Online Dressage Training at Dressage Mentor

Does Your Dressage Horse Alternate Between Coming Above the Bit and Dropping Behind the Bit?

Some dressage horses are very quick to alternate between coming above the bit and dropping behind the bit. If that sounds like your horse, you need to be quick to switch your aids as follows:

When your horse comes above the bit, use your “connecting aids”.

1. Close both legs to send him forward toward a lengthening.

2. When you feel the “surge” of power coming from behind, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that power back to the hind legs.

3. If your horse starts to bend his neck to the outside, vibrate the inside rein to keep his neck straight.

As soon as he ducks behind the bit, send him “forward through his body”.

Here’s what I mean by that. Go on a circle in rising trot, close both legs and ask for a trot lengthening for 6 or 7 strides. Do this several times until it becomes a knee jerk reaction for him to go “forward over the ground” when you close your calves.

Then close your legs as if you’re going to lengthen, but don’t let him lengthen. This time you want your horse to go “ through his body” rather than “forward over the ground”. As you feel him go forward though his body and start to take a contact with your hand rather than curling behind the bit, praise him.

You might have to alternate a trot lengthening with asking him to take a contact with your hand several times. But once he understands, you’ll have a tool to use when he curls behind the bit.

If he’s curled behind the bit really badly (not just going with the poll too low), in addition to sending him forward through his body, you might have to raise your hands to place the bit out in front of him so he can step toward it.

The feeling is like putting a sheet on your bed. You lift the sheet up, and then let if softly drift onto the bed.

You can also think of it like doing “the wave” at a football game.

If you do have to raise your hands because your horse has dropped behind the bit, keep the following things in mind:

1. Always use your legs BEFORE you raise your hands.

2. Raise both hands evenly.

3. To the degree that you raise your hands, ALSO put them forward toward his mouth without losing contact. That is, if you lift your hands 2 inches, they must go forward 2 inches. If you lift them 4 inches, they must go forward 4 inches.

How To Make Your Lazy Horse More Energetic

Are you sick and tired of doing all the work while your lazy horse plods along without energy? Remember that a horse can feel a fly on his side, so logically there’s no reason for him to be dull to your legs.

Here are the steps to put the lazy horse in front of your legs:

1. Give a light leg aid

2. No response, half-hearted response, or delayed response

3. Correct him by sending him forward

4. RETEST

5. 100% response (99.9% isn’t good enough!)

6. Praise

Let me explain those steps in a little more detail.

1. Give one feather light squeeze with both calves. A horse can feel a fly on his side so it’s logical that he can feel a light aid.

2. Your horse must react instantly and eagerly. If he doesn’t, DON’T adjust your aid by repeating it or making it stronger. If you do, you’re letting your horse train you!

3. Instead, correct him by chasing him forward. Before you actually correct your horse for a dull or non-existent reaction to your leg, consider his temperament. The easy-going, lazy horse might need a few taps with the whip or a few bumps from your legs to send him forward.

But the sensitive soul might only need a brush with the whip to get the same reaction. The point is to get a clearly forward, “hot-off-the-leg” answer– not to terrorize him.

Also, if your horse is the type that bucks when you use the whip, it’s better to bump him with your legs instead. First of all, you don’t want to get bucked off!

In addition, if he’s bucking, he’s obviously not going forward, so he’s missed the whole point of why you corrected him.

So, close both of your legs very lightly on his sides to ask for his version of a lengthening. If your lazy horse doesn’t respond (and he probably won’t if you’re used to giving him strong leg aids), send him forward for eight or ten strides by tapping with the whip or giving him a couple of bumps with your legs.

Keep in mind that at this point, all you’re looking for is some type of forward reaction. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “pretty” answer. It’s fine if he puts his head up in the air and rushes off. None of those reactions matter in the beginning.

Your only goal when you start this process is to get some kind of enthusiastic answer that shows your horse is paying attention to you.

While you’re sending him forward, maintain a light contact with his mouth, but don’t give any rein aids. There’s no point in using the reins to put him on the bit if he’s not “thinking” forward.

