Okay Let's Talk

I'm sure most everybody has seen the training pyramid before, or at least a version of it - but yet I see people everyday who are trying to achieve the upper levels without having a solid base. So let's talk about it...

Way back in the day Egyptians built pyramids primarily as tombs for the Pharaohs - this part really has nothing to do with horse training, but the next does. As far as history can tell a pyramid has ALWAYS been built from the ground up. I don't know of any pyramids that were assembled from the top down - do you? Most likely not. So, let's take that piece of knowledge and apply it to our pyramid here. Before you can have anything else you must have rhythm.

So let's define "Rhythm" as it applies to horses - Ability to move into the natural gaits with relaxation - physical AND mental. To have correct rhythm the horse has to have the correct beats for each gait: walk = 4, trot = 2, canter = 3 and rein-back=2. It makes sense to me - and obviously most trainers in the world - that a horse must have the ability to maintain an established rhythm (and gait) when under saddle before they can even begin to be truly supple.

I once had a dressage trainer tell me that when a horse is walking away from you it should be like watching Marilyn Monroe walking - hip swaying and all. To get this the horse must have suppleness, or flexibility. This happens in two ways: forward to back (longitudinal) and side to side (lateral). And by the way - a bend does NOT come from the neck!!! A true bend should come from the ribcage being wrapped around the rider's leg to make a bow shape with the horse's entire body. Only then - after the horse has an established rhythm and is supple can you begin to ask for contact.

Contact is when the horse ACCEPTS (not tolerates) the rider's hands, seat and leg. I see so many "riders" think their horse is round just because the horse's head is down and "on the bit." That is literally just the rider riding solely off their hands and so the horse braces against the bit in a headset that non-dressage riders seem to think is pretty. They are truly round when: the horse accepts and responds to leg and seat aids, the horse is moving UP into the contact from the HIND END, the horse's jaw is relaxed, the poll is the highest point and the horse's back is raised. Hopefully y'all are seeing a pattern here...Impulsion cannot happen until the previous steps are achieved.

Impulsion can be described as free-flowing energy initiated by the rider, causing the horse's back to swing, hindquarters to engage and forelegs to articulate. A good measure of impulsion is how far the horse steps up under its barrel and engages its hocks. Once again - the power must come from BEHIND. Riders should NOT have to constantly ask their horse to keep moving forward - you ask once and the horse keeps going at that pace until you ask for something different - impulsion should become a second nature to horses in training.

Did you know horses are naturally crooked? They have better sides just like people (right vs left handed). Asking a horse to be symmetrical and straight happens through working each side regularly. But guess what???? Before your horse can be straight it has to have - can you guess? - Rhythm, Suppleness, Contact, and Impulsion.

And what can then happen once all of it comes together? DING DING DING: COLLECTION!!!!! Great collection = rider feels as though they can let go and the horse would still maintain perfect rhythm and self carriage without any interference from the rider.

In my opinion there are many roads to Rome. If you ask 1,000 horse trainers how to do something you will get 2,000 different answers. I'm not saying what is the right or wrong way to get there as long as you get the basics down pat first. My dad is in construction so maybe that's why I understand the importance of a good foundation because it seems that the practice of getting a strong foundation before moving toward the more upper level movements went out with the Bush administration.