Is there a comprehensive list of dressage movements and the order in which they should be trained? For example:
Obviously the above is not an accurate example 
This is 100% a theoretical thought exercise and not something I am looking to implement in practice.
Following the FEI young horse tests up through the levels gives a good idea of what order to train movements in. And not just the movements themselves, but the expectations for frame, self-carriage, imputation, collection, etc at each level.
Even the regular dressage tests provide an overview of training progression.
Not really. Some things build on each other. So you need to get the shoulder in family of lateral moves solid (bent away from direction of movement) before starting the more difficult half pass family (bent towards direction of movement).
You need to be starting collected trot before working on medium and then extended trot.
You will want your horse straight and balanced before working on canter lead changes. Some trainers want a good counter canter before they teach flying changes.
But thereās no absolute timeline. Each horse will progress faster in some aspects and slower in others depending on where his talent lies.
One thing that gets obscured by taking the tests too seriously as a training progression is the value of doing all the lateral work at a walk from the beginning. Thereās no test slot for walk lateral movements.
you start lengthening before collecting
which then comes before more lengthening
go fast to go slow, go slow before going faster
which is actually not correct, because extending does not really speed up
These things arenāt really trained, but exercises or movements that are ridden. Success depends on the level and quality of training.
Look into the dressage training scale. Great place to start.
I wouldnāt say that some trainers want a good counter canter before starting changes - itās absolutely required that the horse be able to pick up either lead and hold it in order to teach a horse to change between them while staying straight.
Your horse tells you whether lengthening or collection comes first, actually.
Thereās no list because every horse is an individual. One of mine did 8 quality pirouettes before he could ever do a correct trot stretch for more than a 1/4 circle.
I think Scribbler was referring specifically to āMedium Trotā and āExtended Trotā movements as defined in the USEF and FEI tests, not to ālengtheningā as you intend.
The OPās question was phrased in terms of āmovements,ā although I agree with other posters that training exercises are different and based on the horseās individual abilities and feel.
Weāre all pretty much in agreement here, I think.
Iām in the camp that the training of dressage and thus the training of the movements is mostly based in following the pyramid and feel of how the horse is developing in its strength and stamina. Expectations are guided (though these are just guidelines and not hard fast rules) by the progression seen in the tests throughout the levels and the developing young horse tests. Having said that though, I am also one that does train all lateral movements in the walk before going to the other gaits ā¦yet when I do this Iāve already introduced the concept of the bend at the walk/trot/canter and thatās because Iāve been focused on rhythm, straightness, balance etc.
Now I will bite on the most likely order I will train the movements listed as to āhow itās goneā in most of my horses - most of mine have learned the free walk, quarter turn on the haunches and [muchā later the extended trot because if weāre talking young, green, developing horses thatās the usual progression that the strength and muscle development allows for correct and sustained execution of the movementsā¦again in my experience on MY horses. By the time my horse is able to truly perform an extended trot, the half turn on the haunches has also been established with the idea of full walk pirouettes already being introduced and so onā¦ For me, few things happen in a vacuum but each horse will dictate a little bit differently which concepts are easier to master so the exact order my vary a little.
I guess as someone who is not well-versed in dressage, this is partially where this question comes from. Where do the individual movements fit into the training scale? The only obvious one to me is the collected movements at the top of the scale.
Dressage training is a building block arrangementā¦ Therefore the rider should train the gymnastics of it in the order shown on tests. A correctly ridden 20m circle is of itself a gymnastic exercise , as it requires the inside hind leg to reach under on every stride. As the circle decreases in size, the difficulty increases, and so does the necessity for strength which the previous circles have built.
A correctly ridden 10 m circle is helpful in initiating S/I in training, although it is a slightly lesser degree of bend. Sensibly, the rider early on teaches as strength and understanding increase to move away from the drawn back leg as in LY, which can start as a slow drift to the side in early days, then can progress to a true LY, and turn on the forehand, All of this a necessary precursor to S/I.
The last of the OPās list is TOH, which sensibly relies on the ability to use the H/I for the itās first step.
And last on my explanation is the strength and coordination of the rider. A rider w/o a great deal of core strength cannot properly ride the collected gaits, as collection must come from the seat and core, not the hand
I think it is important to see the why instead of the end product of āmovementā
As an old instructor once said: The horse is taking a break at the walk, we still have to work.
Then you pick the elements apart:
we canāt ride straight for an hour, so we have to encounter corners: A proper corner is a quarter volte, a 6m one Naturally, young horses are not ridden as deepmy into the corner, but the rider still has to actively approach the turn as if they were riding the volte, nit just aiming for the corner, then let the horse turn at leisure.
Long and low relaxes the back and lets the haunches swing under the body.
that is imperative for the later stages. if they donāt reach under, you canāt achieve collection.
