During the lesson I was asked to drive him very forward ( all out) in trot and canter for our warm ups. The idea being to get his hind legs under him more and to get him to come out of his shoulders more. It just feels so harsh. He is back to being tight in his back. At the end of the lesson, ( which went on for 1.5 hrs) we were finally working thru the back the way I normally have him. I didn't feel the quality of the work was any better than what I normally have, it just takes so much longer to get there. I have given this a good go for a solid week, and he still is staying tight in his back. I do notice an improvement in the quality of his walk, and his canter, but the trot is still a miserable experience. I rode today with a friend on the ground, who has worked with this trainer more, and she encouraged me to continue with the very forward work. I never got his back today in a full hr of work, it was so upsetting. I feel like we have taken a huge step backwards. The only day he gave me his back while working him in this way, he got a nice long slow warm up, a student rode him first and never pushed him, I got on after, and worked him for 15- 20 mins very forward and very nice with his back.
He doesn't have a very comfortable trot, it is really awful when he wont give me his back. It is ok when he is swinging thru. It is so frustrating. I know he likes a long warm up, and he gets very offended if you start trying to put him together before he is ready. It is hard for me because we have been pushed out of our comfort zone. I think it bothers me most because I am supposed to start working with a new trainer in a couple of weeks, and I don't want anyone to see this. I want them to see what he is like after he is warmed up and we are together. We went into the ring cold, no warm up, so in her defense she can only school what she saw. She saw what appeared to be a lazy horse. In our defense though, I feel like we never get warmed up doing it her way, we work tighter and tighter, instead of warming up, loosening and improving. Please help me thru this, some one. Will he eventually become conditioned to this work and warm up quicker and use himself better? Or am I simply creating more tension and going backwards as fast and furiously as I am trying to send him forwards? How do I handle this problem in lessons with my new trainer? Do I warm up early, not letting her see what we are doing? Thanks for any and all advice.
- Lisa
ANSWER:
"Forward" is really a state of mind. A horse can be "forward" in any gait, or any variation of each gait, from working trot to extended trot to piaffe. "Forward" is really a willingness to respond to the rider's request to go forward readily, without nagging or excessive aids. Some horses are more naturally "forward thinking" than others. Those that don't come by it naturally have to be taught to respond to the whip by moving energetically forward. I should briefly mention here that it is also important to remove any contradiction in the rider's seat, aids, or intentions that can conflict with the requests to move forward.
Now, having said this, "forward" does not mean rushing around like an idiot. However, with a horse severely behind the aids, it may be necessary to move the horse briskly off of the whip. At first the horse *may* RUN forward, and the rider may need to - at first - accept this momentarily, as it is always a more favorable option to have the horse move forward energetically off of the whip than to ignore the aids, suck back further, or completely resist the driving aids. At first, any response is preferable to no response. A momentary loss of relaxation is not necessarily a bad thing if it improves the horse's ultimate response to the driving aids, and the relaxation can be reestablished soon thereafter. Once the horse has moved forward off of the whip (generally not something that should take 1.5 hours to achieve unless your horse is severely disturbed and so behind the aids he is dangerous), the rider can modify the "fowardness" that is offered so that the horse moves in an acceptable tempo and in balance... quickly utilizing the forward energy and desire to improve the horse's way of going to his ultimate benefit.
Moving forward off of the driving aids, and keeping the willingness to move forward off of the driving aids, must become a status quo for the horse. The horse must learn to maintain this, of his own accord, without the rider having to nag or remind the horse of his responsibility. I always teach my horses that it is their responsibility to maintain the gait (until told otherwise), maintain the tempo (until told otherwise), and maintain the energy level (until told otherwise). If you find that you are having to work harder and harder to keep your horse moving, your job in this department is not yet done.
It goes without saying that it is not desirable to have our horse RUNNING away from our aids. It is never a goal in dressage to have our horse travelling too fast, on the forehand and unbalanced, with stiff hindlegs and back that are not swinging. It also goes without saying that, in dressage, we strive to ride with finer and finer aids, increasing in sophistication, effectiveness, and precision. A horse running around wildly is in a very crude stage of his training, and no sophisticated riding can be achieved while the horse is either running away from the aids, or behind the aids.
Additionally, desire/willingness to move forward, obedience and responsiveness to the aids (the willingness of the horse to respond to the driving aids by stepping energetically forward with the hindleg) can be further improved by the use of lateral movements such as turn on the forehand in motion, full pass, shoulder-in, haunches-in, etc. Some horses develop better desire and willingness to move forward through the judicious use of combinations of lateral movements, in varying intensity and application. Some so-called "lazy" horses unleash their untapped potential and desire to move forward when the rider mindfully applies these simple exercises.
The horse must be willing to not only go forward, but to also stop, turn, bend, and move away from the leg. The horse must also learn to respond to our weight and rein aids, in order for us to help them achieve a higher level of balance, way of going, and responsiveness. All of these components work artistically together to guide and mold the horse into the well-trained, responsive, light, supple, balanced, and willing horse we all wish to ride.
-Shana Ritter
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Last Update: January 13, 2007