Once the horse is “in gear” using the Constants, the right Variables are used for each progressive exercise and series of exercises. IMPULSION is at the heart of the five Variables, and the other four are DIRECTION and SPEED, which are the variables we should all start with, and finally BALANCE and TIMING to make a circle of strength.

They come from those two master coaches of the USA show jumping and eventing teams, Bert de Nemethy and Jack Le Goff. They both often made the same statement: “If you have the right Direction, Speed, Impulsion, and Balance, then Timing (the ability to see a stride) is much less important.” These five have become my Variables, the variable components that are required for literally every exercise we use.

The Powerful Simplicity of the Variables

You are about to go into a dressage test, or show jumping round, or cross country, or even race and you are under pressure. So what do you concentrate on? You have already got your horse “in gear” with the five Constants, so the easy answer is you now focus on the Variables.

And the simplest and most effective thing to do is just concentrate on getting the right Direction and the right Speed, the first two variables. People forget about the importance of precision with the direction and are frightened of using the word speed. “Don’t confuse speed with impulsion,” they chant, but it is a fact that an extended trot is faster in speed than a collected trot, and different speeds are required for different parts of a jumping course and for different types of competition.

It will get you most of the way there and as you gradually also manage to keep the right level of impulsion it will bring success. Of course the better trained the horse the more they will maintain the right level of impulsion by themselves, and as ever the sign of a good trainer is how little they have to do in the competition rather than how much they have to do.

With competitive horse riding simplicity is greatly underrated. This is why much of equestrian instruction is so complicated despite the fact that this will greatly reduce a rider’s effectiveness. Without doubt simplicity is vital when it comes to communicating to horses or any animal of a different species, it is a no brainer, but it is also key to successful performance for the rider.

Yehuda Shinar and his colleagues, who helped England win the World Cup in 2003, did an 18 year study starting in the 1980s. They analyzed 4,500 performers in order to discover the psychological make-up of a winner. They concluded that there was just one main quality shared by successful performers — “the ability to maximize one’s potential even under pressure and competitive situations.”

So simplicity is also of huge benefit to a competition rider because generally speaking the brain doesn’t work well under stress. In fact it has been proved that cognitive brain activity under pressure reduces to between 3% and 30%. This is why we do silly things under stress, whether it is taking a wrong turn, forgetting the name of a person you know well, or just reacting slowly.

Therefore the whole subject of learning to Think Clearly Under Pressure (T CUP thinking) is something most elite sports teams work at. And the foremost technique is to keep practising a simple technique. The top show jumpers are brilliant at this and they have much to teach the other disciplines. With the variables even children or novice riders have a simple method to follow that makes immediate sense and works!

Impulsion

Impulsion is a variable component because it is a misunderstanding to think that maximum impulsion is needed all the time. To give two obvious examples, the level of impulsion in trot is greater than for walk, and the level of impulsion required for extended trot is greater than required for working trot. We have to train with this in mind so it becomes possible to both increase and decrease impulsion.

In addition a good tempo (the speed of the rhythm) is primarily the result of having the right level of impulsion for each speed. Having achieved a first level of impulsion, and connected the horse from the hind legs through the back to the bit, it is then relatively easy to increase the level of impulsion as you work through the normal progression of exercises, but highest levels of impulsion can only be produced in a naturally athletic horse. As ever this will only happen if the horse thrives mentally and is happy in their work.

Direction & Speed

The fundamental priority for any dressage test or jumping round, having established the Constants satisfactorily, is to have the right direction and speed. Says British dressage star Spencer Wilton, “the information you give your horse needs to be 50% telling him where you want to go.” You control the direction primarily by controlling the bend in the neck and position of the forehand as a horse is like a car with front wheel steering but rear wheel drive.

It is not always possible to control the direction precisely if the straightness is lost, but in training, rather than physically manipulating the direction, which tends to restrict the horse’s way of going, you should instead make the exercise easier and go back to improving the straightness. At all levels riders will find it easier to control the direction if they look where they want to go and then allow their aids to happen naturally.

A decrease and increase of speed leads to shortening and lengthening, and when combined with the right level of impulsion to collection and extension. The faster the speed the greater the demand will be for impulsion, whereas a slower speed with extra impulsion will produce a more elevated step (eventually resulting in passage).

