Designing with Dressage

Learn to effectively ride dressage movements, improve connection and feel, and improve your horse’s overall shape

The Effective Rider: Part 2: Sitting Trot

In our January issue we discovered how to connect with our horse’s movement through the rein aids, influencing the first of our three muscle groups as well as discussing proper rider body alignment. Now we will approach the technique of sitting the trot while continuing to develop the proper muscles that create the beautifully arched neck and graceful round top line. As we look at sitting trot in Dressage, I must bring you back again to the topic of saddle fit and proper placement, as I cannot stress enough the importance of your horse being comfortable. If your horse is not comfortable with his saddle, not lifting his back with his abdominal muscles or properly extending his front legs through the shoulders and engaging his hindquarters, then his trot will be hollow and uncomfortable to sit. Let’s take a moment to review proper saddle fit and placement on your horse.

First, with your horse standing square, you must find where the shoulder lies by palpating it with your hand. Then, with a piece of white chalk, mark the outline of the shoulder. (See diagram 1.) Next, find the range of motion within the shoulder. With an assistant, lift the front leg forward as in extended trot, then mark with chalk where the shoulder now lies. This clearly represents the range of motion in your horse’s shoulder. This defines where the saddle must sit and gives you a reference of where the saddle must not sit, blocking the motion of the shoulder’s movement. In the triangle formed at the back of the shoulder and remainder of that muscle, directly in the center, is a nerve called the cranial nerve, or an accessory nerve called cranial nerve 11. When you press on this nerve with minimal pressure you will see the reaction it causes. Your horse will lift his head, stop on the front, hollow his back and croup, twitch, possibly pin ears and generally tell us that he is uncomfortable. This is the same nerve a stallion uses to immobilize and facilitate a breeding stance in the mare. Logic will tell us that any pressure applied to this area from the saddle will re-create the same movement. An ill-fitting saddle can cause the horse to be short stridded, hollow in the back, unable to go long and low or lift his back with the abdominal muscles. Those incorrect movements adversely affect the groups of muscles we are trying to enhance or sculpt, thus defeating our beautiful round top line.
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Another point of saddle fit to consider equally as important is the length of the horse’s back in relation to your saddle. Some breeds are shorter backed than others and this needs to be addressed and care taken not to place pressure over the loins, where additional pressure points lie that cause adverse reactions to what we are trying to achieve, which is relaxed, lifting, full swinging back with actively engaged hindquarters. In order to find where the end of your saddle should rest, you must find the last rib and follow this line up to his back or vertebrae. A quick method is to look in that general area where the hair meets and changes direction. Your saddle should not apply any pressure beyond this point. (See diagram 2.) Along with placement of saddle is the width of the gullet, taking care that it’s wide enough to clear the sine, spineous and transverse process and not pinching in any areas.

Example of where saddle should fit in relation to shoulder.

After checking and accommodating your saddle to your horse, the next step is to make sure the saddle fits you. The saddle should rest in a level position, allowing you to sit square on your seat bones while your leg hangs naturally from your hip. Pay close attention that the saddle is not tipping your hips forward or backward. This is key to successful sitting trots. I recommend that if you have never watched a master saddler perform a saddle fit that you do so or view Jochen Schleese with his 9 point saddle fit guide at www.Schleese.com.

At this point you are saying, “please just tell me how to sit the trot correctly and comfortably,” but it would be counterproductive for me to tell you how to do this without giving you all the pieces to the puzzle. My goal is to help you start the sitting trot and basics of training correctly. The sitting trot is not for the young green horse. (You should maintain a light seat for the young horse.) Sitting trot is reserved for the horse who has gained strength and balance while carrying a rider. This is why the German federation created the Pyramid of Training (Training Scale; See:
www.usdf.org/images/photos/about/about-dressage/Pyramid_of_training.jpg)

The pyramid was designed to systematically train horses in a humane, careful nature enabling long, healthy, useful lives. The training scale evolved as a means to illustrate the different concepts that are essential in the correct training of a horse. The steps are interrelated and you should use them as a guide as to the natural progression and development your horse is making from beginning to culmination. Everything that I recommend in training should always start with remembering the basics of the scale, starting with relaxation. One of the best tips of advice I can give you is when you are met with a challenge in training that does not seem to be working, take a deep breath, go back to the first training scale which is relaxation. Then, stop, give yourself and your horse a mental break, and try again the next day.

Location of shoulder and back. Saddle should fit between these markings.

All right, now that your horse has progressed to carrying a rider in a balanced, relaxed manner and you have properly fitted saddle to both horse and rider, start this exercise by working your horse on the lunge, taking care to look for signs of relaxation through the back. Your horse should willingly drop his head in a long and low frame. Now you are ready to step into the saddle and try your hand at the sitting trot. I recommend doing this on the lunge line for several rides until you are completely in balance on your own. The Spanish riding school students spend almost two years riding on the lunge before they are allowed to interfere with the horse’s mouth. I want to state here that there is no shame in having a strap attached to the pommel or dee rings on front of saddle to hold onto. I frequently use a vaulting surcingle to teach beginners; it gives them security, they cannot lose their balance as easily and it helps them have something to pull their seat closer to the horse. A bareback pad works great for this exercise.

