Dressage—You Can Do It!

Introduction

Understanding Dressage and using it in your everyday riding and training.

You do not have to be a Grand-Prix rider, a horse-whisperer, or a veteran of years in the ring to learn, understand and use Dressage training. It just takes a common sense with horses, and a willingness to learn (and UNlearn) several things. It takes an open mind and open heart to allow yourself new insight into an ages-old discipline.

QUESTION: What is Dressage training?

Classical Dressage is training which uses a systematic approach to teaching a horse how to use himself in a way that makes sense to him. It allows him to think out situations and feel how it is to use his body correctly. This way of training will bring about the best a horse has to offer because he will learn how to use his mind as well as his body.

The development of Classical Dressage goes back to the Romans. It has been around for centuries and has been done every way possible since then.

Although there are many paths to one goal, the path I ask you to travel is based on the concept of training the horse with not only his body, but also his mind intact.

QUESTION: Can I do dressage? Can my horse do dressage?

Yes!

Dressage is the French word for training. Everything you do is training, positive or negative. Any human and any horse can do dressage!

You don’t need a fancy horse. It does not matter if you or your horse are a little stiff or a little aged. You and your horse can do dressage, and will even have fun with it!

The degree and level of dressage attained will vary depending on many factors but it can still be enjoyable as well as beneficial.

QUESTION: Why should I do dressage with my horse?

Dressage training, done correctly, will improve your horse’s movement, fitness, and attitude by helping him to learn how better to use his body the way nature intended. Things come easier and quicker to dressage horses because they are physically fit and mentally adept.

Most horses naturally do dressage movements out in the field when they are happy or excited. They are expressing their joy for life. (Never will a sad, sullen, sick or depressed horse do these things.)

Ideally, it is this joy we are trying to capture under saddle.

The dressage horse, correctly trained, will carry his rider as a working partner, and will then be able to express joy and harmony under saddle. The dressage horse should be a joy to ride and he should enjoy being ridden.

QUESTION: How does dressage help me and my horse?

At its core, dressage is the training of the “WHOLE” horse and rider. Being a progressive training system, both rider and horse can follow and understand it easily. There are no gimmicks, tricks or expensive gadgets to buy.

Your horse will improve his way of going, relax and start thinking WITH you to perform more intricate steps with improved grace and flair. His balance and mind will improve, making him smoother and easier to ride.

Dressage: Foundation for All Riding Disciplines

By Tammy Fifer

Copyright © 2004

Lesson One

Let’s discuss some things you should know about what dressage is, and what it is not.

You do not have to be a Grand Prix rider, a horse-whisperer, or a veteran of years in the show ring to learn, understand and use dressage training. It does, however, take common sense with horses, and a willingness to learn (and un-learn) several things if you are to truly reap the benefits of dressage.

Dressage is not a boring, unthinking series of circles in the sand, nor is it the unattainable goal of perfection that will forever elude the mere mortal.

Dressage is the classical training of horse and rider that has been passed on through the years from the great masters of horsemanship who devoted their lives to learning the ways of the horse. It is training that uses a well-developed, finely honed approach to teaching a horse how to use his body and mind in a way that makes sense to him.

Dressage training will bring about the best a horse has to offer because it develops the horse both physically and mentally along logical lines. The cues used in dressage make sense to the horse because they begin with the very basic and build into the advanced. Dressage takes time, and time allows the horse to learn what is expected of him while his body grows stronger so he may perform increasingly difficult exercises.

As the horse’s training progresses, the cues become more refined and subtle. With increased conditioning, the horse is capable of performing more complicated movements with minimal effort, yet with a greater grace.

The rider’s own skills should increase correspondingly. I feel that training and riding skills are dependent upon each. (However, I don’t recommend a novice trainer perform the initial training of a novice horse.)

Dressage is a skill any rider can use to improve his or her riding, no matter what “style” or “discipline.” Dressage will help the rider gain a better understanding of how the horse’s body moves and acts. Dressage will help the rider and the horse gain greater physical and mental balance and understanding.

You may be wondering about your own horse. Can he do dressage? Of course he can!

You do not need to go out and buy a dressage horse, or a fancy warmblood. You do not need to send your horse off for training. (Unless of course, he is unmanageable and a danger to you.) If you feel safe, and know your horse does not have any lameness or physical disabilities, and you can ride well enough to communicate with your horse, then this course will help you understand dressage and use it in your everyday riding and training.

If your goal is to further your horse’s career and to show dressage competitively, then this course will help you succeed.

