That’s supposed to say halt to trot…not half to trot but it won’t let me edit it for some reason!
What you are looking for is for him/her to track up. This comes with time and correct training.
Use all the exercises above. Proper lunging in side reins and remember when you do sitting trot to’ keep the bounce."
When my mare started she was 2 feet away from tracking up and buck. I have never seen a horse buck so much. She would buck at anything and everything.
I was banned from ridimg her with noone else home as she became unpredictable as to where she would land as well as bucking. Years passed.
So I lunged. Just because I started ruding another horse. I had no tjoughts of getting on her. It was pointless as I am home alone 95% of the time.
She started off with her head horizontal and even lifted to the sky.
After a few months with me having to work, and her being lame etc. There were big changes.
She no longer went along horizontal to the sky, but vertical to the ground. She was starting to almost track up and she stopped bucking.
I started riding her and she was perfect. I could ride with noone home.
We rejoiced the day she tracked up on the lunge. It was extremely exciting. It did take the best part of a year.
SuzieQ,
From what you describe, it sounds like your bucking mare was in a lot of pain (unpredictible bucking, head horizontal). Then she had some time off (whether you were working or she was lame) and she started to feel better. Glad you made progress.
For OP, I don’t want you to over emphasize “tracking up”. For dressage, it is not always the be-all-end-all. You want activity, articulation of the hocks and stifles and a swingy back. A training level trot might track up. But above that, a collected trot is not tracked up at all.
1 Like
Thanks again! I like the halt-trot idea. We are doing those, and they’re not always very prompt, so something to work towards and start insisting on.
He tracks up in the trot, so mechanically I think he trots as well as can be expected. But he’s half Appaloosa, so he’s got a straight-ish shoulder and quite upright pasterns, so he’s built more for a shorter “pokey” trot than a nice loose one.
I like the idea of the exercises that will get him more fluid and loose in his body, and cavaletti for strength and amplitude of stride.
By bucks from anything I meant mentally. She was very hot and very sensitive. She had been trained western and wasn’t used to legs on her sides with a dressage saddle.
I had to take the saddle off. I taught her to lunge without it until no bucks for 3 days. In a 50 acre paddock with cattle. So bucks if weaners were too close, tripped in a hollow, slid on wet cow manure, the wind blew, a bird flew, tripped on dry cow manure, a leaf waved, grass rustled, you name it and I have a horse chiropractor I really believe is the best.
I then put on a roller and lunged till no bucks. Each part took weeks.
Put on side reins very loose and lunged till no bucks. Put on a saddle and lunged till no bucks. Put on sidereins and lunged till no bucks.
Slowly tightened side reins without pulling in head to no bucks.
She did so much to prove she was no longer a bucker I believed her.
So sit up suzie Q and ride her as if she won’t buck!
From "Dressage With Kyra (Kyrklund):
“The trot is the easiest gait to improve. If the horse has the ability to shift his weight to his hindquarters and lower his croup by flexing the joints in the hind legs, then it is almost always possible to make the trot bigger and more impressive. I do this by teaching the horse the passage, a slow, elevated trot in which I ask the horse to ‘wait’ for me in a rather slow tempo. When he can do this I push him forward again to take longer steps, but in the same rhythm.”
“The horse does not need to be able to perform the passage as well as a Grand Prix horse in order to improve the basic trot. The horse must stay relaxed and slow the tempo of his trot in response to the rhythm of the rider’s seat and rein aids. The horse must maintain his swing and rhythm and remain very light in the hand. If necessary I give the horse more freedom in the head and neck (I discuss this further when I deal with the canter). When the horse waits for me in this trot, then I can ride him forward with a bigger, more impressive movement.”
“When using this technique I am not trying to produce either a true passage or an unnatural trot, but instead am attempting just to slow the motion of the trot and increase its expression.”
I’d like to train a more elevated trot for competition dressage. My horse is only competing at First Level and I’m not an advanced dressage rider/trainer. I expect many here will say I shouldn’t be training passage without an expert coach and after perhaps training half steps first. However Kyra above isn’t talking about training true passage, only trying to improve the trot. I guess what I would like is feedback on what dangers you see associated with Kyra’s method in the hands of someone like myself who is no expert. One of my concerns is I don’t want to train a “false passage” by slowing the trot steps and rewarding passage-like steps.
I own the book you’re quoting from so am familiar with the progression of methodology that ends up being represented throughout the text. With that in mind:
One of the biggest concerns (and it’s even alluded to in what you quote) is going to be riders being overly reliant on the hand. This is a struggle for the vast majority of riders (professional and amateur alike) but I will note that it is especially prevalent in the adult amateur contingent and can be a barrier to progression. I am very reserved about the idea of endorsing (or sharing) Kyra Kyrklund’s method above to someone outside of direct supervision with a trainer because even knowing that it isn’t correct, so many riders will end up over-using the hand creating a feedback loop that ends up being counterproductive to the riding goals (in this case, improvement of the trot).
The rhythm of the gait is also a concern - again, not a problem for someone of Kyra’s caliber of coaching and riding, but for those riders whose horses may not enjoy the same consistency of training, it can be confusing and rather than an emphasis on listening to the seat/waiting for the rider, a horse can conflate “packaging with slowing”. It’s already something of an inherently natural tendency to want to slow in preparation for these movements, but without competent riding it can become inadvertently confirmed.
