Dressage: How it used to be

Post by Thomas Kirst.

If for nothing else, make sure you watch to the end where you can see a woman pat down the sweaty horse and then enthusiastically shake her hand off. Hehe.

Charlotte Du Jardin sets the records straight!

Charlotte Du Jardin and Valegro set a new freestyle dressage world record with a score of 93.975% at the London International Horse Show this week. She broke Edward Gal and Totilas' record, good for her!


Charlotte Du Jardin & Valegro WORLD CUP Grand Prix Freestyle to Music London Olympia 2013 from Toptalent Dressage on Vimeo.

In case the embed doesn't work: http://vimeo.com/82143908

Dang it, the video got pulled. Here's another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Iu8B4FRNk&feature=share.

Another barefoot article

 This one is from Eurodressage, "Keeping Horses Barefoot: A healthy horse from the ground up." Once again, Shannon Peters is quoted as a barefoot advocate (because Shannons are good people), they've also got a few quotes from veterinarian Melanie Quick who astutely advises that horse owners do their research before taking their horses barefoot. She also says this, which makes me happy:

“I prefer horses living the barefoot lifestyle, as there is absolutely no doubt that when applied correctly it gives the horse superior hoof, leg and back health, enhanced soundness, increased career longevity, and optimizes their performance. If the competition rules can be changed to allow hoof boots in the dressage arena I think barefoot will be massive, and we will all wonder why anyone ever shod a horse.”

Yes, thank you Dr. Quick for saying it and thank you Eurodressage for printing it.

But then there are some other quotes that make me want to pull my hair out. Like this one from FEI Dressage Director Trond Asmyr, "the reason why hoof boots are not allowed in FEI Dressage events is because they may be masking potential unsoundness and it is the FEI’s policy to ensure that all horses taking part in FEI events are perfectly sound and fit to compete. There are therefore no plans to change this rule."

Seriously? Because shoes don't do the same thing? How many of us know of a horse that was not sound barefoot become "sound" as soon as a set of shoes was nailed on? Everyone? Your argument is invalid, Mr. Asmyr.

Just to clarify my position in this argument: If a horse is not sound totally barefoot then the horse isn't sound no matter how they go in boots or shoes.

Then there's this from farrier Michael Jakob that sets me a little on edge: "According to Jakob there are also various reasons why the horse may seem lame lame after a barefoot trim, but he says the main problem could be that the hooves are cut too short."

This bothers me because it's a gross oversimplification of why a horse would be lame after a trim. I suppose I should give the guy a break since this is a magazine article and he can't go into detail about what might be causing a horse pain, BUT here's what really bothers me about that quote: it puts the blame onto the shoulders of the trimmer without consideration of the health (or lack of) in the hoof being trimmed.

I'm planning on writing a blog post about this (eventually), but here's something everyone should know: If a hoof is really unhealthy, it cannot be returned to health without some level of discomfort. If someone tries to tell you otherwise, they either don't know what they're talking about or they're lying to you.

And then there's this, the hoof they used as an example in the article:

Now I know I'm being overly critical, but darn it, I have high standards. The heels are uneven, the bars are too long and edging towards impacted (That crack in the frog where thrush likes to live? Goes hand in hand with bars that are too long.), and the hoof wall connection is poor. Oh, and can you see the toe creeping forward? This horse is landing toe first because the bars make the back of the hoof uncomfortable.

Well, it's still progress. Head on over to Eurodressage and read the article when you get a chance.

Barefoot article in Dressage Today

Hi all, I ran across a link to this article today and wanted to get it out to anyone who wants to read it:

Beyond the Horseshoe

Read all about how Olympic dressage horse, Ravel, and score of other horses in Steffen and Shannon Peter's care are now barefoot. For free!

Sorry I haven't written much lately, for once in my life horses aren't at the forefront of my mind. The Quarters are doing well, though they aren't doing much more than eat hay while we wait for this arctic blast to blow by. There are some things I want to write about, I'll try to muster up the energy to do that sometime soon. Until then take care and stay warm!

Dressage show pictures

I'll start this post with what everyone wants to see: A friesian.

his handsome mug

starting our warmup

posing, well I am- he's looking at the pretty girls

trotting, his favorite gait

Waiting for our test to start

The first halt at X got an 8!

Canter!

