WHAT IS COLLECTION AND HOW DO I COLLECT MY HORSE?

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1 WHAT IS COLLECTION AND HOW DO I COLLECT MY HORSE? By Robert Dover with Jane Savoie To one extent or another most training concerns itself with collection. The pleasure horse isn't much fun when he's plowing along so much on the forehand that your arms ache at the finish of your ride. The jumper needs to be rocked back onto the hind legs to successfully negotiate fences. And for the dressage or event horse, all things being equal, the more collected horse wins. For example, if two horses perform a half-pass with good quality- meaning it's rhythmic with good bend and correct alignment of the body-the horse whose balance is shifted more towards the hind legs will get the higher score. Certainly horses in every discipline can benefit from dressage because dressage is simply the training of the horse. All horses can learn to bend, go forward and back, and move sideways. The wannabee Grand Prix horse, however, needs to have special abilities that allow him to take on the task of the highest degree of collection. So what's reasonable for your average horse-in-the-stable? First, he must be sound. If he has a hock problem in one hind leg, it's going to be difficult for him to bend his hind legs equally and asking for collection can produce a negative result. And as good horsemen we acknowledge that it's not in the best interests of the horse to ask him to do something that brings him pain. Second, he must have a shape that allows him to learn to collect with ease. We never want to force a horse to collect because to do so produces greater problems than it's worth. Then listen to your horse. He'll tell you what he's equipped to do. But understand that the horse that's resisting mentally because he doesn't understand is different from the horse that is physically unable to do what you're asking. The horse that doesn't understand will still show abilities to engage the hind legs and go to collection at many moments. (Even if they're not always the desired moments-like when your 4 year old starts piaffing because the horses are running in the field!) On the other hand your horse can resist because he has physical challenges like lack of strength or poor conformation. I'm not saying you should give up because your horse, let's say, has a straight hind leg. I've seen many horses like that schooled to Grand Prix. It's just going to take longer. What Is Collection and Why Bother? Let's try to clear up some of the confusion associated with the term collection. To many it's merely a gathering together or a shortening of the horse with the head and neck raised. To some extent this is true. But more importantly is where the center of gravity lies. Think of collection as a loading of the hind legs- a shifting of the center of gravity to the rear. When the horse engages, he

2 bends the joints of the hind legs more and brings them further underneath himself. At this moment his front end lifts up from the withers (not from the head and neck) and becomes freer. Herein lies the difficulty of collecting a horse because all horses are built with the center of gravity more towards the front legs. Some, because of breed or conformation, are more on the forehand than others. But because horses are shaped like a table with a head and neck stuck onto one end, all horses are to some degree on the forehand. If horses didn't have heads and necks, their weight could be evenly distributed over the 4 legs of the table. But since the head and neck can weigh as much as 250 lbs., the loading of the front legs is inevitable. No wonder your horse likes to lie in your hands! It's normal to have more weight on the forehand. And although he's equipped to do the job by virtue of heavily muscled hindquarters, it's against the nature of the horse to carry weight behind. No, I didn't say collection is a crime against nature...i said the horse s shape doesn't lend itself to collection. To get a feel for this idea of loading the hind legs, imagine your horse is standing on two bathroom scales. Sixty percent of his weight is on the front legs and 40% is on his hind legs. This is what we see at Training Level. As he's progressively collected, the proportions change. At the next stage (First Level) he'll have 55% of his weight on the front legs and 45% of his weight on the hind legs. Then at around Second Level where we start modest collection, he'll have equal weight in front and behind. The most collected horse, the upper level dressage horse, has more weight on the rear scale than the front scale. Let's consider another way besides the loading of the hind legs to evaluate collection. Look at the relative height of the shoulders to the hindquarters. The hunter or training level dressage horse is in horizontal balance with the forehand and hindquarters basically level. The more advanced dressage horse engages (bends the joints of the hind legs), lowers his hindquarters, and as a result carries his shoulders higher. Because a horse is more comfortable to ride when he's not on the forehand, many riders attempt to do this by lifting the head and neck with their hands. However, the problem here is that if you try to collect by raising the head and neck only, the shoulders go down and the croup stays high- the opposite of collection. How Do You Ask for Collection? So, how do we get to this very desirable goal of collecting the horse? You guessed it! Half halts. The same half halts that we used to put the horse on the bit in the working gaits are also used to adjust the horse's balance. Half halts will drive the hind legs more under the body so that the horse carries himself rather than using the rider's hand as a fifth leg. The half halt is the marriage of three sets of aids-the driving aids (2 legs and seat), the bending aids (2 legs and inner rein), and the rein of opposition (the outside rein). If you were to use the driving and bending aids to their maximum