4. Once you’ve chased him forward, go back to a normal working trot. Ask for the lengthening again by RETESTING with a light leg aid.

Retesting by closing both calves lightly is the most important step in the entire process. If you don’t retest, your horse only becomes duller. That’s because you’ve only taught him to go forward when he feels the whip or kicking. You haven’t taught him anything about reacting to a light leg aid unless you retest.

5. Accept nothing less than a 100% response. If his reaction to your legs is “better” or “pretty good” but not wholeheartedly forward, repeat the whole process from the beginning until he makes a 100% effort.

6. When you RETEST, if your lazy horse responds by immediately going forward energetically, praise generously. At this point it’s still okay if he breaks into the canter when you do the retest–later on, through repetition and reward, you can explain to him that you just want a lengthening in the trot. But for the moment, ANY forward reaction deserves to be rewarded.

Click here for more on making a lazy horse more energetic.

How To Teach Your Dressage Horse to Do Free Walk at Training Level

It’s just as important to do a good free walk with your dressage horse at Training Level as it is to develop your trot and canter work. Many riders lose sight of the fact that they should pay as much attention to the  medium walk and free walk as they do to the other two gaits.

First, let me define the free walk. It’s a gait of relaxation. Your dressage horse should lengthen his frame and lower his head and neck so he looks like he’s going to graze. His poll is lower than his withers. He should open the angle at his throatlatch so his nose points a bit forward, and he looks like he’s stretching toward the bit. Also, his strides become longer so his hind feet step more inches beyond the tracks made by his front feet.

PREPARATION is the key to getting a good free walk at Training Level. You should prepare for the transition at the beginning of the free walk the same way you prepare for the “stretchy” circle in the trot

To do this, use “connecting aids” for 3-4 seconds on the short side while you’re still in medium walk. To give “connecting aids”, create energy by closing both calves as if you’re asking for a lengthening. But don’t let your horse lengthen. Instead, close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that energy back to the
hind legs. Keep your legs and outside hand closed for 3-4 seconds. While closing your legs and outside hand, vibrate or squeeze and release on your inside rein so your horse doesn’t bend his neck to the outside.

Then, as you turn onto the diagonal, relax your legs, and open your fingers so your horse can chew the reins out of your hands.

Your next challenge will be to do the transition back to the medium walk. Use the same “connecting aids” you used to prepare for the free walk. While the reins are still long, press lightly with your calves. As you shorten the reins, keep your new outside hand closed in a fist and squeeze and release with your new inside hand.

Horses should march in both the medium walk and the free walk. If your horse gets lazy, “breathe” your legs during the free walk. To “breathe” your legs:
* Take your legs off of his sides.
* Move them an inch or two back, and place them on lightly again.
“Breathing” your legs does two things. If you’ve been gripping, your horse is probably numb to your legs. Taking your legs off allows you to put them on again lightly so he feels them. Also, moving your legs back puts them closer to your horse’s “engine” and reminds him to use his hind legs actively.

On the other hand, some horses get nervous in the free walk and want to jig. If your horse wants to jig, do several
transitions to the halt, and praise him after each halt. Soon he’ll learn to anticipate stopping or slowing down.

Then when you’re doing a Training level dressage test, you can use just a little bit of your “stopping aids” several times to remind him to stay in a four-beat, flat-footed walk as you make your way across the diagonal.

If he wants to jig when you pick up the reins at the end of the diagonal, do some homework between shows. Practice your free walk at home and BEFORE you pick up the reins at the end of the diagonal, halt. Then, pick up the reins in the halt. Doing so will train him to stay slow when you do the transition for real at a dressage show.

Click here for more info on training level dressage horse.

How You Can Tell If Your Dressage Horse Bends in the Lateral Movement Shoulder-in?

I just posted a new video on my Youtube channel,  which explains how you can tell if your dressage horse is bending in the lateral movement shoulder-in. It’s at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmTqSBM8k0

So many people draw their inside leg back in this movement, and the shoulder-in becomes a leg yield. Keep your inside leg on the girth in a bending position and your outside leg a couple of inches back where it would be if you were on a 10-meter circle. Then lead the shoulders to the inside by bringing both of your hands in.

