Anne says: Thanks for sending in the questions! I’ll try to answer all of them by email. Due to space limitations, we will be able to post only those with the most general interest.

New Questions!!!
Teaching a horse to jump
Can't keep the horse on the bit
How can I get my horse to respond to my legs?

Questions!!!

Purpose of the bit/ collection
Funny wet spot
Do you ever ride in side reins?
Relation between length of horse's legs vs. depth of body
How to ride a drop jump
Purchasing a two year old
Bouncing at canter
Draft Horse in Dressage
Dressage, breaking down horse
Dressage Tests, horse anticipating
Dressage Tests, memorizing
Jumping, horse rushes
Ponying
Pulley rein
Shoulder, falling to inside
Stretching down
Working Student

Question:Suppose one had a 6 y.o. off-the track Thoroughbred, with good ring basics and a nice attitude. Has trotted over multiple ground poles. What steps might one follow, on what sort of timetable, to end up the year with a solid foundation in hunter-style jumping?

Anne says:You would progress to cross rails and little gymnastics. You want to keep the horse jumping from the trot for a long while to give him time to figure out the take-off point. At the trot he can take off from either leg, whereas from the canter he can only take off on one leg . You approach the grid from the trot and canter through it. This gives him lots of practice getting in right, since you have set it all up for him. The grids will make him get in correctly and after a couple months he will have figured out where his take-off spot should be. Then you start trotting him over individual fences, and canter the odd one. If he gets in wrong, you go back to the trotting and grids. By the end of 3 months of twice a week jumping the average coordinated horse should be starting to canter little courses of 2' to 2'6" . If the horse is unsure of any jump, you approach it at the trot. Simultaneous to this work, you would introduce him to cross-country type jumps at the trot- logs & such to give him some variety and teach him about natural obstacles- banks, ditches, water.

Get a book with some good beginner jumping grids in it, like the ones by Wofford or DeNemethy. You need an experienced ground person to help you school, otherwise you waste a lot of time getting off and changing fences. If you don't have the experience to set the fences at the right distances, then get help because you can really destroy a horse's confidence if you ask him to jump something that is spaced wrong.

By the end of the summer he should be able to go into a baby green hunter class- the kind where they do not penalize you for trotting corners (this is because the greenie may not yet have figured out how to switch leads.) Going to lots of easy low pressure competitions will build his confidence and give him valuable experience. Pick shows that have decent courses- good distances and attractive, well filled in fences- not the kind that have crappy jumps, poor footing and single poles- they are not good for a greenie. If there aren't any baby green classes where you are, just go in a regular 2'6" class and trot wherever your horse needs to to give him confidence- don't try to stuff him through it at a canter if he isn't ready. Don't worry about doing a line in a certain number of strides or anything like that. Just keep the horse balanced and give him confidence. Don't worry about lead changes. My policy with a greenie, if you end up on the wrong lead, is to ask him once to change leads. If he doesn't, then you bring him back to a trot and and do a change through the trot.. When horses start learning to switch leads, they can get really charged up. That is why you ask only once. You won't win the class, but you will give the horse important experience. Also traveling away from home and schooling over different fences prior to going to a show will give him confidence.

Question: I recieve regular instruction (once a week)and my trainer (L judge and USDF bronze medalist) also rides my horse twice a week. I purchased a 5 year old Hanoverian gelding about 2 1/2 months ago to be my dressage horse. He was deemed "ready for 1st level" although not with me!! After searching for a horse for about 6 months and taking 2 horses on trial that did not work, I decided on this one. He is VERY calm and pretty much bombproof for a 5 year old which is the main reason I bought him. He had been in training for less than a year with a reputable dressage trainer that knows my trainer and they thought it would be a good match. The problem is after 2 1/2 months of regular instruction and him being trained I still cannot maintain him on the bit. My instructor does a wonderful job of it and so did the trainer who trained him. I know it is me but I can't seem to get it. I have been riding for about 2 years and never really had this problem before although I used to ride more forward horses and this one is very "lazy" which I like but is sometimes frustrating. My instructor tries to explain it to me but maybe I need to hear it explained differently by someone else which is why I am writing you.

What I have been doing: Getting him to go as forward as I can to make him even in my hands, little half halts on the outside rein (with fingers, not pulling), trying to keep my arms and upper body as still as possible. I have problems sitting the trot when it is as forward as my instructor likes it to be. I also try to stay on a circle to practice.

Another question, I am 5'3 and my horse is 16.3 hands. Is it unreasonable to ask my horse to respond to calf pressure?

Any suggestions or input would be great! Thanks in advance.

Anne Says: Since you have had this horse only 2 1/2 months, I think you may need more time to get used to each other, particularly on your part of the partnership. Every horse is different, and they respond to different styles of riding.

I suspect that in trying to make this laid-back horse "go" you are getting tight in your seat and arms, perhaps contracting your legs, perhaps just nagging him too much. When you get tight in one place, i.e. your legs, you will also tend to get tight in your arms, shoulders and back, which will make you restrict the horse and lose the nice elastic contact you should have. You probably need several months of work on your seat, particularly paying attention to isolation exercises- these will help you learn to use your legs while keeping the rest of you, particularly your arms, wrists and shoulders, loose and relaxed.