I have given lessons to many dressage students who, at first, had little or no knowledge of what they were truly trying to achieve.

“What do all those little phrases mean?” “How do I know if he is doing such-and-such?” they ask. You may already have a working knowledge of dressage, but lack certain steps, or lack the understanding of how certain steps are correctly employed. This course will answer the question, “why?” Here you won’t get: “that’s the way we do it.”

Dressage is a personal journey. You don’t need to go out and buy a dressage partner -- you can develop one. You become one. You may buy a “dressage horse” which knows all the cues and is very talented, and may go far in the show ring, or you can develop your own horse. The degree and level of dressage you wish to attain will be dependent on many factors; not everyone or every horse can succeed competitively at the upper-levels. But understand that dressage can be both fun and beneficial to you and your horse. It is the journey which is most important, then the destination.

The development of Classical Dressage began with the Romans. It has been around for centuries and has been done every way imaginable. Not all the ways have been correct or humane.

I will take you on the path that is based on the concept of training the horse to his utmost potential with not only his body, but his mind intact…to train the horse with kindness, respect and love. By using positive reinforcement, we can usually keep the horse willing and interested in what we are teaching him.

If you degrade the horse or do things to his body that he cannot understand, things which make no sense or cause pain, you will create resentment and a myriad of difficulties. The horse must be treated with a kind hand, a kind heart and knowledge. If you teach a child only half the alphabet, then smack him if he cannot spell words correctly, you do not teach spelling, but instead that the world is unjust and unfair. Like a child, you cannot start a horse with college level courses and expect him to pass.

Be thoughtful first, learn your craft, then be patient as you teach. Use a lot of positive words and pats of encouragement. Do not pass over steps in his training, yet do not drill him into boredom!

Dressage training, done correctly, will improve your horse’s movement, fitness, and attitude by helping him to learn how to better use his body when carrying a rider. Horses learn more quickly and more easily when they are physically fit and mentally adept. Through logical steps in their training, horses learn to associate actions with reactions, and become more aware of what we want them to do. Perhaps it is why many people feel there is a psychic link between highly trained horses and their skilled riders.

Are you aware that most horses naturally do dressage movements out in the field when they are happy or excited? They may trot sideways, or trot in place without moving forward. Or their trot will have giant, elevated steps…they are expressing supreme interest in something or expressing their joy of life. (Never will a sad, sullen, sick, or depressed horse do these things.) So, we are not training the horse “dressage movements,” we are developing his natural movements. We are teaching him a method of communicating, so when we ask for a specific movement, he will understand and respond willingly.

When under saddle, we try to help the dressage horse by doing exercises that develop muscle strength so he may perform the movements in effortless appearance with a rider on his back. Once we ask for a movement we must try to not interfere with the horse, but stay out of his way. It is not an easy thing to do, but possible. We want to see the joy of freedom of movement. One of the greatest compliments to a dressage rider is to say that his horse was joyful in his movements! (Hopefully he was not bucking at the time!)

The dressage horse, correctly trained and fit, will be easier to ride because he will be more balanced and therefore more willing to carry his rider as a working partner. The dressage horse should be a joy to ride and he should enjoy being ridden.

Now that we have established you can understand and perform dressage with your own horse, let’s go over basic terms and phrases that you will hear all the time. At the end of each lesson, we will have more terms or explanations that will help you fully understand that lesson.

TERMS AND PHRASES

ABOVE THE BIT: When a horse raises his head too far above the rider's hands, breaking the "straight line" from the rider's elbows to the bit.

ACTION: The amount of ‘flexion’ in the joints during movement of the horse’s legs, head, and neck ‘carriage’. The horse will have more flexion at ‘collected’ movements than at ‘lengthened’. “He has a lot of action!”

AIDS: Communications from the rider to the horse; weight, legs, seat, hands, voice. These are natural aids. Artificial aids are extensions of the natural ones: spurs and whips which should never be used as punishment.

BACKING: The horse in reverse, backing up, a 2-beat gait as diagonal legs move at the same time.

BALANCE: Being in equilibrium; carrying weight equally over all four feet; the center of gravity far enough back to keep the horse easily balanced; desirable proportions of bone and muscle for good conformation.

BALK: To refuse or stop moving forward.

BASCULE: The preferable arc a horse makes with his body in collection as well as over jumps.

BEHIND THE BIT: The very common, misleading "look" of a horse that is on the bit. He has arched his neck and over curled it or has put his face back behind the 'vertical', and has no true contact anymore. It is very wrong to ride a horse in this manner because he is avoiding the bit and the rider has no control.