Then, have someone check that you have bend by looking to see if the hindquarters stay parallel to the wall. They should stay in exactly the same position that they’re in when you are just going straight down the track. if they’re at an angle to the rail, you’re just doing a leg yield.

In order for your dressage horse to reap all the benefits of the lateral movement, shoulder-in, he must bend. When done correctly, shoulder-in straightens him, strengthens his inside hind, and collects him.

Click here for more info on lateral dressage movements like shoulder-in.

What Do the Dressage Terms Behind the Bit and Behind the Vertical Mean?

A lot of riders are confused by the dressage terms behind the bit and behind the vertical.

When a horse is behind the bit, he’s not connected. That’s never acceptable. It means he’s dropped the contact with your hands, and there are loops in the reins.

Your horse can be behind the vertical and still be connected. However, he will be on the forehand. I’ll go into that a little bit more next.

Sometimes, riding a horse behind the vertical can be useful in schooling to give a horse the idea of staying connected during a dressage movement he’s having trouble with such as a canter depart or leg yields.

For a short period of time, you’d ride him connected but “deep” to give him the idea of using his body as a unit during those movements rather than disconnecting and coming hollow.

But riding your dressage horse behind the vertical isn’t acceptable for competition. In competition, you always want your horse on the bit with his poll the highest point and the nose about 5 degrees in front of the vertical.

Think of the horse’s body as a parallelogram. If the nose is behind the vertical and you draw a parallel line with the hind legs, you’d see the hind legs trailing out behind the body. That’s what I mean when I say that the horse can be connected when he’s behind the vertical, but his balance will be on the forehand.

As you bring the hind legs more under, the parallelogram shifts. The hind legs come under, the head comes up, and the nose comes more forward. Eventually the poll will be the highest point and the nose will be where you want it to be in it’s finished product—about 5 degrees in front of the vertical.

Behind the bit, however, is an entirely different story than behind the vertical. If your horse’s neck is round but he doesn’t touch the reins, he’s behind the bit. He’s not connected.

Connection means that you’ve connected your horse’s back end to his front end. Think of your horse’s back like a suspension bridge.

Draw reins or other gadgets won’t help your horse understand how to come on the bit.

When a horse has been ridden in gadgets like draw reins, he’ll often adopt this “behind the bit” position of a round neck with loops in the reins.

Some horses even look like they have what’s called a “broken neck”. This expression refers to the fact that the highest point of the neck is near the third vertebrae rather than at the poll.

Gadgets create a false frame so there’s no real connection. The horse sees the reins as a restriction. Rather than going through them, he sucks back away from them or breaks at the third vertebrae.

You want your horse to come from behind, over his back, through his neck, and into your hand. So, if you just focus on making the neck round by using gadgets, you’ll never really have a horse that is honestly on the bit.

Also, fiddling with the bit and/or seesawing on your horse’s mouth gives you the same false head set that you get with gadgets. Your horse will just arch his neck and bring his face on or behind the vertical. There’s no true connection from back to front.

Click here for more info on riding your horse on the bit.

Learning Dressage Movements-Shoulder-in

Shoulder-in is the father of the advanced lateral dressage movements. It does many wonderful things for your horse. Here are just some of them:

Shoulder-in is a suppling exercise because it stretches and loosens the muscles and ligaments of the inside shoulder and forearm. During shoulder-in, your horse passes his inside foreleg in front of his outside foreleg. This motion increases his ability to move his forearm gymnastically in other movements.

It’s also a straightening exercise because you should always straighten your horse by bringing his forehand in front of his hindquarters. Never try to straighten him by leg yielding his hindquarters out behind his shoulders.

Shoulder-in is also a collecting exercise. It increases your horse’s self-carriage because he lowers his inside hip with each step. As a result, his center of gravity shifts back toward his hind legs. His hindquarters carry more weight, and his front end elevates.

What Does Shoulder-In look like?