See the rest of the story in the February issue of Saddle Up Nebraska. Subscribe for only $15/year at http://goo.gl/FlbLD.

Designing with Dressage

Learn to effectively ride dressage movements, improve connection and feel,  and improve your horse’s overall shape, 

The Effective Rider: Part 1: Connection and body alignment

by Christina Cardenas

Have you ever wondered how to effectively influence your horse’s movements, creating that beautifully arched neck and graceful round top line? Let this series guide you to improving your horse’s overall appearance and movements.

Effectively influencing your horse while riding takes a little skill but mostly dedication, study and lots of repetition. The first thing the rider needs to establish is what we call in dressage the “feel.” Many people believe you have to be born with this connection, but I have taught many students over the years to learn this illusive “feel,” and it starts with body awareness. You must be aware of the control you have over your individual body parts, i.e., seat bones, hips, hands, legs etc. Once you master individual control through self awareness, you can achieve complete control over the horse’s movements, influencing the muscles and thus sculpting the outline and creating beauty.

Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris of Great Britain were the Individual and Freestyle dressage bronze medalists and led their team to a silver for the first time. Photo by Jen Renth/MacMillan Photography, 2010 Alltech FEI World Esquestrian Games, Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

I want to stop here and help readers understand that one of the most important aspects of riding is ensuring the horse’s comfort. If the horse is not comfortable he is not capable of carrying the rider effectively and using his body (muscles) correctly. When a horse is not 100 percent comfortable he is encouraged to hollow his back instead of lift. If the horse hollows the back he is not engaging his hindquarters properly. Incorrect development of muscles will make the underside of his neck appear thick and will cause other improper muscle developments, and you will lose the graceful top line you are trying to achieve. The horse may appear to be in frame or on the vertical; however, if he is not stepping through his back, lifting the withers and stretching the top of the trapezius muscle in the neck, he would be in a false frame. This false frame is what can do more damage to the muscles and overall outline (appearance) of the horse.

Now that we have established how important saddle fit and comfort are, we will move on, but I encourage everyone truly dedicated to the horse to educate themselves on proper saddle fit. I support an entity called Saddlefit 4 Life (www.saddlefit4life.com). 

In this first series we will discuss alignment of horse and rider as it affects overall balance and directly influences your horse’s movements, as well as contact on the bit. Let’s get started.

Individual and Freestyle dressage bronze medalists Steffan Peters and Ravel from the U.S.A. They were the highest placed Americans. The U.S. Team placed fourth. Photo by Kim MacMillan, MacMillan Photography, 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

Let’s look at the horse in three main groups, all of which overlap each other: first, the head, neck, shoulders and front legs; second, the trunk, including spine, lumbar and abdominal region; and third, the hindquarters, including hips, croup and back legs. These are the three groups that you can easily influence with the rider’s aids.

Read the rest of the story in the January issue of Saddle Up Nebraska. To subscribe call 1-800-888-1380, only $15 for 12 issues!

Combined Driving

By Debbie Bridges, Professor of Agribusiness, UNK

Although I have been riding horses most of my life, driving horses was something I always wanted to learn. The thought of taking a team down the road for a leisurely Sunday drive seemed very appealing (although, if truth be told, also a little monotonous). Little did I know that there was a type of driving available that offered not only variety, but also speed and challenge.

In 2007, my husband and I combined a summer vacation with a week of driving lessons at Fraser’s School of Driving in Deer Lodge, Montana. Alex Fraser, my instructor, introduced me to the sport of Combined Driving, which in turn opened a whole new venue of interacting with horses and opportunities for competing. The easiest way to describe Combined Driving is to think of Three Day Eventing with a horse and buggy (in fact, the Combined Driving Event
(CDE) is modeled after the Three Day Event). Combined driving competitions have three phases: 1) driven dressage, 2) cones and 3) marathon.

Longview Lake Driving Trial, September 26-27, 2009, Kansas City, MO.

The object of driven dressage is to judge the freedom, regularity of paces, harmony, impulsion, suppleness, lightness, ease of movement, and correct bending of the horses on the move. Competitors must complete, from memory, a dressage test consisting of a prescribed sequence of movements judged against a standard of absolute perfection. Competitors are judged on style, accuracy and general control of their horses; thus, the dressage test demonstrates the driving skills of the competitor as well as the obedience, correct position and training of the horses.

The cones competition, which is equivalent to the stadium jumping phase of eventing, tests the fitness, obedience and suppleness of the horse and the skill and competence of the driver. The cones course consists of up to twenty narrowly spaced pairs of cones (each with a ball placed on top) set out in an intricate pattern that must be completed within a specified amount of time. The spacing between the cones is based on the width of each individual competitor’s carriage and is reset for each competitor ‹ in other words, each driver has the same amount of clearance between the cones and thus the same challenge. The driver’s goal is to make it through the course as fast as possible without incurring any penalties (e.g., dislodging a ball or cone). However, accomplishing this goal takes a certain amount of skill since each cone has a ball placed on top and the space between the cones is only slightly wider than the carriage; thus, any miscalculation will dislodge the ball, incurring a penalty for the driver.

To read more details about Combined Driving, pick up the July 2010 issue of Saddle Up Nebraska.
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