Posts Tagged ‘forehand’

How do you know when a horse is on the forehand or when he’s carrying himself correctly? How do you get a horse off of his forehand?

Thanks in advance for answers!

Leg-yielding is an elementary exercise that should be taught on a circle (although at times it is asked for on a straight line or diagonal). It is used mainly to teach the horse to move away from the rider’s leg pressure. Once the horse is responsive, the objective is complete, and the horse should be moved towards the more beneficial shoulder-in. I believe leg-yielding has become too popular, for two reasons. First, it is required in some first-level dressage tests, so too much emphasis is placed on “schooling” for this movement. Second, it is much easier to produce than shoulder-in.

To perform leg-yielding, the horse is led onto the circle and the rider’s inside leg, used behind the girth, pushes the hindquarters out. It is easy for the horse; he is not required to maintain this bend and can easily let his hindquarters “fall out”. The horse may thus be denied the strength and balance building required in more advanced movements. He can, in fact, perform this exercise with his weight primarily on his forehand, in effect pushing himself thought the movement instead of carrying it.

Overuse of leg-yielding is not beneficial to the horse’s physical development and will only add to his resistance when he is asked to perform movements that require suppleness, bending and collection.

Shoulder-in, on the other hand, benefits the horse in many ways. The correct execution of this movement will increase the flexion of the hind legs, thereby enabling the hindquarters to carry more weight. This, in turn, allows freer more supple movement of the shoulders. It also increases the horse’s ability to collect and extend paces, and will help to improve the canter departs (again, because the movement develops the hindquarters, and lightens the forehand).

When these exercises are analyzed, shoulder-in is clearly more beneficial, from the fundamental physical development of the horse, to eventual progress to higher levels. Leg-yielding should be used minimally, with knowledge and care. I encourage anyone concerned with the correct development of the sport horse to consider this important issue.

Adrienne Neary lives and trains horses in Maine. She founded a company called Wingspan Arts International, which specializes in quality Equine Products and expert Equine Consultations. http://www.wingspanartsintl.com

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Shoulder-in is the father of the advanced lateral dressage movements. It does many wonderful things for your horse. Here are just some of them:

1. Shoulder-in is a suppling exercise because it stretches and loosens the muscles and ligaments of the inside shoulder and forearm. During shoulder-in, your horse passes his inside foreleg in front of his outside foreleg. This motion increases his ability to move his forearm gymnastically in other movements.

2. It’s also a straightening exercise because you should always straighten your horse by bringing his forehand in front of his hindquarters. Never try to straighten him by leg yielding his hindquarters out behind his shoulders.

3. Shoulder-in is also a collecting exercise. It increases your horse’s self-carriage because he lowers his inside hip with each step. As a result, his center of gravity shifts back toward his hind legs. His hindquarters carry more weight, and his front end elevates.

What Does Shoulder-In look like?

The horse flexes to the inside, and bends around your inside leg. His forehand comes in 30 degrees off the wall so he’s on three tracks. At this angle his inside hind leg lines up behind his outside foreleg.

Sometimes in competition, the judge likes to see a hoof’s width more than three tracks. But don’t bring the forehand in more than that, or you’ll lose the bend.

What Are the Aids?

If you’re doing left shoulder-in, the aids are:

1. Put your weight on your left seat bone.
2. Keep your left leg on the girth for bend and to ask for engagement of the inside hind leg.
3. Place your right leg behind the girth to prevent the hindquarters from swinging out.
4. Use your left rein to create a +1 flexion at poll.
5. Keep your right rein steady and supporting to prevent too much bend in the neck.
6. Keep both hands low and equidistant from your body as you move them to the left. Move them to the left enough to place the outside front leg in front of the inside hind leg. Use your inside rein as an opening rein. Bring your outside hand very close to the withers, but never let that hand cross over the withers.

What’s the Sequence of Aids?

Always ask for bend before you ask for angle. The formula for the advanced lateral exercises is: Bend + Sideways = Engagement. (It’s NOT Sideways + Bend=Engagement.)

* Make a 10-meter circle (or ride a corner with a 10-meter arc) to bend your horse.
* You’ll know your horse is bending easily when you can soften the contact on the inside rein, and he stays bent by himself. He’ll also feel like he’s “giving” in his rib cage. (i.e. If you’re circling to the right, his rib cage feels like it’s bulging to the left.)
* Once he’s bending nicely, start a second 10-meter circle.
* Interrupt that circle during the first step, and continue down the long side.
* To interrupt the circle, look straight down the long side, and give a squeeze with your inside leg.
* Bring both hands to the inside to place the forehand 30 degrees away from the wall.
* Make sure you do shoulder-in with the same amount of bend and angle in both directions. Don’t ride on three tracks in one direction and on three and a half tracks in the other.