Balance & Timing

Balance and Timing are the final two Variables. When a horse has a steady equilibrium they can be said to be in balance, but a horse can have different balances. The horse can be balanced more on the forehand, as with a young horse or racehorse that has to “let down” to gallop, or they can have a more horizontal balance, as with a novice horse in the working paces or when doing flying changes. Then in collection the horse can be more “uphill” and eventually lower the quarters and “sit,” which is required in the advanced movements of pirouette and piaffe.

Horses for dressage are bred with a naturally more “uphill” balance but the benefits of this are often exaggerated. Good basic conformation and especially spinal flexibility are more important ingredients for a dressage horse. The right balance for a particular exercise is vital but it is primarily engineered by having the right speed and impulsion, and by the rider not giving the horse a supporting rein contact. If there is a loss of balance the horse’s natural response to regain the balance is to slow down, so the rider will need to allow this combined with getting the right level of impulsion.

Self-carriage is vital and means the balance is consistent. However in contradiction to this riders are continually encouraged to kick and hold (spank and yank) and “hold a horse together” in order to balance them. As a result you get horses going with short necks, dropped backs and often with tension.

As even Xenophon said, “… if the rider holds the horse back with the rein and at the same time asks him to go forward, the horse will be irritated … .” Riders misunderstand the instruction to ride from the leg to the hand and as a result fix the hand.

Dutch dressage superstar Anky Van Grunsven, multi Olympic gold medalist, emphasizes the importance of using the aids separately: “leg without hand, hand without leg, so you don’t confuse the horse.” She connects this to badly ridden half halts. “A half halt is not squashing a horse between driving leg and holding hand. Look at the rule book which states that it is ‘an almost imperceptible’ use of the aids.”

Finally I use timing to refer to the timing of transitions, the beginning and ending of movements, and flying changes, and the timing of a horse’s stride in front of a fence (feeling/seeling a stride) to find a good take off point. But the right direction, speed and impulsion are more important initially than precision timing.

On the other hand if you work at the timing in isolation it will lead to a manipulated, inefficient and mechanical result. In addition everything becomes easier as the horse becomes immediately responsive to delicate aids, what the Germans call durchlaessigkeit.

We should always remember the horse is not a machine and we should never neglect the mental side. This is why we keep returning to and revising the Constants, especially the Acceptance, Calmness, and Forwardness to keep the mental side right. Then we will have happy horses and happy riding days. 

The Bottom Line

So my Constants and Variables set us up for success as we work through the beautiful progression of exercises and tests, and there is nothing more satisfying to me than transforming a horse into something more beautiful and happier because of good dressage. We just need to use the Constants and Variables and follow the example of Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin, Michael Jung, William Fox-Pitt and many of the best show jumpers in the world.

In addition Charlotte Dujardin emphasises that you don’t need a flashy trot in a young horse to do good dressage, just three good correct paces and a good temperament … and good training. So there are more horses out there than most realise that can do good dressage. And the pay off will be huge because good dressage is a golden key to more medals, more joy and more happy horses and riders. Yes it’s a huge challenge, but that is precisely what makes every little success on our dressage journey so rewarding.

This is the final article in William Micklem’s “Dressage Gold” series. Click the links below to read all of the installments:

PART 1 – Dressage Gold with William Micklem: Good Dressage Equals Medals and Money

PART 2 – Dressage Gold with William Micklem: Standing on the Shoulders of the Wrong Giants

PART 3 – Dressage Gold with William Micklem: The Constants for Dressage

PART 4 – Dressage Gold with William Micklem: The Variables for Dressage

A good idea has to give way to a better idea. It happens every day in some way. It is the way of the world. It was what stimulated me to invent the Micklem bridle and about 30 years ago led me to put together the training structure that I call the Constants and Variables. There are five CONSTANTS, so called because they are all constantly required, and five VARIABLES, which are all required in varying amounts and ways according to the individual needs of each progressive exercise being used.

It is a structure and recipe that works for all levels of riding and training. It owes much to those two great coaches, Jack Le Goff and Bert de Nemethy, and there are also some connections to the German scales of training, but it is simpler, more memorable, and less open to varying interpretations.

At the heart of the five Constants are what I call the three musketeers, CALMNESS, FORWARDNESS and STRAIGHTNESS, and to these are added ACCEPTANCE and PURITY to make a circle of strength.

