A word that is often used in relation to schooling horses is gymnastics, and it’s a good description because it creates an image of what we need to do in our training to create a light, balanced and manoeuvrable horse. If you look at a gymnast, they are strong, supple and perfectly balanced, and from that balanced position. They can move in any direction. It’s the same for horses. A horse that is balanced, supple and strong will have a steady head carriage because they are light in the front and the weight is moved back towards the haunches which makes them manoeuvrable. The exercises we use for developing this quality were created centuries ago, defined and refined by subsequent dressage masters. They consist of building the horse through circle work and moving on create suppleness through the lateral exercises; shoulder-in, quarters-in, and renvers, ridden both on the straight lines and on circles. All horses are one sided, left handed or right handed, and it’s the work that you do to encourage the horse to release the stiff side and stretch the soft side that creates a horse who is even on both sides and ultimately straight. Good training develops the qualities of Straightness produces Self Carriage helps achieve Lightness Balance is key to developing self-carriage and lightness. Circles start to create a supple horse and are the first lesson in balance. A correctly ridden circle teaches a horse many things: To give round the riders inside leg To start to engage the inside hind To stretch to the outside rein To develop suppleness in both directions You can feel when a horse is out of balance through the weight in their shoulder, the horse will drift towards the heavy shoulder. On a circle, your horse will drift out when the weight is to the outside shoulder. When the weight is to the inside shoulder, your horse falls into the circle. Identifying a loss of balance In the first picture below, you can see that the horse has lost her balance and put weight in the outside shoulder in order to come round the corner. The second picture shows the effects of this unbalanced corner, as the horse is comes down the straight side of the school crooked. In the third picture the same horse coming round a corner in balance Diane Followell - Training Riders, Transforming Horses
Self-carriage is a quality that results from correct basic work and gives lightness to the horse. A trained horse should be able to maintain self-carriage throughout his work, whereas a younger horse may only be in self-carriage for a few steps before losing balance and needing help from the rider to correct himself. Self-carriage is a combination of balance, strength, straightness and energy, maintained by the horse without intervention from the rider. Additionally the horse needs to be mentally calm and receptive, as a tense horse will be trying to escape the rider’s aids and therefore will not be in self carriage. Developing self-carriage in your horse takes time, carefully working through simple exercises (ref Circles) makes your horse supple, improves their balance which leads to a straight horse, and this is where self-carriage begins. Once the horse is straight and has no weight in the shoulder, you can increase the impulsion which will elevate the forehand. There is a lot of discussion around horses being in self-carriage but the rider must also have self-carriage. An unbalanced rider who uses the reins and grips with the legs to stay in the saddle will create and unbalanced tight horse. A correctly seated, balance rider is able to give clear aids to the horse and remain quietly with their horse when the horse has responded and is performing the movement. The ultimate test of self-carriage is “descent de mains”, where the rider simply opens the fingers, and the horse remains in the same posture, gait and cadence. The pictures below show horses in self carriage (top row). Below them are 3 more of the same horses when they have lost their self-carriage. (All the riders brought their horses into self-carriage again after the photos were taken.) The first horse has fallen through his outside shoulder on a circle, he has lifted his head in order to regain his balance. The bay horse has lost his balance on a straight line, he has dropped onto his shoulder and is leaning on the rider’s hands. The last horse has come off the rider’s inside leg in travers, she has lost the bend and is pressing weight to the inside shoulder. Diane Followell - Training Riders, Transforming Horses
Nuno Oliveira from “An Old Master trainer to Young Trainers” Practice shows us that a horse cannot give his back before being curved (laterally) around the inside leg. The rider who turns the head to the inside without the horse first relaxing in the inside curve of his body only achieves a twisted and resisting position of the head. It is the inside leg which is active, and what is necessary is that the horse turns the head around the inside leg without having more weight on either the inside shoulder or the outside shoulder. Nuno Oliveira from “Horses and Their Riders” One must enter the circle with the outside shoulder of the rider going forwards, parallel to the outside shoulder of the horse and not with an action of the inside rein. He [the horse] should make circles, in spirals, making them bigger or smaller by the rider’s legs, which guide and control the horse’s body on each circle. Diane Followell - Training Riders, Transforming Horses
Last time I blogged about riding circles and the importance of correct bend. I use circles to warm my horse up, and during training sessions to maintain and correct imbalance. Each corner is ¼ of a circle, if you ride it as a circle with correct bend, your horse will come to the straight side balanced. If your horse is unbalanced through the corners, he will be unbalanced on the straight side and any movement you chose to do will be compromised. Once you are confident with staying balanced round a circle, start to introduce more changes of bend through various exercises. I usually start these by working a horse through smaller circles down the long side of the school. Feel how your horse manages with the smaller circle and adjust the size of the circle so it is small enough to flex him a little more, but not so small that he loses balance. If he is having difficulty, make the circle slightly larger circle so he can keep his balance and then work towards smaller circles. From there move on to riding a serpentine down the length of the school. Each loop is part of a circle, so ride it with correct bend, and make the changes of bend as you cross the school. The changes of bend are most important, prepare them well. If your horse loses balance and you can’t correct it, ride out of the serpentine go back to circles to correct the bend and then try again. A very useful exercise used by the classical masters is to do circles of varying sizes and with frequent changes of bend in the centre of the school. Come into the middle of the school and make changes of bend away from the walls. Circle in one direction, find the balance and then make a change of circle, keeping the balance throughout. This simple exercise is quite hard to do, focus on your back and seat and feel the movement your horse gives you through his back. Another good exercise is a spiral. Start your horse on a correct large circle, use your outside aids to decrease the size of the circle around the same centre point, then increase the size of the circle from your inside leg back to the original one. de la Guérinière