Here are some exercises that may help you:

1. Lots of seat exercises on the lunge line. You need to be able to keep your seat stuck to the horse while keeping rest of you relaxed. You need to start out with no reins, just learn to (a) go with the movement, (b) resist against the movement to slow the horse down and give half-halts, and (c) to actively influence the horse with your seat, such as exerting pressure on one seat bone for a canter depart, etc. My students learn to make all upward and downward transitions between gaits just using their seat and legs- no reins. When you learn to do this, then you will realize how little you really need to use the reins. If you are sitting on the horse and your instructor makes him move out, such as into a medium trot, to stay with the movement, you need to get LOOSER, not tighter. Do not grip, just let yourself be very loose and floppy and you will be much more able to stay with the movement. If you keep your thighs loose you will not contract your legs and lose your stirrups.

2. Then when you take up the reins again, you will need to do several exercises that keep your wrists, elbows and shoulders relaxed so you can keep a soft elastic contact with the bit through the reins. Here is were a green horse will make it more difficult. With a trained horse, the rider does 50%; the horse does 50% by being soft in his jaw. With a green horse, quite often they will have a poor quality of contact from being stiff or resistant, or not using the back completely, and then the rider has to do it all. You will frequently lose contact if the horse is not doing his part, and particularly the horse may back off if he is lazy. With no contact, you cannot have the horse on the bit. To keep your contact on a horse that starts to move out, you need to stay very loose in your elbows. Think about being very loose and floppy and you will stay with the movement. Get tight, and you will bounce around and yank the mouth.

3. What the instructors in Europe do if student lacks the experience and finesse to keep a horse on the bit, is have them ride with side reins in lessons. The side reins keep the horse in a frame, keep him straight, and remind him to stay round. All the student needs to do is make her reins the same length as the side reins, and try to keep a soft contact. The rider does not need to keep the horse from nose poking, or getting in too long a frame, because the side reins are there. If you drop your contact for a moment, the side rein will save you. When you go on a curved line, the inside side rein will hang loose. Then all the student does, is to ride all the ring figures, keeping a soft contact, and learning the feel of guiding the horse through the figures using her seat, not pulling on the reins. After 6-9 months, all of a sudden, one day, you will realize you no longer need the side reins, that the horse just drops into your hands and will stay on the bit! The reason this happens is that the student has learned to ride with soft contact, using the seat and legs, and not messing ewith the reins and irritating the horse. This is done with an experienced horse- your horse may be too green for this.

As far as making the horse more responsive to your leg, please read the next question and answer.

Go over these suggestions with your instructor and see if any are those she would like to try with you. I particularly think the lungeing will help you. Also remember that if your are inexperienced and you buy a lower level horse, just because an experienced rider could show this horse at first level deosn't mean that you should kick yourself for not being able to. It may take many years longer for you to train this horse yourself than for a more experienced rider to train him. At training level, the horse does not need to be on the bit- he merely needs to accept the bit and maintain a steady contact. A lot of harm can be done by trying to do too much or do stuff that you are not ready to do, even stuff you could do easily on a more advanced horse. So enjoy your horse, work on your equitation, and have fun!

Good luck and good riding!

Question: My horse is lazy and sluggish. How can I get him to respond to my legs better?

Anne Says: Do you ride with a whip? If you do, there is no reason why you can't keep the horse going. If you are not carrying a whip, you need to go buy a nice thin stiff dressage whip. About 33" - 36" is a good length. You need it to be able to touch the horse's hip while you have your hands on the reins in the regular position. If you have trouble holding the whip and the reins, practice carrying the whip everywhere you go. Tie your shoes while holding it, and practice with both hands. Also practice switching it from one hand to the other. Your instructor can show you how. Next practice tapping and stinging with the whip so you can get some precision. Practice hitting yourself on the leg, so you will get a feel for how much pressure is a touch, a tap, and a sting. Since your horse is lazy, you will probably need to sting him once in a while. A soft swishy whip will not be able to sting- that is why you need a very stiff but thin whip. The way to use the whip is to hold it on the inside- to apply the whip, keeping your contact, bring your whip hand to the side until it is far enough out that the whip will clear your thigh, and using your wrist, give a little tap or sting to the horse in the area of the hip. You need to stay loose in the arm and avoid yanking the horse in the mouth, since he won't respond to the whip if his mouth gets messed with. So this is why you need to practice a lot with the whip to be able to use it well.

Then you need to tune the horse up to your leg. I have seen a little girl whose legs were so short they barely came past the saddle, able to make a horse go, because her leg aids were effective. You never saw her use them, but the horse knew they were there. A horse can feel a fly land on his side, so if your legs are short you need to teach your horse to go from a light leg pressure. There is a dressage video out which shows how to do this tune-up.

1. Stop using your legs. You must make yourself stop kicking, gripping, or pressing- no nagging with the legs. You will use only a light leg pressure- to do this you relax your thigh, so that your leg falls down around the horse and touches him in a lower place. He will feel the change in the position of your leg much better than a change in the intensity of the pressure.

2. Sitting on your horse, with loose reins, and holding onto the saddle (or grab strap) use a gentle leg aid on both sides, to ask the horse to go forward. You will probably get little or no response.

3. Then you repeat this leg aid, but DO NOT make it stronger- just the nice polite leg aid you want to teach him to respond to. At the same time holding the whip in one hand, and the saddle with the other hand, give him a smart sting way back on his hindquarters- in the area of the gaskin or buttocks. The horse will probably jump forward in astonishment, but keep your cool, and hang on to the saddle- tell him he is a good boy and do not touch his mouth, even if he starts to canter! If he does not jump out of his skin, you haven't applied a strong enough whip aid. So you have gotten the horse to go forward, go with him, leave his mouth alone, and then you praise him and then gently and gradually bring him to a walk. The use your light polite leg aid again, without the whip and he will probably respond very nicely.