So how'd we do? We tied for 4th out of 13 with a 65.5%. I got dinged on the stretchy trot circle, got dinged on the lengthenings- those needed more elasticity apparently- and I got dinged because I let his nose poke too far out. At least I know where to improve :)

Dressage show jitters

This Saturday I will be riding in my very first dressage schooling show. The friesian will be helping me make my debut at first level, test one.

If I can get a 50% I'll be pretty happy because I know I'm going to flub something. I did a dress rehearsal last weekend that went very badly. I got confused about the ride times, I thought I was supposed to get on the horse at a certain time, but I was actually supposed to ride the test at that time. Yeah, so it comes out a 10 minute warmup is not enough. For either of us. Good thing it was a dress rehearsal. Hopefully I got the crappy riding out of the way last weekend so I can ride normally again this weekend.

Even if I do ride like crap, I'm thankful that I'll have my local trainer there to keep me on track and that I'll be riding a horse that doesn't get show nerves. It's much better to start out that way than completely on my own with a horse that may or may not freak out.

Does anyone have any show tips they'd like to share?

While we're on the topic of dressage shows, has anyone watched any of the Dressage Festival of Champions coverage? You can watch the tests individually and, get this, the videos include the judges' scores on each movement. That way you can feel like you're playing along. Give each movement a score and see how you measure up. Personally I thought the judges were being generous, but I'm not an FEI judge so what do I know?

I recommend watching Steffen Peters and Legolas. His passage was amazeballs and his piaffe was one of the best I've ever seen in competition. Check it out:

Too bad his canter work wasn't as good, but he's a young horse and Steffen Peters is a clicker trainer, so I'm sure it won't be long before all his movements are as good as passage and piaffe.

You can also catch Heather Blitz's ride on Paragon. Some of you may recall that I thought Paragon looked a little off lately, but he seemed a bit better last weekend. He still can't pull off the collected movements nearly as well as some of the other horses but he does have gorgeous extensions. That horse can move!

Your arms belong to the horse

Sorry I've been MIA for a while, it's been a rough few weeks for me here. Don't worry, the Quarters are fine- I just had to work through some stuff.

Two weeks ago the Quarters and I got a long, intense visit from classical dressage trainer extraordinaire, Katie. I asked her to come out and help me find a way to get Coriander to stop bracing so hard against the bit (among other things).

Who? Me?

The first thing we did was find him a new bit. Due to her amazing Jedi powers the very first bit Katie put in his mouth made him pretty happy. So this is his new bit, a Herm Sprenger aurigan something-or-other bradoon. I had no idea a thick, singled jointed snaffle would make him happy but he's the expert on his own mouth so there you go.

His new bit

We then worked on flexions, jaw (mouthing the bit) and lateral (getting the neck to bend side to side with the poll high and the head vertical). These are great and I've incorporated them into our pre-ride routine. BUT the biggest breakthrough for us happened after I was mounted.

Have you ever heard that when you ride your arms belong to the horse? In case you haven't heard this- it refers to the fact that in gaits where the horse needs to move their neck to balance, like the walk and canter, your arms need to follow that movement. I thought I had following hands but I really didn't, especially when we were turning or bending. As soon as I asked for either of those my arms stopped moving, and Coriander immediately braced against them.

Katie spent quite a bit of time bringing my attention to that and helping me fix it. At one point we were walking in a circle, I wiggled my fingers to ask him to flex- which he did- and then I very obviously followed his head with my hands. Coriander immediately relaxed and telescoped his neck.

Eureka!

So that is the secret! I've been really working on this for the past few weeks, because he's green his head is all over the place but I've been concentrating on following him wherever he goes, exaggerating my movements trying to keep a constant, smooth contact where the rein never slacks and then snaps him in the mouth. We're making progress, slowly but surely.

Following hands, folks. Following hands.

Horses are knights that look towards heaven

Last weekend I traveled East to attend a Colonel Christian Carde clinic. Colonel Carde was part of the Cadre Noir, a world championship competitor, coached the French national team, and he's an FEI judge. He is a world class representative of French classical dressage. He is also a true gentleman who clearly loves horses.

I really want to tell you about this clinic without saying negative things about the riders, but unfortunately I cannot. It was clear that the riders all regularly practice German style, LDR (low, deep, round), riding, which is completely the opposite of French classical dressage in many ways. Colonel Carde couldn't quite hide that he felt frustrated and sad about that. He spent quite a bit of time getting the riders to lift their horses' heads and rebalance over the hindquarters, and when he told the riders to let the horses stretch it was extremely difficult to get them to loosen their death grip on the reins so the horses could do so.

