Success thrives in the right environment. Plants need to have the right amount of water and sunlight to grow. A great steak needs the right amount of heat and rest to be tender. A fine wine needs to be stored at a certain temperature and a shoulder-in will only be as balanced as the trot you began in. In dressage, a large portion of the success of each exercise is secured or lost in the preparation. I love this! It can be so frustrating when you struggle with something… a new movement, exercise or feel, but it is even more frustrating when you don’t know why you are struggling with it. When a horse or rider or both are struggling with the elements of a new movement, the answer is almost always found in one of the steps you took to get to this point. As you train your horse, you are building a foundation. This foundation is made of many building blocks and they are all very important. You can’t ride a perfect shoulder-in if you are not in a perfect collected trot, just like you can’t ride a horse if he isn’t broken yet ;) The early blocks, such as forward, steering and brakes are all obviously popular, but for some reason, as horses begin their ascent up the levels, less importance is placed on the building blocks and this always haunts you in the end. Now this article is not meant as a call for everyone to restart their horses, but as a diagnosing tool to help pinpoint the cause of training issues. This week, we are going to focus on what building blocks we need in order to have success with specific exercises. As you go up the levels, you and your horse will becoming capable of more advanced movements. Training these movements every day is not ideal for your horse, mentally or physically, but you should train and improve your “building blocks” on a daily basis. All of the prep work and foundation checks may seem tedious or necessary at times, but you will be rewarded with consistent success in future movements when you do. Lets get started! Intro: Entering at A and riding down centerline is the beginning of all dressage tests. It can be ridden in all gaits. While riding the Intro tests, you will be asked to ride down centerline in a medium walk or working trot, but as you go up the levels, you will be asked to canter down centerline and eventually even ride piaffe and passage on the centerline. Many riders feel as though they are walking a tightrope when they ride down the centerline, but a well built foundation can transform that tight rope into a beam or a bridge or even solid ground ;) - Building Block #1: Relaxation. Relaxation may seem like it should be three or four notches down the list, but I put it at number one for several reasons. Most importantly, if your horse is struggling with tension or distraction, it is not the best situation to train great centerlines. The more you can replace negative experiences with positive ones, the better, so when you are are in the development stages of training on the centerline, try to chose days where both you and your horse are relaxed and can concentrate on the task at hand. Maintaining your own relaxation is just as important. Stressing about a few inches of drift or the exact placement of your halt, only takes your mind away from the more important things. Relax on the centerline and treat it just any other line you ride in the arena. Perfection will come… - Building Block #2: Straightness. This may seem obvious, but I am not talking about straightness of the centerline. I am talking about straightness as a rider. As soon as we enter at A, we start trying to prevent every possible mistake long before it happens and as a result, our horses get all tangled up. Now I am not throwing all of the blame of you as the rider, but if you are adding a little leg here and bending a little there, the odds of your horse traveling straight down centerline are even more slim that that centerline seems. Next time you’re in the saddle, concentrate on maintaining your own straightness throughout the arena and then continue that straightness right down the centerline. Training: The “stretchy circle” is introduced at Training Level and is required through First Level. This movement is ridden in working trot. When a rider asks me about this movement, they typical ask what to do a few steps before the circle in order to get their horses head down. Unfortunately, those last few steps before the stretchy circle are where you cash in on all of the prep work you have done over the past few weeks, months… even years! That little ol’ 20 meter circle can feel like your horses 20 second confessional to the judge. A correct stretch is the fruit of much labor and when the foundation for that stretch is solid, the stretchy circle becomes the moment where you get to show off all of your great training. - Building Block #1: Contact. The purpose of the stretch is to show the judge that your horse is on the bit. When a horse is on the bit, they will follow the bit where the rider takes it. When most people think about a horse being “on the bit”, they think about being in a round, competition frame and this is true. If a horse is nicely on the bit, they will be round when asked, but another positive result of being on the bit is that your horse will follow the bit forward and downward as you lengthen the reins. Now that is your horses job, but you have an even more important one! Ideally, we will have the same connection up and round and we do long and low. In order for that to happen, we need to be the same rider, riding with the same contact working towards the same feel. Start off slow… when you are happy with the contact in the working trot, begin working your way towards a stretch one inch at a time, because if your horse won’t stretch one inch lower and longer, why try two? - Building Block #2: Energy. In order for a stretch to maintain its balance and connection to the bridle, the horse must maintain activity behind. It is quite common for a horse to lose activity during the stretch. Who could blame them? Maintaining the activity during the stretch requires energy and push from behind i.e. hard work. So next time you ride the stretchy trot, keep an eye on the energy in the working trot and remember that if it your trot starts to droop a little, fix it. The stretchy trot is a movement just like an extended canter, you need to ride it clearly and sometimes this means correcting a lack of energy, which can make all the difference in the stretch. - Building Block #3: Balance. It is very important that you remain balanced in the saddle when stretching your horse. It can be very tempting to lean forward or collapse your seat as your horse begins to reach forward and downward, but this can send your horse onto the forehand. Keeping your body upright and balanced in the saddle will help you horse stay balanced under you. Even the smallest rider can send their horse off balance by allowing their chest to collapse forward. Keeping your chest open and over your hips will help you to stay in proper balance over your horse and will also help to prevent your lower leg from creeping back too far behind the girth. Remember, our horses mirror us. If we remain balanced, it is much easier for them to do the same. First: The leg yield is introduced at First Level and is ridden in working trot. The leg yield is the first lateral movement required in dressage and many argue that it is the foundation for all future movements. I think this movement is a bit more tricky than it first seems. Yes, the actual movement is simply a yielding of your horse from your leg, but there is more to it. Any of my students will tell you that I put a lot of thought into training leg yields. I consider them very important. A correctly trained leg yield will easily develop into shoulder-in, travers and half-pass, but repeating a poorly executed leg yield can create crookedness, unnecessary stress on your horses body and confusion in future training. In competition, a judge is looking for the quality of the working trot to be consistently maintained and for your horse to remain in alignment, both front to back and side to side throughout the leg yield. If the foundation of your leg yield is not solid, one or more of those elements will be impossible to maintain. Taking the time to properly prepare, train and execute the leg yield will help pave the way for success in many future exercises. - Building Block #1: Straightness. Before training lateral work, it is very important that both you and your horse are straight. As a rider, maintaining even rein contact and keeping your body straight in the saddle is the most influential thing you can do for lateral work. During the learning process, every rider has this little thought creep into their mind…”If I were to just pull my horses head a little bit this way, it will help him get to the rail quicker….”. The problem is that it does work. You will get to your destination faster, because over bending your horse will send them off balance and they will feel the need to catch themselves by running through the opposite shoulder. Although, you may be heading sideways, this is not a leg yield. A correct leg yield is just like it sounds, a yielding from your leg. This should not require a bend in the neck. When you read the directives for the leg yields in First Level Tests 2 and 3, “Regularity and quality of trot; consistent tempo; alignment of horse; balance and flow” is what a great leg yield should demonstrate. Your horse should remain correctly aligned throughout the movement and this requires us to be aligned as well. - Building Block #2: Response. The main purpose of the leg yield is to train and then demonstrate your horses response to your leg aid. The better your horse responds to your leg aid, the more successful your leg yield will be. For example, a horse that needs 5 or 6 nudges to transition from medium walk into working trot will need 5 or 6 nudges to yield your leg in other exercises and this is too many. Improving your horses response to your leg by riding medium walk to working trot transitions and then “small” trot to “big” trot transitions will help prepare them for the leg yields. I do not recommend schooling leg yields every day, but you can certainly school a better response to your aids every time you are in the saddle. Second: The turn on the haunches is introduced at Second Level and is required through Third Level. This movements is ridden in medium walk. The turn on the haunches may seem like an insignificant movement in the Second and Third level tests, but it is far from it! It is your horses first introduction to collection at the walk and is one of the building blocks for a great piaffe down the road. Not only does it challenge the control you have over your horses quarters, but it can also expose areas that are weak in your foundation. The USDF rulebook says, “In order for the horse to perform a balanced and engaged turn on the haunches, he must develop an increased sensitivity to the rider’s aids, in which the horse becomes lighter and quicker in his responses to the rider’s leg and weight aids. In addition, increased suppleness and mobility in the shoulders of the horse are developed as the horse becomes proficient in the exercise. This increased mobility also assists in the rider’s ability to straighten the horse, an important ingredient to collection.” Developing the ability to maintain the activity, quality and regularity of your medium walk while demonstrating bend and fluency throughout the turn is no small feat, but once accomplished, will positively effect all aspects of training. - Building Block #1: Obedience. This is a movement that requires a lot of focus from both horse and rider to perform correctly. It requires simultaneous response from both leg and rein aids. In the turn on the haunches, your horses forehand will turn a half circle around the hind legs, while maintaining a pure and active medium walk. The hind legs will not cross and if the front legs do, they must cross one in front of the other. In preparing for this movement, a horse and rider should be able to smoothly walk a square with small 90 degree turns in each corner. When riding these “square turns”, ensure that your horse maintains consistent activity in the walk and softness in the bridle. - Building Block #2: Clarity of Aids. It is very important to understand the correct aids for a turn on the haunches. If you are unsure or experimenting as you ride through this movement, it will not be successful. When a rider asks me to describe the correct aids for this movement, I often walk through it on foot and recommend that they do the same. The mistakes that can happen during a turn on the haunches are small and if you are not positive about what you are asking for, these mistakes can easily go unnoticed. When you think about riding this movement, the quality of the walk must be maintained. Your turn on the haunches is only as good as the medium walk that it is being ridden in. If the walk becomes stiff, crooked or lateral, take time to repair the walk and then school the movement again. - Building Block #3: The aids. Your horse should stay straight under you with softness in the inner jaw. Before you begin the turn, deepen your inner seat bone and keep your inner leg next to the girth. Your inner leg helps maintain correct body position and prevents your horses inside hind leg from stepping in on the turn. Your outside leg will be slightly behind the girth, maintaining activity in the walk and initiating the turn. Your outside rein must stay in contact to prevent over bending of the neck and will be used for half halts during the preparation and execution stages of the movement. Once the turn is complete, your outside rein and inner leg will help straighten your horse back onto the track. Third and Above: The flying change is introduced at Third Level and is required through Grand Prix. This movement is ridden in collected canter. Flying changes are mysterious to many riders…. trainers…. and horses for that matter. It is a directional transition within the same gait without the need to actually change the direction you’re traveling in. Earlier, we talked about how complex the leg yield is and although this may be met with some eye rolls, the flying change is quite simple. Don’t get me wrong, there can be difficult elements to understanding the flying change by both horses and riders, but the actual flying change is not very complicated. Every horse does them playing out in the pasture or shying away from something scary. They are simply picking up one lead out of the other. Although it is physically very easy for a horse to do a flying change, connecting an aid to the response can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Some horses take longer than others and some riders find it more or less confusing, but the good news is that I have yet to find a rider or horse that never figured it out. Correctly building the foundation for a flying change is really essential for both the horse and the rider. Yes, the horse is the one actually doing the change, but we are driving. Until a rider truly understands the aids, timing and feel for the flying change, the movement will remain a mystery. This doesn’t mean that the changes can’t or won’t happen, it just limits the positive effect a rider can have on the preparation and execution. Whether your horse is already proficient in the flying change or just beginning them, the canter that you ask for the change out of is the most important insurance you can have for a great flying change. - Building Block #1: A self-propelled canter. It is very important that your horse is in front of your leg before riding a flying change. A good flying change requires activity and jump in the canter. When a rider is in charge of constantly creating this activity, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for applying the aids for a change. If your horse loses activity, becomes hollow or is tempted to drop out of the canter prior to the flying change, he/she is not in front of your leg. Of course, mistakes happen, but use the mistakes to help make show what you and your horse need to improve on. A self-propelled collected canter should maintain the activity and jump easily and should always respond when leg is applied. If your horse ignores some of your leg aids or it is common that they need reapplied, there is a great chance that they will ignore your aids for a flying change. - Building Block #2: Balance. Being self-propelled and well balanced go hand in hand. Balance requires consistency and if the energy created in the hind leg varies from stride to stride, balance will be difficult to achieve. Think about the fact that you are sitting in the “center” of your horse. Activity in the hid leg should help lift the forehand, this explains why we need consistent energy from behind, but there is also a need for consistent contact to help “receive” that energy. If your contact is is inconsistent, your balance will follow. Last, but not least, is the side to side balance. When preparing for the changes, ensure that horse is as even as possible in both the response left and right and in the flexion. A horse with four good “quarters” will have much better success in the changes. - Building Block #3: Straightness. When you watch a well executed flying change, the horse remains straight before, during and after the change. This helps to prevent a shift of energy, loss of balance or crookedness in the change. Although horses may struggle with straightness in the early stages of learning the changes, it is important to develop straightness and maintain it as their training progresses. A self-propelled, well balanced, straight flying change will someday become beautiful one tempis! Happy riding everyone!!!