You may have to repeat this sequence another time, and then do it again as necessary. You will need to re-educate yourself NOT TO GET STRONGER with your legs, and NOT TO NAG! Small leg aid = horse goes energetically> All is fine. Small leg aid = horse does not go > then use the small leg aid + whip = horse goes. You must remember never to clamp down harder with your legs, and never to keep kicking. Use the whip if he gets lazy. If you do this right, you may then only have to use the whip every once in a while. Once the horse learns that a small leg aid means go, it will be easier to get him to come onto the bit, since you can't maintain contact very well on a sluggish horse. Also keep in mind that as your horse's fitness increases, he will become more energetic. It is a good idea to ride out on trails frequently- do lots of hills, and with a sluggish horse, a sharp gallop in the wide open spaces may improve his attitude and make him much keener.

Question:Your legs and your seat are what give the control, right? What exactly is the purpose of the bit? I hear the word control used. How does it control? If I use a heavy hand on my horse she either throws her head up or goes faster. That is not control. I wasn't sure how to ask this question without sounding stupid.:) So yes I know it is for collection, but why does it collect? Why does it control?

Anne Says: This is not a stupid question- there are people who have ridden for years who haven't figured this out. If you are on top of the horse, there is NOTHING you can do to stop him (unless you jump off and anchor him to a tree) without getting the horse's brain to cooperate and tell his legs to stop moving.

The purpose of the bit is to give signals to the horse. To oversimplify: You pull on the reins, the horse say to himself- oh I am supposed to stop, he tells his legs to stop moving, and he stops. If the aid does not get through to the horse's brain, then he could resist- just set his jaw and ignore the aid. Or he could hang on the bit and get on his forehand, making it impossible to stop. In order to stop he must shift his weight back and bend his hind legs. Or he could do other things, like throwing up his head. The purpose of training a horse is to educate him which is the right response.

Pulling harder on the reins will not make a horse stop or turn UNLESS the horse has been educated that increased pressure means something. Also he has to know that the pressure goes away when he responds the way you want. Take and give. When you are training a horse you need to repeat stuff in order for it to sink in. This is why you have to do a zillion transitions before the horse will respond consistantly. Trot-walk-trot; walk-halt-walk; canter-trot-canter; trot-halt-trot; walk-reinback-walk; etc. Transitions like walk-canter are teaching the horse to go forward from your leg aids.

The horse's mouth is sensitive, and so over the centuries we have arrived at the bit to put in the mouth to help with steering and stopping. However, the bit is not necessary. There is a hackamore (bitless bridle) you could use instead and there is a drill team that rides bareback, controlling the horse with a thin wire around the horse's neck. The wire has two little stubs in front that press into the horse's neck when they pull back on it. Also, some people have learned to control a horse with nothing except voice and seat.

Your weight and seat have to coordinate with what you are asking. For instance, if you are cantering, and your reins ask the horse to stop, but your seat is saying Go-go-go, guess which aid wins? Also if you give conflicting signals, like pulling on the reins and not realizing you are clamping on with your legs- this will make your aids not effective.

Now to move up to a much more sophisticated level. To ride at this level it is necessary to have contact. You can't get to this level riding on loose reins. The reins (connected to the bit) tell the horse where to hold his head- i.e. to go in a shorter (gathered) or longer (stretched) frame. They also tell him where to position his head- straight, to the right or to the left. But this sort of thing must be done with finesse and totally in coordination with your seat or they do not work. You cannot just shorten up your reins and have a collected horse. A horse is collected when his back is loose, and he moves with shorter but higher steps, bending the joints of his hindquarters. He will cover the ground with more energy and his footfalls will be more pronounced (cadenced.) Yes he will be in a shorter frame- his neck will be shorter, his head held higher, and his hindquarters will be more engaged. If you just shorten the reins and shorten his neck without getting the back and hind end involved, you will have a slow horse, and probably a resisting horse. Collection is produced as a result of several years of training by an experienced rider. You will first get a few steps of collection as a result of a transition like walk-canter. So keep practicing those transitions.

To make your rein aids effective they need to last only as long as a footfall. The aid needs to be repeated. You can't just take a hold of the horse's mouth. Rein aids can't be effective until you have an independant seat, so your hands can follow the horse's mouth. You need to stay balanced on the horse and not worry about sliding around. You can't rely on your reins for balance.

So to summarize:
1. You need to be able to sit on the horse at all gaits and be secure and balanced.
2. You have to be able to passively maintain contact with the horse's mouth.
3. You have to be able to use your legs and hands independently of your seat to give the aids.
4. You have to know what aids to give and when. So you need to learn this on a well trained horse who will respond correctly when you give the aids correctly. Also a well trained horse will be more forgiving when you make a mistake. A greenie will get confused, resistant, or perhaps scared.
5. Then you can learn to train a horse that doesn't know anything to correctly respond to the aids. With a talented rider, an excellent instructor and a good schoolmaster horse, it takes about 3 years of daily riding to get to the point where you are ready to train a green horse from scratch. This is the ideal and it rarely happens in real life, although there are more instructors available today who can give you this opportunity.

Question: The other day while I was riding a new horse, I noticed this wet spot on his shoulder. I thought that one of the horses had slobbered or bit him, so didn't pay all that much attention to it. But today, he wasdry when I saddled him, but part way through the ride, this one spot was wet. Very strange. The rest of him was bone dry, and we did not exactly work our horses hard. It was a simple hour long walk, with one very short trot. Any ideas what could be causing him to, I assume, sweat in this one spot? It is in front of the saddle by about two hands, and it is about the size
of a hand. The rein does rub near the top of the funny wet mark, but I don't think that is whay caused it.

