Perhaps I should have said lengthening and shortening of stride instead of “collection”?
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There is an entirety of vernacular that contradicts each other between dressage and h/j. That doesn’t help things either as people progress in their abilities and cross train. I have to have my mental jumper to dressage and dressage to jumper dictionary available all the time.
When a h/j trainer says “soften the rein (or hand)” it implies a give in the hand and arm. In dressage it means steady the hand so the horse can feel the bit more solidly and you add leg to push up.
Collection has a very distinct connotation in dressage unlike h/j. It is a high level movement that keeps a rhythm but brings the step in, e.g. passage, canter pirouette.
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Feel like that’s kinda splitting hairs, especially for an OP just starting this journey. Dressage collection ends in piaffe, jumper collection ends in adding a step somewhere. They’re both “collection”, just varying degrees of it. A “collected sitting trot” (small c) is quite common in hj land and I don’t think it contradicts the more formal “Collection” (big C!) of dressage. Yes, we are asking for a shortening of stride, but we still want that shortened stride to come from an activated hind end.
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Honestly though, a good BigEq horse (especially if it has finals miles and USET miles) ought to be able to do the movements for third level, maybe also working pirouettes and 3 or 4 time tempis. Perhaps not with quite the degree of collection required to score at the top at a dressage show, but it certainly should understand sideways and forward and back (including actual lengthenings, counter canter, changes, turn on the haunches. So a good opportunity for the rider to learn these things from a horse that will do it if you figure out how to ask properly.
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COTH has an article about rider training pyramid, that might help you figure out where you are when riding your new advanced horse. Here’s the link: https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/the-riders-training-pyramid/
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This is just some general learning psychology from a professional musician perspective. Back in the day, I did an opera masterclass with someone who leaned heavily into learning and perf psych research when it came to teaching professional singers. Honestly I wish more folks had attended even to just audit because there was SO MUCH to take away for general living and learning, not just singing.
Anywho, one of the things he brought up was that generally speaking, when someone is practicing, there’s really only three things at a time they can focus on. Everything else goes on autopilot (whatever that level of autopilot might be). So he would have singers identify the three things they were going to focus on adjusting when they ran through their piece.
It was really quite amazing because you saw the singers have better focus and make more meaningful adjustments to the things they were working on. He’d have folks focus on the same three things a few times through and then move on. The takeaway being–you focus on those three things, uplevel your level of “autopilot” for those items, and then move onto the next.
Even though I’m not really doing as much professional singing as I once was, that piece of advice has stuck with me, and I find it applies a lot to riding.
Find three things you’re going to be focused on–maybe it’s heels down, I’m going to focus on a better track at this end of the ring, and I’m going to remember to count 1,2,1,2 outloud going to the single oxer. As you get better, you can rotate in new items. You may even find as you narrow your focus, other things that were issues work themselves out (e.g. keeping your heels down stops you from swinging your right leg back so far over the fence).
Anywho hope this helps some, OP! Time is really the biggest answer. Learning new horses can be so much fun but also overwhelming, especially the more advanced they get.
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