BRILLIANCE: The exciting, dazzling effects of a great performance.

BUCKING: When the horse's head is down, his back up, and he is hopping up off the ground.

CARRIAGE: The way a horse carries his body in any given moment.

CADANCE: The rhythm of the horse's movement or 'gait'

COLLECTED: The horse stepping his hindquarters farther underneath himself, thereby raising his back and shortening his body length. The horse brings his weight more onto his haunches while raising his chest and withers. A horse with rider is collected when the horse’s balance point is directly under his rider.

CONFORMATION: The way a horse's body is made up according to his bone and muscle structure. Muscle mass can be changed (for good or bad), but bone structure cannot.

CONTACT: The feel of the rider's hand on the bit. The horse should want to trust the rider enough to stretch down into the feel of the bit; knowing he won't get jerked. The horse should close his mouth and relax onto the firmness of the hold. It is an almost elastic give and take between horse and rider, very imperceptible. Contact is used as a subtle communication, and should involve no more movement of the hand than the finger's spongy squeeze.

COUNTERCANTER: A true canter, but one that is going deliberately in the wrong direction of bend. For example, cantering on a left 'lead' while circling to the right.

DIAGONAL: The pair of legs -- front right & back left and back right & front left that move together when a horse trots.

DRESSAGE ARENA: The place where a dressage horse is shown or worked that meets specific requirements of size and structure with letters around it in exacting order.

ENGAGEMENT: The horse’s back rounded and hindquarters lowered, ready with energy and the 'impulsion' to move forward.

EXTENSION: The horse's body is stretched out to its fullest in movement while maintaining balance and rhythm.

FLEXION: The amount of bend in a joint or spine. A more ‘supple’ and ‘collected’ horse will exhibit more bend in his leg joints, back, ‘poll’, and arch to his neck. There are two kinds of flexion: (a) vertical, longitudinal -- neck arched and rounded, which is mistakenly known as “head set”, but is the collection of the entire body of the horse including his abdomen, hindquarters, back, neck and head. (b) lateral -– bending of horse’s sides as in performing a circle.

FLYING LEAD CHANGE: The horse will change leads from one to the other without going through another gait. In dressage, the horse will change leads only when it is balanced and collected. The rider should never throw the horse off balance so that he must "catch himself" on the other lead.

FOREHAND: The front of the horse to the girth area.

FORWARD: The horse moving in any direction, but with the willingness to keep moving with ease and with out prodding.

GAIT: The horse's main movements—walk (four beat lateral gait), trot (two beat diagonal gait), canter (three beat gait).

GREEN: An inexperienced horse or rider.

HAUNCHES: Hindquarters of the horse, the engine of the horse.

HAUNCHES-IN: The horse is at an angle to the arena wall with his haunches towards the center and he is moving forward along the wall. The horse moves his hindquarters over the width of his body. If moving to the right, the left front foot makes one track, the left hind tracks directly behind the right fore—a second track—and the right hand foot tracks farthest to the right on a third track.

IMPULSION: The energy to move forward by the horse reaching under and forward with his haunches and hind legs.

LATERAL MOVEMENTS: Any movement which includes direction to the side.

LATERAL STRETCHING: Side to side movement or bending. Stretching the horse's underside and legs underneath and to the side in certain exercises.

LEAD: The footfall pattern at the canter in which the legs on one side of the horse extend farther than the legs on the opposite side. For example, when moving to the right, the horse will be on the right lead if the right legs are extending farther than the left legs.

LEG YIELD: an exercise where the horse moves his body away from the rider's leg pressure.

LENGTHENED: The horse stretching his body to create longer strides (as in the lengthened trot); pace is not faster or quicker.

LONGE: Exercising or training a horse on the end of a long line in a circle.

LONGITUDINAL STRETCHING: Horse stretching his neck, spine, back and haunches. When the horse is accepting the bit contact and he is stretching to it without tugging or pulling; the reins make a straight line from the rider's hands to the bit. Although his neck is arched, the 'poll' (between his ears) is the highest part of the horse's neck.

PASSAGE: A very collected, elevated, trot where the hindquarters are deeply engaged and there is much flexion at the knees and hocks. There is an almost slow-motion quality to the gait.

PIAFFE: A very collected, elevated trot-in-place. It is like the passage, but without the forward motion.