BUT- there was an upside to this. Because the horses all started out overbent and dragging around on their forehands you could see an immense difference in the way the horses moved once they'd lifted their head and shoulders and rebalanced over their hindquarters. All of a sudden they had elevation! and suspension! It was beautiful to see.

Lift the shoulders

Balance the horse

and STRETCH down

Clinic Themes

• riders should have soft, elastic, permanent contact
• you should ride several different exercises with the horse in different frames, don't obsess over a single exercise and frame or the horse will get bored and stiff
• activity + balance = submission
• without lateral flexion, the horse cannot bend
• to balance, maintain the flexion with the inside rein and raise the outside rein to move the shoulders
• the more we collect the more we stretch
• stretch, Stretch, STRETCH

*Let me know if you'd like me to expand on any of these themes*

I'll end this post with a story: At one point the horse and rider in my pictures were standing at the halt while listening to Carde. The horse was standing with his forehead pointing straight down to the ground with his chin practically on his chest. Carde walked over to the horse and gently lifted his head. "Head up," he said, "is a knight going to heaven." 

"Head down is a slave going to hell."

Neck reining and dressage

Of all the things I learned from Philippe Karl in his book, "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage," the biggest, brightest lightbulb to pop over my head happened when I read his section on using the hand to turn the horse.

Confession time:

The last huntseat trainer I lesson-ed with used to say, "turn the horse with the outside rein." Unfortunately she never elaborated on that statement and I couldn't make heads or tails of it. How exactly was I supposed to make the horse turn left with the right rein? If I pull on the right rein the horse turns right. Since I couldn't get that statement to compute I ignored it.

I also have to admit that I've never understood the statement, "ride the horse from the inside leg to the outside rein." What the heck does that mean? If you Google that phrase something like this will pop up: you create impulsion from the inside leg and then capture it with the outside rein like a handbrake. Huh? If I did that my horse would just turn to the outside! Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense.

Then I read Karl's section on using the hand and it was like the heavens opened up above me, the birds sang, the sun shone, and everything MADE SENSE.

As Karl quoted La Gueriniere:

"We can also note that when we use the outside rein by moving the hand towards the inside, this action causes the outside shoulder to move inwards and makes the outside leg move over the inside one: and when we use the inside rein, moving the hand towards the outside, this movement widens the inside shoulder, in other words it makes the inside leg move over the outside one. We can see, that through these different inside and outside rein actions, that it is what we do with our hands that controls the horse's forehand."

He's talking about neck reining

Cue me having a face/palm moment.

So "turn the horse with your outside rein" means use a neck rein to turn the shoulders. "Inside leg to outside rein" means asking for the bend with your inside leg and then turning the horse using a neck rein. Because your hands move the horse's shoulders- NOT your legs!

(In case you don't know about this: You ask for a bend with the inside leg by gently rubbing it just behind the girth. The horse will automatically bend around your leg- even Gwen does this.)

Of course all you Western riders already knew this, and are probably thinking that I'm about as thick as a brick right now. But in my defense, I haven't heard any English instructor ever utter the words "neck rein." If she'd said, "use the outside rein to turn the horse," heard me say "huh," and followed up with "press the rein against the horse's shoulder like a neck rein and use that to turn" I would have understood immediately. But I doubt that has ever crossed her mind.

(What you should be accusing me of is being totally dense about the concept of the indirect rein. For the record indirect rein = neck rein, they are the same thing. But "neck rein" just makes so much more sense, am I right?)

As BrownEyed Cowgirl commented on my "cession de machoire" post, barrel horses are a lot like dressage horses. Heck yeah they are! All flatwork is dressage, no matter what tack the horse is wearing. But us "snooty" English riders often fail to give Western riders the kudos they deserve and thus try to distance ourselves from our Western cohorts. (FYI- Karl gave you props: "In terms of changing direction, Western riding is much closer than official dressage to La Gueriniere's teachings.")

Have you ever heard that the mark of a really well trained dressage horse is that they can be ridden on the curb only, with a loose rein? A finished Western bridle horse is ridden exactly the same way. Because they are ridden using the neck rein.