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How often do you think about what you are actually thinking about as you ride? It may sound a little silly, but are you truly aware of your thoughts in the saddle? Many studies have proved the connection between an athletes thoughts and their physical performance. Where your mind is truly has an effect on what you are capable of. Learning to be aware of your thoughts while riding can open up a whole new level of confidence in yourself and connection with your horse. Every good horse trainer wants their horses undivided attention. A distracted horse can be very dangerous in the wrong situation and this is why we strive for their focus during training. The relationship between a horse and rider is a two way street and just as we want our horses to concentrate on our aids and requests, we need to do the same for them. Many things can effect the way we think while we are riding. This time of year, unless you live south of Atlanta, the thought of riding on a cold, windy winter day can be less than appealing. Our horses seem to enjoy the brisk weather much more than we do and nobody likes frozen fingers! It can be tough to keep your mind full of positive thoughts during a ride in bad weather, at a distracting venue or after a bad experience…. tough, but not impossible! A rider not actively concentrating their thoughts will begin to become effected by their surroundings in some way or another, just like our horses can, but just chanting “stay focused…. stay focused” will not do the trick. We all need to make a habit of being more aware of exactly what is going through our mind while we are working with our horses. Understanding what you are thinking about goes a little bit deeper than “Am I nervous?” or “How does my horse look right now?”. You may be nervous, but what about? And everyone cares what their horse looks like, but is there something you can do about it? Success in training is all about preparation and preparation takes focus. This weeks exercise is going to be a little bit different. Instead of a particular movement, we are going to focus on three different stages of thought as you ride. I recommend starting off with something simple, like a twenty meter circle, and then branching out as you feel ready. Lets begin!
When you ask your horse for something, what type of response were you looking for? This sounds like an obvious question, but when you apply your aids, do you really have a specific response that you are after? Knowing exactly what you want helps to not only make your aids more clear, but it also gives you the right to correct an incorrect response. If you ask your horse for something non-specific or vague, wouldn’t it be unfair to correct any response they give you? An ambiguous request leaves room for a wide variety a responses. The next time you you are about to ask your horses for something, take a moment to think about both how you are going to ask and what you will accept as an answer….. before you apply your aids.
Does your horse understand how to respond to the question you just asked? Has your horse responded correctly to those aids confidently and consistently in the past? Are you confident in your ability to duplicate the same aids that created that good response again? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then we need to start teaching your horses just how you want him/her to respond to that request. Remember that it takes many positive repetitions to create a habit and I think that many riders feel that their horse understands something far before they actually do. Kyra Kyrkland states that if you have only done something ten times schooling at home, you are going to have to be pretty lucky to repeat it again. This is so true! Just because your horse has responded correctly a few times to a request doesn’t mean that they understand that request fully. Keeping this in mind, helps remind us to reward the good responses and understand why the wrong ones may have been given.
Nuno Oliveria says this when discussing the riders aids, "I don't want riders who work physically hard. Work by thinking." I love this, because so many training mistakes can be avoided by using that thing you strap you helmet onto! If you can’t describe how to ask for a certain movement or transition, what are the odds that you are capable of asking correctly? If you have ever asked yourself or your trainer, “Why won’t my horse go round?” or “Why can’t I get my horse to stretch?”, take the time to really understand how to ask for the things you want your horse to do. This will be far more beneficial than simply doing the movement or exercise. A rider that performs exercises before they fully understand them, lacks the ability to recreate that exercise later on. Taking the time to learn the proper aids for the movements you want to execute is one of the most important things you can do for both you and your horse.
Now that you have clearly applied your aids, what kind of response did you get? Did you get what you had in mind back before you asked?
This very moment is why the first question is so important to ask, “What kind of response am I looking for?”, because immediately following your horses response, you need to respond back with either a correction or a reward. If your horse just responded correctly, it is important that we reward that response. It can be easy to fall into the habit of only reacting when I correction is required. Although corrections are a necessary part of training, every horse reacts to praise. Any time we can create a positive response instead of a negative one, we should take advantage of the opportunity. As your horse learns that responding that way will result in praise, they are more likely to respond that way again and riding a horse that wants to earn your praise is a fabulous feeling!
Even if you gave the most perfectly timed aids, mistakes happen. We are working with live animals and just like us, they get distracted, confused and discombobulated from time to time (some more than others ;)). If you gave the wrong aids, correct yourself and begin again. Now if you are confident that you gave the correct aids and your horse offered an incorrect response, make your correction clear, simple and direct. After the correction, ride the exercise again with the same clear aids you gave the first time. The worst thing you can do is change your aids simply because your horse answered incorrectly. Be confident in your aids and forgive your horse (and yourself) for the mistakes as soon as the correction is given. “A good rider lives on the small number of good steps and he builds on them. He forgets about the bad things…” thanks again Kyra ;) Happy riding everyone! Do you ever wonder why you seem to get so much done during a lesson? Well, the main reason, of course is your faithful instructor! A good instructor will keep you on track and help you to make good decisions during your ride, but there is another element that an instructor provides during a lesson that you can actually do on your own. This element is structure. Your instructor doesn’t look at you and ask whats next, right? They have a plan and direct you towards the goal for the day. Now there is something easy about sliding into the passenger seat and letting someone else make the decisions, but there are plenty of reasons that taking a lesson may not be an option for you. Financial constraints, scheduling conflicts, lack of availability, traveling limitations, your instructor moves to Japan ;) the reasons can pile up, but none of them mean that you can’t go out and have a fun, productive ride! When I begin a lesson, I usually start by asking how your last couple of rides had been. Quite often, the answer is not very specific. This tells me that those rides were most likely not very structured. You may be thinking to yourself, “Well, I wasn’t working on anything specific or too difficult, so why would I need structure?” and the reason is quite important! When a rider heads out to the arena with no plans, who decides how this session is going to go? Your horse does and I love horses, but there isn’t a horse on earth that I would want planning my day ;) One of my dear friends and clients has feisty little gelding named CJ. CJ is fabulous and full of personality, but his idea of a good day was staying near his buddies and food, but his owner wanted to be able to safely take him out to arena for a fun ride or down a relaxing trail. The goals for this horse were never to do a Grand Prix test or jump a giant course, but he still desperately needed structure to keep purpose to every session. Every day, his owner chipped away at small goals and consistently graduated her plans for him as she accomplished the things that previously seemed impossible. This wonderful team can now go out for a fun, relaxing ride far from the barn, his buddies and the insecurities that CJ previously displayed, all because of the structured plans that she stuck with. I am so proud of their accomplishments and use them as an example for the ways that structure can transform the amount you accomplish, even when riding on your own. This weeks exercises will be done in a pyramid style. Each exercise will be “built” by adding different elements. Have fun with the exercise and feel free to customise them to you and your horses own goals. When I use these exercises during a lesson, we do not move on to the next step of the pyramid until the step that we are on is successful. I also recommend doing it this way when riding on your own. Focus on making the first step of the exercise as successful as you can and when you add the next step, make sure that you can ride the first two elements of the pyramid together successfully before adding the third and so on. Remember that most horses only “anticipate” when a rider has gone too long without giving them direction. When you are schooling an exercise that repeats the same movements every time, it is very important that you still ride the exercise as if it is the first time every time you go through. If you start allowing your horse to assist at any point in the exercise, they will assume that they can do it during other portions of the exercise. The fairest way to ride through any exercise is to constantly give your horse direction, whether you feel they need it or not. The worse thing you can do is assume that your horse knows the exercise and then correct them when they give you the wrong answer. Give them good, clear directions to follow and have fun! Intro: Begin by riding medium walk full arena. Make sure that you have even weight in your stirrups, an even connection to the bridle and that your horse is walking freely forward. When your medium walk feels good, ride a transition into working trot at A. Continue in working trot full arena making sure that you are posting in a solid rhythm with steady hands and eyes looking straight down the long side. At C, ride a transition back into medium walk and continue riding full arena. This is the first step of the pyramid. Before moving on, make sure that your walk is forward, your trot has a solid rhythm and that your transitions are accurately placed by each letter. Next, add a 20m circle in working trot at E (tracking right). In addition to a solid rhythm in your working trot, make sure that your 20m circle is round and consistently positioned. After the circle, proceed full arena and ride a balanced transition to medium walk at C. Repeat this until you feel confident in all of the elements of this step. Ride your horse straight while on the long sides and slightly positioned to the right consistently around your 20 circle. Be sure to ride your transitions accurately at each letter both in and out of the working trot and onto and off of your 20m circle. Don’t forget to ride accurately as more steps are added to the pyramid! Next, after your 20m circle at E, continue in working trot through the short side at C and change rein across the diagonal from M to K returning to medium walk at A. Even though we have only added one movement, this exercise just got a whole lot longer! Make sure that all of the original elements are successful and that you ride two nice, deep corners with clearly straight steps in between them and that your diagonal is straight and consistent. Horses have a tendency to either steep up or slow down on diagonals (depending on their temperaments), so make sure that you are riding the same trot at the end of the diagonal that you began the diagonal in. Last, but not least, ride the corner after the diagonal with purpose. That corner doesn’t get a lot of love, because most riders are concerned with the upcoming transition at A, but the better that you ride that corner, the better your medium walk transition at A will be! The final block to this pyramid is adding a 20m circle to the left in working trot at B. Make sure that this circle is a mirror image of the 20m circle you rode to the right (same size, same rhythm, same about of bend…ect). Repeat each step until you are really confident with it, even if you spread the exercise over a few rides! Your patience will be rewarded. Once you are confident riding through the entire exercise, you can begin reversing your pyramid (see below) and work your way back to the foundation :) Medium walk tracking right. Medium walk. A - working trot. C - medium walk. Medium walk. A - working trot. E - circle right 20m in working trot. C - medium walk. Medium walk. A - working trot. E - circle right 20m in working trot. MXK change rein. A - medium walk. Medium walk. A - working trot. E - circle right 20m in working trot. MXK change rein. B - circle left 20m in working trot. C - medium walk. Medium walk. A - working trot. E - circle right 20m in working trot. MXK change rein. A - medium walk. Medium walk. A - working trot. E - circle right 20m in working trot. C - medium walk. Medium walk. A - working trot. C - medium walk. Reverse in medium walk and repeat the exercise tracking left. Training: One of the biggest challenges at Training level is the addition of more continuous canter work. This exercise is one of my absolute favourites for building up the amount of quality canter work you and your horse are capable of. Begin by riding a 20m circle in working trot to the left at A. Prepare for left lead canter by steadying your outside rein and softly positioning flexion in the inner jaw. Your inside leg should be positioned by the girth and your outside leg is brought back behind the girth. Ride a transition to working canter left lead in the corner between A and F and continue on a 20m circle at A. Continue riding your working canter left lead on the 20m circle at A until you are confident with the balance, bend and consistency of the circle, then transition back into working trot at K. Ride a few circles in working trot until you are prepared to transition back into working canter. Once your trot feels forward and balanced, transition back into working canter left lead between A and F and continue on a 20m circle at A. Once this circle is successful, ride into the corner between A and F and shift your 20m circle down to P. Stay on your 20m circle at P until you are happy with the both the canter and the circle. Use good judgement, but don’t worry if you need to ride this circle several (or many!) times over. It is far more beneficial to perfect the circle you are currently schooling than to move on before you are ready. The better quality your canter is on the 20m circle, the more prepared you are to take that canter further down the long side. Be sure to maintain the proper seat position throughout the entire exercise. Use the circle to help you relax your inner seat bone down into the saddle and create a soft bend around your inside leg, continue this position as you use your outside rein to straighten the canter between circles. Riders often over straighten their bodies when cantering down a straight line and this shift of balance can throw your horse off balance. Maintaining the positioning of your inner seat bone will really help your horse continue the success they had on the circle down the long sides. This exercise is very flexible. For some horses, a circle at A and a circle at P are enough of a challenge and others can circle at each letter up and down the long side. Use