07/15/2024
This is interesting. I actually feel the order should be slightly different than either of these pyramids because I think with out impulsion you can’t have anything else. Maybe it comes from a childhood of retraining racehorses where forward was much preferable to up, but if the horse is not willingly moving forward in front of the leg then rhythm and straightness are pipe dreams and if you are struggling to get them forward then relaxation probably isn’t happening either. Anyway you order it too many riders are skipping the entire base of the pyramid and skipping to the top and then wondering why it’s not working and their horses are not staying sound or performing at their best. It takes time to train a horse right and it takes twice as long to go back and retrain one that has a lot of missing pieces. We all need to be better students of our sport and get back to the goal riding and training being the end product and not just showing. Shows are a showcase of your skills and a barometer of what you need to work on , not where you should be learning those skills. The hard work should be done at home.
We learn by questioning. This post questions one of the most foundational ideas in modern dressage, the training scale, in order to learn more about it. On the left we see the German Training scale. At the risk of committing equestrian sacrilege, I want to question its universal validity because I train in a different way. The official scale starts with the idea that we should mount up and develop a rhythm, and after that we should achieve relaxation. I mount up and go for relaxation first.
Ray Hunt told us to start training, not at square one, but as square zero before square one. This is because we need to be aware of the situation first. We need to start with situational awareness, then train. I found that awareness is easier for me if I begin with relaxation instead of rhythm. With a very green prospect, I will mount up and sit a horse without moving. I will feel the horse's body, their breath and heartbeat and they can feel mine. Ba****ck is best for this.
Next, we will wander around in a round pen, a stall or an arena. I will not be very directive, instead I will let the horse make some decisions. What the horse does informs me, and it starts a conversation about what we will do and how we will do it together. This is us forming a Connection that leads to establishing a shared Rhythm in our movement. It's a good time to remember Henry Wynmalen's advice, "Let the horse move you".
My training scale has a sequence of Relaxation, Connection and Rhythm and the work of training movement and balance begins at step three, not at one. Before step three the training is about relationship. I like my sequence better because in the end, I want a horse that contributes, that optimizes the ride on their own in collaboration with me. I feel that if I hop on a horse and set the rhythm from the beginning, I might squash some of the horse's initiative. This is why I begin with Relaxation and Connection.
At step three we start to move rhythmically while more or less wandering around, I keep in mind the top goal of Collection, something I think of as natural self carriage. There are two steps, Impulsion and Straightness, in between where we are at, Rhythm, and where I want us to get to. The German sequence has Impulsion and then Straightness. I have never understood why they prefer this order. I believe that asking a horse to engage to develop Impulsion when a horse may not be tracking in Straightness would only lead to a more powerful flawed track. In other words, it could lead to a bad habit.
Therefore, I establish Straightness in a clear two track before I ask for Impulsion. And there we are, relaxed, connected, rhythmic, tracking straight with impulsion. If a rider cannot flow into collection or self carriage from this sequence, I feel they have no business training horses.
Questioning the training scale will, no doubt, draw some comments of blasphemy from "serious" dressage riders. In anticipation of those comments, I want to add that translations from German to English are not simple. In addition to this, many German words common to dressage have loaded meanings from centuries of specific use that are lost on Americans. But regardless, let's discuss it.
*Note - I did not write this to start arguments, but rather to look at the traditional sequence of the training scale and understand it better. Please, let's discuss it, not argue about it. ;)