Anne Says: This is an interesting problem. Muscles that work hard will sweat. If this wet spot is not caused by the rein, I would look for an old injury or knot in the muscle. If the muscle is shortened or tightened from an old injury, then it is stressed a bit more than the opposite one and may sweat when you exercise the horse.

When you massage this area, do you feel anything unusual? Compare it with the same place on the other side of the horse.

If I encounter something like this, I might get the horse a massage before I called in the vet. A trained massage therapist can feel things I can't feel. I also might try using some DMSO or liniment on the spot for a few days and see if that makes a difference. (My vet often prescribes DMSO for 3 days, the liniment for 3 days, and repeat.) After that I might call the vet to look at it and maybe do some acupuncture. If this area can be stretched by pulling the horse's leg forward, I also might try that for a few minutes before and after riding.

You are right to be concerned about this spot, which is not normal. A spot that is tight from an old injury is a prime candidate for re-injury. So you should be conservative in stressing this area- make sure the horse is warmed up sufficiently, do a long enough cool-down period after work.

Question:Why are you not supposed to ride with side reins? Isn't it because a rider can't use the reins to any effect with the side reins attached? Isn’t there some king of rule against it at Dressage shows?

Anne Says:Side reins keep the horse in a frame and keep him straight. They are used when lungeing to educate the horse's mouth.

For use when riding: They do not let the horse extend his neck, so they are a no-no when jumping or hacking. For riding ring figures, however, they are invaluable on an educated horse with a green rider who does not have a good enough seat to keep the horse on the bit. (You keep the horse on the bit with your seat and legs.)

Green riders tend to lose contact, let the reins slip, or to pull on one rein. The side reins will save that rider when she does things like this. They give the horse a contsant reference point when the contact is lost. They are invaluable for keeping a horse's mouth fresh when ridden by an unsteady rider, and they save the rider AND the horse a lot of stress. They are standard for green riders in Europe.

If you ride with side reins, the horse should know how to go forward into contact, give to the bit and collect the walk, otherwise you will have to take them off everytime you come back to the walk. Adjust the side reins so that the horse can carry his head comfortably when trotting, with his face slightly in front of the vertical. Make your reins the same length as the side reins and keep a steady light contact. Ride the horse forward so he stretches to the end of the side reins. Then you ride with your seat and legs and don't do much with the reins. You turn the horse with your body, not by pulling on a rein. When you are on a circle, the horse should have contact into the outside rein, while the inside rein will hang loose. If both hang loose, then the horse is on your contact and you either need to tighten the side reins or you don't need them (or you have the horse cranked in too much.) You attach the side reins after you have warmed up at the walk, and detach them before you let the horse cool out at a free walk.

With some riders, it takes about six months of this and all of a sudden she can keep the horse on the bit and the side reins are no longer needed. Other riders will catch on after a few weeks. The side reins remind the rider to keep her reins a constant length and to keep her hands quiet.

Side reins are also very useful if you are doing seat exercises and have the reins loose or in one hand- the horse stays in a frame no matter how you swing your arms, etc. They are also useful when you put a tiny rider on a big horse. They remind the horse that it is work time, keep him from grazing or otherwise taking advantage. I use them a lot in beginner lessons.

They are also very useful for horses who are shoulder poppers- for this purpose they can be quite loose- the horse feels them on his shoulder and it reminds him to stay straight.

Riding in side reins is forbidden in the warm up at a dressage show because (the theoretical reasoning) if you can't keep the horse on the bit, you have no business riding in a show. Go home, learn to keep the horse on the bit, and when you have learned, then you can begin to compete. However, for training level, it is required only that the horse "accept the bit." Rather than being "on the bit." What this means is the horse must accept contact with his face in front of the vertical with no head tossing, teeth grinding, tongue lolling, ducking behind the vertical, etc.

Riding in side reins can be dangerous if the horse is not educated to them.

Question: What does the relationship between the length of a horse's front leg to the elbow and the elbow to the withers have to do with the horse's movement?

Anne Says:What an interesting question! I am not an expert on gait mechanics, but I will try to answer.

Whenever you discuss a horse's conformation, you are talking about a happy medium. Thus a certain part, say a pastern, shouldn't be too long or too short. Too long and it puts too much stress on the tendons and is weak, although this would make for springy elastic gaits; but too short and there would be too much concussion, making the horse uncomfortable to ride and predisposing to arthritic conditions such as sidebones and ringbone.

So to talk about the length of leg vs. depth of body: A horse with a long leg from ground to elbow in relation to elbow to withers, would have a long stride- this would be a leggy horse. A horse with a deep body and short legs would not be able to cover the ground as well. Taken to extreme- imagine a horse built like a Dachshund. This horse would be a plodder.

However, longer legs are not exactly what every horse needs. The ribcage contains all the vital organs, particularly the heart and lungs. Too long legs vs. body capacity, and the horse would not be able to breathe in enough air and pump enough blood down his long legs to keep him going at the speeds the long legs would allow. Nor would he have the capacity for a digestive system to nourish him. So longer legs wouldn't get you any benefits after a certain point.