M. de la Broue, and after him the Duke of Newcastle, say that in order to have a good hand, it must be light, gentle and firm. This state does not proceed solely from the action of the hand, but principally from the seat of the rider; for when the body is unbalanced or askew, the hand cannot be in its proper position, and the rider concerns himself primarily with keeping his seat. Furthermore, the legs must act in consonance with the hand, otherwise the effect thereof will never be correct; such consonance is called, in the terminology of the art, accord of hand and heel, which is the perfection of all aids Kurt Albrech Reins and legs can never compensate for an incorrect placement of the rider’s weight! G.Steinbrecht The skill of the hand can justifiably be considered a measure of the rider’s total skill. It is completely erroneous to believe that good hands could be an isolated favourable characteristic of some riders. Rather, they are the result of a perfect seat and fine feeling. G.Steinbrecht If the rider artificially applies more weight, the stirrup aid results which has become indispensable for all driving aids. It becomes a major fault if it is used to hold onto the stirrups in order to prevent their loss, or if it becomes a support for the seat. Riders who make such an error are still lacking in the fundamentals of their art, and they must first perfect their seat, and particularly their balance. de la Guérinière Elegance on horseback consists of a straight and free position as a result of a well balanced body: as a result the rider maintains, during all the movements the horse makes, without losing his seat, as much as he is able to, in an appropriate balance, an air of comfort and freedom, which makes him an elegant rider. Nuno Oliveira You must relax your waist and your back to go with the back of the horse and keep your bottom in the saddle. William Cavendish Now a good Seat is of such Consequence, as you shall see hereafter, that it is One of the chief Things maketh a Horse go perfectly; the very Manner of sitting being almost beyond all other Helps There are several factors that will contribute to a horse being unbalanced, and it is important for the rider to recognise the reasons behind the balance problems so they can choose the most appropriate exercise to correct the difference and develop the horse’s straightness. Most riders are familiar with horses being naturally one side and will turn more easily one way than the other, but there are other factors that influence a horse’s balance and what that horse will ultimately be able to achieve. Conformation contributes greatly to this. A horse who has a large shoulder and thick set neck with quarters and hind legs that are a relatively small in comparison will have a different frame to a horse with a thin neck and shoulder and a more powerful hind end. Horses who are short coupled will generally find the collected movements easier than a horse with a long back, but the extensions may not be as expressive. However, conformation is not the whole story; the way a horse moves is equally important. I have seen horses with less than ideal conformation transform when they move just because the use themselves well. Another equally important consideration is the work they have been doing. A horse just off the race track will have very different schooling needs to a horse that has been used for light hacking. So how does this translate to you and your horse? Take some time out to look at how your horse is made, how he moves and what his life story is; it may provide you with the training direction you are looking for. I’ve blogged previously about what you can do to improve your horse’s balance and straightness, so do read through those posts if you’re looking for tips and exercises to incorporate into your training. Diane Followell - Training Riders, Transforming Horses
For me, the ultimate goal of classical dressage is a light horse, which is a joy to ride, maneuverable and responsive with a back that carries you, giving you the quarters so you can direct the energy. Balance is key to creating lightness and is interlinked with suppleness. The starting point of all classical dressage training should be to build suppleness and balance both laterally and longitudinally. It is not possible to collect a horse that is not supple, collection requires the hind legs to flex through all the joints or the leg moves straight and the energy is pushed to the shoulder. This puts weight in the reins and prevents lightness. Horses start unbalanced, with weight in the shoulder, but with careful work on circles and in shoulder-in, you can start to build the suppleness and balance needed to develop a straight horse. Due to this link between suppleness and balance, your horse will not be straight until a basic level of balance and suppleness has been achieved. To begin working on suppleness and balance, start working on a circle and encourage inside bend through your position. The inside leg is softly used against the horse’s side so that he gives round the leg. It may help to bring the inside seat bone slightly forward to keep your seat balanced. This bending of the horse’s body will stretch the outside and strengthen the inside. To balance the action of your leg, bring your outside shoulder forward. Don’t bring the inside rein back as this will block the inside hind from coming through. Do let me know how you get on with the above exercise and make sure you check back next week for more classical dressage tips and training. In the meantime, you can visit me on my Facebook and Twitter accounts for more information about all things classical dressage. Diane Followell - Training Riders, Transforming Horses
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AuthorDiane Followell Classical Dressage Trainer
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