Menu

Dressage Riding Techniques

Training With or Without a Connection

Everyone is familiar with the terms ?On the bit?, ?Through the neck?, and ?Riding within the connection?. But what do these phrases really mean and at what stage of a rider?s development is it fair and appropriate to expect them to become part of the ride on a regular basis?

The first thing that the rider must grasp is the understanding that there is a certain environment that has to be present in the training session that enables the rider to establish a connection between the energy that is created by the leg and the ability of the hand to receive, recycle and balance that energy. The rider must possess three elements that will be combined in an infinite number of combinations to create the environment that will allow the connection to happen. They are: 1) an immediate forward response to the leg,

2) the ability to balance and/or regulate the forward response with the rein and

3) the ability to move the horse’s body left or right to help them find a channel between two hands and legs. It is only when the horse allows you to influence him in all three areas with equal success that the training can begin in earnest.

If you think of the horse’s hindlegs as the engine that propels him forward and the reins as the steering wheel that directs the energy, then the horse’s back must be the transmission that allows the energy to flow freely forward toward the hand. The hand receives the energy and volleys it back toward the hind leg, thereby capturing that energy in a perpetual cycle to be repeated over and over throughout the ride. The horse’s back cannot bridge the hind legs to the reins unless the horse travels with his hind legs following the exact path that his shoulders travel. Therefore, the rider’s legs must stabilize the hindquarters so that the shoulders can be mobilized and placed in front of them. Straightening an animal with an inherent crookedness built in due to the hindquarter being wider than the shoulder, is an incredibly difficult task. Given that the horse’s balance can change with each step he takes, the concepts of controlling the forward thrust, directing the energy, and keeping the horse moving down a corridor between the hands and legs, have to be negotiated every few strides. It is very much like juggling to keep all three elements available at a given moment.

This is a degree of sophistication that escapes the rider until their own seat is so firmly established that their balance can remain in tact in spite of what the horse does. The rider must serve as a point of reference that the horse must always return to after even a small breech in his balance. The ability to affect the horse in such minute detail must be earned through many hours in the saddle, preferably on many different horses. Some riders will go through their entire riding lives and never capture all three elements simultaneously for more than a few strides at a time, while others will be able to produce the  connection at will on any horse they ride.

Does this mean that one can’t progress out of Training Level if they are unable to master the concept of riding through the connection Absolutely not! In fact, many riders perform anything from shoulder-in to tempi changes without a good connection. It is all a matter of perception. If the first bottle of wine that you ever tasted cost $10.00, you might well enjoy the bottle and buy more in the future. However, once you had the opportunity to taste a $100.00 bottle of wine, you would realize that there are many layers of taste that enhance the wine tasting experience. The same will prove true with your riding. As your skills improve, your ability to maintain the connection during the shoulder-in and the tempi changes will dramatically enhance your experience of being in a harmonious partnership with the horse.

You will find that there won’t be much new information once you master the basic skills of riding a horse, only a greater depth of understanding. Most riders reasonably accomplish riding a movement such as half pass. Riding the half pass while controlling the flow of energy, keeping the horse in front of your leg but not past your hand, and keeping him well balanced between the inside leg and outside rein is the challenge! Making the connection and keeping it is what enhances the colors and emotions of riding.

Why Balance is So Critical

If I was allowed only one word to sum up what Dressage riding is all about, it would be balanced. From the rider’s point of view, it is crucial to be in enough control of your seat, legs, and hands to be able to use them independently as well as in a coordinated fashion toward the goal of balancing the horse. This requires the rider to be able to be balanced over the horse’s ever-changing center of gravity, while at the same time, remaining firm in the core muscles of the upper body and supple and flexible in the hands, elbows, hips, and ankles. The aids must be applied in such a way that one aid isn’t used to the exclusion of others, thereby balancing the effect of the hand, seat, and legs. Whenever the hand is used, there is always a supporting and cooperative action that involves the leg and seat and vice versa.

