Dressage is for everyone!!

This series of 3 articles was written for my free ‘Brain or Pain’ e-newsletter by Leonie Smith.  Leonie is a Grand Prix Freelance dressage trainer based in the West Midlands who has trained horses from unbacked to Grand Prix and been highly placed at the National Championships.  For details of a clinic near you see www.danesooddressage.co.uk.  To sign up to receive ‘Brain or Pain’ for free, sign up at www.holistichorsehelp.com.  Please note that inclusion of these articles is not an endorsement by Sue Palmer or Holistic Horse Help.

Part 1

I have been lucky enough to qualify over 40 horses for various Regionals and Championships and you might be surprised to know that they were not all flashy Warmbloods with amazing breeding.  I have trained Russian trotting horses, Gelderlanders, New Forest ponies, Thoroughbreds, and my favourites are the Welsh Section D’s.  Dressage does not need to be done on expensive horses, it can be used as a training tool to help your horse become more polite while out hacking, train them to be more responsive to open gates or just make them more comfortable to ride.

Although there are many different training methods the basic principle is the same, we want our horses or ponies to react to a light aid with as little resistance as possible.  This can be achieved by anyone with systematic training - yes even you!!  When you are next out hacking take note of how often you use your leg to keep your horse going.  If you have a very forward going horse then you may not use it much, but how many of you feel like if you stop kicking your horse will just stop so you have to nag with a kick every stride?  Think how uncomfortable that must be for your horse!  

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to ask your horse to go, whether you are in the school or hacking, and he or she just keeps going without you having to nag?  This is easily solved using a simple system of reward and correction that can be used for easy tasks such as asking a horse to walk from the halt to more difficult movements such as piaffe (trotting on the spot). We must always give the horse the chance to act on a light aid first.  Then if they choose to ignore it we can correct them.  If this is done every time you apply an aid (this means you have to be aware of every time your leg touches their sides) then, after a while you seldom have to correct as your horse understands what he or she has to do.  Dressage may seem very complicated but if you break it down into easy steps then anyone can have a go and be able to communicate with their horse in a more friendly effective way.

All horses have their own talent and if you train them in a sympathetic logical way you will be amazed at what you can achieve! 

Part 2 - Muscles need work to become soft and strong - like the Andrex Puppy!!

Dressage is not just about making our horses do a flashy trot or flying changes it is about making you horse athletic and supple so he or she can carry you in the most effective way.  I train my horses at home to become as supple in the back and neck as possible, which means I use a variety of techniques and don't just ride in what I call a test outline all the time.  If I feel the horse is tight over the back I might work him for a little longer in a lower frame where the horses nose is stretching down to lengthen the neck and back muscles. Every horse has different requirements, a horse that is prone to carrying a lot of tension in his back or neck might be worked for say 80% of the session in a long low frame.  If a horse has a tendency to be on the forehand I might only do 5 minutes stretching and make sure I added plenty of walk breaks.  If we only asked the amount of flexion required in a test our horses neck and backs can become very stiff.  I might also use lateral flexion of the neck to increase suppleness and ask him to hold the bend for 5 to 10 seconds to really benefit from the stretch, almost like a carrot stretch while riding!!  This technique uses the same principles as I mentioned in part 1 of ‘Dressage is for everyone!’.  I ask for the bend with a light aid and keep the pressure on until I get the required response, and then release the pressure as a way of saying thank you that is what I wanted!

This sounds very simple but there is a lot of feeling and skill required to achieve the lightness and throughness we are looking for.  If we just pull our horses round in flexion and don't let go at the right time then we will only end up with a tighter neck.  We want the horse to flex in a soft willing way to develop the muscles correctly so that when we ask for a higher frame for riding our tests we have a lovely soft supple horse whose muscles are strong enough to achieve self carriage - and get good marks from the judges because it looks easy and beautiful!

We can work on our horses muscles in other ways as well which can speed up the process - massage, physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths are all an essential part of improving any horses life.  Whether they help to improve my Grand Prix horse's extended trot or make your retired arthritic horse more comfortable I believe we have a duty of care to our horse to make them more comfortable.  Any athlete that progresses to any significant level will have to endure some form of discomfort as they push their bodies to improve.  Its our duty to make sure our horses are pain free - they can only tell us by being naughty or going lame!!  I don't like to leave it until that stage so I get my horses treated by a Chartered Veterinary Physiotherapist every month but there are many ways to help from simple massage done yourself, to massage pads or tens machines, to professional therapy.

Part 3 - Happy horses get better marks!!

I am a great believer in making sure your horse enjoys his work.  I think so much more can be achieved if you horse wants to do what your asking rather than of he is forced to do it from fear or pain.  I always bear in mind my horses’ temperament, and how horses learn and process things is essentially important to how we train.  My sessions always involve short periods of work followed by a short walk break on the buckle once something has improved.  These breaks, which can be up to 6 or more in a 45 minute session, are in my opinion key to having a happy horse. 

Imagine the horse holding his head and neck on the bit and then think of this analogy. If I gave you a jug of water with a little water in and asked you to hold the jug out at arms length - easy you say!  Then imagine after 5 minutes I add some more water (ask the horse to trot while being on the bit), still OK so far.  Then I fill the jug right up and ask you to hold it for 45 minutes - (ie trot for 45 minutes on the bit and do a half pass with no break) - not quite so nice now!!!  You can imagine how your back muscles would start to burn, arms would ache and it would be very uncomfortable.  If you could put the jug down for 5 mins every once in a while it would be easy!! Once you practised this a bit more often, you muscles would become stronger and you could hold the jug more comfortably for longer periods. This is the same for the horse, not only for their muscles to have a break but also for their brains to process what has been asked of them. If you break the learning process down into easy manageable tasks the horse will be happy to learn and want to do more.  If you ask for the impossible and over work the muscles when they are not strong enough and then follow that up with a reprimand when its not achieved your horse will switch off and either be naughty or just stop caring about his work and become numb.  I believe horses do not just wake up one day and decide to be naughty - they are either being over faced or are in pain.  I really believe I can achieve more from a horse by just asking nicely and by being fair. 

Next time your horse is naughty see if you can see it from his side, are your aids being clear, are you asking the impossible?  Happy horses always give that bit extra when you need it and I am far happier getting 65% on a happy horse which I know will get better scores as they improve than getting 70% once by forcing him through fear.  This will always come back to bite you in the bottom!!!!