The depth of the horse's chest makes room for vital organs and also gives a tall rider a place to put his legs. But you don't want an excess of body over length of leg, or the horse wouldn't be able to do any athletic endeavor well. The shorter the legs are, the more this makes the horse rectangular rather than square. This sort of horse will not have good front-to-back balance which is needed to negotiate varied terrain. In the wild, a horse who is slow or clumsy is the first one to get eaten. So you want to seek a happy medium with both measurements being approximately equal.

Question:I fell on my head over my first drop jump. I'd like to learn how NOT to do it again, or at least how to lessen my chances on the next round. Do you have a little more specific advice than just to "sit BACK and keep your leg FORWARD"?

Anne Says: I'm afraid you were given bad advice. You want to LEAN, not sit back, and you must keep your leg underneath you, not forward.

On the upward part of the flight, your upper body goes forward, like a regular jump. As you come to the downward part of the flight, your upper body comes back (but you keep your butt off the saddle.) Do not let your leg come forward, or you will land with a plop into the saddle, and as your horse gets his hind legs under him, his back rounds, and you will get catapulted up and off his back. You see this happen in events at water drops all the time.

So, you keep your legs in the normal position, against the horse's sides for security & balance. As you upper body comes back you have to slip the reins. As you land, you quickly get your upper body forward again and shorten the reins and gallop on. Your butt stays slightly out of the saddle throughout. You will be balanced over your feet throughout. On the downward part, your knees are the most forward part of your body. It's like doing a backbend. Knees forward, shoulders back, feet under your shoulders. Practice slipping and recovering the reins quickly. If you keep a death grip on the reins, the horse will pull you right out of the saddle.

To teach riders how to do this, I place a tiny cavaletto on the downhill slope from my ring to the driveway. The rider trots over this, practicing the balancing gestures over this tiny obstacle. When she gets the hang of it, then we go out and do it over a real drop, say 2' to 2'6". After that they have no problems.

Training tip: If you are schooling a horse over a drop (when the horse has never done drops) use galloping boots, since the horse may chicken out and pull back, dragging his legs back over the edge of the jump. This happens when the rider isn't too sure she really wants to do the drop.

Question: I am thinking of buying a two-year old. How can you tell if the ride will be smooth when the horse is not yet broken to ride?

Anne says: Buying an youngster is always a gamble. This is why two-year olds are much less expensive than older, started horses. There are three things you can look for:
1. Conformation. Pasterns that slope the correct amount and are long enough, (too long or too sloping predispose the horse to tendon problems) a good angle of shoulder and pelvis, high withers, and a long enough, well-set on neck. Also a back that is long enough to have some spring while not so long as to be weak. The horse should be higher at the withers than the croup. These features contribute to good movement and smooth, elastic gaits.
2. Movement. Watch the horse move around in the pasture. You should look for a lack of tension, a loose, swinging back, and watch for the joints to flex, especially the hocks. Watch for good balance- able to gracefully extend his stride and then shift his weight back to slow down or turn.
3. Bloodlines. Riding qualities are inherited. If the colt’s parents are good movers and are comfortable to ride, and they have produced other offspring that are, then the chances of this colt being a smooth, comfortable mover are greatly increased. If you can ride the sire or dam, or siblings, you will get an idea of the riding qualities of the colt.

Question: I'm finding myself bouncing at the canter more than I should be. Do you have any suggestions as to how to stop doing this? The horse I ride most often, and seem to have the biggest bouncing problem with, has a very big canter gait, and I know my bouncing isn't comfortable for either one of us.

Anne Says: This is a common problem when the rider isn't relaxed enough to absorb the horse's movement. When the horse canters, his back rises up as his hind legs come forward under him, and the back depresses as he steps down onto his leading leg. So your body must be in an upright position as the back goes down, and flex backwards as his back comes up. The bigger a move the horse has, the more pronounced must be the spring in your back. You also absorb the movement with springy hips, knees and ankles. If your back doesn't have enough spring, or you are holding with your hips and knees, the horse's motion throws you up and forward, resulting in bouncing.
Exercise 1: Stand on the ground with your feet slightly apart and your knees bent. Then do a backbend. You will notice that the farther back your shoulders go, the farther forward your knees go. You can bend quite far back, and still stay balanced over your feet. This is the motion you need to sit the canter. With every stride your shoulders come back and your knees go forward. If your shoulders go back without your knees going forward, then you will lose you balance. If your feet go forward (and you're on the ground) you fall on your butt. If you are on a horse, you bang the saddle.
Exercise 2: Sit on your horse with your feet underneath you. Feel your weight evenly distributed on both seat bones. Now move one leg back about 6 inches. Make sure your upper body does not lean to the side. What do your seat bones feel? You should feel more weight on the seat bone opposite to the leg that went back. When the horse canters, this inside seat bone (and all the body parts attached to it) must follow the movement of the horse's leading leg. Keeping your outside leg back will help this inside seat bone and hip stay in place, coming forward each stride. Your weight needs to come down into the inside heel with your leg staying loose enough to slide down deep around the horse's barrel. If your outside leg drifts forward, your inside seat bone has a much harder time staying in place.
Now put it all together in the canter. For the left lead, think "left heel down; right leg back." In your first stride of canter, think about doing the back bend movement. This will help the horse strike off on the correct lead. With each stride, the backbend motion will keep your seat on the saddle as the horse's back comes up. Your outside leg back will help you balance. You should really stretch the front of your body so your hips come forward as your shoulders go back. Don't look down or round your shoulders.
Most people tend to get thrown to the outside in the canter. When this happens, stand up (you can do it because you are balanced over your feet with your outside leg back) move over to the inside and sit down again. Have a friend watch you from behind. The center seam of your pants should line up with the center of your saddle, which should be over the center of the horse's back. When your friend sees you drifting over to the outside, she can tell you to stand up, move over, and sit down, stepping into the inside stirrup. Doing these exercises should make sitting the canter a lot easier for you.

