Series: Dressage : A biomechanically founded and artistically cultivated system of training
This article: Understanding aiding –science and art interwoven: Part I
Last quarter we took a brief look at the biomechanical foundation which dressage schooling is built upon for both horse and rider. Now we’ll begin to discuss aiding. Regardless of discipline, the basic goal in riding is for the rider to feel balanced and comfortable in the saddle, for the horse to feel balanced and comfortable under saddle, and for the horse to do what the rider asks with as little resistance as possible. Sometimes the demands can seem pretty daunting! It is important for the rider to understand what she is asking in order to expect her horse to understand well enough to offer an acceptable response.
Rhythm down to a science
Teaching your horse to be forward and therefore in front of your aids is where dressage training begins. To start, your horse must be able to maintain an industrious rhythm at the walk, trot, and canter. Use your driving aids – seat, leg, spur, and whip – to establish an industrious rhythm. Once established, use your seat to maintain it, and your leg, spur, and/or whip to correct your horse when he slows down and falls behind the rhythm of your seat. An industrious walk means forward enough at the walk you feel as if he could almost trot. An industrious trot means forward enough at the trot you feel he could almost canter. An industrious canter means you can feel your horse bound both up and forward with each stride.
First let‘s look at how to use your driving aids to establish an industrious rhythm and to correct your horse when he slows. To teach your horse to respond to a light driving aid, always be mindful to apply your driving aids in levels. At first ask him to move forward with more energy using a stronger seat aid (instructions on that in a minute) and by lengthening your leg. By increasing contact between your leg and your horse’s side, lengthening your leg is the lightest way to apply your leg – level 1. If your horse doesn’t respond within two strides, tighten your upper calf around his belly and pull slightly up toward your seat. Feel as if you are pinching your horse’s barrel between your calf and your seat bones. Your heel should stay down or level while you use your calf. This is the second lightest use of the leg – level 2. If he doesn’t respond within two strides, move up to level 3. Level 3 driving aid adds in pressing spur. Draw your heel up, drawing both spurs up into his abdomen. If this doesn’t work, level 4 is to tap or kick with the spur and/or tap or pop his haunch with the whip. If you reach level 4 the goal is to be dramatic enough with your spur/whip to get a, “I better get going!” response from your horse and wake him up to your driving aids. Allow him to jump forward for several strides, tell him good, and softly bring him back to the rhythm you want. Whenever your horse does respond to your driving aid, no matter the level, release the aid immediately and praise him. Wait until he makes the mistake of slowing again and start over with level 1.
Practice this next time you ride. Be diligent about applying your driving aids in levels. Each time you reach level 4, use your spur/whip to elicit a surprised reaction from your horse. Each time he responds to your driving aid, completely release the aid and praise him. You want to be as black and white as possible in this aspect of training. It may seem tedious at first, but I guarantee if you improve the response to your driving aids, the response to your other aids will improve as well.
Rhythm and the rider’s seat
Now that you are effectively getting the industrious rhythm you need in each gait, the next step is to be able to maintain the rhythm with your seat. Start by doing the breathing exercise from last quarter’s article a couple of times to lower your center of gravity and connect your seat to your horse’s back. At the walk your seat bones follow the swing of your horse’s hind legs, falling forward and diagonally down towards the withers one at a time. Your left seat bone moves forward and diagonally down as your horse’s left hind takes a step forward and then takes weight, and your right seat bone with your horse’s right hind leg. Use the exhale portion of your breathing exercise to engage your core (abdominals, side abdominals, and lower back) and use these muscles to push your seat bones alternately forward and down towards the withers. Both seat bones move once per stride. If you’re not sure when each hind leg is stepping forward, ride on a sunny day so you can see your shadow. It will be easiest to feel the swing of your horse’s hind legs when he is marching forward industriously.
Once you find your seat bones, catch the rhythm, and then make it your own. Practice walking around the whole arena, changing direction, and walking different patterns while maintaining the walk seat and walk rhythm with your seat bones. Practice it while hacking out on trails or in the field. Practice it until it becomes second nature.
Let’s begin discussing the posting trot by remembering the importance of maintaining your centered or neutral pelvic angle. Each time you are in the sit or down phase of the posing trot, you should feel as if you could transition into the walk or canter without needing to reposition or re-angle your seat. Post the trot by rotating on your thigh. Do not post the trot by standing in your stirrups or by pushing your bum out behind you. As you rise, roll your upper leg forward, allowing your weight to rest on (but not gripping with) your upper thigh. As you sit, allow the thigh to roll back. You will find posting in this manner allows your post to remain low and therefore connected to the horse’s back, even in the up phase. At the posting trot, following the swing of your horse’s inside hind leg ensures your hip rotation mirrors your horse’s and that your hips don’t stiffen as you post. Your horse’s inside hind leg moves forward as you rise for each post. Even though you are rising out of the saddle, your inside seat bone moves forward and towards your horse’s wither.