In shoulder-in, you’ll flex your horse to the inside, and bend him around your inside leg. Then bring his forehand 30 degrees off the wall so he’s on three tracks. At this angle his inside hind leg lines up behind his outside foreleg.

Many people bring their horse’s forehand in more than three tracks. When this is done, all four legs can be seen. This isn’t a problem as long as you can maintain your horse’s bend so that the exercise doesn’t become a leg yield.

Sometimes in competition, the judge likes to see a hoof’s width more than three tracks. But don’t bring the forehand in more than that, or you’ll lose the bend.

What Are the Aids for Shoulder-in?

If you’re doing left shoulder-in, the aids are:

Seat: Put your weight on your left seat bone.

Left leg: Keep your left leg on the girth for bend and to ask for engagement of the inside hind leg.

Right leg: Place your right leg behind the girth to prevent the hindquarters from swinging out.

Left rein:Use your left rein to create a +1 flexion at poll.

Right rein: Keep your right rein steady and supporting to prevent too much bend in the neck.

Both hands:

• Keep both hands low and equidistant from your body as you move them to the left.
• Move them to the left enough to place the outside front leg in front of the inside hind leg. (Or half that distance for shoulder-fore)
• Use your inside rein as an opening rein.
• Bring your outside hand very close to the withers, but never let that hand cross over the withers.

What’s the Sequence of Aids?

• Always ask for bend before you ask for angle.
• The formula for the advanced lateral exercises is:

Bend + Sideways = Engagement. (It’s NOT Sideways + Bend=Engagement.)

• Make a 10-meter circle (or ride a corner with a 10-meter arc) to bend your horse.
• You’ll know your horse is bending easily when you can soften the contact on the inside rein, and he stays bent by himself. He’ll also feel like he’s “giving” in his rib cage. (i.e. If you’re circling to the right, his rib cage feels like it’s bulging to the left.)
• Once he’s bending nicely, start a second 10-meter circle.
• Interrupt that circle during the first step, and continue down the long side.
• To interrupt the circle, look straight down the long side, and give a squeeze with your inside leg.
• Bring both hands to the inside to place the forehand 30 degrees away from the wall.
• Make sure you do shoulder-in with the same amount of bend and angle in both directions. Don’t ride on three tracks in one direction and on three and a half tracks in the other.

How Can You Tell If You’re Doing a High Quality Shoulder-in?

• The quality of the shoulder-in really comes down to BEND.
• You know your horse is bending if his hindquarters are in exactly the same position (i.e.
• parallel to the wall) in shoulder-in as they are when you’re just riding straight down the track.
• If his hindquarters swing out at an angle to the wall, you’re just doing a leg yield in a shoulder-in position.

Click here for more info on shoulder-in lateral dressage movements.

Straighten Your Horse with the Dressage Movements Shoulder-in, Shoulder-fore, and First Position

Lots of people are confused by the difference between the dressage movements shoulder-in, shoulder-fore, and first position. They all have a place as far as straightening your dressage horse. That’s because we always straighten the horse by bringing the forehand in front of the hindquarters. Never straighten the horse by pushing his hindquarters over behind his shoulders.

Let’s talk about first position first. To make your dressage horse straight, always ride him in first position.
•    First position teaches him “baby engagement” (bending of the joints) of his inside hind leg.
•    If you don’t ride your dressage horse in first position (especially when his hollow side is on the inside), he’ll open the joints of his inside hind leg and place his hindquarters to the inside. As a result, he won’t carry as much weight on his inside hind leg, and his hind legs won’t become equally strong.
•    If you don’t make it a habit to ride in first position at the walk and trot, the first time you’ll really see that your horse is crooked is when you canter. He’ll put his hindquarters to the inside because you haven’t taught him the mechanics of bending the joints of his hind legs.

Here’s one way to think of first position:
•    Shoulder-in is a straightening exercise. Bring your horse’s shoulders to the inside at a 30-degree angle to the track. At 30 degrees, his outside foreleg is in the same track as his inside hind leg.
•    Shoulder-fore is also a straightening exercise. Displace your horse’s shoulders to the inside at a 15-degree angle to the track so that each leg is traveling on it’s own track.
•    Think of first position as “1/100” of a shoulder-in. So, use a very subtle version of shoulder-in aids to get first position. First position is not an exercise like shoulder-in and shoulder-fore. It’s simply the correct position of a straight horse.

