Ingredients for a future dressage horse with Lizzie Wilson-Fellows - FEI Rider and BHSII

This article is from the February 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Many riders struggle with the difficulty of getting their horses truly through between the leg to the hand and there are a number of important ingredients that are needed to achieve this. Sometimes the rider is unaware or cannot identify what the missing link is so here are some ingredients that could aid in self-identification of the problem.

#1 Forward

The number one most important rule for me is that the horse is in front of the leg. One of my favourite sayings is “what you allow, you create.” If you use your leg as an aid and get no reaction and do not insist on a reaction then you create a lazy horse. The leg that constantly nudges and kicks, even though the horse does not show any reaction in energy, will create a dullness to the aid. If an aid of the leg is applied, a reaction must follow and it is important that you are self-disciplined to insist on this.

#2 Natural Energy

Many young horses can be “fresh” or “highly spirited” and the amateur rider may find these type of horses too sensitive for their level of riding. Sensitive horses usually don’t cope well if the rider loses balance and they can take advantage by dislodging the rider; using their extra natural energy for evil rather than for good. The key to this style of horse is to be able to channel the energy, to give the horse an outlet rather than to try to suppress it, which can then lead to resistances such as bucking, spooking and running through the bit. Give the energy a place to go by going forward and burning off some petrol until you have a controlled amount is important for the horse to be on the aid, not running through the bit.

#3 Soft Connection

It is super important for the rider to have an elastic arm, to allow their elbow to be a spring that controls where the energy they have created with their leg and seat is allowed to flow to. If you get the reaction from the leg and the horse constantly hits into a dead hand then it will become dull in the mouth. As responsive the horse is to the leg, he must also be to the hand. When the hand is holding, the horse must accept the pressure and yield to this. Many horses are not submissive or accepting of the contact which can be caused by ill-fitting bits in their type, height or width, and also by sharp teeth, but also they can ignore the hand because they are allowed to lean against the bit and pull rather than soften to the pressure. The horse needs to be flexible to each side but also from the back to the front, the hand is the throttle to where you wish the energy you have created to go, and the throttle needs to have the sensitivity of a high powered race car rather than a 30-year-old diesel ute. Again, what we allow, we create. The hand should always be a forward-thinking hand, never pulling back to the body but more lifting towards the sky. Once riders get the feel of having the horse reactive and in front of the leg, many resort to overuse of the inside rein. This often leads to the rider yielding or throwing away the outside rein, which in turn leads to the horse falling out through the outside shoulder, creating crookedness through the whole horse.

Exercise: Circles to squares

Bending a horse is easier than having a horse truly straight. Unfortunately, riders struggle to identify that the cause is a weak outside rein and a great exercise to identify this is to change from circles to riding squares.

By riding a square it makes the rider aware of keeping the outside rein, as often they are oblivious to how much they have thrown the rein away. It is important to remember the hind foot must fall into the same track as the front footfalls, so that even on a circle they are following a straight line like that of a train on its tracks. This exercise is also useful in the canter as a start to canter pirouettes using each 90 degree corner as a quarter pirouette.

Exercise: Quick Transitions

To get the horse in front of the leg, use lots of quick transitions with an insistence on a quick reaction. Do six steps of trot to halt repeated in quick succession. Rather than trotting enless circles in the same working trot, introduce a few steps of lengthening back to collected then back to lengthening again, in only a short amount of steps.

Exercise: Rein Back To Balance

If the horse is tending to run through the bit, the rein back is a useful tool. Every time the horse gets a little too heavy, quietly bring him back to the halt and perform a rein back of at least four steps to halt, pat and then forward until he starts to wait with his balance over his hind leg. A bit like a seesaw needing to tip the weight back rather than lunge forward and down on to the front and the energy becoming earthbound with a horse heavy on the forehand. Balance is the key to a soft supple horse, the energy has to be over the hind legs.

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