When trying to find your balance, whether for posting at the trot, jumping a fence, or anything in between - you will always be in one of three positions: Either ahead of the motion (too far forward), behind the motion (too far back), or exactly with the motion (perfect). If you have a strong tendency to be in one of the positions other than perfect… say you are often a bit too far forward, don't be discouraged if you find yourself going the other way (too far back) when trying to break your bad habit and make a change. It is a perfectly normal part of the process of finding your balance. Riders will almost always teeter back and forth over that line…. sometimes a bit too far forward, and sometimes a bit too far back, before they find that perfect middle ground.
"Many people think, what is piaffe, piaffe is something the top riders do in Grand Prix – no, no, no, that is not right. Piaffe is something you use to train your horse, to make the horse more together and more balanced. You can start the piaffe right from the beginning, even with a five year old horse, you can start to do it in the hand on the ground, or also when you are riding, and that helps make the steps of the horse more controllable, and out of that you have a much more beautiful stride forward, and a much more beautiful stride sideways." ~ Rafael Soto
"Every horse is different, but you learn to compare, what to do in this moment with this particular horse, and that takes time. Dressage doesn’t go fast, this is the difference between our young riders and our more experienced riders." ~ Reiner Klimke
"I never really work a horse for longer than four or five minutes [at a time.] I want to take a quick break, and then we go again. Any of you who’ve worked out know how much a break of 30 seconds can help. It gets some oxygen back into the muscles." ~ Steffen Peters
"I want any rider approaching any jump to concentrate on rhythm. They should concentrate on HOW they get there, not where they get to." ~ Jimmy Wofford
"Beware of the modern day notion that a person can 'invent' a new horse training method. There are no quick and easy ways. Truth is that the training of a horse is a study, a craft, an art. Training takes patience and the knowledge develops over many years. Many of the principals by the horse-masters are principals that are not ready to be understood until they have been experienced. The experience takes many years to acquire and many different horses to acquire it from. The principals can be built upon and expanded and explained with different nuances of the language, but it cannot be reinvented." ~ Xenophon
Remember that even a COW can jump a 3 foot fence from a standstill... if it wants to. So never worry about whether or not your horse has enough scope to do lower level eventing or jumping. The bigger issue is whether or not you can keep him balanced at the canter.
The key to a successful transition back into a working trot after a stretching trot is to ride forward as you are adjusting the reins, while maintaining the bend. Note that "forward" does not mean faster! Read all about forward here.
Riding out in the fields over undulating terrain helps a rider to develop a good, solid seat much more quickly than riding around and around in the ring.
To be the most successful when dealing with horses, you need to be a fair, calm, and confident "herd leader" to them, whether in the saddle or on the ground.
"There is one principle that should never be abandoned when training a horse, namely, that the rider must learn to control himself before he can control his horse. This is the basic, most important principle to be preserved in equitation." ~ Alois Podhajsky
It can be more difficult for a rider to improve their jumping when they only have one horse to ride. Since it is not usually a good idea to jump a horse more than a few times a week, it is smart to take advantage of the many ground pole exercises available to practice the many skills that produce good jumping.
From Facebook fan Jennifer Stankiewicz ~ "When your horse loses his 'go', try sitting lighter, not deeper. I find on my mare, when I'm loosing impulsion, I'm gripping or riding too deep and when I just relax my legs and drape them and use my hips more, my horse goes forward. Sometimes that means standing for a split second and readjusting my seat to get lighter but it works!"
"The horse will work out the distance if the line looks sensible to him, so ride a good line, in balance, and don't try to overly manage the stride length." ~ Chris Bartle
If your horse is not honestly in front of your leg, every single movement will be negatively effected. And things like "throughness" and collection will never happen for you.
Varying the degree of your half pass can improve your horse’s suppleness from all angles, as well as increasing his responsiveness to your aids within the movement. In other words, while going in half pass across the diagonal, half halt, and do a few strides with a steeper angle (more sideways than forward), then go forward again.
"The horse must perform from joy, not subservience. Praising a horse frequently with voice, a gentle pat, or relaxing the reins is very important to keep the horse interested and willing." ~ Klaus Balkenhol
Some horses find it easier to make a smooth transition into canter from the walk rather than the trot. If you have a horse like this, it's ok to practice mostly walk to canter transitions at home for a while (even though lower level horses always go from trot to canter in the Dressage tests.) With repetition of quality walk to canter transitions, the horse will become stronger and better balanced in both walk to canter and trot to canter.
"I often tell my students that the outside rein is like the vinyl wall of an above-ground pool; elastic, stretchy and flexible, but enough of a boundary to keep the 'water in the pool.'" ~ Elise Vandover
"A horse which doesn’t relax the mandibular and the tongue muscles cannot be entirely relaxed. That is why it is so important that the horse accepts the bit, and the sign of that is the actively and relaxed chewing." ~ Christian Thiess
"The better my dressage transitions are, the better the thoroughness, it means the horse can go from very fast, to very balanced and collected on the hindquarters, energy from behind, through – no argument with the bit – because the transition is through and fine, the horse can focus on the jump." ~ Ingrid Klimke
From Facebook fan Joan Dunlap ~ "You must conquer your own fears, lack of knowledge and short-comings before you can even start to help your horse with theirs."
It takes an experienced instructor to know whether a rider who has lost their confidence needs to move back to smaller jumps and more simple exercises, or if that rider instead needs to be shown the exact techniques that are going to fix their problem, and then pushed hard, so they can see how easily they really CAN do it.
"Do your warm up trot sets with shorter stirrups in a two point instead of posting. If you listen closely, you can hear me laughing… most of us cannot trot in two point for three five minute sets, much less stay there for our conditioning sets. Even though you will probably fail, stick with it. Make a project of your fitness while you condition your horse." ~ Jimmy Wofford
While the distance in between the jumps is a big deciding factor in the speed and length of stride that you should approach with... generally approaching a combination or complex off of a shorter, bouncier stride will give you more options.
Many riders think too much about stopping in downward transitions... meaning they won't be truly riding forward. This will likely cause the horse to brace against the hand, and/or to lose the activity of the hind legs. Instead, try thinking of changing gears without losing any of the energy and activity in the hind legs.
To help keep your horse uphill when spiraling in on a circle, imagine that you are going up a spiral staircase. With each stride inward on the spiral, grow taller and think about going up an imaginary step.
Always keep in mind that you need to engage your horse's brain to get him to truly think forward. Your goal should not be to merely get his feet moving, but to ignite the area of his brain that makes him decide to want to move forward. Only when your horse really wants to go forward do you truly have a forward horse... no matter how fast you are actually traveling.
Eventers need to make sure that the saddle that they use for cross country is truly suitable. The flap needs to be forward enough to give you room to easily push your feet out in front of you for security whenever necessary (such as galloping downhill, drop into water, deep mud on a downhill landing, etc.)
If you are riding any transition on a curve, do not forget to maintain your inside bend and flexion throughout the transition. This will help you to keep the horse straight (aligned to the curve), balanced, and connected.