Question: I have a three year old filly that I have just started under saddle. I want to pony her around the farm and even out onto the roads to show her there's nothing to fear. Could you give me some advice on how to go about doing this effectively, safely and successfully, please?

Anne Says: Ponying (that is, leading a horse from the saddle of another horse) is very good for young horses.. They get straight line exercise without stress on their young joints and they get to see the sights. You must have a dead quiet older horse, preferably a gelding, who will not kick, to use as the lead pony. It is handy if he knows how to neck rein. The youngster MUST lead well- that is come forward when you put slight pressure on the lead rope. He must respect you and not try to pass and not need a chain over his nose to behave. He also must respect the lead pony but not be intimidated by him. If the youngster is terrified of the lead pony, you won't get anywhere. Use a cotton lead rope that is extra long- the 10' kind, not the 6'. Put a knot in the end so it won't slip through your hand. If you ride western you can dally it around the horn once, but hold the end in your hand.
Use a sturdy well fitting halter, or if you want more control, a lunge cavesson. Do not lead off a bit or with a chain over the horse's nose. Either of these can get you into trouble if the led horse tries to pull away. The led horse should go on the right with his head opposite your knee. Don't let him pass or hang back. The lead rope should be loose enough that the led horse travels straight, without his head pulled to one side. Try leading around the ring or in a field before you go out on the trail. If the youngster hangs back, turn your horse into him. Sometimes it helps to have another person on a horse riding behind you carry a dressage whip to tap the youngster on the rump to get him going. Once they get the idea they go right along. When you go out on the road, keep the lead pony between the youngster and traffic- so you go on the right side of the road, with the youngster on the shoulder. If you have another horse behind you, that horse should be directly behind the led horse, and then you can turn your horse directly in front of the led horse if anything scarey comes along. Then the led horse is hemmed in by the other horses and can't go anywhere. If you are leading a spunky youngster, especially an ungelded colt, I have found it a good idea to wear chaps in case he tries to bite you, and carry a bat to whack him in the face when he tries to bite you or your horse, or to pass.

Question: Can you give me some tips for riding the dressage movement where you stretch the horse's head and neck down?

Anne says: This movement is in Training level 3 & 4 and First 1. You ride a 20 meter circle at a rising trot and let the horse stretch his head and neck downward, then bring him back up. This tests the horse's ability to stay on the bit and to stretch his topline. It is a powerful gymnastic and also a very basic training exercise. A horse must be able to do this before you can hope for him to advance in his training.
Trot on a circle, rising. Make sure the horse is moving well in his own rhythm and that you have a good contact with both reins. Make sure you are sitting in the middle of the horse, not tipped forward; not off to one side. Then, move your outside hand forward one inch. Keep riding the horse forward and get him to reach out and accept the new length of rein. Then move your inside hand forward one inch. Move him up to that length of rein. Now the horse is going with each rein 1 inch longer. Then give another inch on the outside; make him stick to the contact, then give him another inch on the inside. By now each rein is 2 inches longer. You have given that through pushing your elbows forward. To bring him back up, close your fingers around the reins and give a little squeeze with your fingers every time you come down into the saddle. At the same time close your legs around the horse and the head will come up. As the head comes up, your elbows will move backwards, keeping your contact, until you are in your original position.

As you and your horse become better at this, you can stretch farther. At some point you will need to slip your reins to avoid leaning forward, but then when you ride the horse back up, you will have to adjust the reins. This is awkward, so don't try for a lot of stretch in the beginning.
You must:
1. Maintain the contact- don't throw your reins away!
2. Maintain the rhythm- the horse must not quicken!
3. Maintain the balance- the horse must not go on his forehand! If he does, he will have to bring his head up to keep himself from falling on his nose, and then your exercise is ruined. When the horse starts to stretch, think about bringing your shoulders back so you do not tip forward and disturb his
balance.
A failure in any of these- contact, rhythm or balance- will result in a score of 4 (insufficient) or less. The judge is looking for a positive contact and an elastic stretch, then a smooth transition back to the higher head position.
Do not try for too much at a time. If you ask for too much, the horse will not be able to do it. If this happens, reestablish your contact, get the horse moving rhythmically again, and repeat. You do not have to stretch down for the whole circle- it is better to get a good stretch for a few strides, than to ask for too much and have your horse pop up because he has lost his balance. This requires constant practice to do it well. Don't wait until you have entered Training Level test 3 to start practicing!

Good luck!

Question: I have a really nice coming 3 year old Percheron filly, who is doing well with her training under saddle. If I take her to dressage shows, will the judges count off because she is a full draft horse?

Anne says: A dressage judge will not mark down your horse because she is a draft horse. A draft horse is built for pulling and has a lot of power. Draft horses have good collection because they are so strong. Their action goes up and does not cover the ground as much as a lighter horse. When you get to the levels where collection and extension are required, she might not get as high scores on her lengthenings as lighter horses, but she would have better scores for collection, all other things being equal. A few years back I saw a black Percheron gelding showing 2nd level. He was a powerful and impressive mover and got good scores. Dressage is good training for any horse, even one which is intended to be used in harness.

Question: I used to board and take lessons at a dressage stable where they were obsessed with advancing the horses as quickly as possible. I was showing 2nd level. My instructor was adamant about sticking to my goals and pushed my horse too fast, so that he broke down and had to be retired. I was so mad, I stopped taking lessons and showing, and moved my horses to another barn. Many horses at this barn broke down, but the owners would just go out and buy another one. What do you think about this?