Here’s another way to think of first position:
If you’re riding in first position toward someone who is standing at the end of the long side, she can’t see the outside hind foot, because it’s hidden behind the outside front leg. But she can see half of a hoof’s width of the inside hind leg stepping to the inside of the inside foreleg.

When you’re first learning to ride your dressage horse in first position, you’ll probably override the angle and do shoulder-in or shoulder-fore. So it’s helpful to have a ground person or mirror so you can develop a feel for the subtlety of this position.

Click here for more info on shoulder-fore shoulder-in.

When is My Dressage Horse Ready to Move Up to Second or Third Level?

How will you know when your dressage horse is ready to move up to Second Level or Third Level. Let’s look at some of the required dressage movements as well as the required changes in balance.

Let’s say your horse is solid at First Level. Look ahead to the Second Level movements. Check out the dressage tests. You’ll see that you need to work on shoulder-in, haunches-in, renvers, simple changes of lead, reinback, and turns on the haunches.

You’ll also notice that the big difference between First Level and Second Level is rather than schooling at the working gaits like you do at the Training Level and First Level, you’re now asked to show modest collection. That means the balance of your horse is more uphill. And from that modest collection, you’re asked to show medium gaits. Medium gaits are basically the lengthenings that you showed at First Level but in a more uphill balance.

By doing the lateral work with bend like shoulder-in, haunches-in and renvers, you automatically develop that slight shift of center of gravity back toward the hind legs. The shift in the center of gravity creates the degree of modest collection that you need at Second Level.

Then if you’re schooling your horse at Second Level, look ahead to Third Level. You see that you need to learn the aids and the preparation for movements like half passes and flying changes. But now, the big difference between Second Level and Third Level is that your dressage horse needs to show the difference between collected, medium and extended gaits. In other words, he needs to show three gears within each gait.

Keep in mind that medium and extended gears grow out of collection. That is, the degree to which your horse bends the joints of the hind legs and lowers his croup is the degree that his forehand comes up. His outline begins to look like a see-saw or an airplane taking off. That degree of collection determines just how good your medium extended gaits are.

So what should you work on to develop the degree of collection that you need at Third Level in order to also be able to show medium and extended gaits?

I’d suggest work in four areas to increase collection and, therefore, be able to show a clear difference between collected, medium and extended gates. Those four areas are lateral work with a bend, frequent transitions skipping a gait, decreasing size circles, and half halts.

You’ve already stared lateral work with a bend when you moved from First Level to Second level. Just remember this equation. Bend plus sideways equals engagement. Engagement refers to the bending of the joints of the hind legs. And as the joints of the hind legs bend or “fold”, the croup goes down. As a result of the croup going down, the forehand comes up.

If you bend your horse and go sideways, you’re going to shift the center of gravity back. That will create a certain degree of collection.

But there are other things that you can do to develop collection such as frequent transitions skipping a gait. For example, if you want to collect the trot, trot for 5 or 6 strides, and then halt. Then trot again for only 5 or 6 strides, and halt again. The main thing that you want to strive for during frequent transitions is that there are no dribbly walk steps in between the transitions from trot to halt and back again.

You can do the same type of transitions to collect the canter. Ride five strides of canter and then five strides of walk. Repeat this several times with no dribbly trot steps in between. As you do the down transition to the walk with your back and outside rein, visualize your horse lowering his haunches the way a dog sits down. Use this mental image to support your aids so that the croup lowers as your horse steps into the down transition.

Another very simple thing that you can do is ride smaller circles. As the arc of the circle becomes tighter, the joints of the inside hind leg bend more. Obviously, there’s more bend in the joints of the inside hind leg at 10-meters than there is at 12-meters. And there’s more bend of the joints at 8-meters than there is at 10-meters. So by decreasing the size of your circles while making sure your horses spine directly overlaps that arc, your horse shifts his center of gravity back.