Practice changing rhythm in the trot, changing direction, and doing transitions into and out of the posting trot until it becomes easy for you to find and maintain this connected post. Remember to use your driving aids in levels to reinforce the rhythm of your seat as you teach your horse to follow your seat and maintain the rhythm with you.
In the sitting trot, follow the swing of both of your horse’s hind legs as you did in the walk. You can know when each hind leg is stepping forward at the trot by watching your horse’s shoulders. Each seat bone should move forward and diagonally down as your horse’s shoulder on the same side comes back towards you. The sitting trot is far easier when you lead the rhythm with your seat rather than try to follow the rhythm set by the horse. I mentally repeat to myself, “trot, trot, trot, trot” to remind myself to keep my hips loose and seat bones moving every stride. At first it will be easiest to practice the sitting trot in a less-than-industrious trot. As you build strength, practice both moving your horse forward and bringing him back in the trot with your seat. Move your horse into a more forward trot by emphasizing the forward part of the forward and diagonally down motion with your seat. Ask him to come back to a less forward trot by emphasizing the diagonally down part of the forward and diagonally down motion with your seat. Maintain just as much engagement or strength in your core and seat when you ask your horse to come back as you do sending him forward. If you do not, you will lose your ability to control the rhythm of the gait.
It is not important that you are able to sit the trot at this stage. If you enjoy practicing it, then do. When your horse moves into an industrious trot and it gets difficult to sit, then post. If you don’t enjoy the sitting trot at all, it is ok to post all the time. In the future, as your seat gets stronger, you will come back to the sitting trot and it will be easier. You may find that certain exercises or transitions are easier while sitting the trot and others are easier while posting. Making note of such will enable your seat to best support your balance and that of your horse. This is the goal: a supportive, balanced, communicative seat.
In the canter, your horse’s inside hind demonstrates a much greater range of motion than his outside hind. For this reason, follow only the swing of your horse’s inside hind leg with your inside seat bone. With each canter stride, your inside seat bone moves forward and diagonally down towards your horse’s withers. Your horse’s inside hind moves forward just before his inside shoulder moves forward. The proper timing for your seat bone swing is therefore when your horse’s inside shoulder is back. I mentally repeat to myself, “canter seat, canter seat, canter seat,” to remind myself to repeat the seat motion every stride. Practice both leads and transitions between the trot and canter to minimize loss of seat bone swing and maximize rhythm control with your seat.
Once you are comfortable with your canter seat it is not difficult to lengthen or shorten your horse’s canter stride with your seat. Core muscular engagement for the canter seat is very similar to the core muscular engagement during swinging. If you ever pumped the swing higher with your seat, the same motion and muscular engagement will lengthen your horse’s canter stride. By exaggerating the forward motion of your canter seat and directing the energy from your inside seat bone, through your horse’s withers, and toward his opposite ear, your horse’s canter stride will grow bigger over several strides. To shorten the canter stride, try to sit especially heavy and minimize the range of motion of your canter seat by focusing on the diagonally down motion of the seat bone rather than the forward. A big swing motion will lengthen the canter and a small swing motion will shorten it, but both efforts with the seat should be equally strong. The key with the shortening seat is to keep it quick and to keep it strongly connected into your horse’s back. If you allow your rhythm to slow or if your seat lightens in the saddle, your horse will likely break to a trot. While you are trying some lengthening and shortening, think about the difference in the way you are using your seat as where you are sending the energy. In a lengthening you are sending the energy from your horse’s hind legs out in front of you. To shorten the stride, you are cycling the energy back under your seat and collecting (literally) it there. Remember that your horse’s ability to lengthen and shorten any gait depends on his level of fitness and understanding of the aids. Remember to use your driving aids to reinforce your seat keep your horse industrious whether lengthening or shortening his stride.
To recap, it is the job of the rider’s seat to communicate rhythm in each gait. The rider uses driving aids applied in levels to reinforce the rhythm set by the seat when need be. It is important to remember to separate your seat and leg aids. Allowing your legs to work every stride with your seat is a common mistake. Be mindful that when you take your leg off, your seat continues to set the rhythm. Practice pairing your walk seat, trot seat, and canter seat together for smooth transitions between the gaits. Keep in mind the goal is a supportive, balanced, communicative seat.
Works Cited:
Benedik, Linda. Longeing the Rider for a Perfect Seat. Trafalgar Square, 2007.
Gryson, Natalya V. “Dressage : A Biomechanically Founded and Artistically Cultivated System of Training.” Terry Naturally Animal Health Expert Advice, Terry Naturally Animal Health, 1 Jan. 2020, www.tnanimalhealth.com/blog/post/?slug=DRESSAGE.