Acceptance

The meaning of Calmness, Forwardness and Straightness is fairly obvious, but “submission” is the term more normally used instead of acceptance. I use the term acceptance because there is an important distinction between the two words.

Acceptance leads to trust, partnership and agreement, and requires that the horse understands what is required, while submission produces an unquestioning follower. The difference between acceptance and submission is the difference between a horse that knows he could react differently but chooses not to, and a horse that knows there is no other option.

Purity

I use the word purity to encapsulate not just the rhythm and regularity but also the natural paces and natural outline of the horse, avoiding anything in the way of going that is unnatural or superfluous. It is the golden thread running through every movement and exercise and refers to the whole way of going in each pace — what the Germans call “reinheitergange,” which translates as purity.

We have to be constantly aware of maintaining the Purity of the paces, because physically everything begins and ends with the purity of the paces. As the Portugese dressage maestro Nuno Oliveira said, “Look for the purity of the three gaits. The rest will follow easily.” (The same applies to the purity of the jump.)

Purity can only be achieved if the horse can use their back … often not easy when a rider is sitting on it. If your horse is stiff or dropped in the back you can use lungeing, rising trot and a light seat in canter, combined with simple and easy exercises to allow the back to begin to work.

In addition you can make life easier by working in areas where there is already purity. If the right tempo and regularity of steps exists only in the working trot then this is what you must work in initially, but if your horse has no period of suspension in the canter you only do a minimum of canter to begin with.

To do otherwise would run the risk of confirming the fault because practice makes permanent, not perfect. In this way every main exercise you do should develop and improve the purity of the paces, because you will not accept any work where the regularity of the paces or natural outline and way of going is lost.

Acceptance, Calmness & Forwardness Together

Acceptance, calmness and forwardness are all primarily mental qualities, and their foundation is understanding, combined with the rider not asking their horse to do things beyond which they are capable. This is a key point and leads us from the start to reject the mechanical and forced. If you force things then almost certainly the horse will be restricted both mentally and physically.

The beginning and ongoing demand of our daily training journey has to be acceptance, as we ask our horses to accept the varied and what to them must seem the often strange demands of our sport. If only calmness was required then our horses could stay in the field. Instead we work with each horse, using a solid understanding of the nature of horses and humane, effective methods, progressing a step at a time that allows trust to be developed. Then calmness will go hand in hand with acceptance.

The basis for calmness comes from an environment that is as natural as possible, including equine company and regular steady work. Calmness becomes a habit if the trainer gives the horse sufficient time to settle before progressing with new demands, and is willing to back off and make things easier if tension appears.

It would also be normal to have rest periods during a riding session and keep returning to easy work with an easy rein. In addition lungeing is great for calmness, as is hacking, turning out, being calm yourself, and never abusing the horse’s trust and abilities.

During work each horse has to be very clearly and positively asked and allowed to go forwards, but horses are fundamentally very willing to do this for their riders if they understand what is required, have confidence in their ability and are free of pain. If this were not the case we would never have developed equestrian sports as we know them. As we ask for more forwardness there may be some loss of acceptance and calmness, so a step back is taken.

Equally as you achieve better calmness with slow regular work, it is possible that your horse will become a little backward thinking, so immediately you prioritize forwardness by riding out in company, or cantering with a light seat, or possibly jumping.

But probably nothing encourages forwardness more than an enthusiastic rider with a good balance and a soft allowing rein contact.  Then if the calmness is being lost you can once again make the work less exciting. In this way you can gradually progress with both calmness and forwardness.

Therefore there is a continual need for awareness of the changing state of the horse’s mind and on our part a willingness to act and react, asking a little more or a little less according to the situation.

Calmness, Forwardness & Straightness Together

All levels of horses should be calm, forwards and straight, and there is no phrase in equestrian education and literature that is used more frequently than this. They are continually identified as the supreme priorities, and they work as team.

Calmness without forwardness does not get you off the starting blocks, while forwardness without calmness can lead to speed but never to impulsion. When forwardness is added to the acceptance and calmness the horse will have everything in place that is required for improving the straightness.

But straightness in any quadruped is always a rarity and not easy to achieve. It is initially done by achieving an even bend on both reins in walk and trot and then, as your horse comes between the aids, by beginning a very small degree of shoulder-in (called position to the inside). As control of the positioning of the shoulders is achieved on both reins then straightness on straight lines also becomes possible.