A variation of Kyra’s exercise above (also focusing on the “compress & release” concept): at pre-determined points about the arena, package your horse. It’s not actual collection but you are asking them to sit and take weight behind (and ultimately, free up the shoulder). You retain this for several strides before releasing all that you’ve packaged into what is initially a working trot, but can increase to a lengthening/medium/extension - and then prepare to package again. As I have been taught, the emphasis in this exercise is actually to not slow the trot down at all. Rhythm needs to maintain consistent between all phases (and if anything, incite the idea of almost “quicker” steps when the horse is in the packaging phase, slower in the lengthening). Once the exercise is truly understood, it is quite remarkable to ride - off the seat, the horse seems to package to stay underneath the rider (and builds power with increased activity) and then when permitted, carries the rider forward into a different phase of the gait with beautiful expressiveness and energy.
When you specifically note “elevated trot” what is it you’re actually referring to? Expressiveness and articulation of the joints? Suspension? A way of going into the contact? (I know the book uses this phrase, but you use it in a somewhat different context so would be helpful to have increased specificity.)
1 Like
I think dressage terms can mean subtle but significant differences to different people. Here is the trot I would like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_L4tcvl-lk
I would say the number one problem for most ammie riders is getting the horse sucked back and behind the leg. It’s true that working in passage would improve the trot but a horse that can do anything remotely like passage is way more advanced than ant first level horse. And my worry would be that an ammie trying to get passage unaided will just end up slowing the horse down.
It is true that starting to get collected trot is also the beginning of starting to get medium trot, and both of these will look more polished than working trot.
There’s also the question of what your starting point is. Do you have a horse with nice gaits that just needs to learn how to balance under saddle or do you have a horse with average or small gaits?
If the latter they can improve but will never look like the horse in the video. There’s just a limit to what you can create. If you want the movement of a top quality WB you have to buy the WB. Much of what you see in those horses is natural talent.
1 Like
My OTTB with limited reach in his shoulders in the trot (his conformation lends itself to a long reach, but years of racing seemed to take that away) improved tremendously by lots of forward and back within the trot. Coming back to a trot that I am thinking passage and then going forward to a medium, then back, then forward. Thinking quick hind legs the whole time. I don’t actually worry about the front legs, I just focus on making his hind legs quick and active.
Cavelleti in an ascending pattern really helped, too. So going down the long side, have a set of 4 cavelleti that are 4 “feet” (literally, heel to toe feet) apart, then 9 actual feet, then another set of 4 cavelleti that are 5 “feet” apart, then 9 actual feet, then another set of 4 cavelleti that are 6 “feet” apart… etc. Go both ways through it so they have to get bigger with their strides and then vice versa so they have to get smaller with their strides.
Also, making him very supple through his body using lots of bending and shoulder in and renvers have helped.
I would add, while it’s not an answer to the OP’s question, an exercise that Juan Matute uses to improve trot in the Lusitanos and PRE’s is leg yield across a long diagonal. Perhaps that works for those horses as it loosens up the back and gets a bit more swing.
A second tried and true exercise is shoulder-in to a short lengthening on a short diagonal. As Edre said, that works to teach sit and free up the shoulder. This exercise really helps with push from behind as you maintain the same length of stride and rhythm through the shoulder in as you had in working trot.
I get the whole passage thing, but I, too, think you need eyes on the ground to help make sure you are getting it. One has to be careful that the neck doesn’t lift, hollowing the back, defeating the purpose…
2 Likes
I’m going to 2nd leg yield - it loosens up the horse’s back and hips beautifully! Then, also second LOTS of transitions, both canter/trot/canter, and within the gait (medium/collect/medium). AND if you have access to a knowledgeable piaffe/passage clinician, some of that, either in-hand or with you riding is super beneficial.
You used the word “pokey” - does that mean your horse is slow and lazy? Or short strided (what I call pony trot)? Or something else? Because slow is a different fix - the horse must be FORWARD thinking with ENERGY and PURPOSE for any other training to occur. So if laziness in the trot is an issue, you really need to go back to basics - forward energy (which basically means lots of quick, sharp transitions, and lots of super forward posting trot, even if someone has to chase you to get that forward).
Assuming forward is not the issue - then back to lateral work and transitions. And remember, with fitness comes ability to carry more, and carry more means ability to lift the front end more, so work on fitness and strength training too - if you have access to HILLS and serious trails, use that for some cross training.
Then - I love this exercise with ground poles - set up a LARGE (at least 20 meters) half circle with the ground poles in a fan configuration - so they are closer together in the center, and the more you move out on the circle, the wider apart they are - and trot over them in a circle (half the circle will be over the poles), and slowly increase the size of the circle until your horse is struggling with the size of the stride, then bring them back in to a shorter stride, and slowly increase the size of the circle again. Reverse directions a few times, then give the horse a break.
As already mentioned, make sure you are able to ride the bigger trot too - if not, POST, and alternate between posting and sitting until you are also comfortable with the bigger movement.
1 Like
I LOVE this one!! I leg yield away from the wall across the diagonal, pushing for a longer step each stride
An old resurrected thread! And very well-timed. We’ve been working on the trot over the last two years, and the quality has definitely improved. We’ve even found some semblance of a medium!
MysticOakRanch - both slow and lazy, and also short-strided because of conformation. Double whammy 
What we’ve done (and are still doing):
- Lots and lots and lots of lateral work, all gaits.
- Really playing with FORWARD and BACK at the trot.
- Better forward reactions to the leg.
- Playing with piaffe steps, my instructor on the ground and me on top.
- In that piaffe-feeling trot (I can’t call what we’re doing a passage attempt), SI out of the corner, straighten and medium for a few steps, then back to very collected trot in SI.
1 Like
OMG, how do these get resurrected?!?! There are several responses that are current, so I just assumed the whole thing was current. So it sounds like it has been a success! So happy to hear that!
So much good information in this thread! Is there a way to save the thread to easily find it again for reference?
I’m finding a lot of value in the new responses, you guys rock!
Thanks for the tips everyone. GIven me a lot to think about. Hope I did the right thing in tacking on to the old thread. I thought it had some good ideas.
