I am teaching a 10 year old Morgan gelding and his owner the basics of dressage. The horse can start out very behind the leg. I am looking for ideas to get this horse thinking more forward. This horse is VERY VERY Fit. He goes out on trail rides a lot.
But sometimes, he is just so behind the leg.
Last week, I had her just canter him for a few minutes trying to get his going more forward. And he just does not.
He is not in pain at all. On the trails, she assures me that he GOES! So, I am looking for more ideas on what I can do to get him going in the ring.
IME horses can be great on the trail but not sure the point of moving out in a confined arena space
Here are some things to check
Comfort with footing
Comfort with corners and circles
Rider balance doing more complex things
Warm up protocol
Consider having rider warm horse up on the trail and only enter arena after he’s really forward outside.
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Morgans conserve their energy in a ring. Transitions and lots of transitions. I do canter long side, trot short side, trot long side, canter short side and long side, then decrease it so we are transitioning every 10-12 strides at trot to walk or trot to canter.
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My “go to” exercise for establishing forward is walk to hand gallop transitions. You do not have to do many strides of hand gallop, it is the transition that counts.
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Sadly, with the end of daylight savings time, I don’t think we can do the warmup outside and enter the ring after he is forward. Also, she trailers to me.
Agree with lots of transitions. And just getting them hot to the aids. My trainer will have me do trot, aim for one step of walk, or just go to almost walk and then forward again. Same thing with canter, one step trot, and then canter on. It does not give the horse time to dither and decide if they might respond to your aid next Tuesday, or not at all.
A BNT I’ve ridden with basically says allow the up transition with the seat and rein, and then it’s a sharp tap with the whip right behind the leg, and repeated if it’s not a clear answer of going forward. Of course the rider must be projecting a forward attitude and not riding with the handbrake on so to speak. Short spurts of gallop will probably be more effective than minutes of cantering. When my mare was very sticky, I would also do the quick transitions on the lunge to get her thinking forward before I got on. It has been years in the making to really get her forward though, and I have to stay disciplined about keeping her there, and nipping it in the bud when she starts pushing back against my forward aids.
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I’ve also used a short lunge session before a ride to get a horse a little more sharp. It’s been super helpful with my sticky footed mare.
It’s easier for me to establish it there where it can be more playful and where I have more tools than just seat and dressage whip. My mare is still a bit green though so YMMV.
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Agreed with everyone saying lots of transitions. Another exercise that has helped my behind the leg gelding in the warm up is doing turn on the haunches, then immediately moving him up to a forward trot down the long side, halt and repeat. For mine it seems to be more a matter of waking up the brain and he responds better if I immediately give him a lot of “stuff to do”. I also had to get really disciplined with myself of getting him marching forward in walk right off the mounting block. Letting him wander on a loose rein for 10 minutes in the warm up wasn’t setting the right tone of “we are here to work not go for a stroll.”
For my horse I find he is very quick to fall back into his behind the leg tendencies, so I tend to have to devote one schooling session a week just to working on “move forward and maintain the pace I set” to keep him thinking forward. He is miles better than he was when I bought him 2 years ago and it took me 40 minutes to warm him up, though!
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I think it’s about the transitions… you need to establish that if you do a walk trot transition, (or trot canter transition) the horse needs to react… I believe Emilie Faurie had a very nice video about it… I will go and look for it. It please don’t tell me that it’s not comparable because he has longer legs than you or that his horse is different than your horse…… that what several people told me in the past when I recommended the video…. It’s a very common problem and you simply have to do what he shows in the video 
. https://youtu.be/c-lCN-g1m1g?si=hXWW7h37kXftrx-g
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I had a trainer say “forward is a state of mind.” Besides working on the horse, I would worry about the rider. Is the rider someone who is afraid? If that is the case, then you need to work on eliminating fear in the rider. The rider has to be comfortable with a horse that is “hot to the aids.” Any horse will be dumbed down to the rider sitting on its back.
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Bah! I resemble this remark!
It’s a recent discovery I have made about myself. I am actually a bit afraid of forward. I mean properly moving forward with strong energy.
This thread is excellent - I’m not the OP but responses are really helping!
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My mare was ridden western all-round before I got her and she loves her low, slow , short strides. One thing that really helped her be more forward was 15 months of rehab. We were able to use the time of walking in hand and sloooow progress up the gaits to instill a larger step and more forward thought.
We are rehabbing again (sigh) and are still in the walk-only phase. Two things that are helping us maintain forward momentum with quality are:
- I learned about some very deep core muscles in me that translate to a “go!” Button for her.
- lots of transitions within the walk gait. We go medium walk, big walk, slow shitty walk, medium walk, big walk…. Changing within the gate every few letters. She then begins to crave the big walk.
Some things to consider!
Not to worry…once you get used to “forward”…you won’t go back.
I rode a horse for a friend when she was waylaid one winter. I hate a heavy horse…I like a light, responsive horse. She said I made her horse “too hot.” Fast forward…as she got used to the horse she got comfortable that he wasn’t about to do anything nasty…and she could just relax and do “more nothing.”
Once you ride a sensitive horse…you won’t go back.
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Difficult though it can be to internalize as a less confident rider, there is safety in forward. It’s hard for a horse to misbehave if it is honestly in front of the leg, focused and moving forward into the contact.
And yes, I’d agree with many transitions, both between and within the gaits.
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Oh wow, this is good too. Thank you.
If the horse offers forward I’m ok. If I have to ASK for forward I get nervous of the reaction.
It truly is why it is so important to learn correct riding as a youth. Not the breed show facsimile I grew up with, where forward was a punishable offense.
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You have hit the nail on the head, I think.
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Forward is your friend. After a decent warm up, go to the gallop. Don’t worry, he won’t fall over. Then go to transitions, as in NOW, and jump to it transitions.
You don’t need to gallop…thought I think a good gallop is a great exercise.
I took lessons with a French former Cadre Noir trainer. At a clinic, he had a GP rider doing halt-walk-halt transitions. She was riding a bit of a slug horse.
After her ride, I spoke with her and she admitted that at the start of the ride she was more than a little irritated with doing such basic work…but…but…she admitted that over time she could feel that the horse was getting on her aids and listening. She admitted that the simple exercise of doing halt-walk-halt was a very helpful exercise to get the horse forward and on the aids.
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I’m definitely struggling a bit with this one. I know a LOT of exercises for getting a horse forward…notably Jane Savoie’s techniques. But the rider is reluctant to use the whip.
Last night, I longed the horse to get him a little hotter and that helped a lot.
I’m not a huge fan of little circles but it really did help!
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I think you need to work to understand the rider’s reluctance to use the whip and any tease out any other “issues” the rider may have. My sense is there is some fear associated with this behavior.
Is the rider afraid of hurting the horse with the whip?
Is the rider afraid of the horse scooting or taking off on her if she uses the whip?
Is the rider afraid of the horse bucking?
How old is this rider?
Is the rider afraid of being injured in any way?
I think you need to play more psychologist than horse trainer. I could never be a riding teacher today. I learned with the old cavalry types who didn’t mince words and find training horses is easier than training people.
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