As a horse becomes more advanced and medium paces are introduced they may become a little crooked once again. Then as we work to straighten them it has a tendency to reduce the forwardness. So it is necessary to keep alternating between riding forwards and straightening, until you can ride forwards with a straight horse. This is a process you will repeat often.

But whatever you do to improve a particular constant you also have to guard the purity. For example it is hugely damaging either to get acceptance by using a gadget that produces an unnatural way of going, or to force straightness and therefore lose the regularity of the steps or the period of suspension. Unfortunately this is a common sight in show jumping.

Controlled Impulsion

The five Constants can be established from the beginning even with young horses on the lunge. Then they will all work together to produce what is the gold medal of dressage training, the key ingredient for performance, controlled IMPULSION. Whether it is for dressage, show jumping or cross country we need this controlled impulsion, or another way to say this is that the horse needs to be “in gear.”

Lungeing is not an easy skill to do well but it is a great tool to establish the basics so that retraining is not required … and what a huge difference good lungeing can make to the longterm potential of a horse and to their attitude to work. But beware lungeing pens because they make a horse crooked as they cling to the outside wall. Horse walkers have the opposite effect, which is good for straightness, as the horse gravitates to the inside wall.  Because of this they are naturally “position to the inside.”

We need to maintain all the Constants as we work through the beautiful progression of exercises. But the most important point and simply brilliant result of this is that we can keep building controlled impulsion. Quality work requires bags of impulsion, with the horse using the back and working as one connected athletic unit.

However the other side of this coin is that even if one of the Constants is insufficient good controlled impulsion is simply not possible. Without acceptance it will not be controlled, and without calmness the impulsion is inevitably restricted by the paralysing effect of tension.

Without forwardness impulsion cannot exist, as willingness to go forward is the basis for impulsion, and without straightness impulsion is restricted, as one side of the horse is used less than the other. Finally without purity the horse does not work naturally, with a natural outline and paces, as one whole connected unit, which is essential for both impulsion and for “classical” and humane training.

If any of the constants are weak or missing the controlled impulsion immediately deteriorates, therefore we have to continually revisit and guard the constants in the daily training. In every training session you will start by first re-establishing the acceptance, calmness and forwardness in the warm up period, before going on to add and confirm the straightness in the suppling period, before carrying all the constants into your main work as you develop more impulsion and athleticism.

Then this process is carried out in reverse as you cool a horse down and finish with them happy and accepting. The practise of revision and re-establishing the basics is part and parcel of daily horse training, part of a circle using all the five Constants.  Then in competition the variable components take priority as the constants should be automatically maintained without any actions from the rider.

First and Foremost Training Priority

Is this all easy? No! But it is very possible, especially if you have a little patience and empathy with the horse. As Alois Pojaisky said, “The first and foremost training priority is to have empathy with your student.” Add a balanced, harmonious position and a guided trip along the beautiful progression of exercises and you can turn a wide variety of horses into happy athletes.

It is also to a large extent an art, which is why Guérinière, who invented shoulder-in, had this carved on the entrance to his arena: “Where art ends, brutality begins.”

Next Time: Part 2 – The Variables of Dressage

Ingrid Klimke and FRH Escada JS at Aachen CICO3* 2015. Photo by Jenni Autry.

The German scales of training have become predominant in dressage training in every European country in recent years. There is not a coaching manual or book that does not mention them, but on examination there is sufficient confusion and misunderstanding to ask if they really are the best structure for us to use for dressage training.

The sheer number of contradictory books on the scales of training, the rejection of the scale by experts in biomechanics, and the major concerns of those two hugely well respected equestrian professors, Dr. Thomas Ritter and Dr. Andrew McLean, all suggest we should at least keep looking for improvements. In particular we need to find ways to make this type of information more accessible and memorable to those with an interest in dressage.

A Search for a Better Way

In the dressage world Herbert Rehbein was considered the professional’s professional — a humble genius. He won the Hamburg Dressage Derby eight times and seven titles in the German Professionals Championships. He was also voted Trainer of the Year by the International Trainers Club in 1991 and in 1994, and the German Federation conferred on him the title of Riding Master.

In the 1970s I was lucky enough to spend two short periods at his training stables, Gronwoldhof, when he explained to me that most people misunderstood and incorrectly translated the scales of training. This started a personal quest to study the subject and led to me producing a new structure 30 years ago that I call “the Constants and the Variables.” The bones of this structure are described in my book The Complete Horse Riding Manual published in 2003.