3 without adding the rein of opposition, your horse would run very fast on a very small circle. When the rein of opposition is used, however, it shuts an imaginary door in front of him. When the horse yields to the outer hand that is closed in a fist, he'll change his balance. Generally the half halt lasts for three seconds. I'm not saying that there won't be times when you give a half halt in one second. But it's best for the green rider to think that the half halt lasts the amount of time it takes you to inhale and exhale. It's not a sharp jerk. When you breathe in, you tighten your stomach and the small of your back, and it's like a wave that travels up your stomach into your chest. Your shoulders go back and down and the wave goes down your back into your seat. At the same time you close your legs and maintain bend with the inner hand. As the horse begins to move forward and bend to a greater degree, you'll feel this surge of energy come into the rein. At this second you'll close your outer hand in a fist. The outer hand says, "You're not allowed to speed up or bend to a greater degree than you already have. Instead you must yield to the outer hand and because you're being driven, you'll bend your hind legs more." Look for this bending of the hind legs in 2 to 3 steps. Then you'll exhale and relax all the aids. Now you can proceed forward in a new state of balance and attention. At this point you might ask what's the difference between using the half halt to simply put the horse on the bit and giving a half halt to collect him? The answer is that it's just a matter of degree. Depending on what you're trying to do, all the elements (driving aids, bending aids, rein of opposition) are there, but the emphasis changes. For instance, you'll use a certain amount of seat, leg and hand to ask the horse to come into a round frame in the working gaits. Then you can take that same horse and with a greater degree of the three elements, you can ask for more collection. Or if you want an extension, half halt by using more seat and leg versus the amount of restraining hand. When you want to do a downward transition at the end of this extension, you'll use more upper leg and outside rein to collect. When you close your legs and drive more with your seat into a restraining hand, the educated horse knows to passage. If you then half halt by maintaining your legs and closing your restraining hand a bit more while lightening your seat, you're asking that horse to piaffe. When is Your Horse Ready to Start? It's difficult to designate a particular point to start collection, as not every horse will react the same. A good key, however, is when the horse has satisfied all the prerequisites to collection with harmony and understanding. The prerequisites are all the basics. In the working gaits, the horse moves freely forward with regular steps and is straight. He shows the ability to lengthen and shorten his stride and frame. And he understands the half halt. This could be anytime. The competitive dressage horse starts at second level. But it's okay to begin later on in life if it takes longer for your horse to understand and confirm the basics. What Does It Feel Like?

4 When a horse is collected, he feels like he's in a package. Because the balance has been shifted to the hindquarters, the weight in the reins is light and pleasant. With the collected horse, you should feel like anything is possible within any step. For instance if you're in walk, in the very next stride, you could be in canter or piaffe or in a pirouette. If you're in collected trot, you could just as easily be in extended trot or in halt by the next step. What Does It Look Like? If you're looking from the ground, the collected horse maintains the exact same rhythm, but the legs make more of an up and down arc instead of taking such a long stride underneath the body. The increased bending of the joints of the hind legs creates shorter, quicker strides. The horse can go more on the spot in harmony but still maintain the idea and look of thinking forward. We see this ability to take more strides/meter in the same rhythm in horses with a great talent to collect. For example, if it normally takes your horse that is in working gaits 3-4 strides to go through a corner, the collected horse can take 7 strides in the same rhythm to make it through that same corner. Try that as an exercise anywhere in the arena. As a matter of fact, that exercise is the half halt being used for collection. The ability to collect depends on the ability to extend, and the ability to extend depends on the ability to collect. So always bear in mind that you want to keep the feeling of extension in collection and collection in extension. By that I mean that you should feel the power and thrust of extended gaits while in collected gaits and the extended gaits should have the uphill balance of collected gaits. The horse should look like a speedboat in the water or an airplane taking off. When asked for a greater degree of collection, even a 5 year old will for moments shape himself like a completely trained horse. You'll see a greater degree of animation within his carriage and stride. He may not be able to hold it for more than a few seconds, but he'll look like he's on the road to becoming a Grand Prix horse. If you're on the right track, the horse should become more beautiful as he approaches a greater degree of collection. If the frame and physique don't become more beautiful, then it's a sure sign you're not on the right road. Teaching Your Horse to Collect We really can't talk about collection without first discussing extension. Before he can collect, the horse must be able to lengthen both his frame and strides. Teach your horse to lengthen early on. And then when you bring the horse back from the lengthening, ride a collecting half halt. While staying in the same rhythm, drive the horse up to the rein so that he bends the joints of his hind legs, keeps his roundness and brings the forehand into a lighter more elevated position. It's important to ADD hind legs rather than subtract forwardness by merely closing the hand. If you just close your hand when coming back from the lengthening, your horse will brace against your hand, stiffen his back, and lose the hind legs out behind. Or he'll stop the hind legs and lose the rhythm you had in the lengthening.