the exercise to expand your horses strength, balance and self-carriage by adding to it as they become stronger. Avoid falling into the “I just have to stay cantering at all costs” trap. This exercise is meant to build your horses canter longevity, but make sure that the canter you are riding is worth repeating. The structure portion of this exercise is the fact that even though you are challenging your horses ability to canter longer than before, you are still riding clean, round circles, beginning and ending at the proper letter in a rhythmical, consistent working canter. This is a challenging and rewarding exercise that will improve both the confidence and strength in your working canter. Working trot tracking left. Working trot. A/F - working canter left. A - circle left 20m in working canter. K - working trot. Working trot. A/F - working canter left. A - circle left 20m in working canter. P - circle left 20m in working canter. K - working trot. Working trot. A/F - working canter left. A - circle left 20m in working canter. P - circle left 20m in working canter. B - circle left 20m in working canter. K - working trot Working trot. A/F - working canter left. A - circle left 20m in working canter. P - circle left 20m in working canter. K - working trot. Working trot. A/F - working canter left. A - circle left 20m in working canter. K - working trot. Reverse and repeat the exercise tracking right. First: Whether you are preparing to compete at First Level or are about to move on to Second Level, you are most likely schooling the counter canter. A good counter canter is essential at Second Level and is first introduced on a shallow loop in First Level Test 3. This exercise will help develop good balance, control and rideability on a counter canter loop. It is beneficial for everything from introducing counter canter to a green horse through helping a more inexperienced rider gain influence on an experienced horse. Begin by riding working canter left lead full arena. Your working canter should be consistent, straight and well balanced before beginning counter canter work. Although counter canter does take a certain degree of strength and ability from a horse, the rider is a very influential part of the success of counter canter. Be sure to remain positioned with the lead you are riding and not the direction you are going. That sounds simple enough, but it is the very first thing that gets into the way of a successful counter canter. Remind yourself to steady the outside rein, maintain a soft conversation with the inside jaw, keep your inside leg at the girth and your outside leg behind the girth. Once you are prepared to begin, at H ride down a diagonal line towards X. As you approach the quarterline, begin straightening your horse parallel to the long side and continue in working canter left lead straight down the quarterline. Turn left at the short side. Repeat this step until is feels easy and you are confident in the success of it. The next step will be to add a 15m circle left over X and then continue straight down the quarterline. On paper this is a very easy exercise, but it throws many riders for a loop! This exercise really requires a rider to use their brain (insert your own joke here!). You have to go into with a plan and stick to that plan. When you head down the diagonal, don’t just ride somewhere in the middle of the arena, ride to a very specific point. Give yourself several strides to straighten onto the quarterline and then ride a great quality working canter down that quarterline. A lot of riders feel that a little dip in quality is acceptable, because we are beginning a new exercise and this is not true! The success of this exercise is really dependant on the balance and control of the canter you are riding it in, so don’t just think about riding down a new line such as the quarterline, but think about riding the best working canter you can on that line. If you are adding the 15m circle over X, be sure to ride a round, consistent circle the fits perfectly between the quarterline you are currently on and the opposite long side. Then return to the same quarterline and proceed with the beautiful canter you were in. The next step will be returning to the track at K after your 15m circle. Each step of this exercise should only be added if the previous ones were successful. There is nothing wrong with focusing on a portion of this exercise for a few days and then adding more once you feel confident. If you move on too quickly, it can become frustrating and feel more difficult than it actually is. I will school the diagonal line to quarterline portion of the exercise for weeks with a horse, until they are completely relaxed and confident going to and from the quarterline. When a horse and rider are confident riding to and from the quarterline and can add a balanced 15m circle in between, you are well on your way to a great counter canter! The final step in the exercise is extending the diagonal line all the way to X and shrinking your circle down to 10m between X and B and then returning to the track at K. For some horses, adding the 10m circle to the loop is more difficult than the movement required in First Level Test 3, but it greatly improves both the rideability and control that you have over the movement. The “top” of the loop is a place where many riders just want to survive, so they can get back onto the true lead and you can see this in the quality of their loops. Take the wheel during your counter canter and help your horse understand exactly what you are looking for. Mistakes happen and the better you plan for them, the more prepared you will be when/if they happen. If you horse breaks into the trot, collect yourself and your horse and make a purposeful transition back into working canter and begin again. Avoid chasing your horse back into canter during the exercise. If your horse switches leads at some point during the exercise, quietly bring them back down to working trot or medium walk and begin again. If your horse can already perform a flying change or if you are repeatedly getting a flying change at some point during the exercise, check your aids to make sure that you are not shifting your balance or leg positioning inadvertently. There is usefulness in every element of this exercise, so even if you can already ride a great counter canter, go through each step and really make sure that you have balance, consistency and relaxation as you add or take away each step. Second: When a horse and rider make the move from First Level into Second Level, they often struggle with just how quickly movements present themselves. Although shoulder-in and travers are not too difficult on their own, the Second Level tests arrange them in a series that challengers both your coordination and the effectiveness of your aids. This weeks pyramid will help you to carefully build up towards the goal of of better coordination and clarity in a series of movements. Begin by riding collect trot to the right full arena. Before you begin the exercise, warm-up a correct shoulder-in to the right on the long side. When your shoulder-in is feeling good, we will begin by riding shoulder-in right from B to F, collected trot through the short side (FAK) and then shoulder-in right from K to E. This is the foundation of the pyramid and you should be very confident riding through this step before you move on. The accuracy of the beginning and ending of your shoulder-in and the constancy of the rhythm is very important. Be sure to finish your shoulder-in clearly at F so that you are able to ride a deep corner between F and A, then repeat the same corner between A and K, so that you are properly set up to begin shoulder-in right at K. Truly perfecting this step of the exercise may be plenty to focus on for the day! But when you feel confident with it, the next step will be to add a 10m circle right in collected trot at A. *Two things to think about when riding this step of the pyramid are:
Once this step feels fluid, controlled and you are confident in your ability to repeat it successfully, then we will move on to the next step! In this step, we are going to ride two separate circles on the short side, one at F and one at K. So think about the letter that the circles are now placed at. Your first circle is at the same letter that your first shoulder-in finishes at, so you should maintain the same flexion you had in your shoulder-in right from B to F into the 10m circle at F. Once that circle is finished, ride a nice, deep corner between F and A, ride straight through the short side into another deep corner between A and K and then begin your second 10m circle right at K. You will maintain the same flexion that you had on your 10m circle right directly into the shoulder-in right from K to E. When riding this step, be sure that both of your 10m circles are ridden the same size, with the same flexion and in the same rhythm. Being mindful of your rhythm throughout this exercise will help you to catch if your horse speeds up coming out of the first circle or slows down coming into the second circle. If this happens, ride through the exercise again and use your half-halts to help maintain a good solid rhythm from beginning to end. The final step the the pyramid will be adding a halt for five seconds at A. That simple little ol’ halt can really shake things up!! Consider adding the halt sometimes and omitting it others to keep you horses focus on your directions.. Most horses “anticipate” when a rider has gone too long without giving them direction. When you are schooling an exercise that repeats the same movements every time, it is very important that you still ride the exercise as if it is the first time every time you go through. If you start allowing your horse to assist at any point in the exercise, they will assume that they can do it during other portions of the exercise. The fairest way to ride through any exercise is to constantly give your horse direction, whether you feel they need it or not. The worse thing you can do is assume that your horse knows the exercise and then correct them when they give you the wrong answer. Give them good, clear directions to follow and have fun! Collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. FAK - collected trot. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. FA - collected trot. A - circle right 10m. AK - collected trot. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. F - circle right 10m. FAK - collected trot. K - circle right 10m. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. F - circle right 10m. FA - collected trot. A - halt 5 seconds. AK - collected trot. K - circle right 10m. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. F - circle right 10m. FAK - collected trot. K - circle right 10m. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. FA - collected trot. A - circle right 10m. AK - collected trot. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Collected trot. B-F - shoulder-in right. FAK - collected trot. K-E - shoulder-in right. E - collected trot. Reverse and repeat to the left. Third and Above: A good clean flying change is essential to success competing at Third Level and above. A great flying change is active, balanced, straight and controlled. Once your horse can perform a flying change, you need to start developing it. The flying change truly mirrors the effectiveness of and obedience to a riders aids. When I bring up control in flying changes, most people start bringing up how their horses change when they hadn’t asked, don’t listen to where they had asked, get excited in the changes, loose their focus…. all complaints pertaining to to what their horses could be doing better. Of course, there are some naughty horses out there and some that consider a flying change to quite thrilling, but the control aspect in a flying change is 100% the riders job. Let me explain why…. the strides leading up to a flying change are what will make or break the response. If you are connected to your horse and preparing for a potential flying change, you will develop the ability to read if asking for a flying change is a good idea or not. If you do not feel confident that the canter you are currently riding is set up for a successful flying change, don’t ask. You have the control over when and where the change will happen. Just because you began preparing, does not mean that your pants will catch fire if you decide against actually asking for the change. It is your decision where that flying change is ridden and how it is prepared for and if the flying change was not a success, you most likely gave up control somewhere in the process. Remember, when riding a flying change, it is your idea and your creation, your horse is just following directions :) Begin riding collected canter right lead full arena. As with the start of every exercise, make sure that the canter is great…. even super! The flying change can only be as good as the canter is was ridden out of, so ride your canter straight, active and supple. Be very clear with your aids and give a correction if you feel that your horse is not “with” you. If you are struggling to hold your horses head up, work on that before you begin working on the changes. If you are begging your horse to continue in canter, ensure that your leg aids are worthy of respect, because they will eventually be asking for the change and if they don’t mean much to your horse now, why would they mean much when you go to ask for the flying change? Then finally, check your own self-carriage. Ensure that you are not depending on your horse for support in any way. Once this collected canter feels great, we are going to begin by riding a single flying change from true canter to counter canter on the long side at B and proceed full arena in counter canter. Be specific that you want the flying change to happen AT B. The strides following the flying change are just as important as the strides before it. There should not be a dip in quality right after the flying change. If you learned the changes with or alongside your horse, it is really easy for riders to assume that the way their horses felt during the learning process is how the changes will feel forever and this is not the case. Horses are allowed to lose their balance or get a little crooked when they are first figuring out the flying change, but this needs to be tidied up as soon as possible. Think about seamlessly transitioning from a balanced controlled right lead canter into a balanced, controlled left lead canter and then immediately ride a good quality counter canter from there. Once you have ridden through the short side, ride down a short diagonal, returning to true canter and ride the first step of the exercise on the left lead. Be sure that both the flying changes and counter canter are of equal quality both directions before moving on. The next step will be to continue full arena in counter canter and riding a flying change back to true canter on the next long side (at E or B). When riding this exercise, alternate between continuing in counter canter and riding a flying change to be sure that your horse is waiting for your direction. If you feel tension or resistance as you near E or B, remain on your current lead and wait until the next long side. When you are confident in the success of this step, stay in counter canter and ride a flying change at V or S followed by a 10m circle in true canter. Be sure that both the flying change and the collected canter strides before the circle are balanced and straight. Ride an accurate, round and well bent circle and then continue in collected canter. The final step of this pyramid will be riding a flying change after the 10m circle returning to counter canter full arena. Successfully placing flying changes at specific letters requires a greater degree of submission from your horse and the addition of the 10m circle provides you with the ability to correct any loss of quality in the collected canter in order to quickly prepare you for another flying change on the same long side. This exercise can help develop better control, coordination and preparation skills for improved single changes and tempi changes in the future. Collected canter right lead. Collected canter right lead. B - flying change. PFAKV - counter canter. V-R - change rein. R - collected