​The bit is a subtle way of communicating with your horse, a whispered conversation between horse and rider. No-one else can see the conversation happening, but they can see the results. The bit gives the rider instant feedback on how the horse is feeling in that moment. A soft, relaxed mouthing of the bit shows a unity between the horse and rider. If this continues through the work, the horse is comfortable and both horse and rider are content with the relationship.

This fragile contact is lost if the rein contact is more than the weight of the reins in the rider’s hands. Having X pounds of pressure blocks the horse and hardens the delicate structures of the mouth. Long loose reins does not create any communication between horse and rider.

If a problem with the work occurs, the first place this will be shown is in the horse’s mouth, communicated to the rider via the bit. The skilled rider will recognise this and make the necessary adjustments to the work. If this feedback is not recognised and acknowledged by the rider taking the steps needed to change what they are doing, the horse will start to raise their voice by blocking elsewhere in their body and avoiding the exercise.
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When this unwanted behaviour is displayed, riders often look for an external solution, a stronger bit, a tighter noseband, a martingale. This simply ignores the issue and unless trainers and riders are willing to uncover the root cause of the problem, the fix masks the difficulty until it emerges somewhere else. To achieve this level of control and subtly requires riders to have a good position and balance, a lifetime’s work.

Whilst a lot of time is spent thinking about which bit to use, nose bands tend to be used solely to keep a horse’s mouth shut. Mostly riders use a flash or a cavesson, done up tightly to prevent the horse from opening its mouth. Apart from the obvious physical pain and harm that this inflicts on a horse, it masks a very important communication channel between a horse and their rider.
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The art of dressage riding is to finesse the communication between the horse and rider so that, to an observer, the rider appears to be doing nothing. Part of achieving this is having the horse soft and mobile throughout their work, and the horse’s mouth is a very good reflection the level of that relationship between horse and rider.
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For example, if a horse is finding an exercise difficult or feels too much pressure from the rider’s hands, this will show first through the horse’s mouth with blocks such as fixing the jaw, opening the mouth or putting their tongue over the bit.

Tightening the nose band to prevent this behaviour does not solve the problem. Unable to express himself via his mouth, horses often become harder in the jaw and the tension occurs elsewhere in his body. As the stress ripples throughout the horse’s body, blocks can often be seen in the horses neck, back and hind legs.

The solution is to change what you are doing, rather than increasingly tightening the nose band. It may be as simple as modifying an exercise slightly, or you may need to look a bit deeper at how you are asking. Riding with a softer hand and working more tactfully from your seat and back or with your leg.
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The connection between bit and rider’s hands should always be the weight of the reins. For very skilled riders, the slightest tension in the horse’s mouth is felt in their hands, and they make appropriate adjustments to make the horse comfortable. With a nose band that is done up tightly, the horse is unable to speak to the rider and training becomes an exercise in force.

​A few years ago, I wrote a blog about the apparent introduction of rolkur into the Spanish Riding School -  Flexions and Rolkur. At the time, the rolkur debate had been raging across the horse world for a while, with proponents both for and against vociferously arguing their case. The FEI banned rollkur in 2010, but continued to accept the use of low deep and round in its place. Years later, the legacy of this technique remains and continues to be used extensively in the equestrian world.

Rollkur has been used in horse training for decades and rewarded with high marks and medals in the competition arena. For some equestrians, it is the only method that they know and when the horse objects to these techniques, steps are taken to block their resistances with tighter nose bands, stronger bits, sharper spurs, more forceful riding etc.

The FEI took steps to mitigate these moves by introducing rules on the maximum tightness on nose bands, use of whips and the blood rule. How can it be acceptable that training methods, which mean rules are needed to stop riders inflicting injuries on their horse, continue to be endorsed? Monitoring the warm up area to prevent riding abuses does not stop this from being carried out away from the arena, particularly when the training continues to be rewarded with high marks.

The force that riders use in rollkur is at odds with the idea of dressage as the harmonious union of horse and rider, and the influence of these techniques is visible in the way the horse moves.