5 When Do You Ask? First of all if your horse hasn't met all the prerequisites that lead up to collection, you shouldn't be trying. Period. If he's met the prerequisites and he's sound and physically able to collect, the idea of collection should be part of every working day. Your schooling session should be like a story that has a beginning, middle, and an end. In the beginning, the warm-up, you should stretch your horse forward and down. The warm-up is the time to supple him physically and mentally. Your horse is physically supple when he feels very malleable. He should feel as easy to ride as sitting in a chair and watching someone ride. This harmonious way of moving is part and parcel of the suppleness of his mind. The horse learns to accommodate himself to the rider's will and aids. He understands the communication system so that there's a constant silent conversation going on between horse and rider. After you've warmed up, you'll get into the heart of your story. Work on your horse's ability to lengthen and come back. With each transition back, ask within that half halt for a greater degree of collection. Then add in lateral exercises, transitions, and smaller figures to ask for an even greater degree of collection. Keep in mind that all of the movements and exercises are simply ways of changing the horse's shape within the next half halt. For example, when riding shoulder-in, you'll start a half halt and within it you'll signal your horse to move away from the greater pressure of the inner leg while maintaining his bend. Or your next half halt will ask for a greater degree of collection by asking for half pass. You'll ask the horse to move in the direction he's looking while maintaining the same bent shape around the inner leg but moving away from the pressure of the outer leg. So all of the movements are simply a collection (via your half halt) and then a direction. For the end of the story, you'll allow the horse to stretch and finish the way he started. Take care that you don't allow the horse to get sloppy with his hind legs when you let him stretch. If you have a horse that by nature tends to trail the hind legs out behind, you might end by just going back to a comfortable working trot on a circle. Always finish in a soft, steady frame with a feeling of harmony. What Can Go Wrong? If you have a horse that isn't strong enough, sound enough, or doesn't have the right mechanism to collect, he might become bewildered or angry when you ask. For example, a race horse with a high croup and straightish hind leg will find it difficult to bring his hind legs into position for collection and will probably show tension and a loss of harmony. If you force a horse into collection, you'll produce greater problems than it was worth. That's not to say that the horse that is built incorrectly can't be taught to collect. He'll just need to be asked over a longer period of time. If the horse is adamant that collection is impossible, see where his talents lie. Find him the job that he's able to do with ease and happiness. For example, I had a beautiful, young warmblood who showed great freedom in the front end. Everyone encouraged me to make him a dressage horse. But this horse had hind legs that took slow long strides out behind his body plus he had a

6 powerful but slightly long back. I knew that to bring this horse to the highest degree of collection would either take a lot of force or a lot of time. It would not have been his choice to be a career dressage horse. As it turns out, this horse found his niche as a great jumper. He's won a lot of Grand Prix's and now competes internationally. Common Mistakes One of the biggest mistakes I see is a failure to maintain the same rhythm and tempo. The rhythm and tempo should stay the same regardless of whether you're in collected, medium, or extended paces. If your horse speeds up, you have too much half (driving aids) and not enough halt (rein of opposition). If he slows down, you have too much halt and not enough half. More often than not when you're first teaching your horse to collect, he'll try to slow down. But remember that horses almost always speed up to extend. So if you're training the horse that wants to slow down, do some extensions and then keep this feeling of extension when you go to collect again. With every half halt, first ask for extension and as you feel a surge of energy come through, close your outside hand in a fist. It's also common to see riders trying to collect from the front end backwards instead of by adding hind legs to a restraining hand. The horse that's ridden front to back will look labored. He'll have a slow hind leg and tend to get short in the neck. When I watch horses like this, I always get the feeling that I need to try to help the horse along from where I'm sitting and watching. On the other hand, when a horse is ridden from back to front, he'll have a shorter back with hind legs coming well under and a longer and more beautifully set neck. It's also a mistake to try to go from no collection to the greatest degree (i.e. piaffe or pirouettes) without first systematically developing an animal that is able to produce that shape and degree of engagement. The whole process takes time. Timetable Okay. You're a patient person. You're willing to take that time. But what's reasonable? Each horse is an individual. You can't think in terms of days or months. You need to think in terms of years. Whether or not it takes 2 years or 6 years, the end result should be a more beautiful animal that goes with ease and grace and without any discomfort or confusion. Throughout the training process, be willing to take a good step back and evaluate what's really going on. If your horse hasn't properly met all the prerequisites, it's better to go back and reaffirm basics and then return to the idea of collection later. There's absolutely nothing wrong in saying, "Wait a minute. This isn't working. Let's go back and start at the beginning again." You'll be in good company if you take that approach. The top trainers don't put the emphasis on the "tricks". They work on basics every day with every horse. Be sure to get good help. No one can train a horse in a vacuum or just from reading this article. The inexperienced rider has to rely on an expert. And the

7 expert has to rely on another colleague to watch and verify that he's going in the right direction. Everyone needs good eyes on the ground. And remember, as I do, two famous sayings by my mentor Col. Bengt Ljungquist. "Art ends where violence begins." and "The gates to brilliance are surrounded by a cloud of sweat and tears." In other words, in your quest for collection, remain patient and reward your horse's efforts every step of the way. Every day, look for harmony and joy in your ride and with every year the proof of this will be seen in your horse becoming ever more beautiful.