Next time: Understanding aiding –science and art interwoven: Part II
Series: Dressage :
A biomechanically founded and artistically cultivated system of training
This article: Understanding aiding—science and art interwoven: Part I
Last quarter we took a brief look at the biomechanical foundation which dressage schooling is built upon for both horse and rider. Now we’ll begin to discuss aiding. Regardless of discipline, the basic goal in riding is for the rider to feel balanced and comfortable in the saddle, for the horse to feel balanced and comfortable under saddle, and for the horse to do what the rider asks with as little resistance as possible. Sometimes the demands can seem pretty daunting! It is important for the rider to understand what she is asking in order to expect her horse to understand well enough to offer an acceptable response.
Rhythm down to a science
Teaching your horse to be forward and therefore in front of your aids is where dressage training begins. To start, your horse must be able to maintain an industrious rhythm at the walk, trot, and canter. Use your driving aids – seat, leg, spur, and whip – to establish an industrious rhythm. Once established, use your seat to maintain it, and your leg, spur, and/or whip to correct your horse when he slows down and falls behind the rhythm of your seat. An industrious walk means forward enough at the walk you feel as if he could almost trot. An industrious trot means forward enough at the trot you feel he could almost canter. An industrious canter means you can feel your horse bound both up and forward with each stride.
First let‘s look at how to use your driving aids to establish an industrious rhythm and to correct your horse when he slows. To teach your horse to respond to a light driving aid, always be mindful to apply your driving aids in levels. At first ask him to move forward with more energy using a stronger seat aid (instructions on that in a minute) and by lengthening your leg. By increasing contact between your leg and your horse’s side, lengthening your leg is the lightest way to apply your leg – level 1. If your horse doesn’t respond within two strides, tighten your upper calf around his belly and pull slightly up toward your seat. Feel as if you are pinching your horse’s barrel between your calf and your seat bones. Your heel should stay down or level while you use your calf. This is the second lightest use of the leg – level 2. If he doesn’t respond within two strides, move up to level 3. Level 3 driving aid adds in pressing spur. Draw your heel up, drawing both spurs up into his abdomen. If this doesn’t work, level 4 is to tap or kick with the spur and/or tap or pop his haunch with the whip. If you reach level 4 the goal is to be dramatic enough with your spur/whip to get a, “I better get going!” response from your horse and wake him up to your driving aids. Allow him to jump forward for several strides, tell him good, and softly bring him back to the rhythm you want. Whenever your horse does respond to your driving aid, no matter the level, release the aid immediately and praise him. Wait until he makes the mistake of slowing again and start over with level 1.
Practice this next time you ride. Be diligent about applying your driving aids in levels. Each time you reach level 4, use your spur/whip to elicit a surprised reaction from your horse. Each time he responds to your driving aid, completely release the aid and praise him. You want to be as black and white as possible in this aspect of training. It may seem tedious at first, but I guarantee if you improve the response to your driving aids, the response to your other aids will improve as well.
Rhythm and the rider’s seat
Now that you are effectively getting the industrious rhythm you need in each gait, the next step is to be able to maintain the rhythm with your seat. Start by doing the breathing exercise from last quarter’s article a couple of times to lower your center of gravity and connect your seat to your horse’s back. At the walk your seat bones follow the swing of your horse’s hind legs, falling forward and diagonally down towards the withers one at a time. Your left seat bone moves forward and diagonally down as your horse’s left hind takes a step forward and then takes weight, and your right seat bone with your horse’s right hind leg. Use the exhale portion of your breathing exercise to engage your core (abdominals, side abdominals, and lower back) and use these muscles to push your seat bones alternately forward and down towards the withers. Both seat bones move once per stride. If you’re not sure when each hind leg is stepping forward, ride on a sunny day so you can see your shadow. It will be easiest to feel the swing of your horse’s hind legs when he is marching forward industriously.
Once you find your seat bones, catch the rhythm, and then make it your own. Practice walking around the whole arena, changing direction, and walking different patterns while maintaining the walk seat and walk rhythm with your seat bones. Practice it while hacking out on trails or in the field. Practice it until it becomes second nature.
Let’s begin discussing the posting trot by remembering the importance of maintaining your centered or neutral pelvic angle. Each time you are in the sit or down phase of the posing trot, you should feel as if you could transition into the walk or canter without needing to reposition or re-angle your seat. Post the trot by rotating on your thigh. Do not post the trot by standing in your stirrups or by pushing your bum out behind you. As you rise, roll your upper leg forward, allowing your weight to rest on (but not gripping with) your upper thigh. As you sit, allow the thigh to roll back. You will find posting in this manner allows your post to remain low and therefore connected to the horse’s back, even in the up phase. At the posting trot, following the swing of your horse’s inside hind leg ensures your hip rotation mirrors your horse’s and that your hips don’t stiffen as you post. Your horse’s inside hind leg moves forward as you rise for each post. Even though you are rising out of the saddle, your inside seat bone moves forward and towards your horse’s wither.