Anne Says: You were right to get out of that stable, but do not blame dressage; blame a bad trainer. Rushed or incorrect training can be harmful., but correctly used, dressage will not hurt your horse. The purpose of dressage is to develop the horse’s physique and abilities so that he becomes stronger and more supple. This will enable him to perform movements easily which require greater strength, balance and flexibility. This process requires time and judgment, and a good instructor will help you learn to have this judgment. The primary goal of every owner, rider and trainer should be to keep the horse healthy and happy! Secondary goals, such as what level or what movements you do, can change depending on how the horse responds. Abusive training methods should never be tolerated by those of us who love horses. Even if you have the money to buy a new horse, it is preferable to be able to sell your old horse, sound and useful, when you want to replace it with a better one. An instructor must be, first and foremost, a horseman who understands the physiology of the horse and who never uses any training methods which are detrimental to him. You may be interested in reading my article “How to Get the Most from Instruction” Part 2- “Qualities of a Good Instructor.” Find yourself an instructor who understands and is sympathetic to horses and continue with your education.

Question: When I practice my dressage tests, my horse learns the test faster than I do. How can I keep him from anticipating?

Anne says: Horses have very good memories and are creatures of habit. While it is good that they know what we want them to do, it can cause problems if they anticipate and begin a movement too soon. Never punish your horse for anticipating,

Practice the movements in the tests, but break them up and try them in different locations. For example, when you practice your halts on the centerline, don’t halt every time. Also try halting before X, at X and after X so your horse doesn’t just stop when you reach that spot. Practice riding the quarterlines with and without halts. Make your circles and transitions in various places, not just where the test has them. Practice parts of the test, mixed up with other movements that are not part of a test.

One of the movements that may give you trouble is the free walk across the diagonal. Many horses put in a little jig when they know they are about to trot. So don’t always go right into the trot. Do another walk diagonal, or walk a circle, or reverse and trot. Then your horse will have to listen to you, because he doesn’t know what is coming up.

Question: I'm about to ride in my first dressage schooling show. Do you have any magic tricks for memorizing these tests?

Anne says: This is what I tell my students: Don't clog up your memory with letters- just learn the pattern of the test. So, for training level test 1, you would say:
Turn left,
Trot circle in the middle,
Canter depart in the corner
Canter circle at the gate end, and so forth.
This is considerably less to memorize than the way the test is written.

Also, mark out a mini-arena (about 4x8 feet- I use the hall rug- it's the right size) and practice walking through the test. Trot where it says trot and canter where it says canter. If you don't walk through it, but simply stare at a diagram, you will get turned around when you try to ride the test.

When you are mounted, during your warm-up and cool out periods, you can walk the pattern of the test in the arena. That way you save the horse from undue repetition. Don't practice the test again and again on your horse, but do practice parts of it- transitions, circles, turns down the centerline. etc.

Don't try to learn more than one test at a time- you will get them mixed up. Work on one for a week, then when you know it well, start on the second.

Question: When I jump, my horse wants to rush. How can I correct this?

Anne says: Rushers are usually made by the rider’s hands. The rider takes a firmer hold on the reins, and the horse feels panicked that he won’t be given the freedom to jump, so he tries to go faster, and it becomes a vicious circle. You need to work with your instructor to make sure you aren’t causing the problem by tensing up, pinching with your legs, leaning too far forward, or taking too strong a hold on the horse’s mouth. Make sure you know how to give a correct whoa signal using your body and reins correctly. Sit down in the saddle and bring your shoulders back. It’s OK to really haul on him as long as you release immediately when he obeys. Then you are ready to try to break the vicious circle by working on transitions.

Step one: Practice trot and halt and trot on. When you halt, be sure to loosen the reins and praise the horse. The horse must stand on a slightly loose rein before you trot again. When you are doing this well, then approach a tiny cross-rail at the trot. If the horse shows any inclination to take a hold, speed up or charge, then you halt before the fence. You might need your groundperson to stand in front of the jump to keep the horse from charging over. After the horse has halted, turn away at the walk, pick up your trot and come again. If the horse stays relaxed, then let the horse go over the fence and halt after the fence. Make sure you give him complete freedom over the fence. Sometimes it helps for the groundperson to walk across in front of the jump as the horse approaches. Continue with this every day, even if you only jump once out of five approaches. The idea is to get the horse to approach on a loose rein without speeding up.

Step two: place small cross-rail jumps all over your ring so that they can be jumped in either direction and so there is room to circle between them. Pick up a relaxed trot and trot over one, turn away from the next, sometimes circle, vary the pattern. The horse will never know which jump he is to take next. If he tries to rush, go back to step one. Once the horse can maintain a relaxed trot, then you can trot the first fence, canter away, come back to the trot before the next fence and so on. You will be working the trot-canter-trot transitions.

Step three: Start out at a trot, but sometimes let the horse canter one fence and trot the next fence. Gradually raise the heights of the fences to what the horse is used to jumping. Keep some of them tiny to go back to if the horse tries to rush. Your object will be to get the horse will stay relaxed, and jump at a trot or canter. As you build up your courses, remember that jumps in a line will make the horse get hotter, while jumping off a turn is less likely to do so. Keep your distances short so the horse doesn’t feel the need to lengthen and get flat. If at any time the horse gets too keen, go back to the previous step.

Question: What is a pulley rein?

