100+ School Exercises for Dressage

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever set out to school your horse and wondered why you are doing so, other than having been told that you should?

Do you ride into the school and wonder what to do, apart from going round and round in endless 20m circles?

It is little wonder that so many riders think that schooling is boring. If you do not understand why you are doing it, or how to make it interesting, then it is bound to feel like an aimless chore you are performing simply because you know that you should!

WHY DO WE SCHOOL OUR HORSES?

The bottom line is that basic training (schooling) is essential for a horse to lead a long, healthy, and happy working life.

Even horses destined for pleasure riding, and not for the competition arena, need to be taught to respond calmly and with an understanding of the rider's aids. Start, stop, turn, go back, and move over, are all necessary basics for the purposes of manoeuvring safely along paths and through gateways. Trust is built between horse and rider by working together in a safe and controlled environment, such as a riding arena.

In addition, a basic physical training is essential for the horse's physical wellbeing:

Healthy muscles - a logical, progressive schooling programme is what it takes to build the strength and fitness in the muscles to enable the horse to carry a rider while performing exercises of any variety, be it dressage, jumping, or simple hacking, without injuring himself.

Joints - these need to be exercised to increase their flexibility and range, in order to perform ridden tasks without stress or damage.

Skeleton, especially the spine - with the rider's weight sitting over the horse's spine, damage is highly likely to occur unless the core muscles that support the spine are strengthened.

The bonus to all this essential work is that a good education will also turn a horse into a comfortable and pleasurable ride.

If you do aim to train your horse further, to become a specialized sports horse developed to his maximum genetic potential, you will need a far greater comprehension of, and a much wider range of, the training tools available to advance his education.

This book offers you exercises ranging from the most basic, which should be used by every rider, through to advanced techniques for high-level competition horses.

LEARNING HOW TO SCHOOL

Every horse begins life with his own individual strengths and weaknesses gifted by nature. In response to this, your training must first be:

1. Diagnostic - to discover and pinpoint those strengths and weaknesses, both mental and physical.

2. Therapeutic - respond with exercises targeted to address and overcome his weaknesses, and be able to use his strengths as reward for work well done.

3. Gymnastic - the development of his athleticism, once he has achieved the mental and physical status to be able to do so.

Once you gain an understanding of which exercises address these stages, and start using them in a targeted and responsive fashion, you will find schooling becomes far more rewarding. For example, if your horse is on the forehand, simply drilling school patterns will change nothing, but when you ride exercises designed to help the horse develop the weight-carrying capacity of his haunches, you will successfully lighten his forehand. Each exercise in this book will give you an insight into the reasons for its use, so that you can pick appropriately for your individual horse's issues.

TIP

Remember: a horse doesn't need to do what he can do - he needs to do what he can't do to progress.

Schooling is a fascinating journey, and although you should set yourself an ultimate goal, you will never fully 'arrive' - there will always be more to learn. By turns thrilling and frustrating, done diligently and well, this journey becomes one of discovery and development, of growth and pleasure in the harmonious partnership you can develop with your horse.

TRAINING TOOLS

Training a horse involves the combined use of aids and patterns; neither will do the job alone. While it is essential that you and your horse both understand the aiding system you have chosen to employ, without the use of a range of physical patterns your schooling will be dull, and your horse will never develop the flexibility and strength he needs for a long and healthy working life.

DIFFERENT AIDING SYSTEMS

Did you know that there are different aiding systems? It is worth clarifying here that when we talk about aiding, there are a number of different schools of riding that teach different aiding systems to obtain the same result. There is no right or wrong - simply more than one legitimate training path. Horses trained in each of these systems can, and do, achieve the ultimate goal of Grand Prix, and perform at the dizzy heights of World Championship and Olympic competition.

Generalized examples of schools would be: the Spanish Riding School-based systems, such as Germany and the UK employ, Iberian systems, the French school, and the Scandinavian. The most important consideration for a student must be that they ensure they learn only from trainers working within one system, and do not attempt to mix systems. This will only lead to confusion and as a result, stressed horses and riders.

PATTERNS

Patterns, however, are universal - and that is largely what this book concentrates on. Where aiding is detailed as a means of riding a specific exercise, it is based on the Spanish Riding School system. If you need more clarity, you can find these aids covered in great detail in my previous book, The Building Blocks of Training, which is designed to lead you through the order in which exercises should be introduced to the horse.

Many of the patterns we use have been developed and refined over centuries of trial and error, with some of the movements we now classify as 'classical', and 'airs above the ground', having their origins in mounted combat. The length of time required to train a horse to such prowess meant that such animals were much valued and not easy to replace. Training methods that promoted longevity have stood the test of time, becoming what is now often termed 'classical training', but is, in fact, simply good training.

Some of the patterns in the latter part of this book are more recent innovations, based around educating horses to produce the movements required for the higher-level competition tests. All, however, are designed to enhance the horse's physical abilities, while at the same time maintaining his mental relaxation and acceptance of the rider's aids.

The horse's understanding of how to respond to the rider's aids (whichever aiding system you employ), will enable you to use a variety of patterns, each of which is designed to supple and/or strengthen various aspects of the horse's physique. Too many riders misunderstand the purpose of exercises, believing they need to train the horse to perform certain movements in order to compete at increasingly higher levels of dressage competition. In fact, the exercises are there to train and develop the horse's body, so that when the time comes to move up a level, the horse is already physically capable of the 'higher' movements, and all that is needed is refinement to the presentation, and the addition of more power. As such, many of the movements that riders believe to be too advanced for them to attempt should, in fact, be taught, albeit in an easier format, at much earlier stages of training than they appear in their completed state, in competition.

TRAINING CHALLENGES

How far a horse can be taken, in terms of gymnastic and performance ability, depends on a number of factors at the outset.

Conformation (the horse's physical structure) is a fundamental factor that cannot be changed by training, although a good knowledge of exercises targeted to address conformational weaknesses will mitigate this issue as far as is physically possible. Many of us find ourselves riding and training horses with far from ideal conformations, and these can be both more of a challenge, and more of a reward, when we are able to produce them to perform beyond expectation.

Movement is largely pre-determined by conformation, but may also be influenced by experience (such as interaction with other horses), environment (hilly, challenging terrain during early physical development forms strong cartilage and healthy joints, whereas deep, muddy, or too flat ground may pre-dispose the horse to injury and limited movement), and, of course, training. The latter is responsible for enabling the horse to move his body and limbs under the foreign weight of a rider in such fashion that he does not injure himself, and is free to maximize his physical potential.

Temperament is innate to the individual, though may be influenced to a degree by handling during upbringing. You cannot totally change a horse's temperament, but again, by logical, gradual, and kind training, you can channel it to become as close as possible to the desired outcome for a riding horse: attentive, willing, sensitive, and confident. If you have a horse with these attributes by nature the process is much easier, but such horses are highly sought after and, as a result, often expensive!

USE THE SCALES OF TRAINING TO...