Rehbein pointed out a number of things to me, the first of which was that the scales are not classical principles in the real sense, because at that time they were barely 50 years old. He said they had only recently gained such credibility because coaches and riders everywhere were desperate to grab on to something that was simple and credible in a dressage world that at that time was being pulled apart by contradictions and conflicts between different dressage schools and traditions.

However, even today our student coaches are told that they are classical principles. The three fundamental classical principles dating from Xenophon, 2,400 years ago, are that force should not be used, that the horse should be developed naturally and that the result should be beautiful and beautifully easy.

Since that time the poor horse has gone through centuries of abuse, much in the name of classical equitation, that has seen the use of the strongest bits, sharpest spurs and all manners of gadgets. So attaching the word “classical” is often more marketing than truth.

A Training Dynasty

I was delighted to find that one of the retired equine residents at Gronwoldhof was Alwin Schockemöhle’s great show jumping World Champion Donald Rex. However I was even more delighted to watch an athletic 4-year-old working, who was the apple of Herbert’s eye — his name was Pik Bube.

It was no surprise that he went on to become world famous, both as a multiple Grand Prix winner and as a dressage stallion. His success further cemented the reputation of the Hannoverian stud book, despite the fact that he was half Thoroughbred, as was Reiner Klimke’s greatest dressage horse, the “Westphalian” Ahlerich.

Herbert Rehbein trained with Bubi Gunther, who together with Willie Schulteis and Joseph Neckermann were trained by the father of modern German dressage, Otto Lorke. They in turn trained Harry Boldt, Reiner Klimke and the majority of today’s top trainers including, Conrad Schumacher and Jean Bemelmans. What a dynasty! What they have collectively achieved means their words have huge significance.

Not Perfect by Any Means

What we must acknowledge is that the scales are not always perfect in concept or use and that students should be encouraged to keep an open mind and test things to see if they are good or if they can be improved. As Jean Bemelans said at the Global Dressage Forum in 2007:

“In Germany we have the classical training scale. … If you have a perfect horse with a perfect character with no problems, then you can stay on the classical scale of riding, and step by step you come to the Grand Prix. But there is no perfect horse! You can have a nervous horse, there are many problems, then you have to find out the right way to come to the end with that horse. We have our rules where we go step by step, but on the other side we cannot be like a policeman and say, ‘there is only one way!’”

Conrad Schumacher echoed this in September 2008: “As a trainer of trainers I want to help other trainers find the best way to help his or her students, and sometimes that means being less standard in their approach and more creative in their application of the scales of training and traditional training techniques to get the best result.” Now that’s an open door!

A Different Order

There are six scales of training, presented in a linear form, the first of which is RHYTHM, followed in strict order by LOSGELASSENHEIT (currently translated as suppleness or looseness), CONTACT, SCHWUNG (currently translated as impulsion), STRAIGHTNESS and finally COLLECTION.

It is now commonly suggested that the order of the scales can be improved. From both a practical training and a biomechanical point of view there is a growing consensus that straightness should come before schwung and there are many who put losgelassenheit ahead of rhythm.

For example Reiner Klimke always put losgelassenheit first. Now his hugely successful daughter Ingrid, who was lucky enough to learn to ride on a Connemara pony, says the same. Her conveyor belt of top horses shows that the Klimke system works and it is of huge value to look at their personal three top training priorities.

Ingrid says, “My Father always strived for Olympic glory, but he was well aware that he would not reach this goal if he took shortcuts. He knew it was better to wait than rush a horse’s training. Our highest aim is to make our horses more beautiful and keep them healthy through their training. To achieve this the three daily priorities with all horses are 1) take small steps, 2) keep variety in the training and 3) foster the horse’s personality … which means we should never dominate our horses.

Translating Losgelassenheit 

The first real difficulty in the scales of training is the translation of losgelassenheit. What does it mean? It is now usually translated as looseness or suppleness and at times relaxation, but in German looseness is “lockerheit,” suppleness is “geschmeidigkeit” and relaxation is “entspannung.” So why was the specific term losgelassenheit used?

