ANSWER:
This is a bit of a judgment call. If the rhythm of a horse is very unsteady,
I try to regulate it with careful, but active aids within the gait. If you
abandon the horse, as it were, hoping that he will figure it out on his own,
chances are he will never learn to maintain an even rhythm in good balance.
Initially, it is the rider who has to help the horse find his balance
(unless you are lucky enough to ride a natural metronome). Gradually, the
horse will learn to keep his rhythm and balance on his own. Finding rhythm
and balance is a bit of a cat-and-mouse-game with the hind legs in the
beginning. They will be good as long as the hind legs are underneath you. As
soon as you lose one or both hind legs, you immediately lose rhythm and
balance. Young horses and correction horses often don't have the body
control and/or strength in their hindquarters to keep their hind legs
underneath the rider at all times, so the rider has to monitor the movement
of the hind legs and apply an active driving aid as soon as they go out
behind. If the rider abandoned the horse, the imbalance would only get
worse. The horse would get faster, more on the forehand. The hind legs would
go out behind even more, and he would lean or invert more and more.
If you ride transitions too early on and too frequently, the horse may not
understand that he needs to keep an even rhythm within the gait, because
there are too many changes, before regularity has been established. At this
early stage, I tend to do transitions mostly when I feel like we have passed
the point of no return, i.e. we have lost balance so thoroughly that I
cannot get it back within the trot, e.g.
I use the walk for giving the horse a break at that point in time. As soon
as the horse begins to understand that we are striving to maintain a regular
rhythm, I add transitions, first between gaits, then within the gait, in
order to challenge and improve the balance. That is also the time when I
start to practice changing out of the circle and serpentines at the trot,
which is a challenge to the lateral balance, just as transitions are a
challenge to the longitudinal balance. Both need to be practiced, and the
more time you spend on confirming the horse in adjusting his lateral and
longitudinal balance, the better and more smoothly he will go. Eventually,
the horse feels as if he were on rails.
Balance is a prerequisite for rhythm. When the horse
loses balance, he loses his rhythm. The two concepts have a reciprocal
relationship, because you can also say that if the horse loses his rhythm,
he automatically loses his balance. They are a little like the chicken and
the egg.
It's good to mention impulsion as well, because for many, if not
most, horses impulsion is identical to tempo. If you ask for more impulsion,
or its raw form energy, they give you a faster tempo. If you ask them to
slow down, they fall asleep. In most cases, this has been confirmed by your
esteemed predecessor in the training of the horse, and you now have to teach
the horse that tempo and impulsion are indeed two entirely separate
categories, that you can increase the energy/impulsion, without increasing
the tempo in the slightest, and that you can slow down the tempo, if the
horse should be rushy, without losing the least bit of energy. This is
another thing that must be practiced diligently and consistently. Otherwise,
the horse will never develop true relaxation, impulsion, or collection,
because as long as he fudges the tempo-impulsion dichotomy, he is not using
his body efficiently. He is still holding himself back, tensing certain
muscles in his back and hindquarters, which often has repercussions in the
rein contact. A horse like that never feels truly permeable (durchlaessig)
to the aids. But notice the difference, when you have accomplished the clear
separation between tempo and impulsion. Suppleness, relaxation, and
permeability will take on an entirely new meaning for the horse.
- Thomas Ritter
Question & Answer Forum
Last Update: January 13, 2007