DISPATCH FOUR: THE BASICS

If you know me, you know I’m a big proponent of the fundamentals of basic dressage. I mention it often, but it never occurred to me that some might not understand what I mean or might think I’m referring to training specifically for the discipline of dressage. So, let’s clarify that today.

On the surface, what I mean by basic dressage is “correctness in a horse’s carriage, suppleness, and balance.” To me, balance is one of the most important components of a horse’s foundational training. Regardless of the discipline your horse eventually pursues, balance is the root of all good things to come.

French Master Francois Robichon de la Gueriniere wrote: “The aim of this noble and useful art is solely to make the horse supple, relaxed, flexible, compliant, and obedient – and to lower the quarters, without all of which a horse whether he be meant for military service, hunting, or dressage will neither be comfortable in his movements nor pleasurable in his ride.”

He said that at some point in his life, which ended in 1751. . .so it was a really freaking long time ago. None of this is new. I’m not giving away any secrets.

According to part of the FEI’s description, the principles of dressage are (abbreviated): “. . .the harmonious development of the physique and ability of the horse. . . which makes the horse calm. . .supple. . .confident. . .attentive, and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with his rider. . .giving the impression of doing of his own accord what is required of him.”

Descriptions, written ages apart, but basically, the same, right?

Where does balance come from, though? Is it something horses are born with, using their bodies naturally? Probably. However, we’re interfering with that when we jump on their backs and ask them to perform feats of daring. . .or to trot us to the mailbox to check the mail.

Before balance, which, in technical terms can be described as “the distribution of the weight of the horse AND RIDER, both lateral and longitudinal, the horse must learn, according to these principles:

Relaxation is defined as the absence of tension in both the body and mind. We have to include their mind, right?

We need to achieve evenness in each gait and, within those gaits, encourage the horse to have freedom—meaning the reach and scope of the gaits. We must foster the horse’s natural desire to move forward with ease.

A horse on this trajectory needs to learn acceptance of the bit and be on the aids, responding to directions from the seat, legs, and hands. Once they’ve reached this stage, you can work on their straightness and proper alignment.

THEN comes balance.

Whew! Took us a while to get there, didn’t it?

Of course, even after all that work, achieving balance doesn’t mean at all that we’re “done.” (Are we ever really “done” anyway?) We’re actually just getting started.

Once a horse is balanced, the next goals in the classical training methods are suppleness, impulsion, and collection.

When these foundational tools are in place, that’s ideally when we would move on to training within a discipline.

As I always say, there are a million ways to get to where you want to be, but this, in my mind, is a  great approach to make a versatile, comfortable, and balanced horse.

That’s in an ideal world, though, right? A place here we’ve got all the time in the world to bring a horse along slowly but surely. Sadly, the world isn’t always that patient.

In the “real world,” we don’t always have the luxury of time. Of course, “time” doesn’t mean anything to horses, really. They don’t care about schedules, unless you’re late with the feed, right?

Some of the old masters will tell you it takes five years to make a horse, but we’ve all known horses that were made in both shorter and longer periods.

There are so many variables. A horse’s physicality, conformation, what’s between that horse’s ears, what they were bred for, it all matters. I’ve worked with young horses who seemed wise the minute they hit the ground, as well as horses that were 13 and green as Kentucky bluegrass (that also made me black and blue on occasion).

Look, this isn’t a “prescription” for making a horse. It’s just one of the ways I like to go about it now when handling young horses. It’s what I look for when working with already-handled horses. . searching for holes in any of these areas.

If I’m working with a horse that is already headed for a discipline or even participating in a discipline, I look for areas where we may need to take a step back and review. Are we really on the aids? If the rider or the horse can’t confidently answer that question, then we reevaluate and take a step back to checking contact. If your horse seems stuck, let’s work back a bit on freedom of gaits, etc.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this abbreviated outline of what’s rolling around in my head when I say that simple phrase: The fundamentals of basic dressage.

Thanks for reading!