Practice changing rhythm in the trot, changing direction, and doing transitions into and out of the posting trot until it becomes easy for you to find and maintain this connected post. Remember to use your driving aids in levels to reinforce the rhythm of your seat as you teach your horse to follow your seat and maintain the rhythm with you.
In the sitting trot, follow the swing of both of your horse’s hind legs as you did in the walk. You can know when each hind leg is stepping forward at the trot by watching your horse’s shoulders. Each seat bone should move forward and diagonally down as your horse’s shoulder on the same side comes back towards you. The sitting trot is far easier when you lead the rhythm with your seat rather than try to follow the rhythm set by the horse. I mentally repeat to myself, “trot, trot, trot, trot” to remind myself to keep my hips loose and seat bones moving every stride. At first it will be easiest to practice the sitting trot in a less-than-industrious trot. As you build strength, practice both moving your horse forward and bringing him back in the trot with your seat. Move your horse into a more forward trot by emphasizing the forward part of the forward and diagonally down motion with your seat. Ask him to come back to a less forward trot by emphasizing the diagonally down part of the forward and diagonally down motion with your seat. Maintain just as much engagement or strength in your core and seat when you ask your horse to come back as you do sending him forward. If you do not, you will lose your ability to control the rhythm of the gait.
It is not important that you are able to sit the trot at this stage. If you enjoy practicing it, then do. When your horse moves into an industrious trot and it gets difficult to sit, then post. If you don’t enjoy the sitting trot at all, it is ok to post all the time. In the future, as your seat gets stronger, you will come back to the sitting trot and it will be easier. You may find that certain exercises or transitions are easier while sitting the trot and others are easier while posting. Making note of such will enable your seat to best support your balance and that of your horse. This is the goal: a supportive, balanced, communicative seat.
In the canter, your horse’s inside hind demonstrates a much greater range of motion than his outside hind. For this reason, follow only the swing of your horse’s inside hind leg with your inside seat bone. With each canter stride, your inside seat bone moves forward and diagonally down towards your horse’s withers. Your horse’s inside hind moves forward just before his inside shoulder moves forward. The proper timing for your seat bone swing is therefore when your horse’s inside shoulder is back. I mentally repeat to myself, “canter seat, canter seat, canter seat,” to remind myself to repeat the seat motion every stride. Practice both leads and transitions between the trot and canter to minimize loss of seat bone swing and maximize rhythm control with your seat.
Once you are comfortable with your canter seat it is not difficult to lengthen or shorten your horse’s canter stride with your seat. Core muscular engagement for the canter seat is very similar to the core muscular engagement during swinging. If you ever pumped the swing higher with your seat, the same motion and muscular engagement will lengthen your horse’s canter stride. By exaggerating the forward motion of your canter seat and directing the energy from your inside seat bone, through your horse’s withers, and toward his opposite ear, your horse’s canter stride will grow bigger over several strides. To shorten the canter stride, try to sit especially heavy and minimize the range of motion of your canter seat by focusing on the diagonally down motion of the seat bone rather than the forward. A big swing motion will lengthen the canter and a small swing motion will shorten it, but both efforts with the seat should be equally strong. The key with the shortening seat is to keep it quick and to keep it strongly connected into your horse’s back. If you allow your rhythm to slow or if your seat lightens in the saddle, your horse will likely break to a trot. While you are trying some lengthening and shortening, think about the difference in the way you are using your seat as where you are sending the energy. In a lengthening you are sending the energy from your horse’s hind legs out in front of you. To shorten the stride, you are cycling the energy back under your seat and collecting (literally) it there. Remember that your horse’s ability to lengthen and shorten any gait depends on his level of fitness and understanding of the aids. Remember to use your driving aids to reinforce your seat keep your horse industrious whether lengthening or shortening his stride.
To recap, it is the job of the rider’s seat to communicate rhythm in each gait. The rider uses driving aids applied in levels to reinforce the rhythm set by the seat when need be. It is important to remember to separate your seat and leg aids. Allowing your legs to work every stride with your seat is a common mistake. Be mindful that when you take your leg off, your seat continues to set the rhythm. Practice pairing your walk seat, trot seat, and canter seat together for smooth transitions between the gaits. Keep in mind the goal is a supportive, balanced, communicative seat.
Works Cited:
Benedik, Linda. Longeing the Rider for a Perfect Seat. Trafalgar Square, 2007.
Gryson, Natalya V. “Dressage : A Biomechanically Founded and Artistically Cultivated System of Training.” Terry Naturally Animal Health Expert Advice, Terry Naturally Animal Health, 1 Jan. 2020
Next time: Understanding aiding—science and art interwoven: Part II