course, the person’s balance is changed with another person on his back, and he has to adjust so he doesn’t fall down. Then Dover says “that’s the horse’s biggest worry (or maybe he used the word concern), that he is going to fall down. Now Dover isn’t very big, and he rides and trains really big horses, AND he is athletic. So I wouldn’t quickly come to the conclusion that the weight of a rider can have enough effect on a horse to cause it to worry about falling down! But he says it does.

Then, in my recent lesson on Rocky, I was impressed by how the little tiny changes in straightness that my trainer was having my do, made a big change in Rocky’s confidence. There were outside influences that day that were causing my already sensitive mare to be a little nervous and left to my own devices, I would have just walked her that day to avoid taking her any further out of her comfort zone. However, the trainer very easily, by the corrections in balance, brought Rocky into a very relaxed and big trot.

When I was younger and stronger, I would have just ridden Rocky FORWARD! (as many trainers will instruct in a situation where the horse is unsure and acting up) and she would have complied. But she never would have relaxed. She may have progressed, but at what expense? In addition to the pressure many trainers put on horses with highly regimented work schedules, hauling out to strange places, showing, clinicing, etc., it can really tear down a horse’s confidence. Add to that, being made to work even just a little out of balance, and I can understand why so many performance horses have ulcers. The medication can help, but is medicine the real answer?

I’ve never read about biomechanics but maybe that’s what this is about?

Yes! If you think about it, being out of balance automatically leads to tension. Think about if you had a backpack on crooked. You would have muscle tension trying to balance it asymmetrically. Now if you're worried that you'll be hurt if the backpack falls, you have mental tension on top of the physical tension (and it's probably true that any muscle tension in a horse leads to mental tension anyway).

Annabelle isn't as hot/sensitive as it sounds like your Rocky is, but I've been able to explain how to go in better balance to her quite a bit over the last few weeks, and she seems relieved and happy to do it. Today she started letting go in her back at canter because last night and this morning I started to address her tendancy to fall in to the left. She still needed plenty of support from the inside leg, but once she realized how much better she felt keeping her shoulder up and bending around the corners, it became easy (within her current physical ability, of course).

I agree with the premise that a horses priority is to not fall down. However what set of nerves warn a horse ir may fall? Now of course there are differences in opinion but some biomedical veterinarians believe it's the nerves in the jaw and poll.

So fear of falling is more related to contact and bit and head position versus weight in the saddle. An average size horses probably gains as much weight as a slim human and saddle on spring grass.

Now my mare Acacia is interesting. Most people would say balance and confidence would be easier poll up and out.

Interesting observations. My mare certainly teaches me that "more forward" is not possible if she is not straight enough. Straightness is very related to the ability to engage and power up the hind legs IME. Another case where the training scale is not exactly linear!

I have read and re-read these posts for several days now.

What folks here including Dover are interpreted as a concern over balance and not falling down can also be explained as a lack of getting/keeping a horse's attention and the sense of calm a horse gets when they know exactly what the boundaries are.

That's my impression of what is happening in those moments versus the balance issue. I don't think a sound horse with a rider ever allows themselves to get close to falling. They are too strong.

I used to own a mare that was sound but did, in fact, occasionally literally fall down when I was on her. I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to, and I don't recall ever getting knocked off, but it did cause me to fear unbalanced, tense youngsters that had a tendency to run off. No doubt a big part was my ineptitude, lack of nice arena footing, and simply not recognizing when I should back off and wait for her. She was a fearless girl who would go anywhere and try anything and absolutely loved to jump, so she was not uncoordinated per se but could be pushed beyond he ability to compensate. I think she would have made a lovely 3-day horse had she not flipped over and broke her back/pelvis one day. I did nurse her back to health and she lived with me for 18 more years serving as a light trail horse and overall mess around pony for at least 10 of those years.

Nonetheless, I do not think folks are referring to actually falling but just the feeling the horse gets that he/she might slip or fall. I know both Tio and Rudy hate to be go around on the forehand and that they both (when young) would buck when they felt unbalanced. Now that Tio is discovering what a rebalancing hh is, the bucking has all but disappeared.