canter left lead. Collected canter left lead. E- flying change. VKAFP - counter canter. P-S - change rein. S - collected canter right lead. Collected canter right lead. B - flying change. PFAKV - counter canter. E - flying change. E - collected canter right lead Collected canter right lead. B - flying change. PFAK - counter canter. V - flying change. E - circle right 10m. E- straight ahead. Collected canter right lead. B - flying change. PFAK - counter canter. V - flying change. E - circle right 10m. S - flying change. HCMR - counter canter. R-V - change rein. V - collected canter left lead. Collected canter left lead. B - flying change. RMCHS - counter canter. E - flying change. E - collected canter left lead. Collected canter left lead. B - flying change. RMCH - counter canter. S - flying change. E - circle left 10m. E - straight ahead. Collected canter left lead. B - flying change. RMCH - counter canter. S - flying change. E - circle left 10m. V - flying change. KAFP - counter canter. P-S - change rein. S - collect canter right lead. Have you ever heard someone say that horses are good at training us? Well, every time you work with your horse, they learn something. Is your horse developing respect for your aids and a confidence for what you expect each time you head to the arena or is he learning that you eventually give up or won’t follow through with your requests? The way that you warm your horse up really sets the boundaries for the rest of the ride. A good warm-up is not just physical, but it is a chance to awaken good mental responses that can greatly improve the remainder of your ride. How you warm your horse up is a very important element of the ride that is often overlooked. Every horse and rider combination are unique, but there are certain “non-negotiables” that we should all be working towards. Our horses should go forward from our leg aids, stop from our rein aids and should continue working until we ask otherwise. I am fairly positive that all riders would want their horses to do these things, but we can’t forget that there are a few things that we need to do as well. A horse will only be responsive to a rider that gives consistent aids and corrections. A horse can only work in a good rhythm under a rider that is well balanced. Your horses body can’t be supple if your body is stiff. There are many things that we need to do in order for our horses to work at their best. All of this starts during the warm-up and this week, we are going to focus on warming up with a purpose. Intro/Training: Someone once asked me what they are supposed to warm-up, if all they are doing is a little bit of walking and trotting. It may sound silly, but I completely understand! When a horse and rider are just starting out in dressage, it can be very easy to get lost in all of the things that you can’t do yet, but there is so much that you can do! One of the best habits you can start is making the most out of your warm-up every day. Go to the arena with a plan and use your warm-up to get you and your horse ready to accomplish that goal. If your goal is to work on your canter, focus on bringing energy and activity into your warm-up trot. If you are practicing for a Training Level test, focus on riding accurately around the arena during the warm-up portion of your ride (make your 20m circles round and fluid, use your corners, ride transitions at a specific letter every time…ect). If you make a habit of warming up with a purpose, this will help you get the most out of every ride all the way to Grand Prix. For the horse: In the warm-up, you are explaining to your horse what your ride is going to be about. If you allow him/her to be crooked or unfocused during the warm-up, why would they do anything else during the rest of your ride? Remember that there is a difference between giving your horse time to warm-up their mind, body and reactions and letting your horse get away with sub par work. Think about allowing your horse to warm-up at 75% of their normal capacity, but only for the warm-up. The warm-up should be used to steadily bring their work quality up to 100%, so that you can stay there for the rest of your workout. Now it is important to be clear that I do not mean that your horse has to do his/her very best work every day. The 100% I am referring to is the feeling that your horse is fully warm-up and ready to get to work mentally and physically. You can still make improvements as the ride goes on, but being aware of just how warmed-up your horse is can be very important to the success of your rides. If you are not sure, use some of the exercises that we have done together to “read” your horse. Asking your horse to maintain connection with the bridle as you allow the reins to slide out and gather them back up is a great exercise to gauge where your horse is at in the warm-up process! For the rider: During your warm-up, be sure to ride with clear aids and good focus. If you start your ride in a sloppy manner, you will most likely spend the rest of your ride trying to fix this issue. Of course, this IS the warm-up, but you are warming up little versions of what you are about to do in your ride. Focus on the basics: keeping even weight in your stirrups, aligning your ear-hip-ankle to keep yourself upright in the saddle, keeping your fingers closed on the reins to maintain your rein length, look where you want to go in the arena, give clear direction, correction and praise and, last but not least, breathe :) First/Second: Horses working at First and Second Level are in sort of a transitional stage of training. Previously, everything was done on a straight line in one rhythm, but now that lateral work and transitions within gaits are required, your warm-up should become a little more complex. In addition to developing a solid rhythm and relaxation, your warm-up should address engagement in the hind leg and a steady connection in the bridle. Putting more emphasis on a proper warm-up will not only improve the work your horse is about to do, but will also prepare him/her for the introduction of more advanced exercises to come. For the horse: Whether you are warming up for a competition or about to do a light schooling session, there are certain responses that your horse needs to develop as your warm-up progresses. Not many horses arrive at the arena ready to work and this is why we need to warm them up. There is no perfect warm-up recipe, but if there was, I am quite certain that this recipe would include lots of transitions! Upward transitions address your horses response to your forward aids and downward transitions address the degree of softness in the bridle. You can use these transitions to help find out where your horse is struggling and improve that area before progressing to more difficult movements. Well executed transitions between gaits will help develop good transitions within the gait (small trot to big trot, big canter to small canter…) and this leads to great lengthenings and mediums. As your work with transitions help to develop a good response to your aids, start focusing on connecting the energy that is being created in your horses hind leg up into the bridle. Creating this connection will help improve your horses balance and will help to develop a steady topline. Play with this feel as your ride progresses. If you do not feel a solid connection, work towards it until you get it. Remember that there is a much better chance that the issue is behind you rather than in front of you! The better the activity in the hind leg, the more of a connection you can ask for. An active hind leg bringing energy up into the bridle is not only great feeling, but a great foundation for every movement to come. For the rider: During these transitions, your balance and alignment is very important. It is quite common for the unbalance that a rider feels to be within themselves instead of with their horse. As you start asking your horse for bigger responses to your aids, you need to improve your own balance in order to remain aligned with the bigger response. Those uphill, engaged upward transitions we all want require a lot of balance from the rider. Each time your horse develops a better response, we need to develop an improved way of riding that response. Every time you warm your horse up, practice maintaining your own balance both side to side and back to front. Use your core to help steady yourself in the saddle and avoid holding tension in your neck and hips. Think about your body following your horses movement, instead of trying to stay steady on your own. I think we should all strive for steady hands, torsos, legs…. everything! But, steadiness through tension will only hinder your horses ability to relax, so focusing on following your horses movement in a balanced way is one of the best things to you can "warm-up" for you and your horse. Third and Above: As a horse progresses up the levels, the movements require more balance, concentration and strength. These added requirements test a horse both mentally and physically and a proper warm-up can prevent injury and keep your horse happy during work. It is important to use the beginning of your warm-up to determine what type of day your horse is having… Does he/she feel stiff today? Are they starting off a little behind your leg? Is your horse feeling a little tense? The quicker you figure out what your horse is feeling like today, the quicker you can focus your warm-up on improving those aspects of your horses way of going. There is no perfect warm-up that will work for every horse every day, but there are certain goals that you should have for every warm-up. For the horse: At this level, an honest response to your forward aids is a must, so begin each ride by warming up this response. Transitions, both in and out of gait and within the gait, are a a great way to check and improve your horses forward response. This is something that needs to be 100% before moving on and is always worth spending time on to achieve. If your horse is not honest to the aids and in front of your leg, everything else will suffer throughout your ride. Once you get a good feeling from your forward aids, begin checking the response to your lateral aids. This does not need to be done in a specific lateral movement, but can be done by spiralling circles and riding deep corners. It can be easy to forget just how useful a simple leg yield or shoulder-fore is in building proper response. Just because your horse may be capable of executing a four track shoulder-in or half-pass, does not mean that they should do so every day. If you are happy with your horses response to your leg, check the suppleness in the jaw by varying the length and position of your horses frame. This is something that can be done every day, regardless of what you are planning to do with the rest of your ride. Don’t think of your only options as being your competition frame or a stretch… you can ride a high, medium and low competition frame, long stretch, low stretch… there any many options! Use them to develop and improve the flexion in your horses jaw. Once you have a good response to the leg and a supple jaw, you can take your ride wherever you want it to go. For the rider: As your horse advances up the level, what, when and how you do things in the saddle become more and more important. It is a big responsibility, but with good repetition, these things can become second nature to you as a rider. During your warm-up, be aware of how warmed-up you are compared to your horse. For example, a rider that has one horse will most likely be warming up at the same rate as their horse, but a rider with several horses may be fully warmed-up as they start riding one of their horses. This is important, because you may feel ready to get right to work, but your horse may not be there yet. As you begin the warm-up process, focus on keeping good control of your aids. Only applying the leg when you want a response, maintaining your rein length with closed, steady hands and being consistent with both corrections and rewards are all elements that a great rider should strive for every day. With show season coming to an end, this is the time of year that a lot of riders are looking for ways to a show the judge a more polished test. When you first start competing at a certain level, it may take a few trips down centerline to get a good feel for the tests, but as the season progresses you start to become more comfortable with the movements. This is a really important time in a horse and riders competition development. Unfortunately, riders often mistake the feeling of being comfortable at a level for being ready to move on. Sometimes, these come stages will happen simultaneously, but more often, as a rider begins feeling confident in those tests, this is the perfect time to start polishing the overall picture you are presenting to the judge. Have you ever read the little box on your test marked “purpose”? In this box, you will find the basic elements that a judge should be looking for when you ride down centerline. These elements are guidelines and it is important to be well on your way to achieving them when you sign up for a test at that level. Perfection is definitely not required, but signing up for a test that includes movements that you and/or your horse are not confident performing in a competition environment is a quick trip to stress town… and no one likes that place! So this week, we are going to go through each levels purpose with an exercise dedicated to perfecting one of the requirements. Happy riding! Intro: The purpose of Intro Level tests are: “To provide an opportunity for the horse and/or rider new to dressage to demonstrate elementary skills. The tests have been designed to encourage correct performance and to prepare the horse for the transition to the USEF tests.” I LOVE the Intro tests! They are such a great option for horses and riders to dip their feet in the competition pool without a bunch of training requirements. If you go watch an Intro level class, you will probably see a very wide variety of rides and thats the whole point! As long as you and your horse are working as a team at the walk and trot with solid steering, you can enter your first Intro test! You will notice that the movements become steadily more difficult in each test (more trot work in Intro Test B and a small canter portion in Intro Test C). This is meant to help you gently climb towards the requirements at Training Level. When competing at Intro, the judge will want to see that you are using the entire arena (get into those corners!), can execute round circles (remember your inside leg to outside rein!) and that you and your horse transition in and out of different gaits at the same time (allow me to explain)… We have all been in the saddle during a transition that took us by surprise. Either your horse transitioned a lot quicker than you were expecting or you are ten strides further down the long side than you had planned for. These things happen and you should notice that most of the transitions at the Intro Level are performed between to letters. This is to give you the ability to feather the transition and show the judge that you and your horse are working together. The exercise this week will focus on developing a well timed transition between medium walk and working trot. Lets begin! Ride medium walk on a twenty meter circle. To start, ride the transition to working trot on one half of the circle. It may seem like thats too much space, but remember that we are concentrating on the transitions quality more than the placement. When riding the transition into working trot, there are a few things to keep in mind. First off, make sure that you are ready for the transition yourself. This may sound obvious, but if you ask for a transition to working trot (or any gait or movement for that matter) and expect it to take a while, you are most likely not giving clear aids. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “Hey! I have an entire half of a twenty meter circle to do this transition on.”, but there is a big difference between giving your horse a blank check and giving yourself time to execute the transition. Clear aids are the key here. We are going to ride the transition in three clear steps that in the future can be combined to make quicker more accurate transitions.
