07/30/2024
It is the simplest things that make the most dramatic difference.
When I look at a rider, I ask myself why doesn’t this rider look like the best rider in the world? A little too much tension there, not enough angle here, less weight there, activate these two muscles, relax that one, and breath.
Those slight changes and several hundred others develop a glimmer of a well balanced, thoughtful, and relaxed rider. I know we are on the right path when I think, “wow that person really looks and thinks like a rider.” This is when I know the body and mind are learning where to be and why.
This is all true for my horses too.
“Why doesn’t this horse look like a grand prix horse?” Too much tension here, not enough weight there, use this muscle instead of that one, a little straighter here, a little softer there, and breath.
The art of riding is an ART. You must sculpt, wittle, build, and paint the picture you want over years and decades and have fun doing it!
“The basic techniques, or what they call the basics, are more difficult then what comes later. This is the trap of dressage. Correct basics are more difficult then the piaffe or passage.” -Conrad Schumacher
But what are the basics?
It depends who you ask.
If you ask a horseman, someone who spends their career putting a solid foundation on a horse they will give you one set of answers. If you ask a dressage professional, they will likely give you another sub-category of answers. And neither are necessarily wrong.
One is talking about the education of a grade school student, the other is likely talking about the education of a high school, or possibly even college level student.
They are both equally important, but one does come before another.
Everyone needs a grade school education no matter what their profession becomes, and many horses are missing a good grade school foundation before being educated in a highschool or college level conversations.
In my opinion, the basics are the ingredients; the fundamental and individual pieces that go into said movement, exercise, or issue. For me, the key to basics are isolations, understanding, and relaxation.
Everything is made up of something. So it’s always helpful to ask, what are the BASIC parts to the movement I am trying to achieve?
The basics of a horseman:
• Walk, trot, canter, on the buckle, the horse stays relaxed and can come down just off your seat.
• The horse understands how to follow the soft feel of a single rein.
• How to move to the side off each leg independently.
• Halt and back up with lightness.
• Find forward in all gaits softly and easily.
• Has excellent ground control of all its basic body parts in hand, and online.
• The horse is mentally and emotionally relaxed and confident in all these conversations and working environments.
I consider this a very brief overview of a grade school education that each horse should have before entering any discipline.
The dressage professional might talk about the training scale. (Despite some differences of opinion, its still a universally well known guideline for the sake of conversation).
#1 Rhythm/Relaxation
#2 Suppleness
#3 Contact
#4 Impulsion
#5 Straightness
#6 collection
The training scale is basic high-school guidelines, but still far from basics themselves. Each one of these categories has a large context of understanding, that is largely produced FROM a grade school education.
Here are some of the gradeschool basics that are required to produce the basics of the training scale.
#1 RELAXATION
• Can you put your horse on the buckle and walk, trot, canter in a relaxed consistent stretch, and come down off the seat alone?
• Can they hack out on a loose rein? Are they confident and comfortable in contact? In the environment you work in?
A horse who is responsive and relaxed is naturally rhythmic. A loss of rhythm or erratic rhythm is almost always a sign of tension, pain, or emotion. You can’t force rhythm, it is organic to relaxation.
#2 SUPPLENESS
• Does your horse understand isolations of the aids, in a relaxed yet responsive way?
• Can you pick up a single rein and your horse softly and easily follows the feel? Is their jaw clenched, grinding, or chomping?
• Can your horse yield softly to the leg on a loose rein and maintain a soft back?
• Can your horse easily follow the seat into lateral movements at the walk without holding anything in your hands?
• Does your horse maintain a stretch on a loose rein in all gaits?
• Can you pick up contact and there is no brace, tension, or change in throughness or rhythm of the gait?
#3 CONTACT
• What is the quality if your contact in all gaits and maneuvers? Is it heavy?
• Can you halt with just your seat at any given moment without brace in the hand?
• Can you reinback with ease and softness?
• If not, you’re likely using your contact for control instead of communication.
• What does your school halt look like? Can you talk to your horses balance at the halt, in all 4 feet?
• Is there always a quality stretch to the buckle that lives inside your contact at any given moment? If not, your likely holding your horse in inversion.
#4 IMPULSION
• How is your horses forward off the seat and leg on a loose rein?
• Is the leg or seat aid almost invisible to someone one the ground?
• How well does the horse engage in all gaits on a loose rein?
• How well does the horse maintain engagement, are you begging with the leg?
• Does the quality change when you pick up contact?
• Does the horse understand how to step up to hand with a hind leg and not brace in the jaw or rein? If not, slow down. Don't push a lack of understanding or ability into the hand.
#5 STRAIGHTNESS
The quality of the lateral maneuvers determine Straightness. Lateral maneuvers correct imbalances and release a horse into straightness if done correctly.
• Can all the lateral maneuvers be produced in balance, self carriage, and lightness at the WALK first? Does the balance, self carriage, or suppleness change in the trot?
#6 COLLECTION
• How is your halt? At any moment, from any gait? Was hand needed?
• How is your reinback?
If your horse is unable to do this well, no amount of half halts in the world will fix heaviness, collectability, or balance issues.
• How are your transitions?
MINDFULL transitions teach balance and collection, IF they are done well and off your center of gravity.
• Is your center of gravity connected to your horses center of gravity, through the seat alone?
If your contact gets heavy in transitions there is a loss of balance.
• If your horse struggles with engagement in collection go back to the basics in principles #3 and #4.
To understand basics there has to be a core understanding of how to ACHIEVE basic principles. The rest does (as annoying as it sounds) fall into place.
GYMNASTICISING movements in sequence is many times a COLLEGE level conversation.
Movements are only gymnaticized upon the self carriage, balance, and understanding of the maneuver.
Which is directly based on the quality of the gradeschool and highschool education.
It is a common approach to try and ride a horse excessively forward through a sequence of movements to gain improvement in a multitude of things.
But more times then not the horse isn’t educated enough for that level of conversation and it becomes a pushing, bracing, struggle of tension that lacks quality, understanding, relaxation, suppleness, balance, proper engagement, or biomechanics.
A horse cannot catch its balance, "come over its back", find relaxation, or understanding by being chased more and more forward, or if too many aids are talking at the same time. This approach breaks down the body and the mind.
It is amazing that taking the time to SLOW DOWN and teach the horse step by step, that in just a matter of days the horse can understand a lateral movement, position, or posture, and is able to carry themselves down a long side or in a figure with balance, lightness, and relaxation, simply because you took the time to break it down.
From that level of understanding it is then far easier to develop, build strength, or carrying power of that maneuver, posture, or balance point.
If the horse struggles as you progress (and they will) you simply slow down to clarify as needed.
The point is people are usually doing WAY to much to fix issues or produce results.
Have you asked your horse if they understand your aids in isolation first? You might be surprised what you find.
If you're getting stuck or struggling…..congratulations, your being called to a higher level, the master level of revisiting and polishing the basics. And you will keep getting called back, over and over.
Until one day, you may find that your basics effortlessly produced a glimmer of piaffe hiding under the surface, and you will be blown away because you didn’t even try… you just had really good basics.
And the best basic of all…..slow down.
