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Re: [RC] [RC] Define "Collection" - Laurie Durgin

Course, there are other ways to teach collection. John Lyons teaches it to a horse without all the tight reins and bit contact.....

From: <gingerodgers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
CC: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC]   Define "Collection"
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:16:38 -0500

Kat,

When training a horse to collect, my opinion is that you should always start with the walk. That is the most difficult place to start but it's also the best place to start. Once the horse understands what you want them to do, the trot and canter will follow in the proper manner. Not only are you teaching your horse but you are teaching yourself at the same time to do it properly.

My understanding of "collection" comes from the little amount of dressage training I've had which is where, I believe, collecting your horse is best taught. My new horse, Brigadier, is incredible at it but has also had extensive dressage training prior to my purchasing him so he's teaching me, really! When your horse is properly collected, he is giving to the bit, head down, bending at the pole and impulsing from the rear, very light on the front legs. When you can get your horse to bring it's head down, round it's neck and reach for the bit himself instead of you pulling him into it, you have then accomplished gaining control and him listening to you. The other parts of collection comes from the horse's headset and your body movements. If you have your horse's head properly placed and he is giving to the bit then his back will straighten, hopefully, and you will feel him, even at a walk, impulsing from the rear instead of pulling from the front. To do this at a walk, you need to keep your knees in firmly, legs wrapped around with pressure and your reigns firmly in place at the withers, no slack in the reigns. Consider the reigns just an extention of your arms and hands placed on his bit. Once you are in place, keep him moving forward with your legs while bringing his head in with your reigns down low. It is sort of a contradiction with what you are asking him to do. You want him to go forward but you are jiggling the reigns on each side to pull him back but he will figure it out and his head will start to drop in toward his chest and give to you while moving forward.

All of a sudden, one day, you will realize that you have a horse that is right in sync with you if you teach them how to do it properly. I recommend that everyone take just one dressage lesson to understand the difficulty and importance of collection in a horse. It will do you a world of good! I know it has me and I've been on horseback since childhood.

Ginger

---- k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Chris Paus said:
>
> > I can collect her now at the walk. We're still working
> > on trot and canter collection.
>
> I must confess to being a bit confused by this statement.  Since, if I
> use MY definition of collection, the statement seems totally backwards.
> Since if I use my definition of collection, the easiest gait to collect
> is the canter (although some people won't agree on me about this, and it
> isn't true for all horses some horses are easier at the trot) both of
> these are FAR easier to collect than the walk.
>
> So, just to make sure we are all talking about the same thing....just
> how DO people define collection?
>
> Me?  Collection is defined as shortening the horse's stride to less than
> it's working stride length without changing the tempo while at the same
> time maintaining the implusion from behind and the purity of the gait
> (which is why it is really hard to do at the walk because almost all
> horses become pacey if you try to collect their walk before they have
> the strength to do it correctly).
>
> What Chris described in her post:
>
> > Instead of straining against the bit, she tucked her head
> > and did a nice collected, albeit somewhate animatedl, trot...
>
> Sounds an awful lot to me like what _I_ would describe as jigging and
> going behind the bit (although I can't say for sure, since I didn't see
> it).  However, the inclination to go behind the bit is the other reason
> that it is really hard to collect the walk :), so I rarely ever ask for
> it, at all, until the horse is confirmed in its ability to easily
> collect (and understand what is being asked for) both the trot and the
> canter.
>
> If different people are using some other definition of collection, it
> would be nice to know so I can better understand what they are talking
> about when they say to they are collecting the horse. I KNOW that there
> are some people who use the word differently, since there are some
> people who use the word to describe what western pleasure horses are
> doing :), and as near as I can tell, what these people mean by it is
> drop the horse's head (and transfer the weight to the forehand while
> trailing the hindquarters somewhere in the next county while the horse
> shuffles along in a pacey walk, and disunited trots and canters???).
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
>
>
>
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
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Replies
Re: [RC] Define "Collection", gingerodgers