As you successfully ride the transitions on your twenty meter circle, you can begin to narrow the goal from one half of the circle, to a quarter of the circle and down to a specific letter. Use your core to keep yourself from being left behind in the transition from medium walk to working trot and keep your back flat and chest open to prevent yourself from tipping forward in the transitions from working trot to medium walk. Having the ability to confidently transition in and out of the walk and trot will help your future transitions in and out the working canter. Training: The purpose of Training Level tests are: “To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, is supple and moves freely forward in a clear rhythm with a steady tempo, accepting contact with the bit.” The “correct basics” stated in the purpose portion of the Training Level tests is referring to what you were working on in your Intro tests: Good use of the arena, round circles and those well balanced transitions. In addition, the judge will be looking for suppleness, forward and rhythm. The last portion of the purpose statement is very important, “accepting contact with the bit”. The reason I find it to be important is that it is often confused with being in a certain frame. A horse does not need to accept contact with the bit in order to be in a frame (I can hear the gasps already!) Its true though! Just because a horse has his/her head down does not mean that he is correctly and happily accepting contact with the bit. On the other hand, a horse that is happy connected to the bit through a riders soft, elastic contact may be a little in front of vertical, but thats ok! A judge wants to see that soft, elastic connection throughout the test more than they are expecting a perfectly round frame. It may sound like there are several separate requirements given in the purpose portion, but they are actually quite dependant on each other. A horse that is moving freely forward into that happy connection to the bit will move with a steady tempo and voila! you’ve got yourself the basis for a successful Training Level test. In my opinion, the movement that most riders struggle with at Training Level is cantering down the long side. Now my next statement is typically met with a roll of the eyes, but horses usually do not struggle to canter down the long side. The reason that cantering in a straight line feels so different than on a circle is that the circle helps a rider to sit in position that follows the canter. When a rider begins to ride that canter down a straight line, they tend to change their body positioning too much and this changes the feel of the canter, because you are no longer sitting with the canter, you are sitting against it. Concentrating on keeping your seat in a correct position can transform your ability to ride a great canter, both on a circle and down the long side. It is important to understand that a canter never really straightens out like a walk or trot does. Even a Grand Prix horse cantering down centreline for a 10 is still positioned to the lead he is on. This exercise will help you to find the correct positioning and then maintain it wherever you ride the canter. Begin in working canter on a twenty meter circle at A. On this circle, find your inside seat bone in the saddle. It should be relaxed down towards the ground, slightly to the inside of your horses spine. When a rider is having difficulty feeling their inside seat bone, I often suggest they think about flexing that half of their rear end for a two count and then relaxing it down. It can help you to become aware of where your seat bone is both on your body and in the saddle. Now that you feel your seat bone, ride a few more circles really thinking about maintaining the same connection with your horses back. If you feel a lot of variation in that connection, stay on the circle until you can maintain better consistency. When you feel like you have good control over the positioning of your inside seat bone, ride several strides down the long side, moving your twenty meter circle to the next letter down (V if riding the right lead or P if riding the left lead). Although, you are cantering from a circle to straight and back onto a circle, the positioning of your inside seat bone should remain consistent. If you feel that you need to “re-drop” your inside seat bone as you come back onto the circle, you had allowed it to climb up during the straight strides. A lifted inside seat bone during the canter can allow the canter to stiffen, accelerate, become crooked or even change leads, so lets keep that inside seat bone where it should be! As you move your circle down the long side, letter by letter, work at maintaining the same position in your seat every stride. The more consistency you ride with, the more consistent your canter will become. First: The purpose of First Level tests are: “To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and in addition to the requirements of Training Level, has developed the thrust to achieve improved balance and throughness and maintains a more consistent contact with the bit.” Just like what you developed at Intro was the basis for your Training Level work, the requirements at Training Level helped prepare you for the movements at First Level. The purpose description at First Level is very similar to Training Level, with the addition of thrust. The definition of thrust is to push something in a specified direction and when considering thrust in regards to a dressage horse, it is the ability for the hind leg to create and send energy up to the bridle. Think about thrust as adding more air to an under inflated balloon. Thrust fills up your horse, lifting the back and lightening the forehand, which is how I like to describe the word “throughness”. It is an unbroken connection of energy from the hind leg up to the bridle. This is one of the first building blocks of collection and a much needed element of a good lengthening. Speaking of lengthenings, they are one of the required movement in the First Level tests. As a coach, I often need to explain the fact that a true lengthening is nowhere near Valegro’s extended trot. In the directives of a lengthening, the judges are to look for a “moderate lengthening of frame and stride; regularity and quality of trot; straightness; consistent tempo; willing, clear transitions”. First, lets look at what we do not see in the directives. There is no mention of power, flamboyant action or longer reins, but unfortunately many riders believe that they need to show these things to the judge. Yes, it is true that the lengthening is an introduction to mediums and extensions, but the more correct your lengthenings are, the better your future mediums and extensions will be. Before we begin the exercise, lets go over exactly what the judge wants to see.
This exercise is very simple. Ride transitions in and out of small portions of lengthenings, concentrating on maintaining the elements of a good quality gait. Avoid “starting” the lengthening and then checking back in at the end. Your horse needs you to remain the pilot throughout the movement. If you find your lengthening trot difficult to sit, post it! You are allowed to post or sit your trot work at First Level for a very important reason. This is the first time your horse is expected to lengthen in competition and if the rider is struggling to stay seated in the saddle, you will not be riding at your best, so it is not a fair representation of your lengthening. I have never had a judge say, “I wish you would have sat those lengthenings”, but I have seen many tests where a judge told the rider than posting the lengthening would have allowed more success. You can begin sitting portions of your lengthening as you and your horse become more balanced and supple together. (*Note: Judges like to see consistency in your tests, so at the show, decide whether you are going to post or sit before you begin your test. If you decide to post the lengthening, post the entire diagonal. If you decide to sit the lengthenings, sit the entire test; except the stretchy trot!). It is better to show the judge a constantly lengthened frame and stride across the entire diagonal or long side, rather than overdo it and have it fizzle as the movement progresses. Show the judge how balanced and through your horse is…. and show off your power next season! Second: The purpose of Second Level tests are: “To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and having achieved the thrust required in First Level, now accepts more weight on the hindquarters (collection); moves with an uphill tendency, especially in the medium gaits; and is reliably on the bit. A greater degree of straightness, bending, suppleness, throughness, balance and self-carriage is required than at First Level.” At First Level, we talked about how throughness is one of the building blocks towards developing collection. At Second Level, those same elements that helped lift your horses back and lighten the forehand are further developed and as your horse develops better thrust and the ability to carry more weight on the hind leg, they are more capable of traveling “uphill”. As a horse progresses up the levels, more is required at both ends, so as more activity and strength is required in the hind end, more reliability is also required in the bridle. This goes beyond a steady frame. A greater degree of flexion, changes of bend and response to the half-halt is expected at Second Level. This improved response to the half-halt, coupled with better engagement in the hind leg, should create a nice bouncey collected trot and canter. Your horse should feel free to lift and swing within your aids without going beyond them. This is really the essence of collection and self-carriage. The more engaged the hind leg becomes, the more it lifts and lightens the forehand. A properly collected horse should be fun to ride! In addition to shoulder-in, travers, renvers and medium gaits, the counter canter is also introduced at Second Level. This movement has a habit of creating issues for some horses and riders. Unfortunately, riders tend to be happy with simply surviving the counter canter until they make it back to the true canter, instead of maintaining the quality of the canter throughout the exercise. There are several reasons that it is important to insist on a good quality canter while schooling the counter canter movements.
There are a lot of exercises that are more difficult for the rider than the horse (in most cases) and counter canter is one of them. There are some horses that struggle with counter canter, but most horses that have a good quality collected canter quickly pick up counter canter work. As a rider, it is very important that you maintain the aids, balance and position of the lead that you are riding. This is where some riders hit a mental block. They are riding to a different direction, so they feel (sometimes subconsciously) that they need to do something different as they change directions. I think this is the cause of many counter canter difficulties. The way you ride your canter means everything to your horse, so if you change something up (shift your seat, alter your leg positioning, ask for new flexion…ect.) they will change with you. Sometimes this just means a different quality of canter and other times it can create a loss of gait or switching leads. The most important thing that a rider can do to help maintain a good quality canter during counter canter exercises is to maintain the proper position for the lead that they are on. Canter has no direction, it is ridden by lead, so it doesn’t matter whether you are canter to the left or to the right, it only matters what lead you are on. I like to ask this question to my students who are working on counter canter, “If you were blind folded right now, would you be able to tell which direction you are going or which lead you are on?” If they can feel the lead, we high five and head back to the barn, but if they say which direction they are going, we work more on the elements that are unique to the lead they are riding. This exercise will be ridden in collected canter around the full arena. Start by riding the right lead canter to the right full arena. Really focus on exactly what you are doing to help this canter be successful. These elements should include keeping your inside seat bone relaxed down into the saddle, maintaining a steady left (outside) rein, keeping your left leg behind the girth and your right leg up next to the girth and keeping a soft flexion in the right jaw. This is one of those times where it is perfectly acceptable to be a little anal. Really feel what you are doing, enough that you are confident that you can maintain these aids anywhere in the arena. When you feel ready, ride a short diagonal and continue full arena in counter canter, being careful not to ride too deep into your short side corners. Forget about the fact that you have changed directions and simply continue riding a good quality right lead canter. Every element of a quality right lead canter is the same, whether you are riding counter canter or true canter. When you are ready to return to the true canter, do so by riding back down a short diagonal. The reason I would do this instead of performing a simple change is that as you begin to ride down the diagonal back onto the true canter, you should not feel the need to change anything. If this exercise was successful on both leads, beginning schooling different figures in both true canter and counter canter, concentrating on maintaining the quality of the lead you are on regardless of direction. The better the quality of your canter, the better your counter canter will become. Third: The purpose of Third Level tests are: “To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and having begun to develop an uphill balance at Second Level, now demonstrates increased engagement, especially in the extended gaits. Transitions between collected, medium and extended gaits should be well defined and performed with engagement. The horse should be reliably on the bit and show a greater degree of straightness, bending, suppleness, throughness, balance and self carriage than at Second Level.” The step from Second Level to Third Level is a big one. Some consider it to be the most important due to the fact that the movements required at Third Level will be required at every level through Grand Prix. Flying changes, half-pass and extensions are all debuted at Third Level. Along with the new movements, a greater degree of engagement, collection and clarity within transitions is expected. Definition is a big part of a successful Third Level test. The horse should display clear changes of flexion when beginning and ending lateral exercises and the transitions to and from mediums and extensions should be clearly visible. When I was preparing to compete at Third Level for the first time, Major Jeremy Beale told me to make sure that my tests were “buttoned-up” and when Major Beale tells you to do something, you make sure it gets done! I have always thought about keeping my tests buttoned-up from that point on. It is such great advice! In addition to riding the movements correctly, judges want to see a clean, professionally ridden test, and everyone is capable of doing this. I am in no way saying that there is no room for mistakes, because that is unrealistic. Every horse and rider makes mistakes, but if a mistake happens in the middle of a “buttoned-up” test, you’re going to be alright. In contrast, if a mistake is made amongst other sloppiness, it can appear that you and your horse may not be ready for Third Level yet…. so button it up! This weeks exercise will focus on riding half-pass in collected canter from the centreline to the long side and a flying change at a specific place on the long side. Start in collected canter on the left lead, turn down the centreline at A and ride half-pass left from D to E. Ride counter canter from E straight ahead with a flying change at H. When riding this exercise, focus on maintaining both the quality of the left lead canter and the positioning of your own body during both the half-pass left and the counter canter. Many riders relax their aids once they reach the rail when riding this exercise. Not only does this open the door for an early flying change, but it creates a situation in which you need to quickly check back in right before the flying change. This is never a good idea. It can surprise your horse, creating unnecessary tension, and can prevent you from