I’ve had such awesome feedback on my new blog with tips, tools, and photos to help you ride your horse on the bit, that I started another blog on Quick Tips to help your with your dressage position.
You can find the on the bit blog at: http://rideonthebit.webjobdaddy.com
You can find the Quick Dressage Position Tips blog at: http://dressagepositiontips.traffic4pros.com
You guys enjoyed the “ride on the bit” blog so much, I added a new one on position. http://dressagepositiontips.traffic4pros.com/
If you missed the “ride on the bit blog”, it’s at: http://rideonthebit.webjobdaddy.com
Riding your horse on the bit (and keeping him there!) can seem like one of the most daunting tasks for riders. So I’ve started a blog that is dedicated solely to this subject.
Check our my new blog with tips, tools, and photos to help you ride your horse on the bit.
I often hear riders at the basic levels say that their dressage horses are collected. I assume they’re actually talking about connection as opposed to collection.
But since I run across this confusion a lot, I want to take some time to explain how to evaluate whether or not a horse is collected.
Many people think that when a horse is collected, he just takes shorter, slower steps. But you can shorten a horse’s strides without actually collecting him.
Think about three things in terms of collecting any gait.
1. The steps are shortened, but the rhythm and tempo stay the same as they were when the steps were longer.
2. The center of gravity must shift back toward the hind legs. That is, there is a loading of the hind legs. In nature, a horse has approximately 60% of his weight on his front legs and 40% on his hind legs. As you collect the horse, you gradually shift that center of gravity back to the hind legs. As a result, the horse begins to take more weight on the hind legs so his forehead can be lighter and freer.
3. When a horse is collected he bends the joints of his hind legs. As a result, his croup lowers and his forehand elevates. Look at the top of his withers and compare it to the top of his croup. In this balance, he’ll have the silhouette or outline of an airplane taking off, or a seesaw where one end is pushed down and the other end goes up.
It’s very important you don’t get fooled into thinking that a horse with a high head and neck carriage is necessarily collected. That’s because if the horse is “hand-ridden”, the rider can lift his head and neck up. But if the rider does this, the withers will stay low. And if the withers are low and the croup is high, there is no collection.
So when you evaluate whether or not a dressage horse is truly collected think about those three things–a shortening of the frame, a loading of the hind legs, and the relative height of the top of the withers to the top of the croup.
My new program to help you Raise your Fear Threshold and escape “Fear Paralysis” while horseback riding is just about ready.
I want to thank all of you for your awesome input on your personal riding fears last month. After hearing about some of them, I added extra tips and tools to the program. Thanks to your help, it really has become your program.
Next month, I’ll be offering a special introductory price ONLY for my newsletter subscribers. If you’re on my newsletter list, you’ll automatically get that info so you’re all set.
If you’re NOT on the newsletter list, go to www.janesavoie.com and sign up right now so you can get in on the special offer.
Among other things, when you sign up for the newsletter, you’ll IMMEDIATELY get a free special report on 5 Tips to Demolish Fear while Horseback Riding.
When you do leg yields from the centerline to the long side as you do in the First Level dressage tests, it’s not always easy to make sure that your horse is crossing his legs enough. That’s because as long as you manage to get from Point A to Point B, you can fake yourself out into thinking you’re really going sideways.
But if your dressage horse isn’t crossing his legs enough, you’re losing most of the suppling, loosening, toe-touching benefits of leg yields.
So here are some easy tips to help you ride better leg yields.
When you do this exercise, do it in the head-to-the wall position. Your horse’s front legs stay in the track, and his
hindquarters come toward the middle of the ring. We’ll start by tracking to the left. Also, start the exercise in the walk so you can coordinate your aids and really feel what you’re doing.
1. Use your outside rein to make sure your horse’s neck is straight. (If you’re tracking to the left, the left rein becomes the outside rein in the leg yield because your horse should be flexed at the poll to the right.) If your horse’s neck is bent, he won’t be crossing his legs.