Eitan Beth-Halachmy on a gorgeous morgan

I think the master of Cowboy Dressage, Eitan Beth Halachmy, explains it better than I can:

"Since Neck Reining is a term long time associated with Western Riding I would like to expand a bit on it. Neck Reining can be a misleading term. Often people think that if you move the neck you move the horse. Have you ever been on a horse who when you pull on his face to the right, he can still go to the left or move straight ahead? Neck reining is actually a moving of the shoulders. When you lay a rein on the neck the horse moves away from the pressure with his shoulders. It is the moving of the shoulders and the cross over of the front legs that makes the turn. A horse does not always follow it’s nose, but it does follow it’s shoulders."

"What you saw on the Silver Screen in Hollywood Westerns was poor horsemanship. The rein was placed up high near the horse’s poll and he was yanked around with his head up in the air and his mouth open. The American Cowboy did ride with one hand, neck reining, allowing him to carry rope, rifle, gun or whip.  A good finished reining horse that is in the bridle is an excellent example of proper neck reining. Cowboys also wanted a horse that worked well underneath himself. This allowed the cowboy more comfort, as a round backed horse is smoother than a hollow backed horse. A round backed horse stays sounder longer as a majority of his weight is placed back over his hocks and off his front end. A round back horse in self-carriage is quicker and more maneuverable. A horse in self-carriage is pretty to look at. There was and still is a great deal of pride in horseman of yesterday and today.  It was an honor to be recognized and respected for their good horses. The California Vaquero and his bridle horse is a perfect example of pride and horsemanship. They may have never heard the word “dressage” but they were practicing it in its purest forms."

How about that? Long post short: My horses are going to be champs at neck reining!

PS- I wanted to add this picture to illustrate how a dressage master would ride one handed on the curb only:

Philippe Karl

Relaxing the jaw

I'm not going to presume to tell you how to do the exercises designed to get a horse to relax their jaw, you can't teach what you don't know, but I don't want to leave everyone hanging. So here are some helpful resources to get you started:

"Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage" (expensive but worth it)
"The New Method of Horsemanship" (free)
"The Education of Horse and Rider" ($7) 
"Equitation" (free)


WARNING:
There's a fine line between using flexions to get the horse to relax and accept the hand and using them to abuse and dominate the horse. I feel confident that those of you who regularly read this blog are not at risk of using these techniques to abuse your horses, but since it appears that so darned many people have fallen into the trap of misusing these flexions *cough ROLLKUR cough* I'm going to add a word of caution.

As an example, here are two methods of relaxing the jaw I pulled from Baucher's book.Can you see how these methods could become dangerous and abusive in the wrong hands? Gently moving the bit in the mouth to encourage chewing could so easily become sawing on the mouth and pulling to get the horse to "submit."

Crossing the reins under the jaw

Pulling the reins away from each other.

Froissard was so worried about people using this information incorrectly that in his book he prefaced the flexions with this:

"Since, aside from their suppling action, these exercises are a powerful means of domination, they also are rather dangerous and their practice requires great discernment. The trainer must be experienced enough to know which should be emphasized, which should be played down and which should not be employed. He must, moreover, be possessed of both innate and acquired equestrian tact, a somewhat rare commodity. Nothing is, we know, as dangerous as a little learning, but even an experienced trainer might fall into the trap of blithely and fragmentarily applying what may have been but a casual discovery on his part."

-Jean Froissard, "The Education of Horse and Rider"

When the trainer does not have innate and acquired equestrian tact and tries to employ the use of flexions bad things happen. Unfortunately you can't watch an international competition these days without seeing the evidence of that all over the place.

Poor use of flexion

Poor use of flexion

It's enough to make a person want to avoid the use of flexions at all cost in revolt of this abuse, but I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If gentle, moderate use of flexions will help my horses become the best that they can be- then, by golly, I'm going to learn how to use them.

Cession de machoire

As it comes out I was operating on a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of what a jaw flexion is in dressage terms. You see, I was told at one point in time that a jaw flexion was a slight rotation of the head to the left or right. In classical dressage, it appears, "jaw flexion" is just another way of saying "mouthing the bit."

Huh.