It is a noun that has been created from the verb loslassen, meaning “to let go,” therefore losgelassen “to have let go” or “be comfortable mentally.” Heit is just an ending that changes verbs and adjectives into nouns. The key point is that it refers to a mental not physical state. This makes much more sense, as it is obviously vital to have acceptance and calmness as a basic prerequisite for good physical performance.

Rehbein confirmed this by saying that suppleness is what you develop in a horse over a long period of time using the progression of exercises as you work towards impulsion. As you will see the latter part of this sentence about impulsion is of huge importance in defining schwung.

Schwung Is Not Impulsion

The definition of contact, the third in the scale, is less contentious but it’s meaning has definitely changed as emphasis is now put on both leg and rein contacts, rather than just the rein contact as in the original German manual. However the definition of the fourth in the scale, schwung, is really interesting and worthy of special thought.

The majority in the English speaking world describe this as “impulsion,” but I believe this is wrong.  It means “spring” and it is close in meaning to that now less used word “cadence,” which is about a bigger period of suspension and a shorter stance time for each step. This is confirmed by the fact that it clearly states in the German manual that you cannot have schwung in walk, because there is no period of suspension. Yet we can obviously have impulsion in the walk.

I believe that where the German manual talks of “developing propulsive force” is what we mean by impulsion, and that impulsion comes as a result of putting in place all the elements of the scales of training. This gets to the heart of the problem of incorrectly describing the scales as a pyramid rather than a scale. A scale is like the notes on a piano that are all used together for top results.

The development of controlled propulsive force, or controlled impulsion, is in practice the main aim of the scales as a whole. And they are scales, to go up and down continuously. Hence the name scales, not pyramid! A pyramid makes a very pretty illustration but it is fundamentally wrong to look at the scales in this way. This is certainly different from many people’s understanding of the scales but it makes obvious logical sense and can be seen in the original German manual.

Thankfully we have moved on from the early aims of so-called “classical” dressage, which did have collection as the ultimate and single aim. This resulted in disastrous and often cruel consequences for horses. No, surely our ultimate aim is to have a happy athlete doing a whole range of exercises within a range of both collected and extended paces and varied activities, all of which fundamentally require impulsion.

Let’s Keep Talking and Thinking

I am only too aware that this subject stirs the passions, however it is important not to get too emotional. None benefit if there is a breakdown of constructive discussion and research or we lose our sense of humour. A very bright local Pony Club rider, having heard me talking about the scales of training, emphasised this when looking at the flaking skin of a dressage coach that had seen too much sun and too little moisturiser.  “Look,” she said, “the scales of training!”

Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro competing at 2014 London Olympia. Photo courtesy of Kit Houghton/FEI.

Good basic dressage training skills are the most important and most powerful skills for the whole horse industry. They are the key to opening doors to fulfilling potential in all equine activities for both horse and rider, and the key to more success and higher prices.

This is true even for horse racing. One of the great secrets of modern National Hunt trainers in Ireland and the UK is their use of horse trials and show jumping riders to school their horses. I know of no top trainer who does not use such riders but they are reluctant to talk about it because they feel it gives them a winning edge that they are hoping not everyone will copy! Higher praise for dressage you could not find.

Dressage For All

Coneygree, last year’s remarkable winner of the UK’s top race over fences, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, is even show jumped by his trainer’s son, Alfie Bradstock, who used to be on the British Pony Event Team. Willie Mullins’ Djakadam, runner up to Coneygree, is the choice of every event rider looking for an international event horse with a ready made competitive dressage. For the reason behind his superb way of going look no further than the influence of international event rider Sam Watson.

If the hugely competitive and well-resourced racing world realize the importance of dressage then it should not be difficult to convince other disciplines.  Of course the wonderful flat work and statements endorsing dressage of top show jumpers such as Billy Toomey, Cian O’Connor, Beezie Madden, Laura Kraut, Scott Brash, Ben Maher, Michelle Meredith and McLain Ward should be more than enough to convince all young show jumpers that their flat work is a non-negotiable top priority.

Even for novice riders, good basic dressage will make them safer and more effective. For example a balanced rising trot is the basis for a balanced position for jumping, and an understanding of how to use aids rather than force to achieve their aims is the key to partnership and accelerated progress.

Novice riders can also quickly gain an idea of training priorities and a roadmap to follow. But beware the brain torture of the over 1,000 dressage books that are currently available to a USA audience. No other sport can match the variety of methods and complications available to the keen student!