Many horses are unable to cope with the impact of this riding and start to display psychological and physical problems. The psychological problems manifest in many ways and can range from a horse who shows signs of stress and tension, such as tail swishing or grinding teeth, to extreme resistance to their rider or becoming impossible to ride.

Physical problems can show anywhere in the horse’s body, often in their mouths and backs, poll and neck, but also in ligaments, muscles, bones, joints and elsewhere, frequently resulting in horses being retired early instead of being able to work into their late twenties.

When the problems become too difficult to manage, riders look to find a trainer who can solve the issues that have arisen with their much-loved horse. Disappointingly, they only find more of the same. Many trainers use these techniques, as this is the way they have also been trained.

With this as the only history that many riders know, and the national and international governing bodies still reluctant to properly address the issue, is it not surprising that we are still seeing horses being ridden to breaking point both mentally and physically?

Canter pirouettes are one of the most difficult exercises for a horse to perform and many horses are unable to achieve them. The horse’s forehand moves around their hind quarters as the hind feet mark a small circle, maintaining the same cadence in the canter.

The rider must remain light in their aids, if the hand becomes hard, they block the forehand and hind quarters.

• The horse should have the same cadence throughout the movement, as they come into the pirouette, through the pirouette steps and when they leave the pirouette.
• The horse should maintain a 3-beat canter.
• The horse should be around the rider’s inside leg, bent in the direction of the movement.
• The contact should remain light.

 
Common faults in the pirouette are listed, but knowing the difficulty of this exercise, the horse should not be overly criticised.

• The head and neck bobs up and down.
• Loss of clear three-beat rhythm creating a 4-beat canter.
• The canter changes when the horse leaves the pirouette from the canter that they had in the pirouette.
• The riders asks with aids that are too strong and the horse is blocked and loses cadence.
  
• Hind legs jumping together resulting from a loss of collection.
• Quarters slipping out, as the horse avoids taking the weight behind.
  
• Falling onto the inside shoulder, as the horse avoids taking the weight behind.

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The pictures below show 4 horses in canter pirouettes, what do you think of the movements? It can be easier to see what is happening in a pirouette from a video, have a look at some on the internet to see what you think.

Extending a pace is an advanced movement. It is often thought to be a basic exercise because some lengthening is required in novice tests, however correct extensions require a high degree of strength, balance and engagement and come from collection, a horse cannot extend more than it can collect. If lengthening or extended paces are asked for too early, the horse simply cannot sustain the steps and falls to the forehand with quick, short strides.

In extended trot the horse should maintain the same diagonal steps throughout the trot but reach of the steps is longer. The movement of the foreleg should appear to start in the shoulder with the hoof landing at the furthest point of the step. The hind legs should match the step of the forelegs and the horse shoulder visibly lengthen their frame, head and neck extending with the legs. The trot should not speed up but cover more ground with longer, lower strides.
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The rider should follow this movement with their back and seat, hands allowing the horse to lengthen their neck as necessary. This stride can be difficult to sit with, but the rider should not brace against the horse.

Common faults are

• Blocked forehand with contracted neck
• Break in the diagonal with the hind foot landing slightly before or after the front foot.
• Front hoof appearing to flick out beyond the leg
• Exaggeratedly high movement of the front legs.

               
Compare the pictures below and see which you think is best.
(The black and white picture is from Kottas on Dressage by Arthur Kottas-Heldenberg, page 15).

Passage is one of the most difficult paces for horses to perform. A very collected trot, with highly elevated steps which progress slowly forward, not all horses have the ability to perform this movement. The horse needs to engage their haunches to hold the height and suspension in each step. The height and suspension of the steps is dependent on the horse’s conformation, strength and suppleness, and so this will vary from horse to horse.

The head and neck must be allowed to rise, the exact position will depend on the horse, and some horses will bring their nose slightly in front of the vertical. If the neck is lowered, the horse will be on the forehand.

