Training The Piaffe and Passage

[MysticOakRanch]

There is some interesting and useful discussion that is kind of “lost” in another thread, so I thought it would be useful to start a thread just for starting the P & P. There are several different ideas on when and how.

I have worked with Alfredo Hernandez quite a bit over the years, and he prefers to start it IN HAND with a young horse. The horse must be comfortable in the connection - but does not have to be working collection under saddle. He likes to get them at 4.5 to 5 years old, as long as they have a good foundation on them. Initial work is in-hand, a 5 year old is NOT strong enough to do this work under saddle yet. At first, it is just teaching the horse to respect the aids, with leg yield in hand. Once that is established, the horse is taught to step with its hind legs, without too much forward motion, basically half-steps in hand. Then the horse is asked to start to sit. The progression may take many sessions, or a single session - each horse progresses differently.

Under saddle, it is pretty common to start the half steps somewhere between 5 and 7, when the horse is starting to play with collection as well. Kind of depends on the individual horse - their comfort in compression, the quality of the walk, and of course the individual rider as well.

Here is my mare at 5 with her first time doing any of this work in hand. This is over 2 days, and the sessions are about 30 minutes long with LOTS of walk breaks. I had done a little bit of leg yield in hand with her, so that helped set a foundation on her comfort with the work. She is a good example because she’s a “normal” horse - not super fancy, and she’s ridden by a normal AA rider.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NB_KTQMHMU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRZgiUoyU3E

Some people prefer to wait until the horse is strong enough to reliably collect under saddle before starting this kind of work. I don’t think either time line is the “only way”, this is just how I’ve learned.

[dotneko]

I have started probably 8 horses in p&p work. All of them were older (8 or so) when we started, simply because that was their age when they came to me. I start just asking for them to lift a hind leg when touched with a whip - you are training reactivity. We then progress to under saddle - I feel that straightness is more easy to maintain with a rider.
The horse is just being introduced to the concept. I don’t expect GP quality for years.
Passage comes from medium trot - ultra collection for two steps in the downward transition then building upon that.

[Scribbler]

My trainer taps instead onnthe top of the croup instead of the hind legs.

I agree it can be useful to do some elements of this work long before you will expect a finished test performance under saddle.

Some horses will have an easier time of it. Ironically some of the bigger warmbloods may not ever have a great piaffe while some horses who don’t have great dressage gaits might get it more easily. I could for Instance imagine an uphill qh getting piaffe but never a prize winning extended trot.

[netg]

One reason I bought my mare was because her sire’so offspring piaffe, and I really liked her hind leg. I want to make it to GP with her, so starting with a horse who does it naturally is helpful. She is one who naturally piaffes - I have gotten video of her doing it in the horse trailer, when I was working her in hand and neighbors were having a party my rule was she could not step into me or go backward - so she alternated between trotting around me and piaffe to stop and look. She’s one who stops if confused so whether under saddle or in hand she is just much better off being asked to do half steps from a walk rather than halt - and she ceases the forward motion as she adds the sit and carry behind. She’s super easy though where it was just a natural response for her when feeling “fizzy” and where it stresses many horses, it makes her relax.

[TwoTrickPony]

For those who are interested, here is an OLD video of me with my first horse and Sonja Vracko teaching us piaffe with me on top and her on the ground. Pretty good progress for 12 minutes, but you can see the variation from tapping the legs to get the feet up and the croup to drop the haunches. https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=p1t1EAKhbdA You can hear some of her explanation of what to do and why.