2. Ask the hindquarters to come in at a 35-degree angle to the rail (slightly less than half of a right angle). If you settle for less angle, your horse won’t be crossing enough.
3. If your horse isn’t crossing enough, use an opening rein to help you. DON’T push harder with your leg that’s behind the girth (the right leg). If you push harder, you’ll lean to the right. Your body and your right leg will be giving contradictory signals. Your leg says, “Move over”, but your body says, “I won’t let you move over.”
Instead, support with your left rein and use a quick opening right rein. Bring your right hand to the right and then immediately put it back in riding position. Then, if necessary, repeat the opening rein. If you coordinate the two reins correctly, the action of the right rein will go back to your horse’s hind legs and he’ll swing them to the left.
By using your opening right rein and your supporting left rein, you can transfer some of the responsibility for going sideways away from your leg and into your reins.
4. Give a small squeeze with your right leg at the same time you use your right leg. It’s important to time the use of your right rein and leg. Open the rein and use your leg when his right hind leg is on the ground.
Timing is important because the only time your horse can respond to your aid is when his hind leg is on the ground— specifically just before it pushes off.
You can learn to feel when a hind leg is on the ground because your corresponding seatbone feels like it’s being
pushed “up” or “forward”. Each time you feel your seatbone pushed up, say out loud, “Now, now, now” so you get into the rhythm of when that hind leg is on the ground.
Then keep saying, “Now, now, now” aloud, and time your opening rein and squeeze of your leg with the word “now”.
Once you learn what it feels like when your horse crosses his legs well in the head to the wall position, go back to your “center line over to the long side” leg yield as asked for in the dressage tests. Check that it feels the same under your seat when you do it in this pattern as it does in the head to the wall position.
If your dressage horse is supple at his poll, you should be able to flex him laterally to the left and right. If you’re not sure if he’s locked at the poll, ask yourself some questions:
If he stiffens against your hand or tilts his head when you ask him to flex left or right, you probably need to supple his poll.
Here’s a 2-part “poll suppling” exercise to help your dressage horse.
Part 1. Start in the halt on the rail so you can check that you’re keeping your horse’s body absolutely
straight. If he’s straight, his body will stay parallel to the rail. The most common mistake is to bend the
neck. Your horse can bend his neck and still stay locked in his poll.
Think of moving his face only one inch to the left and one inch to the right so you can just see his inside
eye and/or nostril (this is also called position left and position right or flexion and counter-flexion).
Do this by keeping your fingers softly closed around the reins and turning your wrist as if you’re unlocking a door, turning the ignition key (right hand) to start your car , or scooping a spoonful of sugar out of a bowl. (DON’T vibrate or saw left/right on the reins. That will only flex his jaw and close the angle at his throatlatch.)
When turning your wrist, keep your hands stay side by side. If you’re suppling the poll to the right, in the moment that you turn your wrist, your thumb points to the right, your fingernails face upward, your baby finger points diagonally toward your opposite shoulder. Once you’ve turned your wrist, return to your “starting position” with your thumb the highest point of your hand. That is, don’t hold your hand in the position with your fingernails facing up. (This action of your wrist is called indirect rein.)
Your hand comes close to the withers but it should never cross them. Also, be sure you support with the opposite rein so he doesn’t just bend his neck. If you’re next to the rail, you’ll easily be able to see if you haven’t supported enough with your opposite rein, because your horse’s neck won’t be absolutely parallel to the wall anymore.
Part 2. Once it feels easy to get position left and position right, pick one of those positions, and put your hand forward toward your horse’s mouth to put a little loop in the rein. If you’ve suppled your horse’s poll successfully, he’ll stay flexed in that direction and not “boing” back with his face in the other direction. For example, flex him left, give the left rein, and see if he stays flexed left without your hand.
