Instructors in dressage, events and hunter/jumpers are full of commands like 'work on the bit', 'get some self carriage' and 'let's have some more impulsion'. To the coaches, these directions may be plain, but to the nervous student, they might as wel be Greek.
I write this article to help you out with some of the terminology common to horse rearing, riding and coaching. I am hoping this is going to help you with all the language your instructors throw around.
Self carriage: Self carriage refers to the intent of getting the pony to move with ideal balance and grace. He should do this without the rider's continual intervention, i.e, he must be able to sustain the correct carriage himself. You can test your pony out for this capacity by surrendering the reins: some horses are near helpless without their rider's cues.
Resistance: Resistance occurs when a pony won't heed his rider's aids and fails to respond the correct way.
Suppleness: Suppleness is attained when a pony is responding with no hesitation or resistance at all to his rider's command to bend and then to give flexion.
On the bit: This is a term used when the horse energetically moves into his rider's hands. The pony is respondent to bit contact, to the extent of looking for contact with his rider's hands. He doesn't show evidence of resistance like raising his head above the bit or sucking back behind it.
Contact: This term alludes to hand-based communication with the horse thru the reins and the bit. The contact is live, active and consistent.
Flexion/roundness: Terms utilized for supple bending concerning all the parts of the horse's body (mostly in connection with the poll, but often also to the neck, the back and the stifle and hocks. This is also called riding a pony round.
Bending/bend: A bend occurs when a horse curves his body from his ears to his tail, by way of the spine. Bending brings about superior suppleness helping engage the horse's hind legs laterally. You can conceive of this as curving with the arc of a fictional circle you are riding. The bend is in proportion if you can see your horse's nose with one eye's peripheral vision and his hindquarters with the other eye's when taking a look at the non-existent circle's centre.
Engagement : Engagement is claimed to occur when the hind is tracking well with extra hock and stifle flexion, something that makes the horse 'sit' to a large extent by bringing down his haunches. It's easy to get the right engagement only when you are riding the pony properly on his bit and he is moving on and trying for self carriage.
Lateral movements: Lateral movements refer to moves like the leg yield or the shoulder. To execute these moves, the pony needs to cross his legs while moving to either side and sightly forward.
Impulsion: Impulsion refers to forward energy when the pony is moving well, with his hindquarter thrust working optimally to launch him forward.
Suspension: Think about a gorgeous dressage passage, when the pony looks to be moving without touching the ground. Suspension generates raised energy as well as collection that seems to direct the pony upward rather than forward, though obviously the motion is generally forward. Since the legs are raised higher with every step, the pony appears to be using shorter steps that reach higher.
Collection: If you put in some engagement to a horse that's balanced with self carriage , as well as impulsion so he is still energetically progressing forward, as also suspension so that energy is gathered with forward motion, you finish up with a frame that shows shorter steps and more height. The horse has lower haunches, with a shorter frame. You should not confuse this phenomenon with slowing, like so many novices do. The energy is still the same, nevertheless it is just directed upwards. You can relate if you can conjure up a psychological picture of a horse in piaffe, the still trot.
Travelling through: When a horse is stepping absolutely under himself using his hind legs, energy spans his back, causing it to go round thanks to a belly that's raised, then skim his neck's top surface, rounding it off softly, and creates relaxed poll flexion on to the bit. This is the route the energy takes, and if it gets blocked anywhere, the pony can't be travelling thru.
Don't let all of this confuse you: start with the basics, go on to submission and relaxation and soon enough, the rest will follow sort of automatically.
I write this article to help you out with some of the terminology common to horse rearing, riding and coaching. I am hoping this is going to help you with all the language your instructors throw around.
Self carriage: Self carriage refers to the intent of getting the pony to move with ideal balance and grace. He should do this without the rider's continual intervention, i.e, he must be able to sustain the correct carriage himself. You can test your pony out for this capacity by surrendering the reins: some horses are near helpless without their rider's cues.
Resistance: Resistance occurs when a pony won't heed his rider's aids and fails to respond the correct way.
Suppleness: Suppleness is attained when a pony is responding with no hesitation or resistance at all to his rider's command to bend and then to give flexion.
On the bit: This is a term used when the horse energetically moves into his rider's hands. The pony is respondent to bit contact, to the extent of looking for contact with his rider's hands. He doesn't show evidence of resistance like raising his head above the bit or sucking back behind it.
Contact: This term alludes to hand-based communication with the horse thru the reins and the bit. The contact is live, active and consistent.
Flexion/roundness: Terms utilized for supple bending concerning all the parts of the horse's body (mostly in connection with the poll, but often also to the neck, the back and the stifle and hocks. This is also called riding a pony round.
Bending/bend: A bend occurs when a horse curves his body from his ears to his tail, by way of the spine. Bending brings about superior suppleness helping engage the horse's hind legs laterally. You can conceive of this as curving with the arc of a fictional circle you are riding. The bend is in proportion if you can see your horse's nose with one eye's peripheral vision and his hindquarters with the other eye's when taking a look at the non-existent circle's centre.
Engagement : Engagement is claimed to occur when the hind is tracking well with extra hock and stifle flexion, something that makes the horse 'sit' to a large extent by bringing down his haunches. It's easy to get the right engagement only when you are riding the pony properly on his bit and he is moving on and trying for self carriage.
Lateral movements: Lateral movements refer to moves like the leg yield or the shoulder. To execute these moves, the pony needs to cross his legs while moving to either side and sightly forward.
Impulsion: Impulsion refers to forward energy when the pony is moving well, with his hindquarter thrust working optimally to launch him forward.
Suspension: Think about a gorgeous dressage passage, when the pony looks to be moving without touching the ground. Suspension generates raised energy as well as collection that seems to direct the pony upward rather than forward, though obviously the motion is generally forward. Since the legs are raised higher with every step, the pony appears to be using shorter steps that reach higher.
Collection: If you put in some engagement to a horse that's balanced with self carriage , as well as impulsion so he is still energetically progressing forward, as also suspension so that energy is gathered with forward motion, you finish up with a frame that shows shorter steps and more height. The horse has lower haunches, with a shorter frame. You should not confuse this phenomenon with slowing, like so many novices do. The energy is still the same, nevertheless it is just directed upwards. You can relate if you can conjure up a psychological picture of a horse in piaffe, the still trot.
Travelling through: When a horse is stepping absolutely under himself using his hind legs, energy spans his back, causing it to go round thanks to a belly that's raised, then skim his neck's top surface, rounding it off softly, and creates relaxed poll flexion on to the bit. This is the route the energy takes, and if it gets blocked anywhere, the pony can't be travelling thru.
Don't let all of this confuse you: start with the basics, go on to submission and relaxation and soon enough, the rest will follow sort of automatically.
About the Author:
Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her
extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about bull whip
extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about bull whip
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