The natural slant is a diagonal shift.
Therefore it can only be neutralised by a diagonal shift!
 

Centre for Anatomically Correct Riding® (ARR®) and Slant-Correction®.

This sentence surprisingly seems to be a contradicting opinion to the commonly accepted foundation of the training of horses. Nevertheless we need to occupy ourselves with it. Especially since the horse very often becomes a medical patient after about 2 years of training. Why is it then – as professionally based statements mention – that a long line of sport horses, including top athletes, move with irregular strides without any recognisable cause?

After working with more than thousand horses it’s safe to say that 95% of the problems concerning the movement of horses are based on the consequences of the natural slant. This needs to be more closely but carefully investigated, using a very consistent approach. One has to dare to ask certain questions without questioning everything. For instance: can we still ride our nowadays high-quality breed horses following the same principals as we’ve always done? Shouldn’t we, before we start riding the horse, first straighten the horse?
 

Let’s have a look at some pictures:

	The natural movement of an escape animal: the horse. The hindquarters stay in contact with the ground for a prolonged time period. The back swings downward. The horse is putting its weight on the front legs.
	Ridden like this, it can only lead to problems. Unfortunately – even if many don’t want to accept it as truth – it is a fact, that 80% of the horses are being ridden without changing this natural movement. This turns horses into medical patients.

Lets have a look at the natural slant, for example: the right-handed horse.

At the beginning of the training	After 1 week of training
At the beginning of the training	After 1 week of the training
The three last pictures show the difference between moving on the right hand and on the left hand of a left-handed horse. (Pictures: private)

Let us assert the following facts:

	The trunk of the horse is hanging in between the shoulders. “It is practically on the ropes.”
	When a right-handed horse puts more weight on the right front leg (intensified by the downward swinging back) the main strength ends logically in the right front hoof (tendons, navicular). The pressure when the front leg lands will bounce back in the trapeze muscle and leads to:
	the strongest tension in the withers area. Today we know, that the withers are the most critical area in the entire body of the horse. Through here all information flows from the front to the back. Here the steering element the neck connects with the static element the trunk. A connection through these elements can only be achieved through a diagonal shift.
	Why is the shoulder in – according to Nuño Oliveira the aspirin for everything – so important? Because it is a diagonal shift.
	Shoulder in is only possible, when the swinging upward back is first accomplished.

We shouldn’t forget here the hoof-withers- and saddle-withers-axis. This is very important for the collection of the horse.

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