Golden Keys

However, as with most activities, when dealing with horses simplicity is a golden key. The oldest (150 years) and simplest statement of training priorities that no one disputes in our modern age is Germany’s legendary dressage author Gustav Steinbrecht’s directive “Ride your horse forward and straight,” only improved subsequently by the equally famous General L’Hotte with “Your horse must be calm, forwards and straight.”

At a similar time another Frenchman, Captain Beudant, carved his name into the training manuals with “Ask for much, be content with little, and reward often.” Advice that has also stood the test of time, together with Xenophon’s “nothing forced can be beautiful” written 2,400 years ago!

In 1886 Steinbrecht also wrote probably the most used paragraph of all time about horse training:“… all [training exercises] follow one another in such a way that the preceding exercise always constitutes a secure basis for the next one. Violations of this rule will always exert payment later on; not only by a triple loss of time but very frequently by resistances, which for a long time if not forever interfere with the relationship between horse and rider.”

This reminds us that as well as key aims it is vital to use a coach to show a step by step method that really works and allows a steady progression to not just a high level, if the rider desires this, but also works for all of the major activities. This is why training of equestrian coaches in all countries demands an understanding of all the main disciplines before specialization.

It also shows the importance of eventing as a catalyst for training that is flexible and complementary. Top level eventing dressage has progressed to such an extent that Carl Hester says that it is as good as pure dressage at the equivalent levels.

Rollkur and Hyperflexion

In recent years the use and examination of the practise of rollkur or hyperflexion (where a horse is ridden in an unnatural shape, with the head very low and the neck very round) reflects well on the dressage community. Not because I enjoyed seeing a horse being ridden in rollkur or looking at the harm it did to both horses and our sport. However it is important to examine new things to see if they are good and in this case it has been done.

In any sport methodology has to evolve.  The essential search for incremental improvements inevitably involves change and an open mind, but this is not something that many in dressage training find easy, particularly as it is a sport that is full of mandatory ‘classical’ principles, revered truisms and largely subjective judging.

Whether we are concerned with the welfare or the performance of the horse the development of the natural paces and outline of the horse is a key performance goal.  But this is often not easy or quick, so it is not a surprise that so many resort to gadgets or strength to get a quicker result. A result that is rarely long lasting or fulfills the potential of the horses trained in this way or guards the welfare of the horse.   This is why the FEI has ruled against hyperflexion, citing that it’s “mental abuse” to the horse and “a result of aggressive riding.”

Last summer, at the 11th International Society of Equitation Science (ISES) Conference, held in Vancouver, the results were presented of a review of 55 scientific articles dealing with the effects of head and neck position on various types of horses’ welfare and/or performance.

The review was carried out by Uta Koenig von Borstel, PhD, BSc, a professor at the University of Gottingen’s Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics in Germany, and Paul McGreevy, BVSc, PhD, MRCVS, MACVS (Animal Welfare), Cert CABC, animal behaviour and welfare science professor at the University of Sydney.

The review authors concluded that although some hyperflexion can lead to more expressive movements “the presumed gymnastic benefits are by far outweighed by both reduced equine welfare and undesired gymnastic effects.” 88% of these studies indicated that hyperflexion negatively impacts welfare via airway obstruction, pathological changes in the neck structure, impaired forward vision, and stress and pain due to confusion caused by conflicting signals and the inability to escape pressure. Their summation was very clear: “The FEI rules are there for good reason and hyperflexion is difficult to justify.”

A Happy Athlete

In terms of basic principles there is surely nothing more important than producing what the FEI describes as a “happy athlete.” In practise this is not something that is always in evidence but in recent years Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester in pure dressage and William Fox-Pitt and Michael Jung in eventing dressage have shown that this is not only achievable but without doubt produces gold medal performances.

But the fact that so many attribute their work as ground breaking and changing dressage judging values suggests that it is only fairly recently that happy equine athletes have been recognised and fully rewarded on the score board.

Now softness, lightness and ease are more than just an aspiration but a requirement for high level marks. Much of the credit for this must go to the leadership of FEI Judge General Stephen Clarke who for many years has seen the need for the work in the dressage arena to more closely match the stated aims of dressage listed in the FEI rules, foremost of which is this:

 ‘The object of dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete through harmonious education. As a result, it makes the horse calm, supple, loose and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with the rider.”