My last post on jaw flexions brought up Philippe Karl, a person I decided I needed to do some research on. So I went to the library and got a copy of "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage." WOW, what an interesting book. According to French classical dressage, horses that brace their necks (like Coriander) and have a hard time taking up contact (like Coriander) are often clamping their mouth shut. If you can get them to relax their jaws (by mouthing the bit), the poll, neck, shoulders, and back will follow in due course.


"Since the horse's mouth receives the action of the hand, it is the mouth that the rider must persuade and have yield from the outset. The horse displays its agreement to talk with the hand by softly mobilizing its tongue and lower jaw. When the horse "tastes" its bit in this way, this allows the rider to ask for variations in attitudes in the following order: lateral neck flexions, extension of the neck and poll flexion."

-Philippe Karl, "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage"

Interested, I decided to dig a bit deeper and went to the source: Francois Baucher's "New Method of Horsemanship" (free for Kindle).

"The head and neck of the horse are at once the rudder and compass of the rider. By them he directs the animal; by them, also, he can judge the regularity and precision of his movements. The equilibrium of the whole body is perfect, its lightness complete, when the head and neck remain of themselves easy, pliable and graceful. On the contrary, there can be no elegance, no ease of the whole, when these two parts are stiff. Preceding the body of the horse in all its impulsions, they ought to give warning, and show  by their attitude the positions to be taken, and the movements to be executed. The rider has no power so long as they remain contracted and rebellious; he disposes of the animal at will, when once they are flexible and easily handled. If the head and neck do not first commence the changes of direction, if in circular movements they are not inclined in a curved line, in backing they do not bend back upon themselves, and if their lightness is not always in harmony with the different paces at which we wish to go, the horse will be free to execute these movements or not, since he will remain master of the employment of his own forces.


From the time I first noticed the powerful influence that the stiffness of the neck exercises on the whole mechanism of the horse, I attentively sought the means to remedy it. The resistances to the hand are always either sideways, upward or downward. I at first considered the neck alone as the source of these resistances, and exercised myself in suppling the animal by flexions, repeated in every direction. The result was immense; but, although the supplings of the neck rendered me perfectly master of the forces of the fore-parts of the horse, I still felt a slight resistance which I could not at first account for. At last I discovered that it proceeded from the jaw. The flexibility I had communicated to the neck even aided this stiffness of the muscles of the lower jaw, by permitting the horse in certain cases to escape the action of the bit. I then bethought me of the means of combating these resistances in this, their last stronghold; and, from that time, it is there I always commence my work of suppling.


The importance of these flexions of the jaw is easily understood. The result of them is to prepare the horse to yield instantly to the lightest pressure of the bit, and to supple directly the muscles that join the head to the neck. As the head ought to precede and determine the different attitudes of the neck, it is indispensable that the latter part is always in subjection to the other... That would be only partially the case with the flexibility of the neck alone, which would then make the head obey it, by drawing it along in its movements. You see, then, why at first I experienced resistances, in spite of the pliability of the neck, of which I could not imagine the cause. The followers of my method to whom I have not yet had an opportunity of making known the new means just explained, will learn with pleasure that this process not only brings the flexibility of the neck to a greater degree of perfection, but saves much time in finishing the suppling. The exercise of the jaw, while fashioning the mouth and head, brings along with it the flexion of the neck, and accelerates getting the horse in hand."

-Francois Baucher, "New Method of Horsemanship"

Huh.

It appears that I've stumbled into the major discrepancy between classical dressage and modern, competition dressage. I imagine modern dressage looks at this method and exclaims, "They are riding the horse from front to back, heresy!"

But is it? Is it really? When modern dressage relies on contraptions like the crank noseband to keep the horse's mouth shut- by people who claim to ride "from back to front."

When horses are literally coating their chests in foam because their parotid glands are being squeezed empty from the hyperflexion of the neck- by people who claim to ride "from back to front."

Which method do you think the horse would choose?

Glenshee Equestrian Center has a post on jaw flexions too. Check it out.

Cogitating

I've been getting busy on the exercises that Katie gave me for Coriander: I've been using circles and shoulder-fore to try to get a specific canter lead, the canter cue is good but getting the left lead is still a bear. I'll get him bent nicely to the left, cue the canter, and he sneaks that right shoulder out almost every time. I've seen this horse pick up the left lead canter fluidly without me on his back, so I don't think it's a physical issue- which would point to me being the issue except that when I'm on the friesian right lead canter is harder. Conundrums.