How Can You Tell If You’re Doing a Good Shoulder-in?

* The quality of the shoulder-in really comes down to BEND.
* You know your horse is bending if his hindquarters are in exactly the same position (i.e.parallel to the wall) in shoulder-in as they are when you’re just riding straight down the track.
* If his hindquarters swing out at an angle to the wall, you’re just doing a leg yield in a shoulder-in position.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques?
Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence?
Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach?
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Author: Jane Savoie
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I often hear riders at the basic levels say that their dressage horses are collected. I assume they’re confused and are actually talking about connection as opposed to collection.

But since I run across this confusion a lot, I want to take some time to explain how to evaluate whether or not a horse is collected.

Many people think that when a horse is collected, he just takes shorter, slower steps. But you can shorten a horse’s strides without actually collecting him.

Think about three things in terms of collecting any gait.

1. The steps are shortened, but the rhythm and tempo stay the same as they were when the steps were longer.

2. The center of gravity must shift back toward the hind legs. That is, there is a loading of the hind legs. In nature, a horse has approximately 60% of his weight on his front legs and 40% on his hind legs. As you collect the horse, you gradually shift that center of gravity back to the hind legs. As a result, the horse begins to take more weight on the hind legs so his forehead can be lighter and freer.

3. When a horse is collected he bends the joints of his hind legs. As a result, his croup lowers and his forehand elevates. Look at the top of his withers and compare it to the top of his croup. In this balance, he’ll have the silhouette or outline of an airplane taking off, or a seesaw where one end is pushed down and the other end goes up.

It’s very important you don’t get fooled into thinking that a horse with a high head and neck carriage is necessarily collected. That’s because if the horse is “hand-ridden”, the rider can lift his head and neck up. But if the rider does this, the withers will stay low. And if the withers are low and the croup is high, there is no collection.

So when you evaluate whether or not a dressage horse is truly collected think about those three things–a shortening of the frame, a loading of the hind legs, and the relative height of the top of the withers to the top of the croup.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques?
Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence?v Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach?
Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/ or http://www.dressagementor.com

Author: Jane Savoie
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You’ve probably heard lots of discussion about whether or not to work your dressage horse “deep.” There are a variety of opinions on the matter. Some riders warm up and cool down their horses “long and low” to stretch and loosen the muscles. Others always school in a balance and frame appropriate to the level at which they are working; they never stretch their horses. Many trainers school in a deep frame only during the movements when the horse habitually comes above the bit. Still others do all of their work “extremely deep” with the horse’s nose almost on his chest; they bring him up only when they are getting ready to compete.

So what should you do with your dressage horse? Use benign antagonism to help you decide.

Let’s say you’re riding a “dirt sucker.” This horse leans so heavily on the forehand that you feel like you’re somersaulting around the arena. With a horse like this, it’s best to ride him more “up.” That’s because his version of long and low is not a good one. Yes, his head and neck stretch down and out. But my concern is with his hindquarters. If his hind legs are trailing out behind his body, and he’s pushing himself heavily onto his forehand, he’s not in good balance. By shortening the reins and riding him a little more up, you can clear the way for his hind legs to come more underneath his body so he can carry himself better.

On the other hand, your dressage horse might be a “stargazer,” who goes around so inverted that you can almost look at him eyeball to eyeball. He travels with a short neck, a low back and his head and neck up in the air. To retrain and strengthen his topline muscles, put this horse in the opposite shape from the one he adopts on his own. Send his hind legs further underneath his body so that his back is up and his head and neck are low. Use a “connecting half halt” to change his shape (For more information on “connecting half halts”, see Train with Jane–Volume 2–Connection). Then, after giving the “connecting half halt”, allow the reins to get a bit longer so he can seek the contact forward and down.

Author: Jane Savoie
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Lots of people are confused by the difference between the dressage terms shoulder-in, shoulder-fore, and first position. They all have a place as far as straightening your dressage horse. That’s because we always straighten the horse by bringing the forehand in front of the hindquarters. Never straighten the horse by pushing his hindquarters over behind his shoulders.

Let’s talk first talk about the dressage term first position. To make your dressage horse straight, always ride him in first position.

