Lots of riders seem to be confused by the
dressage term “long and low” . Some riders even think long and low is different from the stretchy circle in the
dressage tests.
Long and low is the SAME as what’s being asked for stretchy circles. The stretchy circles were added to the dressage tests to check that the horse’s connection was correct and that the rider wasn’t fudging things by fiddling with the reins.
To get correct long and low, your horse must be connected over his back. So give the connecting aids and then allow the horse to chew the reins forward, down, and out.
If you sponge or play on the reins, you’re just flexing the horse’s jaw. That has NOTHING to do with correct connection.
To do correct long and low, close both legs to send your horse forward through the closed outside rein while keeping him flexed to the inside. The heart of the connecting aids is closing your legs to send the hind legs forward as if you’re asking for a lengthening and then recycling that energy back to the hind legs with a closed outside fist. That’s the part that gives you longitudinal bend over your horse’s back.
Once you’ve given those aids, open your fingers and allow your horse to stretch long and low. You’re the one who decides how much rein to feed out.
If you’re successful using your connecting aids, stretching long and low is the natural progression of the longitudinal bend you’ve just created over your dressage horse’s back.
Click on
connecting aids for more info on the different
dressage terms.
It seems like one of the biggest dilemmas is how to ride your horse on the bit, and keep him there. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.
My new ebook 101 Tips For Riding Your Horse On the Bit demystifies the process of putting your horse on the bit.
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This ebook is the result of YOUR questions. You’ve told me what confuses you, and I’ve done my best to consolidate 35 years of my education into digestible tips.
How do I know you’ve been searching for this solution? Well, at one time I was in the exact same boat you’re in today. If the stars and the moon were aligned just right, my horse would come on the bit for a few strides here and there.
But he would never stay consistently connected. And whenever I added the smallest complication-like a canter depart-he’d immediately hollow his back and chuck his head in the air.
Fortunately, I was able to work with some of the great dressage masters of our time who taught me that putting your horse on the bit doesn’t have to be a big mystery. Once you know the ingredients that go into putting your horse on the bit, the process is simple.
So I’ve compiled a list of my top 101 tips to help you ride your horse on the bit. These tips are my answers to your most frequently asked questions on how to put your horse on the bit…and keep him there! For more info on this ebook, go to http://www.janesavoie.com/shop/ebooks.htm
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.
Many people don’t like the dressage term “on the bit”. They feel it has a negative connotation because it conjures up pictures of riding a horse from front to back and forcing him into a frame.
This is how I like to think about it so I don’t get bogged down in semantics. I think of “on the bit” as having both a physical and a mental connotation.
Physically, the dressage term “on the bit” refers to the round silhouette you get when you ride your horse from behind, over his back, through his neck, and into your hands. Once you created that energy and it goes “through” the horse’s body, the energy then can be recycled back to the hind legs.
Mentally, I like to think that horse that’s on the bit is “on the aids”. I can tell that that’s the case if I feel like anything is possible within the next step. If I’m not sure if “anything is possible”, I’ll ask for something like a transition from walk to trot, a canter depart, or a trot lengthening.
So, a Training level horse or a hunter, for example, can be “on the aids” but not necessarily on the bit. They just need to accept contact, be attentive, and willing to have a conversation with their riders.
Dressage horses at First level and above are both on the bit (physically) and on the aids (mentally).
Click here for more on riding dressage horse on the bit.