I've got some cones set up in my makeshift field ring to work on the square/turn on the forehand exercise. I took Gwen with me to set them up on Sunday, and for the first time ever she was fine going that far away from the herd by herself (squee!)! I'm so proud of her, she's been doing so well lately. Trotting under saddle has become her new favorite thing, which means that she's done a lot of "I'm going to trot now" transitions without me. I made the mistake of rewarding her the very first time she spontaneously offered trot so now she thinks she'll get rewarded for it every time. I'll have to remember not to click her for spontaneously offering canter. We've been doing a lot of trot/walk transitions lately, I don't want to squash her forward but I can't have her running off without me either.  Horse training- not as easy as you'd think!

The other thing I've been working on with Coriander is jaw flexions. I've been merging info from a couple of different sources for this: Katie, Mark Russell, Mike Schaffer, and JME's excellent post here. We've been making progress at the halt, he's started softening and dropping his head as soon as I pick up the reins, but moving it's a different story- he immediately braces against me. We have a lot more work to do there.

It bothers me that there isn't more information available about jaw flexions, it seems like they're a basic tenet of classical dressage, Baucher was big on them, yet it's like no one talks about it, much less films it and puts it on YouTube. Seriously, this cruddy video is the only one I can find.

Plus, since no one is talking about it they don't tell you that weird stuff can happen. On Saturday I worked on flexions with Coriander and then asked him to walk off. Five strides later his front legs buckled like he was going to roll, I leaped off and kept him from going all the way down (no WAY is he rolling on my Ansur), but I couldn't get over how odd it was for him to do that. Then I found this video of a horse reacting to jaw flexions (the action starts at 19 seconds):

Was his attempt to roll a reaction to the jaw flexions? Poor boy, there I was mad at him for what might have been a neurological response.

I'll have some more information about these elusive flexions soon...

PS- please let me know if that obnoxious word verification thing comes up. I meant to get rid of that.

KISS

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

This is my new mantra. My local dressage instructor asked me after my lesson last night if I had any questions.

"Yeah, how am I supposed to go from riding this advanced horse to my guy who's barely at training level?"

You see, I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what I should be expecting my boy to be capable of right now. I'm having a hard time figuring out what exercises I can do that will make him work without trying to push him too far out of his capabilities. I'm feeling like I need a therapist instead of an instructor.

Fortunately for me, I have a multitude of riches when it comes to dressage instructors. You may know that in addition to my local trainer, I also do video lessons with Katie. This is an incredible service that she offers to people like me that don't have a horse trailer and live far, far away from her. So far she's been the only "eyes on the ground" to help me with Coriander's training.

I asked her about the exercise I wrote about in my last post- the walking shortening and extensions- and she instantly nixed the shortening, saying the risk of ruining his walk was too high, but that it was safe to try the extensions. Well, they haven't been going that well and I've been getting worried/frustrated.  He doesn't understand the concept of extension, he just trots when I add leg (my local instructor thought that was great because it shows that he's responsive to my aids- she also reminded me that it takes a year to teach a horse to use his back correctly). So now I'm concerned that I'm just confusing the hell out of my horse. In other words, I've been freaking out.

What I normally do when I'm freaking out about horse related stuff is turn to Google, so I went looking for proper exercises for training level horses and I found this:

This image gave me a face-palm moment- of course we need to focus on rhythm, why am I trying to skip rhythm and relaxation to go straight to connection?

Oh yeah, because I'm learning about impulsion with the friesian right now. It made me realized that there's a huge gap in my education, Katie is busy trying to teach me about rhythm while the local instructor put me on a horse that's four steps up. I'm missing the bits about relaxation and connection. And thus my confusion.


This is good, that knowledge makes me feel a bit better about myself, but it doesn't really help me with where to go with Coriander. And then I remember (another face-palm moment) that Katie already told me exactly what to do, I just had to open up her last lesson and refresh my memory:

• use cavaletti to encourage Coriander to stretch over his topline
• ask from prompter departs and transitions, focusing on rhythm and not letting him peter out
• fine tune the box exercise focusing on turn on the forehand in motion and keeping him straight between the corners
• use circles to get him to pick up the correct canter lead
• use gentle jaw flexions to get him to relax when I feel him brace his neck
• take up stronger contact to help him balance
• work on leg yield at the trot

 Beautiful, sweet clarity. This is a plan I can stick to without fear, confusion begone!