The horse’s natural balance is to carry nearly 60% of his weight on his forehand and the remaining on his hindquarters. This makes him feel a bit like a stretch limousine to maneuver, which is why the point of Dressage training is to turn him into something easier to handle, like a sports car, by shifting more weight back to his hindquarters.

The horse’s center of gravity is located at the wither area just where the saddle sits if it fits properly.? Imagine that his center of gravity lives inside of a box that is formed by your hands and your two seat bones. When that is the case, you feel the sensation of having the horse in front of your leg but not past your hand. In other words, there is a balance in his desire to go forward and his willingness to accept your half halt.

Each time the horse takes a step, his center of gravity is in danger of moving outside of the box. It is the rider’s responsibility to keep that to a minimum by executing half halts that affect the horse in two dimensions, both longitudinally and laterally. Sometimes the center of gravity moves to the very front of the box, which is easily remedied by a simple half halt to bring it back to the center, however, things can get more complicated when the center of gravity moves to the front right or left corner of the box.

As an example, let’s say that the center of gravity has shifted to the front left corner of the box. The symptoms that you would feel as the rider would likely be more contact on the left rein, less contact on the right rein, left seat bone lower than the right and the horse’s hips would be escaping to the outside while his shoulder falls to the inside. Many riders make the mistake of trying to fix the most obvious symptom, the horse pulling on the left rein, by bending the horse to the left and moving him away from the left leg in the direction of the outside rein. What you must realize is that the more you bend him left, the easier it is for him to escape with the haunches to the outside. Bending him left gives you some momentary relief, but as soon as you try to go straight ahead again, you are right back where you started.

 The proper correction is to treat the cause, not the symptom. If you think of the horse as a tabletop with 4 legs and that the right hind leg is being carried slightly outside of the right front footprint, it will have the effect of tipping the horse onto the left shoulder. The correction that should be made is to pay strict attention to the alignment of the horse’s legs, that is to say, that the hind hoof should step in the same track as the front foot. You can achieve that best by establishing more contact on the right rein, be more elastic on the left rein, let your right leg think of holding the haunch so that it doesn’t swing out, thereby letting his hind leg fill up the right rein now that the energy isn’t being diverted somewhere else. Use just enough left leg to keep the horse from falling in now that you have established a perimeter on the outside. In other words, your hands and legs will form the corridor that the horse must travel down in an aligned fashion.

Notice we have not discussed the head and neck of the horse because when the body is in alignment and you have an equal willingness of the horse to go forward, accept a half halt and let you correct him left or right in order to keep him in the center, his head and neck will fall beautifully into place.

So the next time you feel that your horse’s center of balance is not contained in the box formed by your hands and seat bones, or that because his balance is in one corner or the other, making your box seem more like a parallelogram, just remember to balance yourself by sitting in the middle riding with two hands and two legs at all times, balance the effectiveness of your aids so that you don’t allow one to overshadow all of the others and balance the horse’s willingness to go forward, half halt or move over. Your horse will thank you for helping make his job easier by letting him be in a balanced state in spite of having to carry a rider.

Find a Balance Between Suppleness and Impulsion

Everyone will agree that suppleness and impulsion are key elements when it comes to riding the horse o the aids. I prefer to use the expression “on the aids” instead of “on the bit” because it presents a different mental image. When you picture a horse that is on the bit, the focus is on a horse with his face on the vertical and an arched neck that typifies the look of a dressage horse. Thinking of a horse that is on the aids takes that a step further in that it makes you think of the same image as on the bit, in addition to a horse that reacts well to the rider’s aids.

Riders have heard their instructor say, Ride the horse more forward! That usually involves a couple of kicks from the leg and or a touch of the whip to encourage the horse to add impulsion to his stride. How much is enough? Can you have too much impulsion? How do you know if there is too much impulsion? These are all questions that the average rider has trouble evaluating. The best way to describe what you are seeking is a horse that is in front of your leg but not past the control of your rein.

