Even for those of you who already have your flying changes down pat, it is a good idea to sometimes practice simple changes when jumping courses in training. Simple changes of lead are a great way to remind your horse that jumping a course is really flatwork with some jumps in the way.
Make sure that you never sacrifice the quality of your horse's movement when you are practicing lateral exercises. Keep your focus on maintaining an even rhythm and level of impulsion, with a nice relaxed swinging back, quiet soft hands, and a consistent connection throughout. If you start to struggle with any of those qualities, it is best to come out of the movement, and fix any issues before trying again.
A healthy muscle in your horse's body is pliable and feels a little like a beef roast. It should continue to feel pliable, without tensing up, when you palpate it.
Always challenge yourself to use as little hand as possible in riding any exercise or movement. The more freedom your horse has up front, the more expressive his movement will be.
"No matter if you are a horse, a rider, a dancer, or even a tennis player, tension is your enemy. Suppleness means that the muscles contract and de-contract, and this has to go through the entire horse, it cannot be blocked in the middle of the back, and it also has to go through the rider." ~ Susanne Miesner
If you quit on the right note when working on a difficult concept during training, many horses seem to ponder the concept, and come out even better the next day. Those that say horses do not think deeply are decidedly mistaken.
Which of these 2 horses is reaching more into the rein connection? How can you tell? (Click on Discussion title above, to join in or read this educational discussion.)
"A lot of riders think that will make their jumping better by jumping as many jumps as possible. They will go and get a jumping lesson, as opposed to a dressage lesson or doing some physical exercises to teach them body awareness skills, and probably the last would help them most." ~ Andrew Hoy
If you have truly done the right preparation for a medium or extended trot (or canter), you should need to do very little to actually ask for the movement. You should be able to simply allow it to happen… no mad kicking necessary.
When trying to find your balance, whether for posting at the trot, jumping a fence, or anything in between - you will always be in one of three positions: Either ahead of the motion (too far forward), behind the motion (too far back), or exactly with the motion (perfect). If you have a strong tendency to be in one of the positions other than perfect… say you are often a bit too far forward, don't be discouraged if you find yourself going the other way (too far back) when trying to break your bad habit and make a change. It is a perfectly normal part of the process of finding your balance. Riders will almost always teeter back and forth over that line…. sometimes a bit too far forward, and sometimes a bit too far back, before they find that perfect middle ground.
Once your horse is fairly solid at first level Dressage, a good thing to ask yourself regularly while riding is, "Could I easily go into shoulder in at this moment?"
If your horse is balanced and straight, and stepping up into your outside rein, you should be able to promptly and easily create a quality shoulder in at any spot in the arena, no matter what gait or figure you are currently riding.
"Anyone using their spur every stride, should be yellow carded and kicked out of the sport. Use your whip, get a response, then ask again with your leg, and get a light response." ~ Christopher Burton
This is a subject that so many people have strong opinions on… with one end of the spectrum saying that we shouldn’t be working young horses until they have fully matured, and others saying that a certain amount of work in those formative years is important to build a truly strong athlete. As is often the case in the subject of horses... the middle ground is usually the best. Horses that are pushed too hard or too fast (at any age) can easily suffer negative physical and mental consequences. But young horses in particular require a careful program, as their internal support structures (bones, tendons, and ligaments) are rarely as developed as their muscular bodies might be suggesting. (Click on Article Title above to read full article.)
Think of Dressage training exercises as physical therapy for your horse… similar to the strength training that you might do at the gym. Do a few good reps of a particular exercise, and take a break, or move on to something else. Overtraining any particular group of muscles can be counter productive, often doing more harm than good.
You can't assume that a horse with a low head and neck is on the forehand, any more than you can assume that a horse with a high head carriage is truly collected. You have to look at the whole picture.
When your horse is impressed by a jump, and gathers itself a bit to "look" on the approach, you have a free half halt. Do not get caught taking back in this situation, or you may cause your horse to stop. Think "keep the hind legs moving" all the way to the base of the jump to ensure that you maintain sufficient forward energy as the horse looks. Yet don't push them out of balance by trying to run at the jump.
"I want any rider approaching any jump to concentrate on rhythm. They should concentrate on HOW they get there, not where they get to." ~ Jimmy Wofford
"What is essential is not to tighten the legs during the dressage training, but rather to use them without effort while allowing them to hang softly near the horse’s sides." ~ Nuno Oliviera
Remember that even a COW can jump a 3 foot fence from a standstill... if it wants to. So never worry about whether or not your horse has enough scope to do lower level eventing or jumping. The bigger issue is whether or not you can keep him balanced at the canter.
The better the rider's seat, the more easily the horse can understand the rider's aids. So make working on developing and maintaining an independent seat a top priority!
"Sometimes doing the small things that others think is like watching paint dry, like taking the time to warm up at the walk, will give you a better foundation in which to improve upon your trot & canter work." ~ Joan Dunlap
"When you look at some of the Grand Prix horses in the warm-up area of a horse show, you can be fairly sure that some of them never really relaxed and stretched. As a result, the rider asks for collection, and the horse gets higher and shorter in the neck and tense in the back." ~ Hubertus Schmidt
Varying the degree of your half pass can improve your horse’s suppleness from all angles, as well as increasing his responsiveness to your aids within the movement. In other words, while going in half pass across the diagonal, half halt, and do a few strides with a steeper angle (more sideways than forward), then go forward again.
To achieve the lovely feeling of jumping "right out of your stride", you have to have the right canter for each situation. If you don't know what kind of canter you need for a particular jump… or are unable to create it exactly when you need it, you will be more likely to meet the jump awkwardly. This has less to do with the rider's "eye", and more to do with the awareness of the quality of the canter.
If you had to pick from these 2 horses based on their legs alone, which one would you pick? What specific faults, if any, do you find on either horse? (Click on Discussion title above, to join in or read this educational discussion.)
"Riders who lean back are driving the horse down in front. If they sit too strong, behind the vertical, then they are pushing the horse down, through and into the hand." ~ Carl Hester
"The absence of a correction is not a reward to a horse. The only thing that is a reward is ‘good girl’ or a pat on the neck or giving them a sugar. You can’t train a seal without fish." ~ Robert Dover
It is a good idea to ask yourself regularly throughout your rides…. "Am I working too hard here?" If you are, your aids are probably WAY too strong. Go back a step, and work on more finesse.
"What we want to start creating in these horses is an engine that is always running, where we don’t shift gears until we want to. It’s like revving your RPMs and waiting a moment before you shift up into that higher gear. But if you don’t have that energy in the lower gear, you might stall when you go to send them forward." ~ Laura Graves
"Every downward transition perfects the half halt. You don’t have to have a driving leg for the downward transition, you need a sustaining leg." ~ George Morris
"I’m not sure if it is chicken or egg, but the riders who sit in the middle of the movement, in the middle of their horse are the ones with the self-carriage." ~ Chris Hector