Vacation is OVAH!

Well, that was my intention at least, but more on that later.

My boy went on an extended vacation in November, part of that was to make myself focus on Gwen, the other part was that the time changed and it was simply too dark to ride after work anymore. Apart from a bare handful of rides, Coriander's had the last three months off. Not to say I haven't done anything with him in that time- we've worked quite a bit on head lowering and getting him to follow the rein aids sideways and down- but I did it all with my feet firmly on the ground.

Now I haven't had the last three months off, oh no. I've spent the last three months puttering around on a 2nd/3rd level friesian (I'm still training level- mind you), I've become accustomed to a certain standard of carriage and have become "discerning." Meaning that when Coriander starts to get sluggy and floppy I'm going to notice, and I'm going to want to do something about it.

First, my boy who was used to wandering around the trails on the buckle now has to contend with contact. Not much contact, but enough to have a feel of his face. Walking forward even into this gentle contact has totally blown his mind, he initially took some convincing to keep going forward.

Second, those leg yields that I thought he knew? Well he's got one to the left but going to the right? He immediately falls on his right shoulder with his hindquarters trailing out helplessly to the left. How did I never notice this before?

Third, I've now incorporated some equine pilates to the ride. Now when I throw in a halt I add the butt pinch to ask him to raise his back. Hopefully this will help him gain some of the back strength he needs to carry us better? Time will tell.

Fourth, forward! Last Monday I had a great lesson on the friesian where we worked on gait transitions within the walk and trot (working walk/trot, medium walk/trot, short/semi-collected walk/trot). I immediately thought of Coriander, the transitions within the walk could be a great exercise to help him get back in shape! Well, the next day I pulled out the bareback pad and gave it a try. The results were interesting.

Coriander has a fantastic walk, it's one of my favorite things about him. Sometimes, when he really gets going, it feels like he's actually doing a running walk- it's wicked smooth and it feels like his hind feet are landing directly below his sternum. That horse can move! Unless he doesn't want to, in which case he plugs around like a beginner school horse with his feet glued to the ground. My first task was to get him to actually move instead of plug around -while having a feel of his face. Trying for medium walk from that was also a little difficult, I'm not really sure there was any change in his stride length at all. But the worst was when I tried to get him to pull himself together and shorten his strides.

"Would you like to halt?" he said. "No, keep going forward."

"How about a leg yield?" "No, keep going forward."

"Shall I pop my shoulders out?" "No, keep going forward."

He did eventually get a few strides forward, for which he was promptly rewarded. After this I kept it up, changing the length of his strides until for one brief, shining step he actually lifted his back and stretched his face forward into my hands. Holy cow, click and treat for that one!

And of course, my brain was instantly flooded with images like this: of a quarter horse actually winning at PSG.

Hey, it's just one stride, but every journey starts with just one step. Then he did something else great: When I asked him to halt and lift his back again, he actually stretched down and stayed in that position on his own- which I thought was pretty danged cool. Coriander may have used his back for the very first time and now needed to stretch!

Unfortunately since Tuesday, my back has been on revolt and I haven't been able to ride. As soon as I can ride again I'm going to keep exploring this exercise and see where it takes us. Self carriage school has begun!

More fun with the friesian

Here's the actual horse with his former owner on board. He looks bigger than this in person. Or maybe I'm just short.

I had an awesome lesson on the friesian this week. The trainer tacked up her own friesian, who's schooling grand prix, and brought her out as a lesson aid. Let me tell you, it helps a lot to see how things should be done before trying it yourself!

After warming up, I worked on shoulder-in. She demonstrated first, describing the aids and angle as she went, and then I got to try it. If you don't know already, let me tell you: it's surprisingly easy to ask for too much and get a four-track instead of three. But when you do it right- boy does it feel cool.

We spent most of the lesson working in canter though. I still have issues sometimes with the cue, part of the key is to get him organized and bent into shoulder fore with my inside leg at the girth and then add a "moment of stillness" before I give the aid with my outside leg. If I do it right he strikes off immediately, if I do it wrong I get extended trot. Anyway, after I got him into canter, we started preliminary work on collected vs. extended canter on the right lead. It was SO COOL! I could feel his hindquarters come down and his withers rise, his fore legs tucking in a little tighter. It probably wasn't exactly a collected canter but it felt brilliant anyway.