The final thing you can do to collect your horse is half halts. Collection is the sixth and final ingredient in the training scale.

I like to give three half halts (a hardly visible, almost simultaneous co-ordinated action of the seat, the legs and the hands) in a row–take/give, take/give, take/give.

Be sure to time the half halts when the hind leg you want to influence is on the ground. That’s because the only time you can influence a hind leg is when it’s on the ground just before it pushes off. You can feel when a hind leg is on the ground because your corresponding seatbone feels like it’s pushed “up” or “forward”.

When you give the half halts, focus on two things.
1.With each half halt, decrease the amount of ground that you cover per stride.
2. Keep the same rhythm and tempo as you shorten the strides.

The half halts shift the horse’s center of gravity back. When you trot or canter forward, be sure to maintain the same balance you achieved during your half halts. You don’t want to collect your horse with half halts, and then charge forward. If you do, your horse will unload his hind legs and shift his balance to the forehand.

To sum up, following the tests gives you a good general program to decide if your dressage horse is ready to move up to Second Level or Third Level. Check out what’s coming up next, and start to add in little bits of what’s in the next level. In that way, you’ll systematically and progressively add new work. Your horse won’t even realize that he’s being asked to do anything more difficult.

Click here for more help with dressage test levels.

Why are the Lateral Movements in Dressage like Leg Yields and Shoulder-in Easier in One Direction?

Since very few horses, are ambidextrous, it’s inevitable that the lateral dressage movements like leg yields, shoulder-in, haunches-in, renvers, and half passes will be easier in one direction than the other.

Your goal for lateral movements in dressage (and everything else you do with your dressage horse!) is to strengthen his weaker hind leg, make his stiff side more “bendable”, and his hollow side less “soft”.

So, for now, let’s just talk about making the weak hind leg stronger.Your dressage horse’s weaker hind leg is the hind leg on his soft side. There’s nothing wrong with your horse! Almost every horse has a weaker hind leg because few horses are ambidextrous. The weak hind leg is the hind leg on your horse’s “soft”or hollow side. His strong hind leg is on his stiff side.

The weak hind leg doesn’t step directly underneath your horse’s body. Your horse displaces this leg slightly to the side to avoid carrying weight with it. On the other hand, the hind leg on the stiff side carries more weight. The issue here goes back to that old saying “use makes the muscle”. If you don’t work on strengthening the weaker leg, the weak hind leg gets weaker, and the strong hind leg gets stronger.

This can lead to all kinds of problems with dressage movements down the road like having an uneven contact with the bit, uneven lengthenings, and difficulty doing lateral work in one direction.

Avoiding carrying weight with the weaker hind leg can be very subtle. Often your dressage horse will put his hind leg only an inch or so to the side. An observant ground person can tell you which hind leg your horse is “unloading”. Walk and trot straight away from her. Then change direction and do the same.

If your dressage horse’s left hind leg is weaker than his right hind leg, he’ll carry it slightly to the left regardless of which direction you’re going. Since this evasion can be subtle, your correction can be subtle as well.

The solution is to ask your horse’s left hind leg to do a little “weight-lifting”. Do this by moving his hindquarters an inch or so to the right so his left hind leg has to step under his body. Ask for this position in both directions on all lines and curves. This will give his weaker hind leg an opportunity to get stronger. One word of caution here. Since you know this leg is weaker, be sure you give your dressage horse lots of walk breaks so he can relax his muscles. There’s a fine line between strengthening muscles and making them sore.

If your horse is a bit more educated, you can do the same sort of exercise by always placing him in a very slight shoulder-fore or renvers position when you track to the left. When you track to the right, put him in a very slight haunches-in position. Every position should place his left hind leg a hair to the inside of his left front leg. Once again, moving the hind leg over an inch or two is more than enough to do the job.

If you do these “hind leg strengthening” exercises thoughtfully, over time your horse will be able to do the dressage movements like leg yields, shoulder-in, haunches-in, renvers, and half pass equally easily in both directions.

Click here for more info on leg yields shoulder-in.

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