These pictures show 3 different horses with the same rider, Nuno Oliveira, and each horse has a slightly different look to the passage.
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 ​Problems with passage steps can be seen in a number of faults:

• Uneven steps behind, one hind pushes forward and under and the other disengages and trails behind.
• Uneven height of diagonals, this can be seen more clearly in the hind legs
• Uneven length of steps.
• Hollowing.
• Swinging the forehand or the hindquarters from side to side.
• A double beat in the moment of suspension where the hind leg appears to drop slightly down at the highest point of suspension.

 
It is not uncommon to see a big moving horse making exaggerated steps in the front legs, giving the impression of a correct passage, but when you look to the details of the movement, they are often disengaged and do not have correct steps. To see this more clearly, look at the action of the hind leg.

​Have a look at these images, which do you think is most correct? With passage and piaffe it can be easier to see faults from video footage, look up some video’s online and see if you can observe correct steps and faulty ones.

Half pass is a movement across the diagonal of the arena, where the horse’s body remains roughly parallel to the side of the school and they step forward and then sideways. It follows on from shoulder-in and develops greater flexibility and strength in the horse. Half pass can be ridden in walk, trot and canter.

It needs to be developed with care so that the horse remains in his haunches, leading the movement with his inside hind, not his inside shoulder.

• The horse should step forward and sideways, with a slight bend in the direction of the movement. Different horses will have a degree of bend that is correct for them and the rider must know this and choose the correct bend for the horse.
• The half pass should finish with more inside leg and outside rein than inside rein and outside leg.
• The horse should maintain an even bend throughout their body.
• The rhythm should remain consistent.

Go back to shoulder in and circles if the horse has difficulty in half pass.
Common faults are;

• The horse put weight into their inside shoulder.
• This horse twists his head and does not bend through his body.
• The haunches precede the forehand.
• The forehand is too far ahead of the haunches, haunches trailing.
• The rider sits to the outside unbalancing the horse.
• The rider creates half pass by using the inside rein and outside leg, twisting the horse.
• The horse loses the rhythm and speeds up or slows down.

​Look at the pictures below and see which half pass you think is most correct.

For more information on correcting problems in half pass please see
Half pass – Correcting Problems – Horse twists the head.
Half Pass – Correcting problems 2 – Changes to the rhythm.
Half pass – Correcting problems 3 Quarters or forehand lead too much.
Half pass – Correcting problems 4 – Horse confuses aids for canter.

Shoulder-in is the aspirin of dressage – Nuno Oliveira.

In his book, School of Horsemanship, published in 1733, François de la Guérinière describes shoulder-in as the alpha and omega of all exercises for developing suppleness and agility in horses.  An exercise used by classical dressage trainers for centuries, unchanged and instantly recognisable, it is one of the earliest lateral movements taught to horses.

Well ridden, shoulder-in provides major benefits in the schooling of horses, essentially the suppling of the horse’s shoulders, preparation for the horse to be placed into their haunches and it trains the horse to move away from the rider’s leg.

The basic principle of shoulder-in is that the horse brings their shoulder away from the line of travel, with the hind legs remaining on the line of travel, and then the horse proceeds stepping slightly sideways in the original direction. The angle may vary from horse to horse, depending on their conformation, suppleness and level of training, but all shoulder in shoulder exhibit the same qualities.
 

• The haunches should remain near the wall, the shoulders should be about 45 cms to 60 cms away from the wall.
• The horse’s inside foreleg should cross the outside foreleg, and their inside hind leg should cross the outside hind leg.
• They should remain equally bent through their body.
• The haunches must be engaged under their body. The degree to which they can achieve this is influenced by their conformation and level of training.
• The steps shoulder be small so the hind legs cross closely.

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Common faults are;

• The horse drops to their outside shoulder and straightens their body with an exaggerated bend in their necks.
• The horse does not cross their hind legs and steps forward from the line of travel.
• The horse places weight in their inside shoulder and braces their ribs against the rider’s leg, accompanied by stepping forward.
• The horse turns their shoulders too far to the inside and steps forward.
• The horse pushes the haunches out rather than moving their shoulders inwards.

