Straightness: Training Your Horse's Natural Crookedness

Almost every horse is naturally crooked. Not visibly bent, but asymmetrical in how it uses its body: one side bends more easily, one hind leg carries more weight than the other. Compare it to being left- or right-handed in people — an inborn preference that, without training, only becomes stronger. Straightening is the patient work of reducing that asymmetry, so both halves of the body carry an even load. This guide explains what crookedness is, how to recognize it, and which exercises you use to work on it.

What Natural Crookedness Is

A crooked horse has a hollow side and a stiff side. On the hollow side, the muscles sit shorter: the horse happily bends that way, sometimes more than you ask for. The stiff side is the long, tighter side: bending that way takes effort, and the horse would rather evade the request than give to it. Underneath that lies a difference in the hindquarters — one hind leg steps under the body's mass and carries weight more easily, the other prefers to push off sideways instead.

That asymmetry is normal and inborn; even horses that have never been ridden have a preferred side. The problem only arises under the rider: a crooked horse distributes the weight of itself plus the rider unevenly over four legs, every single day. Which side is hollow differs per horse, and the crookedness can shift with training — which is why you keep observing rather than sticking a label on it once.

How to Recognize It

You see and feel crookedness in recurring patterns, usually several at once:

Everything is easier on one rein. Circles on the hollow side feel supple; on the other rein the horse falls out, or the circle turns egg-shaped.
Leaning on one rein. On the stiff side, the horse often leans heavily into the hand, while the other rein feels empty by comparison — uneven contact is almost always a sign of crookedness, not a rein problem.
The hindquarters drift out. On a straight line the horse doesn't track up: the hind leg on the hollow side steps beside the front leg's track instead of into it.
The saddle shifts. A saddle that keeps slipping to the same side is often following the asymmetry in the back and shoulder muscles.
Uneven push-off. Picking up canter comes easily on one rein and with difficulty on the other, or the horse persistently strikes off on the wrong lead.

If you recognize two or three of these points consistently on the same side, you've identified your horse's pattern.

Why Straightening Matters

Straightening isn't an aesthetic ideal, it's injury prevention. A horse that structurally loads one foreleg and one hind leg more heavily wears down faster on that side: joints, tendons, and hooves take more punishment year after year than the other diagonal pair. Even loading spreads out the work — and extends the horse's working life.

Straightness is also the gateway to all further work. Being straight means both hind legs carry equal weight and step into the track of the front legs. Only then can the horse shift weight onto the hindquarters — the basis for collection. In the training scale, straightness accordingly ranks as the fifth step, after suppleness and contact and before collection: the earlier steps are what make straightening possible, and without straightness, collection doesn't arrive.

The Tools

You don't achieve straightening with a single exercise, but with a gymnastic mix that puts both sides to work:

Flexion and bend on both reins. The core of all straightening work: the stiff side learns to give, the hollow side learns not to bend more than the line asks for.
Changing rein often. Anyone who rides three-quarters of their training on the easy rein is training the crookedness in. Switch deliberately and often.
Circles and serpentines. Curved lines in both directions force the inside hind leg to step under the body's mass — alternating consistently between left and right.
Shoulder-in as the king of exercises. It's not for nothing that shoulder-in is called the mother of all exercises: it brings the inside hind leg in front of the body's center of gravity and shifts load onto the hind leg you want to strengthen.
Transitions on the curved line. A transition on a circle — trot-walk-trot, or trot-canter — activates the inside hind leg exactly at the moment it's under the body.

Training Principles

The difficult side more often, but shorter. The stiff side needs more repetition, not longer sessions: short, correct reps with breaks build muscle without overloading the horse or causing frustration.
Don't force it with the rein. The temptation is strong to pull the stiff side inward with the hand, but that only bends the neck while the horse drifts further away over the outside shoulder. You solve crookedness with leg and lines — the rein, at most, sets a boundary.
Suppleness first. A tense horse can't move symmetrically; relaxation over the back comes before any straightening work, every single training session.
Think in months, not weeks. Building muscle on the weak side takes time; count on months of steady improvement, with setbacks on tense days. A horse, moreover, is never permanently "finished" being straight — straightening remains maintenance work, even in highly trained horses.

When Something Else Is Going On

Natural crookedness is mild and constant. If that picture changes, training isn't the first answer. If a horse suddenly becomes much more crooked, or the asymmetry is extreme — the horse can barely bend one way, or resists fiercely on one flexion — check the saddle and teeth first, and have a vet take a look if in doubt. Subtle lameness, too, often first shows up as increasing crookedness: the horse relieves a painful leg by moving more crookedly. A physio or vet check rules out that you're training against pain for months on end — training doesn't fix a medical problem.

In Short

Almost every horse is naturally crooked: a hollow side and a stiff side, a stronger and a weaker hind leg — comparable to being left- or right-handed.
Recognition: bending more easily on one rein, leaning on one rein, drifting hindquarters, uneven contact, a shifting saddle.
Straightening prevents one-sided wear and injury; being straight — both hind legs carrying equal weight — is the basis for collection.
Tools: flexion and bend on both reins, changing rein often, circles and serpentines, shoulder-in, transitions on the curved line.
Train the difficult side more often but shorter; with leg and lines, never with rein force; think in months.
Sudden or extreme crookedness is a signal for a saddle, teeth, or pain check via the vet, not a training question.

Compiled from public professional sources. For diagnosis, dosage or legal advice, a professional is the right source. Translated from the Dutch original.