having enough time to properly prepare for a good flying change. As you maintain the correct positioning and connection to your horse, you will find that placing the flying change exactly where you want it will become easier. At this point, change the placement of the flying change to S and then back to H again. Avoid trying to prevent a flying change and focus on maintaining the quality of the lead you are on until you give the aids for the flying change. Maintaining clear aids will not only make exercises like this successful, but will better connect you and horse in all of your work. The ability to perform a well executed flying change, when and where you want it, will become more and more necessary as you move up the levels. Plus, it will give you that buttoned-up look that we should all strive for ;) Fourth: The purpose of Fourth Level tests are: “To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and has developed sufficient suppleness, impulsion and throughness to perform the Fourth Level tests which have a medium degree of difficulty. The horse remains reliably on the bit, showing a clear uphill balance and lightness as a result of improved engagement and collection. The movements are performed with greater straightness, energy and cadence than at Third Level.” Fourth Level is the last step before FEI. Many of the same movements are required at Fourth Level and at Prix st Georges. When you read through the purpose, you will notice that it requires a greater degree of everything required at Third level with the addition of cadence. The FEI defines cadence as “The marked accentuation of the rhythm and emphasised beat that is a result of a steady and suitable tempo harmonising with a springy impulsion.” We’ve all seen one of those big, bouncey trots that are mesmerising to watch. THAT is cadence! Candice is created when a well engaged hind end sends power over the back up to the bridle and is recycled back again. A well cadenced trot should be rhythmical, balanced and energetic. Achieving this takes strength and self-carriage from both horse and rider. In Fourth Level Test 1, there is a medium trot from HXF with 6-7 steps of collected trot over X. This movement is deceptively difficult to execute properly. The judge is looking for a consistent amount of engagement, elasticity and suspension, along with a well maintained straightness and tempo. What they do want to see change is the amount of ground cover. In the medium trot, there should be clear thrust creating ground cover and length of stride. This same thrust should create activity in the 6-7 steps of collected trot. Ideally, the amount of thrust is consistently maintained across the diagonal, but the way it is used is altered for those 6-7 steps of collection. A judge is looking to see consistency in the balance and rhythm. They do not want to see a “down shift” into collection or a “surge” back into medium. I like to use a dribbling basketball analogy for this movement. If you watch an NBA basketball player work the ball down the court in a relaxed manner, you’ll notice that they keep a great rhythm. Sometimes they are walking with the ball and sometimes they are standing still, but that rhythm doesn’t change. The only thing that does change is the hand that they are dribbling with. When they want to walk the ball down the court, they push it out in front of them, but when they want the ball to stay right beside them, they will bounce it straight down and allow it to bounce back up into the palm of their hand. It is the same amount of push, it just gets shifted from forward to upward or vice versa. A good dressage rider will do this with their seat. A horse that is well balanced with you is looking to your seat for direction. When you relax your seat and allow the engaged hind end to drive the trot more forward, ground cover is achieved, but when you use your seat and thighs to gather that engagement up underneath of you, the engagement creates activity and cadence in the collected trot. This movements purpose is to show the judge the amount of control and influence you have over the impulsion and energy in your horses hind leg. Show the judge that not only can you create engagement, but you can display its power in various forms. You will be rewarded :) Happy riding! I love using spiraling exercises during training. They are a cure for many issues. Spiraling can help develop balance, improve strength, activate the inside hind leg and improve whole body bend. What more could you want out of an exercise? This weeks exercises will focus on using spiraling to improve different elements of training. Because spiraling exercises are done on a circle to one direction at a time, they can be done by horses at all levels of strength and ability. Be sure to practice on a flat surface with good footing, so you can concentrate on the exercise and how it alone is effecting your horse. Most importantly, have fun helping your horse develop better strength and balance. A well balanced horse is more confident and easier to ride and that sounds good to me! Intro/Training: When riding a circle, the way that you use your aids has a big impact on the geometry of that circle. As a rider if first learning how to ride round, well shaped circles, I tell them to think about their aids like this: Your inside leg is telling your horse how small the circle can be and your outside aids (leg and rein) are telling your horse how large the circle can be. One of our main goals in training is getting our horses balanced between our inside leg and outside rein. Spiraling helps to position your horse between these two aids. It does this by focusing on one response at a time, until you feel that your horse is equally responding to both aids and will follow them as you make the circle smaller or larger. As a rider is very important to give your horse clear, consistent aids around a circle. If your aids are changing as the circle progresses, your circle will not be round. I like using shopping cart analogies during lessons, because a shopping cart only goes where you steer it (a good shopping cart!). It wouldn’t be too difficult to walk your shopping cart around in a circle right? As long as you keep steering around that circle, it will stay on course, BUT if you let go of the handle for even one step, that circle will lose its shape instantly. Luckily, most of our horses are not that quick to react, but can you see the connection? Horses are very, very smart, but they do not know that we want a round circle. They look to our aids for direction, so as those aids change (either on purpose or accidentally), they will change with them. A circle ridden with too much outside rein or leg is going to be too small and a circle ridden with a heavy inside leg or bend is going to be too large. This week, we are going to work on an equal partnership of your aids to help shape a nice round circle. A lot of riders wait to use an aids unit they need it to fix something that went wrong. This is often too late and the cause of an oddly shaped circle. This weeks exercise should be ridden in the middle of the arena (between E and B). Begin by riding a 20 meter circle in medium walk. Focus on an even connection with the bridle and sitting balanced in the saddle. Next, begin softly closing your outside thigh in the saddle, bringing your outside hip slightly towards your horses inner ear to slowly spiral the circle down in size. Every horse is different, but we are looking for a very gradual response, ideally taking an entire circle to spiral down two meters to an 18 meter circle. If your horse over reacts, begin again, this time using softer aids. If you did not get enough response, continue on the circle gradually adding slightly more closure of your outside thigh against the saddle until you get your desired response. Once you are on an 18 meter circle, begin focusing now on your inside leg (from calf to seat bone) sending your horse back out onto the 20 meter circle.
As you spiral in and out on the circle, you should begin to develop a feel for how much you need to close the outside aids or apply the inside leg to achieve the desired result. As you do this, move on to working trot and spiral the circle slightly more (20 meters to 18 meters to 16 meters and back out to 18 meters and finally 20 meters). If you and your horse are working in the canter, this exercise can be done in the canter as well! In all gaits, a gradual controlled response is ideal, because this leads to the control needed for well shaped circles. If a tiny bit of leg pressure results in a big response, then you will be limited to the amount of aids you can use on a circle, but if you can influence your horse to make small changes with small aids, then a great, round circle is well within your grasp. First/Second: Which came first, the loss of balance or the funny looking circle? Ok I think theres supposed to be something about chickens in that saying, but the answer is definitely the loss of balance! An unbalanced horse or rider cannot execute a perfectly shaped circle, unless they happen to hold onto that balance just long enough to get through one and I don’t like those odds. In the contrary, a well balanced horse and rider should have no problem completely nice, round circles. If we work on the balance, great circles will follow. If there is something I wished more riders would let go of, it would be the quest for a perfectly shaped circle. I cannot even draw a perfectly shaped circle and when you add in the fact that I am riding a 1200lb animal on a less than perfect surface, all of a sudden it sounds a little funny now doesn’t it? But it is definitely in the top three answers to my, “What would you like to work on?” question. Now I am in no way saying that it is unattainable, so lets not work on it, I am simply trying to divert your quest towards achieving solid balance, because I know that in the end, this will help you show the judge that illusive perfect 10 meter circle. Before you ride, take a tape measurer and three cones out to the arena. Place one cone on the long side. Place a second cone 35 feet away. In a dressage arena, the second cone should be just to outside of the centerline. Place the third cone 16 feet further into the arena (approximately 51 feet from the first cone). These three cones will give you several circle sizes to concentrate on. When circling to the inside of the second cone, you will be on a 10 meter circle, circling just to the outside of the second cone will put you on a 12 meter circle and circling to the inside of the third cone will put you on a 15 meter circle. Begin the exercise by riding medium walk circles in and out of each cone, varying the circle size each time with your aids. This exercise is simply a graduated version of the Intro/ Training level exercise. You are using the varying circles to focus on the exact amount of aids you need to clearly specify which circle you want to be on. If you find that your horse is focusing more on where the cones are than your aids, you are not being clear enough. A rider that clearly gives correct, consistent aids for a 10 meter circle can place that circle anywhere they want, even right next to a cone. So focus on being so clear with your aids, that you horse begins to stops questioning if you are passing the cone to the left or to the right, because he/she is following your direction. Ride consistent inside leg to outside aids (leg and rein) every circle. It is good to leave the exercise and go full arena occasionally to freshen up the energy level and change direction. This exercise can be ridden in all three gaits and will really help to balance your horse between your aids. * The cones are there to remind you of where you should be for each sized circle, but that is their only purpose. Don’t let the cones help you keep your circles round! By the end of the week, you should feel confident in repeating these sized circles without the cones. Hopefully, using spiraling exercises to help develop consistent balance, bend and rhythm will motivate you to continue building these important aspects of your horses training and development. They are quite attainable and will not only give you great circles, but will improve many other aspects of training as well. Third and Above: This week, we are going to focus on developing strength in the canter by spiraling. Begin by riding a 20 meter circle in collected canter. On the circle, ride travers in the canter remaining on the 20 meter circle. Be sure to keep your inside seat bone relaxed deep into the saddle to the inside of your horses spine to prevent the ribcage from coming to the inside along with the haunches. After a few strides of travers, straighten your horse back on to the 20 meter circle and repeat the exercise… a few strides of travers, a few strides straight. The difficulty in this exercise is not the travers, it is maintaining the circles size and shape as you bring your horses haunches onto a different track. Once you feel confident in transitioning from collected cater to travers in canter and back on the 20 meter circle, bring the circle down to 15 meters and repeat the exercise on this circle. Concentrate on the circles size and shape as you ride into travers and back to into straightness on the circle. As you gain control and balance on the 15 meter circle, continue to bring the circle size down to 12 meters, 10 meters and 8 meters (depending on your horses strength and ability). Be sure to remain on one sized circle at a time. If you feel that you cannot maintain the geometry of the circle when displacing the haunches, go back to larger size circle until you regain the balance. If your horse has started pirouette work, pay special attention to the energy in the canter. This exercise is great for developing strength and balance for pirouettes, but we want each stride in the canter to maintain the same rhythm and energy as you spiral in and out. Ideally, the strides in both collected canter and travers will feel the same whether you are on the 20 meter circle or the 10 meter circle. Have fun with this exercise! It is challenging, but very rewarding! It develops a greater balance between you and your horse and is a great stepping stone towards the beginning of pirouettes. Did you know that your head weighs around eleven pounds?? Some of ours may weigh a little more and some a little less, but I think we can all agree that if a horse knows that a tiny little gnat is buzzing around their belly, then they most certainly can be affected by positioning of our heads, right? Try sitting straight in a chair then slowly begin moving your head into different positions (preferably when you are alone, so no one thinks you’re losing it ;))… you should notice that other parts of your body are effected when you move your head into different positions. For example, if you look over your right shoulder, do you feel more weight being shifted onto your left seat bone and how that pushes your left foot heavier into the ground? Do you feel that your right shoulder wants to open up the more you look to the right and how that begins to twist your ribcage just a little? I find it fascinating how just moving one part at the very top of your body can create so many reciprocating movements elsewhere. If you read training articles or take many lessons, you have probably already heard this information. I love attending clinics where biomechanics are the main focus, but at times there is so much information that it can be hard to apply it all to your riding, especially on your own. This weeks exercises are going to focus on one small aspect of this topic… our heads! Your head is effecting your horse when you ride, either positively or negatively. Riding as a little girl, my mother, other trainers… judges… the mail man…. they all used to tell me, “Look up!” I remember feeling like I needed to see what was going on. Well, not only was looking down bad equitation, but it was unsafe as well. There is an old saying that goes, “You’ll go where you look.” I think it is true in different ways. Safety wise, a rider that is always looking down is out of alignment and is at greater risk of going “down” next time their horses trip or buck. Focus wise, if you are looking at the FEI horse at the other end of the schooling ring, while you are riding your young horse, your mind will be down with your distraction and not on the task at hand. Another way I find this statement to be true is in regards to influencing your horses direction and this is what the focus of this weeks exercises will be….
