She starts with blank arena diagrams and uses them for a number of things such as:

1. Memorizing regulation dressage tests.
2. Learning the exact geometry of the dressage arena.
3. Learning the specific tangent points for movements such as circles and serpentines.
4. Drawing dressage tests from beginning to end.
5. Drawing each dressage movement according to where the judges are judging. (This way you know exactly when the judge begins judging a new movement).
6. Showing a student where a dressage movement begins and ends.
7. Mapping out individual dressage movements when creating choreography for a freestyle.
8. Looking at the pattern of a new freestyle from beginning to end to see if you’ve used the dressage arena wisely.
9. Checking to see if all the required movements for a competitive dressage freestyle have been included.
10. Mapping out each dressage movement of a new freestyle so you have something very visual to study.
11. Checking to see if the dressage freestyle pattern is unique and inventive.
12. Checking to see if the dressage movements are equally used from the left and the right.

To help you take advantage of all these benefits, Ruth is giving you diagrams for your use. Feel free to print them off and use them any time you want.

Click here to get the blank dressage arena diagrams and while you’re on Ruth’s site, be sure to sign up for her free dressage newsletter. When you sign up, you’ll automatically get the link for the diagrams in the welcome letter of my newsletter, so you don’t have to go looking for it!

http://www.ruthhoganpoulsen.com/downloads.html

Tomorrow is the last day to get your free 3-Day pass to my online dressage training site Dressage Mentor. To get your pass, go to www.dressagementor.com/3day

Here’s just some of what you’ll find in Dressage Mentor:

• Training techniques (like the half halt!) that are broken down into understandable pieces so that you can re-create the lessons at home.
• Comparison and contrast of the right and wrong way to do things so that you can learn the difference between correct and incorrect training.
• Audios on everything from training to squashing your mental monsters to hearing about my horses and the lessons they’ve taught me so you can improve your riding both physically and mentally.
• Watch “normal” horses (not expensive warmbloods!) and average riders sorting through training issues so you can really relate to what people go through in training and problem solving.
• Interviews with Guest Experts like judges, massage therapists, dentists, sports psychologists, trainers, and clicker trainers so you learn “other” approaches to help your horse.
• A supportive community in the Forum where you can share experiences and brainstorm so you never feel like you’re “going it alone”.

Once again, click here to get your 3-Day Pass to my online dressage training site, Dressage Mentor. ]]> http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/online-dressage-training-at-dressage-mentor/feed/ 1 http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/sit-in-the-direction-of-movement-in-half-pass/ http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/sit-in-the-direction-of-movement-in-half-pass/#comments Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:22:58 +0000 admin http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/?p=177 Many riders lean to the outside in half pass because they use too much outside leg to push their horses sideways. Use your outside leg mainly to help bend your horse around your inside leg and secondarily to ask him to go sideways.

Keep in mind that the predominant aids in half pass need to be inside leg and outside rein…not outside leg pushing sideways and inside hand pulling the neck around in a fake a bend.

Here are 3 quick tips to help you sit in the direction of movement. Let’s say you’re tracking to the right and want to do a right half pass.

1. Think about actually “stepping down into the right iron” as you start the half pass.

2. Pretend there’s a seam running down the middle of your saddle from pommel to cantle. Then visualize yourself moving your outside seatbone to the right onto that center seam so you don’t get left behind.

3. Use the following exercise to help you develop some good muscle memory for using the inside leg and outside rein as the predominant aids in half pass:

• Turn down the quarterline and leg yield over to the left with a bend (from nose to tail!) toward the wall for a couple of steps.
• Then start the half pass to the right by stepping down into the inside iron and bringing the outside rein to the right as if you’re going to push your left fist into your horse’s left shoulder.
• Only do the half pass for a couple of steps and then return to the leg yield with bend to the left. (So you end up doing more leg yield with bend steps than half pass steps)
• The leg yield to the left with a bend helps you put your inside leg on and also you get to feel the horse stepping from inside leg to outside rein.

Click here for more info on dressage lateral movements.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Since rhythm and tempo are your gold standard during every dressage movement, let me define them for you.  I want to do this because lots of people use those terms interchangeably and they don’t mean the same thing.

Rhythm – Regularity of the rhythm refers to the even spacing between each step in a stride of walk, trot or canter. Regular rhythm is a priority for all work. The dressage movements and exercises should never be done at the expense of rhythm. Rhythm should always stay the same.

Tempo or speed, however, is a different matter. Tempo — which is the rate of repetition of the rhythm — can be adjusted, depending on what your horse needs. Think of rhythm and tempo this way: A waltz is always done in 3/4 time. That is the rhythm of a waltz. But a waltz can be played faster or slower. In other words, the tempo can vary.