You know the horse is in front of your leg when his response to your leg is immediate and sustained for a few strides at a time.? If you close your eyes while your horse is trotting, you should feel that most of is body is in front of where you are sitting. If you have the sensation that most of his body is behind you, you need to add more impulsion to the mix. Sometimes when you add more impulsion, the horse goes faster but leans more on the reins, therefore going past what the had can regulate.? Most riders get stuck bouncing back and forth between being slow but in control or adding impulsion and giving up some control.? When the horse goes with more impulsion but less control, it’s time to check up on the flexibility factor.

Suppleness or flexibility is the willingness of the horse to allow the action of the aids to pass through his body.? That means that he accepts the forward driving aid, the half halt and he will move readily to the left or right. You will find that each time you add or subtract impulsion from the horse, the suppleness will have to be negotiated again.

How does the rider create suppleness? The horse is made more flexible through riding bending lines (circles, serpentines, figure eights) as well as lateral exercises (shoulder in and leg yield). The rider has to be on a constant vigil to keep the horse supple enough that he does not control the bearing on the rein. That means the horse must maintain a light, even, elastic contact on both reins at all times. The moment he braces against one or both reins, he braces his neck against the hand, thereby blocking the energy of the hind leg to flow freely through the body. This causes the ability of the horse to accept the half halt to be greatly diminished.

The ideal environment for training your horse is one where the impulsion doesn’t overpower your ability to maintain suppleness and where the impulsion isn’t sacrificed while creating flexibility. Keeping that in mind, you must always train your horse at his level of acceptance of these principles. If the horse loses his flexibility and acceptance of the aids, causing the quality of his gait to be compromised, don’t hesitate to take a moment to regain his balance and confidence. This would be a wonderful time to add a stretch circle or two for relaxing the horse. The reward will be a horse that moves in his most beautiful way through all of the exercises. With time and patience, he will be able to meet your expectations, while maintaining impulsion and suppleness.

Measuring Success at the Horse Show

Our reasons for riding in a competition vary from person to person. It can be something casual, such as a weekend away from home and your regular routine, having the luxury of only having to concentrate on your horse. Others use the competition as a validation of how their training is progressing, using the judge’s comments to indicate where the training is lacking or to confirm that things are progressing as planned. Then there are riders that use competitions as a stepping stone to reach a goal such as the Olympic Games.

When the class is complete and the scores are posted, it is easy to feel successful when you are in the ribbons. But, it also happens sometimes that you feel you had a good ride, but your score doesn’t reflect that. Other times, you feel that you wee on the verge of being out of control, yet you won the class.  Or, on Saturday you scored in the mid-’60s with one judge, and on Sunday you couldn’t get out of the ’50s with another judge.

How do you sort through all of the seemingly inconsistent feedback that you get? The first question that you should ask yourself is whether your horse performed as well at the show as he does at home. If he does, that is a great confirmation of your training that he can stay focused even under stressful conditions. The factors that are beyond your control are who the judge is and what other horses you compete against. When you are evaluating your performance, remember that your perspective is comparing the horse to how he used to be and the judge is comparing the horse to their idea of perfection. Personal preference has to enter into anything that is judged on a subjective basis. However, in spite of personal preferences, judges will reward a horse for being well trained and a test accurately ridden, regardless of size, breed or color.

It is important to read the judge’s comments and give them careful consideration. However, as a rider that is dealing with the training issues on a daily basis, you must keep your long-term goal in mind. Training is all about knowing when to compromise and what your order of priorities should be. For instance, if you have the choice of making a wonderful transition two strides early or making a rough transition on the letter, you are going to lose points either way, but for the long term goal, take the smooth transitions because only perfect practice makes perfect. You can perfect when the horse makes the transition easier than re-schooling the bad habit of poor transitions.

Don’t forget that the judge only has a few minutes to make a lot of decisions about where your horse is at that moment. Judges are human too and don’t always make the right choice. Some are more encouraging than others, some are overly generous and some never give any score except 4,5, or 6.

It is imperative to keep all of these factors in mind so that you can put all of the feedback in context. You know your horse better than anyone does and if he gave you his best effort, you must be pleased. Sometimes you win when you know you shouldn’t have and sometimes you think you had the ride of your life and you don’t finish in the ribbons. Know that proper training takes patience and time and you should enjoy your accomplishments every step of the way.