First position teaches him “baby engagement” (bending of the joints) of his inside hind leg. If you don’t ride your dressage horse in first position (especially when his hollow side is on the inside), he’ll open the joints of his inside hind leg and place his hindquarters to the inside. As a result, he won’t carry as much weight on his inside hind leg, and it won’t get stronger.

Also, if you don’t make it a habit to ride in first position at the walk and trot, the first time you’ll really see and feel that your horse is crooked is during the canter. Your horse will put his hindquarters to the inside because you haven’t taught him the mechanics of bending the joints of his hind legs.

To differentiate between these three dressage terms, think of them in this way:

Shoulder-in is a straightening exercise. Bring your horse’s shoulders to the inside at a 30-degree angle to the track. At 30 degrees, his outside foreleg is in the same track as his inside hind leg.
Shoulder-fore is also a straightening exercise. Displace your horse’s shoulders to the inside at a 15-degree angle to the track so that each leg is traveling on it’s own track.
Think of first position as “the thought of” a shoulder-in. Use a very subtle version of shoulder-in aids to get first position. First position is not an exercise like shoulder-in and shoulder-fore. It’s simply the way you want to ride your straight horse.

Because first position is so subtle, ask a ground person to help you learn this feeling. To do this, ride toward someone who is standing at the end of the long side. If you’re in first position, she won’t be able to see your horse’s outside hind foot. That’s because it’s hidden behind the outside front leg. But she should be able to see half of a hoof’s width of the inside hind leg stepping to the inside of the inside foreleg.

When you’re first learning to ride your dressage horse in first position, you’ll probably override the angle and do shoulder-in or shoulder-fore. So it’s helpful to have a ground person or mirror so you can develop a feel for the subtlety of this position. Once you can identify this feeling, your horse will feel odd and unbalanced to you when he’s crooked.

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A lot of dressage riders are confused by the dressage terminology behind the bit and behind the vertical.

When a horse is behind the bit, he’s not connected. That’s never acceptable. It means he’s dropped the contact with your hands, and there are loops in the reins.

Your horse can be behind the vertical and still be connected. However, he will be on the forehand. I’ll go into that a little bit more next.

Sometimes, riding a horse behind the vertical can be useful in schooling to give a horse the idea of staying connected during a dressage movement he’s having trouble with such as a canter depart or leg yields.

For info on more dressage terminology, sign up for my free dressage newsletter at http://www.janesavoie.com

For a short period of time, you’d ride him connected but “deep” to give him the idea of using his body as a unit during those movements rather than disconnecting and coming hollow.

But riding your dressage horse behind the vertical isn’t acceptable for competition. In competition, you always want your horse on the bit with his poll the highest point and the nose about 5 degrees in front of the vertical.

Think of the horse’s body as a parallelogram. If the nose is behind the vertical and you draw a parallel line with the hind legs, you’d see the hind legs trailing out behind the body. That’s what I mean when I say that the horse can be connected when he’s behind the vertical, but his balance will be on the forehand.

As you bring the hind legs more under, the parallelogram shifts. The hind legs come under, the head comes up, and the nose comes more forward. Eventually the poll will be the highest point and the nose will be where you want it to be in it’s finished product-about 5 degrees in front of the vertical.

Behind the bit, however, is an entirely different story than behind the vertical. If your horse’s neck is round but he doesn’t touch the reins, he’s behind the bit. This dressage term means he’s not connected.

Connection means that you’ve connected your horse’s back end to his front end. Think of your horse’s back like a suspension bridge.

Draw reins or other gadgets won’t help your horse understand how to come on the bit.

When a horse has been ridden in gadgets like draw reins, he’ll often adopt this “behind the bit” position of a round neck with loops in the reins.

Some horses even look like they have what’s called a “broken neck”. This expression refers to the fact that the highest point of the neck is near the third vertebrae rather than at the poll.

Gadgets create a false frame so there’s no real connection. The horse sees the reins as a restriction. Rather than going through them, he sucks back away from them or breaks at the third vertebrae.

You want your horse to come from behind, over his back, through his neck, and into your hand. So, if you just focus on making the neck round by using gadgets, you’ll never really have a horse that is honestly on the bit.

Also, fiddling with the bit and/or seesawing on your horse’s mouth gives you the same false head set that you get with gadgets. Your horse will just arch his neck and bring his face on or behind the vertical. There’s no true connection from back to front.

Author: Jane Savoie
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