Then the trainer suggested extending the canter. Well, moving from collected to extended is harder than it looks, you can't just release the aids like I tried to do, that made him fall down to trot, you have to ease him into extension. I don't quite have the hang of it yet but I can't wait to try it again.

Unfortunately the left lead didn't go so well, left is his "bad" side and I spent too much effort just trying to keep him from cutting into the ring to really play with the gait. We'll get there. Still, it was a good ride. I'm happy I made the decision to take lessons at this barn for the winter, I'm learning exactly what I was hoping to learn.

On a slightly different note- I've noticed that my first post about riding the friesian has jumped to the top in my stats. Apparently there's a lot of people out there googling "friesian" and finding that post. I'm not sure how I feel about that, it's good that people are finding my blog, but I wish they hadn't landed on a post about failing and frustration.

So, for those of you who find my blog hoping for info about friesians here's a little I've learned:

• they are gorgeous
• they are very comfortable to ride
• they have sweet, gentle personalities
• they are terribly inbred and suffer from many health issues because of it

If I were looking to buy a friesian, I would not buy a pure bred. I would go for hybrid vigor and look for a cross instead. That way I'd get a healthier horse for (probably) half the price. At least that's my opinion, for whatever that's worth.

An inverted western pleasure horse

That's what I've succeeded in training. The first time I sent Katie a video to evaluate (last fall) she told me that Coriander was pokey and inverted; I've been trying to work on that ever since. We've gotten a little better on the pokey front, he's a more forward than he used to be, but he's still inverted.

The better-educated-than-me riders reading already know why this is a problem, but, in case you are emerging out of the tunnel of ignorance like I am, here's why riding an inverted horse is bad in a nutshell: It damages their body. Since I plan to ride this horse well into his twenties, I need to teach him how to carry himself better so his body doesn't get hurt carrying me around with poor posture.

This is how he looks under saddle right now: His back and neck are hollow, his weight is on the forehand, and his hindquarters trail out behind. You can watch us at work here if you feel like assaulting your eyes.

 picture borrowed from http://www.classicaldressage.co.uk/

 This is what I want him to be able to do when ridden: Pick his back up and stretch his neck down with the hind legs engaged.

pictured borrowed from Sustainable Dressage

Problem is, I have nary a clue how to achieve this. I've taken huntseat lessons for most of my life with instructors who didn't/don't seem to care that their horses run around inverted and hollow, so no one has ever taught me how to do this. Fortunately I found Katie who I know can teach me, but she lives awfully far away,  essentially still leaving me on my own.

Yesterday I ran across this exercise at Sustainable Dressage, the shoulder-in volte. It's an in-hand exercise that's supposed to help horses learn to stretch over their backs. I introduced Coriander to this exercise last night, just the beginning part where you activate the inside hind to step up further, with dubious results. I made the mistake of trying to lump too many pieces together before he sufficiently understood what I wanted, now I'll need to spend a few days fixing that mistake. Anyway, I have high hopes that this exercise will help him to round instead of invert.

Has anyone tried this exercise? If so what were the results? Does anyone have other suggestions? My plans for him over the winter is to do in-hand work on stuff like this to help his posture, so having a few tools in the box would be helpful.

For my fellow bitless fans

For your viewing pleasure.

Uta Graf riding Le Noir bitless:

The elusive circle

I've finally deciphered it.

I knew that the secret to riding a decent circle was in the weight aid, as in putting more weight on the inside seatbone, but I could never get a decent sized circle no matter how hard I tried. Whenever I'd ask Coriander to do that I'd either get a volte or a turn on the haunches. Both of those are good but they weren't what I wanted.

Friday I finally figured out what was going wrong, I was overdoing it. So I decided to try something different and, EUREKA, it worked!

So here it is, my secret to circles (which doubtlessly has been discovered by countless others including people reading my blog):

• keep your spine straight- do not collapse a hip or drop a shoulder
• look upward and into the circle, do not look at your horse
• weight the inside seatbone slightly more than the outside one when the horse's barrel swings to the outside of the circle (when you feel your hip drop to the inside)
• weight your seatbones evenly when the barrel swings to the inside of the circle

And voila! You'll get a circle without even touching the reins. It's like magic!

I imagine you can accomplish this just by putting more weight in the inside stirrup but I was riding bareback when I figured this out, thus the emphasis on the pelvis.