Anne says: This is a rein effect that is your emergency brake. It is used when your regular rein aids are being ignored. Make sure you have a strong contact with both reins. Holding the reins tightly, place one hand on top of the horse’s neck, right in front of the saddle. With the other hand you make a short, sharp pull toward your belly button as you give the whoa signals with your body (sit down in the saddle and bring your shoulders back so you are sitting upright.) Because you are holding the opposite rein tightly against the horse’s neck, the bit will not be pulled through his mouth, nor will his head be pulled to the side. Correctly done, the pulley rein directs a lot of force on the horse’s mouth. You can use several pulley reins aids repeated on one side, or you can switch sides. If you do the pulley rein incorrectly and do not have the opposite rein tight, you can hurt your horse’s neck by wrenching his head sideways. It is even possible to break a horse’s leg if he is galloping and is suddenly jerked sideways. If you have never used the pulley rein, have your instructor or an experienced friend make sure you are doing it correctly.

Question: My horse’s shoulders bulge. She likes to counter bend going around corners, especially when we are going to the right at the trot. I tried putting a more active leg at the girth on the inside, and a bit more rein on the inside, and she will bring her head back in, except that she turns too sharply, and we come away from the track, where I wanted to be.

Anne says: What you describe is a common problem with a horse that
1. Doesn’t understand the aids for steering and moving away from the leg. When you use your leg to keep her on the track, she tries to go faster and gets on her forehand, or
2. Is not balanced. If she is on her forehand, she will not be able to move over, or
3. Is not straight from head to tail- using the outside rein pulls her head over, making her crooked and she falls onto her inside shoulder.

To break up this situation, you need to slow down, straighten the horse, and get her listening to your aids. Here are some exercises that will help:

1. Trot-walk-trot transitions will get your horse listening to your slowing down aids and teaches her to shift her weight back: Ride a nice rhythmic trot, not too fast, then walk (sit up straight, close your fingers, bring your shoulders back.) Establish a good forward walk, then trot on. When you get good at this, you will be able to do only one or two walk steps, then trot. Also, then the horse will respond to a half-halt, because she will be used to slowing down for the transition.
2. Broken lines (zig-zags) will improve your pony’s steering and give you control of her shoulders: Ride at a rhythmic trot. On the long side of your ring, get her straight. Then half-halt (shoulders back, close your fingers, as if you were going to stop) then the next step turn slightly away from the rail onto a very slight diagonal. If you are going to the left, look left, step down into your left stirrup, and use a left leading rein and right indirect rein. You will really only do a tiny sideways twitch with both reins. Keep contact on both reins, and keep your hands low, below the level of her withers, so you can control where her shoulders go. Do not let your hand cross her withers. After a few strides on the new line, half halt (both reins,) look right, step right, and go back to the rail (tiny sideways twitch of both reins to the right.) You want to go only a few feet off the rail and back again, keeping her straight from head to tail.
3. Leg yield (turn around the forehand) will teach your horse to move away from your leg: Halt anywhere in the ring, but not too close to the rail. Have contact with both reins. If you are going to the left, turn her head ever so slightly to the right, and ask her to step away from your right leg. One step is all that’s necessary. Pat her on the side with your leg. Tap with your whip if necessary. (Although normally this exercise is done with your leg slightly behind the girth, if you keep your leg at the girth, it will be more beneficial for your purposes of keeping her on the track.) If she doesn’t understand, you can teach this on the ground when you are grooming her. Just push her on the side where your leg would be. Don’t let her move forward. Praise her when she moves her hind end over. Practice this until she will move away from your leg when you are mounted.

Practice each of these three exercises 5 or 6 times every day, both directions. After she has learned them, when you trot around the ring, half-halt, then use your aids as in the broken line exercise to keep her on the rail. If she doesn’t respond to your inside leg, come back to the walk. It is easier for her to balance at the walk. Move the front end over with your reins, move the back end over with your leg, then trot on. You will find that this reminder may help for half to two times around the ring; then you may have to repeat it.

Things to watch:
1. Make sure your upper body doesn’t tip forward- you need to be upright so the horse can balance herself back. The farther forward you lean, the more weight will be on her forehand, and the harder it will be for her to move over.
2. Keep a good rhythm in the trot.
3. Keep her straight. Make sure her nose is in front of her chest and that she doesn’t bulge either shoulder. You should be able to see her eyelash on the inside eye, but the whole neck should not be turned sideways. If a horse is not straight, he will lose his balance.
4. Keep your aids short and sweet- an aid should last only for a footfall, then relax.
5. When you use one rein aid, be sure you keep contact with the opposite rein.

Good luck!

Question: What involves a working student? And what do you have to know?

Anne says: A working student is someone who works for an instructor in return for lessons and riding. The work does not have to be with horses- I have heard of exchanging babysitting or secretarial services for lessons. The working student position can be a wonderful opportunity or drudgery, depending on the situation. You have the potential to learn much more than you would with weekly lessons, because you would see everything that goes on at the barn, be constantly under the eye of the instructor, and get a chance to ride different horses. If you are too tired to ride, or the instructor doesn’t have time to teach you, you won’t learn anything. Some situations will give you a place to live, board for your horse and perhaps a small salary. For a live-in situation, you would have to be 18 years old. How much you need to know also depends on the situation. At my barn, a working student would have to know how to handle and groom a horse, clean a stall and turn out a horse for a show, in order to be useful to me. I would prefer someone who is an experienced rider and could help train young horses. My article “How to Get the Most from Instruction” will be of interest to you.