POLL: Where the neck vertebrae and skull join; an extremely sensitive and flexible area, often over-bent and pulled upon by skilled and unskilled riders alike. The poll is often the most misunderstood part of the horse, as well as, the most abused.

SERPENTINE: A series of circles crossing over the centerline and changing direction after every curve.

SHOULDER-IN: The horse is at an angle to the arena wall with his shoulders towards the center and he is moving forward along the wall. As with haunches in or haunches out, the horse establishes three tracks by moving his forehand over the width of his body.

SHYING: A startled horse that flinches and jumps away. Also considered spooky if it happens easily.

SIDE PASS: A full-pass; full movement sideways with no forward movement.

SIMPLE LEAD CHANGE: Changing from one lead of the canter to the other by interrupting the canter with a change of gait.

SNAFFLE BIT: A direct action bit. The reins always attach opposite the mouthpiece and there is no curb or poll action. The type of mouthpiece is not a factor.

STRIDE: Distance traveled within a gait from one point to the next.

SULLEN: Withdrawn, listless, and sulky.

SUPPLE: The flexibility of a horse’s body.

TACK: The equipment—saddle, bridle, etc.—which is used when the horse is ridden, freely exercised or longed.

TOPLINE: The silhouette line of the horse from his poll to his tail.

TURN ON THE FOREHAND: When the horse is asked to move his hindquarters around his front hand.

TURN ON THE HAUNCHES: When the horse is asked to move his forehand around his haunches.

UNDERLINE: The silhouette of the under belly of the horse from the horse's elbow to his groin.

VOLTE: A small, 20 foot circle (6-meter).

COMMON PHRASES

"Hard-mouthed" The horse's mouth is usually not hard, but he has gotten tired of having riders pulling on his mouth, so he ignores the pressure.

"Iron-sided" The horse's sides are tired of riders kicking or thumping so the horse begins to ignore the pressure.

"Barn sour" The horse is used to going to the barn so he sees it as an end to the session and often bolts or runs towards it, or won't leave it.

"Ring sour" The horse is usually very bored and cannot stand another moment in a small, enclosed area. He may balk, bolt, rear or holler.

"Crazy" Very often the horse is undergoing severe stress or confusion. Acts in a manner others cannot explain. They will react sometimes more to emotional stress than physical stress. It could even be a smell or sound.

"Head set" The position in which a horse carries his head. Can be good or bad for his balance or movement.

"Over-striding" When the hoof of the horse's hind legs step beyond the front hoof prints. This is very desirable in dressage.

"Figure eight" Two circles of usually the same size that meet at a point in conjunction, there are never straight lines in a dressage 8.

"Chewing the bit" The horse should calmly chew on the bit when he is relaxed and being thoughtful. The rider should squeeze his fingers only enough to mimic the soft chewing the horse makes when content; preferably, the horse will chew back, creating a dialogue between the two.

"On his haunches" When the horse's weight is far enough back that his haunches are carrying most of his weight.

"On his forehand" When the horse's weight is closer to his girth area than his haunches. He is considered heavy on his forehand.

"Floating" The horse's feet seem to barely touch the ground; smooth.

"Going light" The horse's front end is light enough he could rear or easily spin about.

"Half-halt" The act of re-balancing the horse; asking the horse to slow down or almost halt, then asking him to move off again with renewed energy, but at the same gait.

"Go large" Use the entire size of the arena.

"Change rein" Change directions.

"Across the diagonal" Move across one end of the arena to the diagonal side of the other end. It is the very longest length in the arena.

"Down centerline" Riding your horse down the middle of the arena; it is known as going down the centerline.

"Falling in" When a horse is letting his shoulder or haunches drift into the circle he is making.

"Dropped shoulder" When a horse is wanting to lead the way with his inside shoulder (as on a turn) often creating a quick small turn.

"Pacey" By overworking a horse's walk, you my interfere with his footfalls and create almost another gait that is considered a pace.

"Grass cutter" A trot that is considered not very effective or spectacular.

"Brain sweat" Sweat around the horse's ears, usually during a good workout when he has been trying really hard.

"Lugging around" A horse pulling his head down rather often without ever really bringing it up first. Ponies employ this habit frequently.

"Chewing the bit to the ground" or "reaching for the ground" An exercise asked for in a dressage test where the rider is asked to ride a 20-meter circle at the trot while letting the horse gently stretch his neck out and down. It is done to show balance and trust of the horse. It is an excellent way of gauging the horse's training.

"Star gazer" A horse who typically carries his head with his nose pointed up. Often, the horse may have a physical problem and this is his way of showing us.

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