24/06/2025
Thank you to Master Teacher Catherine Marshall for writing such an informative post.
IMPULSION AND COLLECTION
In a previous post I discussed the difference between activity and impulsion, and why both are key for healthy movement under saddle.
Now let’s move on to collection, and why a high level of impulsion is such an essential ingredient for collected work.
Very simply, collection may be defined as ‘high actvity in a slow rhythm'. In other words, a horse is only really performing a collected movement if it is ready to move up a gear at the lightest suggestion from the rider’s leg. This is absolutely key to its depiction of light liveliness and what differentiates collection from just going slow.
There are many examples of collected movements, but for the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the piaffe. Piaffe is an air performed on the spot or with minimal forward travel. It is a diagonal movement with no time of suspension, in which the horse elevates the neck and engages the hindquarters. In many ways it is the pinnacle of collection, displaying absolute mastery of the horse’s balance in movement.
A good piaffe should show:
1 A regular two beat rhythm
2 A happy face (effort is different to pain)
3 Well flexed joints in the hind limbs, with the hind feet engaged under the body
4 A clear shift of weight to the hind quarters (could the piaffe lead to a pesade?)
5 Clear and energetic lifting of each diagonal pair on the spot
6 An elevated neck with the poll the highest point
On the other hand, a less impressive piaffe might demonstrate:
1 Lack of a clear two beat rhythm
2 Tension
3 A loaded front limb, angled so that the landed front hoof is positioned behind the shoulder
4 Bouncing hind quarters
5 Limbs lifting in a staccato and unnatural fashion
6 A dropped poll
As is the case with all good equitation, the aids should be imperceptible, the contact light, and the horse should look as though he is performing the movement by himself; the kind a stallion offers in the stable when a mare walks past for example. Contained energy, a coiled spring.
All too often we see piaffe produced by using a whip from the ground. Someone is usually on board, and a handler on the ground uses a whip to encourage the horse to lift his hind legs in an exaggerated manner while walking or trotting slowly. No real impulsion is required here, just a trainer with reasonable timing. The problem is, the horse never really learns how to change his balance to the hindquarters, and in fact quite often offers the exact opposite – as a hind limb lifts, he shifts his weight onto the forelimb on the same side to compensate.
As an alternative, more progressive strategy, in the School of Légèreté we train piaffe using transitions. They could be direct initially, moving from halt to walk, walk to trot, trot to walk, walk to halt, halt to rein back, rein back to halt to walk. All with an elevated neck, no tension or resistance to the leg or hand. We insist on absolute separation of the hand and leg at this point, ie when we ask the horse to go the hand allows, and when asking for the downwards transitions the legs are quiet.
Incorporating shoulder in into the transittion training develops the flexion and weight carrying capacity of each haunch individually, depending which hind leg is engaged under the mass at the time. Quite a clever way to develop the strength required and symmetry in the piaffe at the same time!
Progressively, the transitions become quicker – as soon as we ask the horse offers, the responses are immediate and anticipated. Quite soon it is possible to ask for indirect transitions: halt to trot, trot to halt, even rein back to trot and vice versa. The poll remains the highest point, ensuring that we are progressively lightening the shoulders and developing strength, flexion and weight carrying capacity in the hind limbs.
Frequent breaks are essential for relaxation and to prevent muscle fatigue. I cannot emphasise this enough.
After a while, it is probable that the horse will start to an@cipate the transitions, so that from a high quality rein back for example, he is expecting to trot, so starts to offer a couple of strides on the spot.
We praise.
It is easy to see how this progressive mastery of the horse’s balance, combined with a high level of impulsion (the desire to go forward) would in time produce a piaffe which is relaxed, energetic, regular and with good engagement of the hindquarters. The kind that strengthens and enhances the horse’s capacity to carry a rider with ease and confidence.
No tricks, no shortcuts.
And that’s what it’s all about.