Have a look at the pictures below, the horses are in the same stride in shoulder-in, but the pictures look quite different. Both horses show a good degree of suppleness but the horse on the right has disengaged his haunches, hollowed his back and is dropping towards his outside shoulder.
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What is a correct piaffe? Over the years I have seen many horses performing piaffe, and the way each horse creates the steps can make the movement look very different. Some horses have the strength to lower their haunches and show strides with good elevation, whilst for other horses the piaffe steps are much smaller and less elevated.
 
It is easy to be impressed by horses who make big extravagant steps, but is the piaffe still correct? A true piaffe should show: -

• Clear diagonal steps.
• The fore feet should lift to the same height, roughly mid cannon bone, and the hind feet should lift the same height, roughly the fetlock, although the height will vary from horse to horse.
• The head and neck being elevated - the nose may come slightly in front of the vertical.
• Lowered haunches accompanied by greater flexion of the joints in the hind limbs.
• Lightness in the forehand.
• Light contact with only the weight of the reins in the rider's hands.

 
Common faults in piaffe are:-

• Breaks in the diagonal pairing of the limbs.
• Hind quarters bouncing up, with the weight in the forehand.
• Hind quarters swinging from side to side.
• Hind legs step wide.
• Hind legs not moving equally, it can be that one lifts higher that the other, or one hind leg steps up and down on the same place, while the other steps backwards and forwards.
• Hind legs lifting higher than the fore legs.
• Weight in the forehand

 
Phillipe Karl has a diagram in his book "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage" which shows some of these common problems.  (See right)
 
These faults can occur because the horse is asked to piaffe too early in their training, when they are not strong enough to make the steps or they are asked to give more than they are capable of. The horse becomes compressed into the piaffe which results in these types of errors.
  
That is not to say that every piaffe will look the same, some horses find the movement easier than others and have more expression in the steps, whereas other horses will have small, almost shuffling steps. Looking for the qualities of a movement can show that the less spectacular piaffe is more correct than some of the dazzling steps we see at times.

In the pictures below at first the piaffes look similar, but when you look in detail at the position of the horses, you can see that the chestnut horse is blocked by the rider’s hands. The head and neck are compressed causing the fore limbs to track too far back under the horses body, the back is blocked, the haunches are lowered but the hocks are braced and you can see the resistance through the horse's mouth and tail.
 
The grey horse is in a similar position, but he is correctly engaged, more open in the head and neck, elevating the forehand and flexing his hind limbs with correct weight transfer towards the haunches and with the fore legs stepping down vertically.


​Have an objective look at some videos of different horses in piaffe and see if you can spot the differences and which are more correct.

The Christmas holiday normally gives me a little time to do some reading, usually a mix of technical books and some more easy reading ones. This Christmas I revisited François de la Guérinière’s sizeable work, “School of Horsemanship”, a book I have read many times over the years and I always find a new understanding of the methods for training a horse.
 
It’s a challenging book, my copy is 322 pages of A4 size, and it covers every part of horse ownership from choosing horses by conformation and suitability, descriptions of paces and airs, to tack and stable management. Whilst the book contains some outdated advice on care, treating illness and dealing with problem horses, the relatively short chapters covering training, about 80 pages, are as relevant today as they have ever been.
 
With the rider’s position being such an important aspect of good riding, starting 2020 with a blog about François de la Guérinière notes on the subject should help to get us all on track for productive riding this year. A rider who sits well moves with their horse and can feel the movement and responses and can properly influence the horse towards greater collection.
 
The chapter on the rider’s posture in the book is only 4 pages long and begins by describing the overall requirement of the rider.
 
“By grace, I comprehend a air of ease and freedom which must be maintained in a controlled and yet supple posture, be it in order to maintain the depth of the seat in the saddle where necessary, or to relax at the appropriate moment, keeping in so far as possible during all the movement of the horse that exact equilibrium which comes for judicious balance of the body’s weight. Furthermore, the rider’s movements must be so subtle that they serve to improve his seat, rather than being ostentatious aids to the horse. “ (page 108)
 
The important point in this section is in the very first sentence, the controlled and balanced rider improves both the horse and themselves, whereas the unbalanced rider will never achieve the horse’s full potential.
 