So lengthening comes first.
You have to establish impulsion and energy every ride. Too many people get into Dressage because they are scared of forward. Done right Dressage is scary forward!
60m isnāt really long enough to open up, but you have to ride as if you had the homestretch of Churchill Downs ahead of you, trusting the horse will come back to you in 2 or 3 strides.
yoyoing back and forth between lengthening and collection builds the strength needed.
collection shifts the center of gravity back toward the haunches which are stronger than the forehand. It is the natural way of running for a riderless horse, we have to train for the added weight of the rider.
So one thing plays of the other
you have to straighten the horse so you can develop both sides and create bend when needed.
When you achieve collection, the front of the horse will automatically come up.
and you donāt have to create a head set.
This is dependent on biomechanics. Yes, most WB/TB/sporthorse types you teach to go long first and then bring up. Horses that are built more upright, like PRE/carriage horses/Baroque types, coming down is an exercise. Collection is easier for them, so we build strength through collection to build the lengthenings/extended work.
failing to see your point in all honesty.
One needs to have an eye for the individual case, of course.
Iād figure the counter argument to the passage you quoted would have been a downhill horse as they do not need a lot more low but even those need to learn to relax their topside and let their backs swing.
Ok 
No, seriouslyā¦I am confused
Not that it is particularly hard to get me to that state
Ok, Iāll bite then. The horseās natural biomechanics in some ways dictates how easy a particular movement will be for them. In training, we want to use the easy work to help them gain confidence and build strength so we can improve the movements they arenāt naturally proficient in. The āif you go long and low you are creating swing/suppleness/relaxationā mantra is the BS fundamental to that Art2Ride stuff.
Take two of mine, both completely different horses:
Case 1: Small HUS bred QH mare. Long back, slightly downhill, straight behind, huge shoulder. She naturally goes with flat knees, tight topline, and short strides behind, because thatās how her body is built to go. Of course, thatās not desirable for dressage, so the end goal is to bring the shoulders up and create a better longitudinal balance. To start to build the strength required to come up (which is a lot for her, sheās seriously built like a Dachshund) I ride her really forward and ādownā into the bridle. Her free walk and stretchy trot/canter are amazing, because her body naturally puts her poll in line with her withers.
I was going to say that this is a horse that supports your argument, but now Iām not sure I agree with that. We do a ton of small circles to bring the weight behind and then add in some lengthenings out of the circle to make the point. Even here, I need to use the ācollectionā on a small circle to bring the weight behind, and THEN add forward. Otherwise Iām pushing a downhill horse further onto the forehand. But we ride forward forward forward all the time. Haunches in on the straight lines and circles are great to get her to come up in front, but itās extremely hard for her. In the end, she does all the third level work, but only showed to 2nd because her changes and mediums didnāt have the quality to show.
Case 2: Upright PRE mare. Meatball body, short back, upright shoulder. Her natural movement is very up and down, much different from my QH flat and forward. The collected work for the PRE is very easy because the way she is built makes it easier for her to shift weight behind. She piaffed before she ever took a step of lengthened trot. Sheās not fighting her big shoulders and the long back to bring the shoulders up, but riding her forward forward forward like my QH makes her quick and tense, so I have to think about making her gaits slower and longer. Sheās also Queen of Lateral work. Hereās where things change: with my QH mare, the lateral work (Iāll use leg yield here) is used to shorten the length of the frame, bring the hind leg under further, and help lift the shoulder. With my PRE mare, who is built so uphill, the leg yield is used to break up the up-down of her gait and help her come down and relax the topline. Lengthening the frame is an exercise in itself for the PRE mare. At the stretchy trot she curls and snatches. The lengthenings/mediums are hard for her because she doesnāt have all that space under her body to come into, so to train the lengthenings for her, I use collected trot, almost passage, to build the energy and make her really sit behind and then give to release a big trot for a few strides.
TLDR, the difference is that with my QH, the goal is to bring the shoulders and the base of the neck up, but with the PRE, the goal is to bring the entire neck down and forward and open the throatlatch. One is the spaghetti and one is the meatballs. The exercises are beneficial for both, but for completely different reasons, and now that Iāve thought about it, in neither horse do I train the lengthenings first.
Oh, and another thing: the training pyramid ādictatesā that relaxation is developed through rhythm. So riding a horse over/under their natural tempo interrupts the ability to relax the topline and create the swinginess we desire.
Again the movements are just you manipulating your horse in a way to help supple and strengthen them. They are exercises. Some exercises can not be performed until you reach a certain area of the training scale. Some parts of the training scale intertwine.
Dressage Radio show us a great podcast where they discuss these things. One of the recent ones was about the training scale so might be worth while to check it out.
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