Once you can supple your dressage horse’s poll at the halt, go to the walk. When you can do it in the walk both to the right and to the left (flexion and counter-flexion), ask in the trot. Once you can get the answer you want in the trot, go to canter. Don’t expect to get anything in a faster gait that you couldn’t get at a slower gait. Also, if you have success in the trot, but not in the canter, go back to the trot (or walk or even halt) until you can do the second part of the 2-part exercise successfully.
Do you saw left and right on your dressage horse’s mouth to get him “on the bit”?
If you “saw” on your horse’s mouth by alternating squeezing and releasing
with your hands, you’re riding your horse from front to back. He might look
like he’s “on the bit” because his head is down and his nose is on the
vertical, but you don’t have an honest connection from back to front.
The only part of your horse’s body that you can affect is his jaw. Moving the
bit in his mouth encourages him to chew. When he chews, he flexes in the
jaw.
So, if all you do is saw on the bit, all you have control over is a flexed
jaw. You can’t control the rest of your horse’s body.
Also, if you just flex his jaw, your horse will “come off the bit” when you
ask him to do something like a transition.
The reality is that he was never on the bit to begin with. All you had was a
flexed jaw.
To put your dressage horse honestly on the bit, close both legs to add power from
behind as if you’re doing a lengthening. When your horse “arrives” at your
outside hand, close that hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle the
power back to the hind legs. Do this for 3 full seconds.
THEN, lastly you can vibrate or squeeze on the inside rein for two reasons:
1. To keep his neck straight (so it doesn’t bend to the outside).
2. To move the bit, and ask him to flex in the jaw.
So to get your dressage horse on the bit, never do with two hands what you can do with one hand (move the bit).
And you have the other hand left over for the more important job of
recycling power back to the hind legs.
Our friend, Kris Garrett, just did an awesome video review of Program your Position for dressage riders.
You can check it out at:
I’ve dealt with a lot of spooky dressage horses, and I find that often shying gets worse because riders do one or all of the following things.
1. Hit or kick him to make him obedient.
2. Make him walk straight up to scary object and face it straight on.
3. Forget to go around your ring in both directions.
4. Force him to go close to the scary object.
5. Patting and soothing him while he’s shying.
Let’s understand the nature of horses:
1. Horses shy because they’re afraid.
2. A horse shies because his natural instinct is to keep himself safe by fleeing.
3. His eyes are set on the side of his head so he can see with binocular vision (like us) as well as monocular vision.
4. Many horses are claustrophobic.
So looking back at the first list of rider coping strategies, you can probably see why they don’t work very well.
1. If your horse is afraid, punishing him convinces him there is something to be afraid of.
2. Asking your dressage horse to walk straight up to a scary object is one of the most frightening things you can do. In his mind, it’s like asking him to meet a cougar head on.
3. Like people, horses have a dominant eye. When the dominant eye is on the outside, your horse is less apt to spook because he can survey the environment for possible danger. When the dominant eye is on the inside, he’s more anxious. He’ll want to whip his head around and check out his surroundings with his dominant eye. And while he’s doing that, he’ll be shying from potential danger.
4. If you try to go by the scary object as close as possible your first time around the ring, you’ll add to your horse’s anxiety.
5. If you pat him, you’re rewarding him for being spooky. In his mind, you’re praising him for keeping you safe, and he’s more apt to repeat the behavior.
Taking all of the above into consideration, here’s what I do:
1. I never punish a horse that shies.
2. I don’t reward the horse while he’s shying.
3. I walk around a new environment (ring, field, arena) in both directions so he can see everything slowly the first time with both eyes.
4. If the scary object is at A (a flower pot, for example), I won’t go all the way to the short side my first time around the arena. I might turn across the school between V and P. Then each time around I get gradually closer to the short side so when I finally go by the flowers, it’s no big deal.
5. Once I’m working I add the following 2 tools. Well before the flowerpot, I bend my horse’s neck so much to the inside so he can’t see it with either eye.
6. When I’m beside the flower pot, I soften my inside hand forward so my claustrophobic dressage horse doesn’t feel pinned against whatever he’s afraid of.