He then notes that he feels that some of the methods in use at the time were diminishing the brilliance of the art of dressage.
 
“Given that this accomplishment has been neglected, and that nonchalance joined to a certain laxity has displaced the efforts made in the past to acquire and maintain that attractive seat which so charms the spectator and brings out the beauty of a handsome horse, it gives no cause for surprise to note that the art of horsemanship has lost a measure of its former brilliance.” (page 108)
 
Next, he covers mounting, insisting that the rider is responsible for checking the tack and they always mount quietly and with great care. Once in the saddle the rider must check their position, ensuring their seat is centered and not tipping towards the cantle.
 
His notes on holding the reins describes how to hold them in the left hand only whereas today, we use the reins in two hands, but he comments

“The bridle hand governs the forehand and should be placed over the neck of the horse neither too near or too the off side, two inches above elbow height and in front of the saddle, so that the latter does not interfere with the effect of the reins.” (page 110)
 
The reins are then centered over the horse’s withers with a quiet steady hand. With the reins in two hands it is much easier to allow them to wander off to the side or drop down towards the rider’s thigh. I have found that it is better to teach riders to carry their hands as a level pair just above the withers. This is so that, whilst they are developing an independent seat, their hands interfere less with the horse’s mouth, and once the rider has a secure seat and good control of their arms, they can then position their hands to help the horse more.
 
For the rider’s legs, de la Guérinière comments that they
 
“…serve to guide and control the body and the hind quarters of the horse: their proper position is to be straight and relaxed from the knee to the foot, close to the horse without touching it, the thighs and calves turned somewhat inward, so that the side of the thigh rests close along the flap of the saddle. The legs must, however, be held firm in addition to being relaxed, for if they were not they would touch the horse’s belly incessantly, which circumstances would put the horse into a state of continual confusion.” (page 110 – 111)
 
This is a particularly difficult position to obtain with the legs, to be relaxed and firm at the same time! This is obtained from a good balanced seat, and having the thighs rotated as described, which makes the rider’s legs stable (firm) with the minimal muscle involvement (relaxed).
 
The position and use of the rider’s foot is of great importance, but can only be achieved from a correct leg and seat position.
 
“The heel of the foot should be held a little lower than the toe, but not overly much, for that would make the leg rigid; it should also be turned very slightly  to the inside, in order to control the spur easily, and not be too close to the belly, which it should meet at approximately a hand’s breadth behind the girth…..
 
…. If the toe were turned too far outward, the heel would be too close to the belly and the spur would touch the horse incessantly…
 
… Properly speaking, it is not the legs which are turned when riding, but rather the upper thighs; and when the thighs, and consequently the legs, are turned in one direction or another as much as they ought to be, so will be the feet. (page 111)
 
De la Guérinière notes that maintaining this position when the horse is in motion is difficult, and advises that riders spend five or six months in sitting trot without stirrups in order to develop good balance and a deep seat.
 
“It is by degrees that a rider gains this firmness of seat, which must proceed from equilibrium and not from the iron grip of the calves and heels which should be left to rough riding jockeys.“ (page 111)
 
He closes the chapter by admitting that, should the horse spook or shy it is necessary for the rider to change his posture in order to stay in the saddle (we’ve all been there!), but he insists that proper posture should be restored as soon as the horse is under control.
 
“By a natural process and without noticing, the rider will with time assimilate the method for maintaining a deep seat and an erect posture without rigidity or ungainliness; he will become relaxed and poised without laxity or nonchalance... (page 112)
 
And a final comment on balance.
 
…and above all without being bent forward, which is the gravest fault of all; for responsive horses move well or poorly depending upon whether or not the counterbalance made by the rider’s body is properly maintained. (page 112)
 
As riders we must continually check and correct our position until it becomes instinctive, so that we make it as easy as possible for our horses to follow our aids with ease.
 
Book – School of Horsemanship by François de la Guérinière, translated by Tracy Boucher, published by J. A. Allan press