Intro: Did you know that you can develop the ability to turn your horse with your eyes alone? Many riders assume that they need leg or rein aids to turn their horse and with some horses you do, but I have not met a horse yet that will not begin to make the connection of where you are looking and where you want to go. Begin by riding a large figure eight in medium walk. Start with enough leg and rein contact that you can softly help steer your horse onto the figure eight shape. Even though you have use of your leg and rein aids, lead the figure eight with your eyes by looking three to four horse lengths in front of you. Each time you start a new figure eight, relax your leg down and let your reins slide little longer, but keep the same focus with your eyes on where you want your horse traveling towards next. You need to consciously keep that focus clear as you relax your other aids, because it is very easy to relax everything at the same time and then your horse has no direction instead of smaller direction. I am a big believe of “less is more”, but I also know that a horse with no direction at all, quickly starts making his own decisions, so as you lessen your conventional aids (leg and hand), maintain the same amount of focus with your eyes and head positioning to make the objective as clear as possible to your horse. If you feel that your horse is really beginning to follow you on the figure eight shape, branch out onto large serpentines, loops to and away from the rail or tear drops. It may sound like a lofty goal, but I have two clients with mares that will turn with absolutely no contact! It is a really cool feeling know that your horse is that connected to you. It takes time and a little trial and error to develop that connection, but its worth it in the end… Once your horse begins following your eyes, praise is an important confirmation that they have given you what you were looking for. I like using verbal praise during continuous turning exercises, so I do not need to change the position of my head as I reach down and give them a pat. When you graduate to sharper turns, such as a turn down the centerline or around a cone, as soon as the turn has been completed, you can relax your focus and give them lots of physical praise. This is a fun exercise and great way to give you and your horse something new to think about. Training/First: This week, we are going to work on the centerline. This exercise can be done in all three gaits, but will be easiest in the working trot. I know that walking down centerline is done in the Intro level tests, but it can be quite difficult and typically, horses at Training/First level have not begun working on cantering down the centerline, but if your horse can do it, I say repeat this exercise in the canter as well! The key to a good centerline is a horse and rider that are both focused straight ahead. My students are probably sick of hearing the same answer to all of their centerline questions, “Ride forward with two even legs and reins.” When a rider begins attempting to fix crookedness or drift by pushing with one leg or taking up more contact on one rein, the crookedness often just shifts to another area and then all of a sudden, the rider has a full time tennis match going just trying to keep their horse even close to the centerline…. a little left, a little right, a little left, a little right. When riding on the centerline, do you best to avoid falling into this trap. During this weeks exercise, we are going work towards developing the ability to feel where you are on the centerline instead of relying on sight. Before we begin, I want to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with needing to look to the left or right to help you find “X” or any other point you are riding to on the centerline and you do not need to have robotic focus on the judges box either! The main reason a rider should wean themselves of the need to look is that when you shift your head from left to right, two things happen: You break the focus on your goal and you run the risk of unbalancing your horse. Just like sitting in the chair, it is very difficult to look to your three o”clock or nine o”clock without changing other parts of your body. This is why I like to help riders develop the ability to feel where you are on the centerline and use other means to help determine where you need to halt, so you can keep your eyes and head where they need to be. During the exercise, you can either enter from outside of the arena or just continue riding full arena turning at A and C. There are two different objectives for this exercise:
Second: This week, we are going to focus on the lateral work from Second Level Test 1. In this test, you’ll ride shoulder-in right from K to E, turn right at E, turn left at B and then ride your shoulder-in left from B to M. As you ride through this exercise, really focus on where you are looking during each movement. When riding shoulder-in, your own shoulders should be aligned with your horses shoulders and your eyes should be pointed in the same direction looking beyond the center of their ears. This helps to keep your positioning aligned with the movement. I see riders asking their horse to bring the shoulders off the track to the inside as they continue looking straight down the rail, they are looking in different directions. So as you school your shoulder-in, make sure that you are both aligned together. I am often asked where a rider should be looking during this portion of the test and there is no specific point in the arena, but if you are riding a shoulder-in right from K to E, your eyes should be somewhere around M in the opposite bottom corner of the arena. You should not keep a hard focus on any specific visual reference, just keep your eyes (and head) looking to the same direction your horses eye will be looking during the movement. Now as you approach E, begin shifting your eyes towards B to let your horse know that you are about to turn and to allow the rest of your body to “open the door” for a right turn. It is important that you begin shifting your eyes a little bit before the actual turn. It is amazing how this movement alone can give your horse a heads up that something is about to change. Once you have made the turn, look beyond the letter B and ride as many straight steps as you can before you prepare for your left turn. Just like before, a little bit prior to beginning the left turn, shift your eyes down what will be your new long side (the rail from B to M). This part of the exercise needs to be ridden in two separate, but closely following movements. First ensure that your horse gets onto the rail before beginning shoulder-in left. This is where looking straight down that rail for just a moment is important. If you go from looking beyond the letter B on your straight line (your 12:00) all the way to the focus point of your shoulder-in left (which would be be slightly behind you near 5:00), you risk not making it solidly onto the rail. If you ever feel that you need to “push” your horse back onto the rail with your inside leg during the shoulder-in left from B to M, you could have looked too far too soon, so take your time when riding this part of the exercise. Although you do need to begin the shoulder-in left right after the left turn at B, you need to give yourself time to get against the rail. As soon as the turn was successful and your horse is on the alongside, now shift your eyes slightly left as you bring your horses shoulders in to the left. Remember that the shoulder-in is not the last movement of this exercise! You still need to finish at M by riding straight into the corner, so just like before, as your shoulder-in left approaches M, begin looking straight back down the rail as you bring your horses shoulders back into straightness. Can you see just how important the positioning of your head is during this exercise? Think about where your eyes are next time you ride this exercise and how making little adjustments can add harmony to the execution. Developing a connection between where you are looking and the alignment of where your horses body goes, can help add fluidity to movements today and all the way to Grand Prix. Third and Above: Half-pass is required in both trot and canter from Third Level all the way through Grand Prix. As you move up the levels, the angle of the half-pass becomes more steep increasing the difficulty. There is a very common misconception that you need stronger aids to create a steeper half-pass. This is not true! The ability to become more concave around the riders inner leg and cover more ground sideways develops over time with good training. One element of good training in lateral work is being able to take your movement (leg yields, half-pass, full pass) from one point to another accurately. This of course comes after establishing that you and your horse have solid understanding of the movement. Being able to ride your half-pass left consistently from L to H in Third Level Test 1 is a great place to start, but at Third Level Test 2 you need to show half-pass left at a steeper angle from D to E, so developing the ability to ride different angle in your half-pass is important. Each test requires you to present your half-pass in a different area of the arena and occasionally coupled with other movements (following a half circle, followed by a volte, the half-pass zig zag…ect). The exercise for this week will be ridden in either collected trot or collected canter and will begin on the center line. Begin your half-pass near L each time. Begin by riding half-pass left from L to H, be accurate and consistent. When developing lateral work, consistency is crucial. If you cannot maintain the same rhythm, bend and energy throughout this half-pass, your horse is not ready for added difficulty. Work on those elements until you are confident in them and you will reap the benefits in the future! When riding a half-pass left from L to H, yours eyes should be looking towards your destination (H… or little bit beyond H), so next time you ride down centerline, focus on the area between S and H as your new goal. Although we are using your eyes and the position of your head to clarify the line you want your horse traveling on, your other aids are still needed. Unlike in the lower level versions of this exercise, I do not want you to replace your physical aids with your focus point and try to half-pass with only your eyes (sounds fantastic, but highly unlikely ;)). You are still using clear half-pass aids, but the goal of this exercise is working on getting more half-pass from the same aids. As you go through the exercise, mix it up by riding a few more steep half-passes and then a couple not so steep ones. Its all about developing that connection between you and your horse… I look at S, we half-pass to S or I look at E and we half-pass to E. Half-pass is a difficult movement, but the more that you and you horse are on the same page, the easier everything goes. Ride to as many different points on the long side as you can during this exercise. Be clear and watch your horse begin to follow your eyes… its a great feeling…. Happy riding everyone!!! September 28th 2016 I know I will never have to make this decision, but if I ever had to pick my single favorite exercise to school, it would be the shoulder-in. The shoulder-in makes its debut at Second level, but is a required movement all the way through Intermediate I. Learning to ride a good shoulder-in is a goal that all riders should have. It helps to develop control of the shoulders, engage the hind leg and create better connection with the outside rein, which will improve many other aspects of training. See how important is? This week, we are going to concentrate on your horses shoulders. Shoulder control is a bit like an onion, just when you think you have it, theres another layer to develop. Now that statement can sound motivating or depressing, depending on how you look at it! Don’t think of it as something that is never fully attainable, but something that can be chipped away at in small bits until you start to feel the improvement and can begin making bigger steps towards more influence on your horses way of going. Even the top horses and riders in the world work on improving the shoulders, so this should be an on going goal for everyone as you move up the levels. Intro: I think a lot of Intro riders hear the term “shoulder control” and they think that this must be too advanced for the stage of training that they are currently in, but this is not true! There is a reason we need good shoulder control at the upper levels. As your horse develops in good training, the activity and engagement of the hind leg should increase. With that increase, a rider will have more energy coming up into the bridle and without good shoulder control, you will feel that you are fighting with that energy (where it goes, how much is brought into the bridle, rebalancing it back onto the hind leg…ect). So, if you think about the long term reason we need shoulder control, you can see how import the beginning of this process is. The first step to shoulder control is not actual in front of you, but behind you. Think of your horse as a VW Beetle… their engine is in the trunk. If that engine is never turned on, there will be no energy sent into the bridle and no reason to control the shoulders. The goal for this week is turning your horses engine on and feeling the subsequent energy move into the bridle. This exercise can be done in all gaits, but I suggest beginning by riding a medium walk on a 20m circle. Find a rein length that establishes a solid connection to the bridle (not too tight, but short enough that there is no slack in the rein). Once you find a good spot, take a moment to establish a solid rhythm in your walk with that rein length. Next, slowly begin lengthening your reins (equally) by about one inch. As you do, softly close your lower leg asking your horse to step a little deeper with the hind leg and fill in that little extra rein length. It is best to start off a little bit at a time. If you give your horse more rein length than he/she will match with the hind leg, you will lose the connection, so take baby steps. Think of your horse earning a longer rein by reaching deeper with the hind leg. The goal is that if you lengthen the reins by two inches, your horse steps two inches deeper behind, ultimately lengthening the entire topline as they reach to maintain the connection. As you ride this exercise, remember to keep your hips soft to allow your horse room to swing in the back and be purposeful with the amount you lengthen or take up the reins. Not only will this exercise help bring the energy from the hind leg better into the bridle for future shoulder control, but it will also improve your stretch work. Training/First: Shoulder control is very important as you move up the levels. It is what helps an engaged hind leg to send a horse uphill rather than on the forehand and becomes more and more necessary as lateral work is introduced. Just because there is no lateral movements in the Training level tests does not mean that you can’t begin developing shoulder control. First level is where you see the first lateral movement, the leg yield and if you wait until you want to compete at First level, you will not be as prepared as you can be. When beginning leg yields, many riders are told by their instructors to be careful not to pull the horses neck to the inside during the leg yield. This is true, as too much bending to the inside unbalances the shoulder alignment and puts the horse in a position to drift side ways instead of remaining parallel to the rail. So unfortunately, in an attempt to not over bend their horse to the inside, riders avoid contact altogether. During the leg yield, your outside rein is as important as your inside leg (the one asking for the leg yield). It aids in maintaining alignment and prevents your horse from becoming to concave around your inner leg. As a rider, there are several things to keep in mind when schooling leg yields. Think about maintaining a long leg during the exercise. When a horse does not respond correctly or enough during a leg yield, it is common for a rider to begin drawing that leg up higher or back further. Don’t let this happen to you! The best spot to ask your horse to yield is only slightly behind the girth and if you strive for a long feeling in your leg, your leg will be in the best “zone” and you will prevent crookedness from creeping into your position. It is also best to practice leg yields by feel instead of riding them from point A to point B in the beginning. Once you are capable of repeating balanced, responsive leg yields regularly, then add the goal of riding them to or from a specific letter or point in the arena. This week, whether your horse is a pro in the leg yield department or just starting them, the exercise will be started by turning down centerline in either medium walk or working trot. Chose the direction you are going to ride the leg yield in advance, so you have time to organize your aids. From the centerline, begin asking for the leg yield with your inner leg, paying special attention to maintaining alignment with your outside rein. When you have reached the quarterline, ride straight ahead by straightening any extra flexion out of the neck and applying equal pressure with both legs. It is only a small amount of leg yielding, but this exercise is going for quality over quantity. The reason I use leg yielding as a part of a shoulder control exercise is that in order to maintain a well balance leg yield, the rider must use half halts on the outside rein to prevent the outside shoulder from popping out of alignment. If you are wondering how often or how much to half halt, unfortunately there is no exact science for that. It is up to you as the rider to listen to your horses body and gain awareness of the difference between when