dressage & keeping the horse "on the bit"

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Nancy Muller Farafix@aol.com
Beth has the same question I had yrs ago when taking dressage lessons to improve my riding. Over the yrs I've discovered that getting the horse collected is important going down hill.  My mare liked to just let herself drop downhill on her forehand & hated to trot down even the most gentle incline.  Making her get under herself made her much less tripy and more agile.  This takes time to let the horse build up the belly muscles, but now, several yrs later she can scoot downhill quite well.  On flat open trail I let the horses open up & use that free shoulder moving trot --- they are not hollow, but just less collected.
On real windy, knee knocker trails it's also handy to ask the horse for some collection.  On a recent deep sandy ride, a friend & I decided to use a collected trot thru the sand as we felt the up down motion (versus a more extended tot) would put less stress on their legs (try walking thru sand youself using -- an up/down stepping motion vs a long step, pushing back againsy the sand that gives way).  The horses got thru the sand in great shape.
So yes, there are situations where "on the bit" is very handy. On open trail, it's nice to let the horse go on a loose rein and open up their stride.

Nancy
Md


Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-Ý-