When should you ride at a tempo that’s different from the one your horse chooses? Let’s take an overly fresh horse as an example. You start your warmup, and your horse is so excited that he picks up a trot that is much too quick. The longer you let him go at this clip, the more his tension builds. Left alone, he probably isn’t going to slow down. He’s like an overtired child who is so wound up that he can’t quiet his mind or his body. He needs you to help him calm down by asking him to trot at a much slower tempo than that of his normal working trot.

Slow the tempo by asking for a transition to the walk (or even the halt!), Then, just as he’s about to step into the walk, don’t finish the transition. Instead, allow him to jog forward very slowly. Think about riding “halfway to walk”, and then jog forward slowly. If he accelerates after a few strides, repeat the incomplete downward transition until he understands and is willing to stay in the slower trot.

Ride him in this lazy tempo — the opposite of what he wants to do — until he relaxes. Once you feel him relax, gradually allow the tempo to become more normal.

On the other hand, let’s say you have a horse that tends to get too slow and labored in his tempo. For example, his canter becomes 4-beat because the tempo is too slow. Quicken his tempo by doing a few strides of a lengthening.

Feel how your seat moves faster during the lengthening. Then when you shorten the strides, keep the same quick tempo by moving your seat “as if” you’re still lengthening.

To sum up, NEVER do the dressage movements at the expense of rhythm and tempo.

Click here for more info on dressage movements rhythm tempo.

Flexibility refers to your dressage horse’s ability to bend laterally through his side. Here’s what you should know about lateral bend:

1. The bend through your horse’s side should be equal from poll to tail.

2.  Your goal is to help your horse become ambidextrous. In other words, he can bend as easily to the right as he does to the left.

3.  As a dressage movement, correctly ridden circles teach baby engagement (the bending of the joints of the hind legs).

4. Circles also develop straightness. By definition, a straight horse is straight on lines and bent along the arc of a circle.

As a “Dressage Movement“, why is it so Important to Ride 20 meter Circles Accurately?

1. Physically, accurate circles help develop lateral flexibility and engagement of the inside hind leg.
2. Mentally, riding accurate circles develops obedience.
Always keep in mind that horses are herd animals. When you ride, you’re part of a two animal herd. Your horse is happy to be a follower if you’re a leader, but he’ll take over if you aren’t the leader.

If you don’t ride accurate circles, you’re letting your horse take over and make decisions. Once your horse learns to take over on a circle, eventually he’ll make more and more decisions on his own. Letting him make his own decisions can escalate into disobedience.

So, you always need to be the leader of the herd. It’s up to you to tell your horse where to go, how to go, and when to go there.

What Do You Need to Know to Ride an Accurate 20 meter Circle at Training Level?

To make an accurate 20 meter circle, do two things:
1. Bend your horse.
2. Ride to specific reference points.

If you’re circling to the left, the bending aids are as follows:
•    Weight your inside seat bone (left) to encourage your horse to engage his inside hind leg.
•    Place your inside leg (left) on the girth. It acts both as a pole for your horse to bend around and also to maintain the activity of his inside hind leg.
•    Put your outside leg (right) behind the girth to help bend your horse’s body around your inside leg and prevent his hindquarters from swinging out. For a  20-meter circle, place your outside leg 1-2 inches behind the girth.
•    Ask for flexion to the inside with your left rein. You should just see your horse’s left inside eye and nostril.
•    Keep your outside rein (right) steady and supporting. Think of it as a side rein that limits the degree of bend in his neck. It also functions as your turning rein to bring your horse’s shoulders around the curve.
Create  a marriage between your inside and outside aids. You need both sets of aids to bend your horse while you turn him along a prescribed line. Your inside aids bend your horse, and your outside aids turn him.

What Are the Reference Points for a 20-meter Circle in a large arena?

To make an accurate circle in a large arena at Training Level, you need four reference points.
•    Start your circle at A or C. This is your first reference point.
•    Your second reference point is 4 meters past the corner letter (this is 10 meters from the corner). The biggest mistake riders make when starting a circle, is that they aim for the corner letter. If you do this, you’ll end up with an oval. So aim for 4 meters beyond the corner letter.
•    Your third reference point is the spot where you cross the centerline. If you drew a line between M and H (or F and K), that line is 6 meters from the short side. The imaginary line between the next set of letters (R and S or P and V) is an additional 12 meters. When you add 6 meters and 12 meters, you get 18 meters. So in order to make a round 20-meter circle, cross the centerline 2 meters above the line that runs between R and S or P and V.
•    Your fourth reference point is on the other long side. Touch the long side 4 meters before the corner letter (10 meters from the corner).

Important: The key to learning how to ride a round 20 meter circle is to look TWO POINTS AHEAD and “connect the dots”.

Remember that all of the dressage movements are not an end in themselves. They’re a means to an end. And “the end” for a 20-meter circle at Training Level is developing flexibility in your dressage horse.

Click here for more info on riding 20-meter circles