things are maintaining well and when things are beginning to become dislodged. Horses are brutally honest and have no problem telling you if you are half halting too much or not enough, so listen to them. If you make a mistake, take a deep breathe and ride it again. Be tactful and really feel what you are riding and most importantly… enjoy the journey! Second: At Second Level, you are required to ride 10m circles and three track lateral work (shoulder-in, travers, renvers) in competition, but you should be schooling more that what is required in your tests. This exercise will help you to develop better control of the angle and “tracks” of your shoulder-in. The “track” of a shoulder-in is referring to the line that each hoof is traveling on. - In a shoulder-fore, you are only riding the shoulders very slightly to the inside. It is often referred to as “threading the needle”, because the outside front leg should be positioned just between the tracks of the hind legs. - In a three track shoulder-in, the outside hind leg remains next to the rail, while the outside front leg should be traveling on the same track as the inside hind leg and the inside front leg is on a track just to the inside of that. - In a four track shoulder-in, each leg has its own track. The hind legs will remain traveling straight on the rail, while the outside front leg will be on a track just to that of the inside of the inside hind leg and the inside front leg will be on the track furthest to the inside. Every shoulder-in has a certain size circle that corresponds with the angle, so during this exercise, we are going to use three different shoulder-in /circle combinations. First, ride collected trot through the short side and position your horse in a shoulder-fore as you begin the long side, lets say near F (when traveling left). Think about the description of threading the needle as you ask for the slight positioning to the inside. At B, ride a 15m circle maintaining the same position. Once the circle is over, continue back down the rail in shoulder-fore. Ride this several times, checking that the angle and bend remains the same as you ride from shoulder-fore through the circle and back to the shoulder-fore. There should be no straight moments between the shoulder-fore and the circle or back again. The angle from the shoulder-fore should continue throughout the circle and back into the shoulder-fore down second half of the long side. Just like last weeks exercise, you ultimately decide on the angle by using your inside seat bone, maintaining a certain bend and half-halting with the outside rein. If you feel something change during this exercise, check to make sure that your aids are remaining consistent. The next step will be combining a three track shoulder-in with a 10m circle and then a four track shoulder-in with a less than 10m circle. My clients know that I do not like to using a lot of really small circles, because if they are not ridden really well, it can be very easy to make an already difficult movement even more taxing on your horses joints. So when you start schooling circles smaller than 10m, keep in mind that removing only 1m from the circles circumference makes it noticeably more difficult for your horse. When I say to combine a “less than 10m circle” with your four track shoulder-in, just ride a circle that is slightly smaller than 10m, but not so small that your horse is struggling. This exercise is mainly focused on the shoulder-in and if you ask for too small of a circle, you can quickly give yourself an extra issue to work on (who needs that??) :) These exercises will help you develop greater control of your horses shoulders, which will prepare you for half-pass in the future. Third & Above: This exercise is one of my favorites! It is a great way to introducing half-pass and will continue to improving your half-pass all the way to Grand Prix. This exercise is based a lot off of your feel from the saddle, so it is very flexible in the amount you ask for and how long you stay in it. *For anyone recording their rides, place the camera at either A or C and ride the exercise both coming towards and heading away from the camera. This exercise can be ridden in all three gaits. Begin by riding a shoulder-in to the right on the long side. You will want to start near the beginning of the long side to give yourself enough space for this exercise. In your shoulder-in, pay special attention to the softness of the inside jaw and relax your inside seat bone down to the right (inside) of your horses spine. These two elements are important in achieving some lift on your horses inside shoulder. Once the shoulder-in feels balanced and flexible, ride several steps in half-pass right toward the quarterline. For horses still green in the half-pass, three or four steps may be all they can do and thats fine! For more advanced horses, continue riding the half-pass right until you begin to lose the lift you had in the inner shoulder. At this point, ride forward out of the half-pass on a track parallel to the rail and return to shoulder-in right. This second shoulder-in is very important, because this is where you will fix anything that was lost in the half-pass (stiffness in the inside jaw, dropped inside shoulder, lost activity in the outside hind…ect) and regain the correct positioning for more half-pass. After a few steps of shoulder-in, return to half-pass right. It is best to begin and end with a few steps of good shoulder-in, so give yourself a little space before you come to the next short side to finish the exercise. Once you are finished with one side or in one gait, move on to the next. Like I said before, this exercise should be ridden by feel, so you can feel when and what is lost in the quality of the half-pass, use the shoulder-in to improve that and continue on. As you progress, you should need less of the shoulder-in, less often. The benefits of this exercise are far reaching and not only improve your half-pass, but can prepare you for the steeper half-pass required as you move up the levels and the half-pass zig zag. Have fun with it and ride every step! September 20th 2016 This week, I’d like to pay special attention to the mental and physical alignment between you and your horse. While schooling these exercises, think about where your mind is focused and what your body is doing (both voluntarily and involuntarily) and how these both affect your horse. As you become more aware of what your mind and body as you ride, you will observe the way they effect your horse both negatively and positively. For example, if something is making noise in the trees next to the arena, the rider that continues riding confidently and ignores the distraction is positively effecting their horses way of going, just as the rider that tightens their seat or reins and becomes distracted by the noise can negatively affect their horses way of going. I use this example because everyone has been in this situation! And you do not have to be a Davo Moxham to spin this situation in a positive direction either! Every rider has the ability to positively affect their horses training. Remember that your horse cannot read your mind, but they most certainly can read your body language and that is why it is so important to be mindful of the signals you are sending your horse, whether it is in regards to a spooky sound in the woods or the amount of energy you want in your working trot. Take these thoughts with you into the arena this week and see how you can take the next step in positively affecting your horses way of going. Intro: Ride a medium walk (full arena) focusing on maintaining equal connection with both jaws, feeling an equal balance of both seat bones in the saddle and equal weight in both stirrups. When you are focusing on these things, it can be very easy to get discouraged when you feel an unevenness, but don’t despair! Clear your mind and think about melting evenly to the left and right of your horses spine. This will help you find the areas of unevenness and diagnose the cause. The two major causes of crookedness are riders with a kink somewhere in their body (a tight hip, dropped shoulder, one hand closed more the other…ect.) or a horse that is over using one of his quarters (drifting a shoulder, dropping a hip…ect.). The more you are aware of exactly where the unevenness is occurring, the more effective you will be in repairing the issue. As you become more aligned with your horse, you will feel the two of you moving more as a team and this is fabulous feeling! Now take that feeling from the long side onto a 20m circle at either E or B. As you bring your horse off of the long side onto a 20m circle, try not to change the alignment you achieved on the straight lines. You were keeping your horse straight while you rode the full arena (don’t give that fence too much credit!) and now that you want to circle, use your body to mold your horse onto the circle. If you were on foot and decided to walk in a large circle, you would just do it, right? Well, you can do that with your horse too! One of the reasons it occasional goes wrong is that we add or remove something that we were doing as we start the circle. When you work on this exercise, focus on maintaining the same balance and alignment that you had on the straight line as you bring your horse onto and back off of the circle. This will help your horse maintain the same rhythm and balance throughout the entire arena. Once you achieve a sense of continuity from the long side onto the circle and back to the long side in the medium walk, begin riding the exercise in a working trot. It is important that you bring the same focus and awareness that you had in the walk with you into your trot work. Just because your horse is covering more ground, does not mean that you have less time to think. You and your horse are capable of the same connection regardless of the gait you are in, but this is up to you to maintain. Each time you use this exercise, work towards a better alignment between you and your horse, both mentally and physically. Before you know it, you will be cantering through it as well :) Training/First: Ride a working trot (full arena) making sure both you and your horse are traveling straight. This exercise focuses on turning with your outside rein, so while preparing to begin the exercise, ensure you have access to a little flexion to the left and to the right (both directions, inside and outside). This may seem like an obvious way to warm up, but I want you to really focus on softening the connection you have with each jaw, because remember that just because your horse is round does not mean that his/her jaw is soft. The warm up portion should not have a time line. The more time you invest creating an elastic connection from your elbow all the way to the bit ring, the better this (and many other exercises) will work. Once your connection begins to soften, begin riding diagonal lines off of the long side. Remember that this exercise is focusing on the response to your outside rein as a turning aid, so as you bring your horse off of the long side, keep him/her straight. Most of my clients are familiar with me chanting “shopping cart hands!” throughout a lesson and this is what I’d like you to think about as your ride your horse onto the diagonal line. Ride like you are steering a shopping cart at a slight angle off of the long side. Keeping this visual will help prevent pulling the horse onto the diagonal with the inside rein and will also help you to maintain a good straight alignment through your horses head, neck and shoulders. These turns should be a little more square in their application than the way you would turn onto the diagonal in a test. Start off with a very soft angle, such as the diagonal from S to F (traveling left). As the diagonal becomes easier, you can increase the difficulty by riding a steeper angle off of the rail (from S to P and then from S to B and finally finishing on a square turn across the arena from S to R). You will need to use all four of your major aids (both legs and both reins) to help keep your horse as straight as possible. Although we are turning from the outside rein, you should not have a visible counter flexion during this exercise, so maintaining an even connection with both the inside and outside rein is the best way to keep your horse straight as you bring them onto the diagonal lines. Your legs should remain softly next to the girth guiding the ribcage, their job is to guard against the ribcage either dropping to the inside or drifting passed the point you wanted to begin your turn. There are many ways to spice up this exercise! You can increase energy on the diagonal lines, add a halt near the centerline or even ride the exercise in canter. If you do this exercise in the canter, have a plan for what you are going to do once the diagonal is coming to an end (ride an organized trot transition before you come to the rail, ride a shallow loop to the direct of the lead you are on, near the quarter line, remaining on the correct lead…ect.) This can be a very helpful exercise to improve your straightness and eventually prepare you and your horse for shoulder-in. Second/Third: Ride a collected canter full arena. As you warm-up your collected canter, check that your horse is giving you the elements of a good collected canter: engaged hind leg bringing energy up to the bridle, actively softening jaw and good response to a half-halt. Once you are happy with the feeling in the canter, we are going to begin focusing on riding the short side. Now during this exercise, you can either focus on one short side (the one near A or C) or you can continue using the full arena.
There are two things to keep in mind as you school this exercise. First of all, a well ridden corner in collected canter should have right around five strides of bend. These strides should only be in the corner. You should not have left over bend as you pass by A or C, because a good short side has two separate corners and several straight strides/steps in between them. Secondly, it is your job to decide on how great every corner is going to be. Very often, I hear riders complain that their horse rushes through corners or never gets quite deep enough, but when asked, they were not actively riding a specifically deep corner. If you are not clearly riding the corner you want, your horse is going to give you the easiest corner for him/her… which is not exactly what the judge wants to see! So next time you ride a corner, concentrate on being very clear about how you want that corner to go. A corner does not have to be “deep” to be well ridden, but it is counter productive to allow your horse to avoid the area just because they are not warmed up. *** It is very important that your horse is sufficiently warmed up before you begin schooling deep corners! There is common misconception that the higher you go up the levels, the deeper your corners are period. This is true in competition and it is true that a Fourth level horse should be capable of deeper corners than a Training level horse, but keep your training well rounded. Ride each corner with purpose, whether you are hugging the rail or three meters out… and this brings up the exercise: As you canter through the short side, each corner will have five bending strides, but during this exercise, you will adjust the strides in between your two corners (the strides passing by A or C). Your baseline short side should be four collected canter strides between your corners. You should always be able to ride this short side and if things start to get out of hand, come back to this one and regather yourself. As you begin to feel confident in riding the four stride short side, you should “swing your pendulum” and alternate between riding three more ground covering strides between the corners and then riding five more collected strides between the corners. While you alternate between the different number of strides, always make sure that your corners remain controlled. The strides in between them may change, but your corners need to stay the same (thats whats so difficult!). The more strides you ride in between the corners, the deeper your corners need to become, but they should always have five well balance strides with flexion in the inner jaw. Establish what your horses strong and weak points are during this exercise and work on the most difficult element for your horse. If your horse is a little sluggish, make sure that you can get those three big strides between your corners. If your horse avoids sitting, build up to six very collected strides as you pass by A or C. If your horse tends to tune you out, make sure that both corners (especially the one leaving the short side) are great quality. Don’t let him start collecting early or run through the second corner. As you address the weak points of your short sides, you will begin to see better balance and control in other areas aspects of your work. Have fun with the exercise and make well ridden corners a part of every ride. Think about the fact that there are fourteen short side corners in Training Level Test 3 and Third Level Test 2 contains nineteen of them! So if you ride each one of those corners with purpose, think about how much you could improve your next trip down centerline! Happy riding!!! As promised to my many friends and students back home, may I present the inaugural “exercise of the week” article! I am planning on providing options for horses and riders at different stages of training, but I would suggest looking through all of them. Even if an exercise contains a movement or requirement that you or your horse has not mastered yet, you can tweak it a little to make it work for your own situation. If you have any questions, concerns or need some clarification, please feel free to contact me through the Contact page on this website or by emailing [email protected]. |
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