Therefore Stephen continually talks of the judges now wanting to see the work look easy, effortless, beautiful and most importantly natural. As a result of this judges are beginning to put lightness and softness in front of flashy paces.

The most obvious recent example of this at Grand Prix level was the self carriage and softness of Charlotte Dujardin’s Valegro beating the huge power and extravagant paces of Adelinde Cornelissen’s Parcival in the 2012 London Olympic Games. So stress-free, horse-friendly, no-force dressage is now at the top of the training agenda and as a result dressage has never been more appealing.

Running Reins

One area that is not appealing to the public or most dressage coaches is the use of running reins (in effect a pulley giving extra strength) by international show jumpers, even when they go into the prize giving. Recently Switzerland has banned their use at shows and a number of other countries are considering doing the same.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this what is certain is that too many young riders use running reins inappropriately and before they have learnt basic dressage essentials. This was confirmed when German show jumping World Champion Ludger Beerbaum came to teach the top British juniors. He made them all take off their running reins saying, “first you must learn to ride without them.”

The problem for Grand Prix jumpers is that the rules require them to go at 400 meters per minute, but most horses have a longer canter stride at this speed than the standard 12 foot (3.66 meter) stride used by many course designers. Therefore their stride length has to be reduced, something the use of running reins does admirably.

In the process it also means that the natural canter and outline of the horse is compromised. The solution is a small reduction in the required speed and I hope show jumping is open minded enough as a sport to look at this option and then test it in practise.

Fernhill Fearless in his Micklem bridle at WEG 2014. Photo by Jenni Autry.

The race for the Oscars is gathering pace. The leading runners are on the promotional round that leads to short-term glory and long-term inclusion in the history books. Out of all the nominations, I recommend The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the brilliant computer scientist and mathematician.

Turing’s success at decoding German messages in World War one probably shortened the war by one to three years and saved seven to 21 million lives, based on the seven million lives lost each year of this brutal carnage.

So what has this got to do with horses? The first and most important point is how lucky we are to live in relative peace in the horse world. Sometimes equestrian tunnel vision, made worst by competition emotions or positions of power, make us blind to wider priorities and to our ability to simply treasure health, friendship and the sheer pleasure of working with sport horses — things denied to so many of our parents and grandparents. We should all give thanks for our many blessings and be a little kinder to each other in the horse world.

Of course, people were not kind to Alan Turing, a homosexual when homosexuality was illegal. He chose chemical castration rather than imprisonment for this crime, and when just 41 took his own life. Alan Turing’s first love was a friend at school who said this to him: “Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

He carried this thought with him through his life as an oddball who was not afraid to break new ground, be different and dare to dream beyond the norm. It gave him both a sense of self-worth and purpose.

In Ireland we have a blind and paralysed motivational speaker called Mark Pollock. He echoes the second part of this quote when saying that we should “challenge conventional wisdom,” and that we should not “respect the gap between reality and fantasy.” He believes that “we all have the innate ability to invent and solve problems.”

This attitude of mind needs to be an integral part of a developing horse world, but it is the first part of Turing’s philosophy that is the most important … ‘the people who no one imagines anything of.’ How many people do we dismiss or undervalue for all sorts of different reasons? Because they look odd, speak strangely, went to a bad school, write badly, are emotional, or possibly are hot headed, or worst still are different!

A good idea has to give way to a better idea, and the better idea doesn’t always come from an Olympic rider. (It is not the same with spotting potential and worth in horses?)

I have been fortunate enough to break new ground successfully with my Micklem bridle, my idea of Constants and Variables when riding, and with my GO! Rules to improve performance. But I am not a genius — just someone who tries to keep looking at things from a new viewpoint.

There are others who can do the same and then test their ideas to see if they are good. However, they need continuous encouragement and support to do this. Therefore, I welcome this week’s new competition for event riders at Wellington, just as I welcome new ideas to ensure more humane training methods in dressage.

However, the area I would most like to see new thinking is in the promotion and marketing of eventing. It is the core discipline. It takes its place at the centre of all horse sports because of the all around nature of the training required and the type of horse it produces, which is what I would describe as the ultimate leisure riding horse.

It is probably good for the whole horse population of the world because of the very high standards it produces for both stable management and training, and, for many, it gives a sense of excitement, achievement and satisfaction like no other. And for good measure our top riders are under-promoted gold. It does not take a genius to realise that in the world of eventing, we undersell ourselves!