Yoga for Horses and Dressage

It’s all in the basics. One of my trainers from Germany used to say, “Putting the horse correctly on the bit is the hard part – after that, everything else is easy.” The point is that to "put the horse correctly on the bit," the basic principles of training must be present, and this is the indispensable foundation for all advanced work.

In fact, any problem in dressage, at any level, no matter how complicated it may seem, can be traced to the breaking of one or more of the three basic principles of calm, forward, straight. These concepts must be understood correctly.  The German “Ladder of Training” takes these principles and breaks them down into a systematic order for training purposes:

1.      Relaxation

2.      Rhythm

3.      Contact

4.      Straightness

5.      Impulsion

6.      Collection

The first two elements, relaxation and rhythm, are the first stage of training, the foundation upon which everything else is built. The horse should be free of all tension, moving “one stride after the other, every stride the same.” When this is attained, the horse has “losgelassenheit,” usually roughly translated as “looseness” or “suppleness.” This stage is characterized by the free swing of all the muscles and unconstrained regular movement. In order for this to occur, a deep state of mental calm as well as physical relaxation must be present. 

 With a hot horse, it is necessary to place more emphasis on the relaxation aspect, especially the mental calm, to achieve this state. With a colder, lazy horse the rhythm, the forward movement, will be emphasized, of necessity. The techniques to achieve losgelassenheit will vary from horse to horse, and even from day to day. They will vary from trainer to trainer. The words that describe it, the techniques to achieve it, do not matter. The state itself speaks for the correctness of the training, or lack thereof. 

The next three elements, contact, straightness and impulsion, are built upon this foundation of losgelassenheit. Sometimes impulsion is listed before straightness (with cold horses it can be useful to put impulsion first), but either way they work together and it is necessary to have both. At this stage, the horse accepts the bit, and all of the rider’s aids. He remains straight in the equestrian sense, so that his entire spine follows the track that he is moving on and each hind leg tracks its corresponding foreleg. He moves forward from the rider’s driving aids (mostly leg at first), working correctly off his hindquarters and coming through his relaxed, swinging back (the German word “schwung” encompasses this whole concept). Now the horse has achieved “durchlassigkeit.” He is “on the bit.” His ring of muscles is working correctly, so that the rider’s legs on the horse’s abdomen create the forward thrust from the horse’s hind legs; the thrust comes over the topline, through the swinging back and under the rider’s seat; it comes over the neck, into the bit and through the reins to the rider’s feeling, receiving hands. This movement flows through the rider’s balanced, supple body, which is like an extension of the horse’s own body, and the cycle begins again.

Once this stage has been reached, then the beauty and art of dressage begins. Collection naturally develops through correct riding and correct exercises, and the movements of upper level dressage become possible.

This is the picture that every dressage rider wishes to achieve, but if you don’t have a well-schooled horse and you’re not quite sure what it feels like or how to ask for it, it can sometimes be a long, hard road. Usually riders lose the losgelassenheit, and the willing cooperation of their horses. The movements lose their ease and beauty, and the performance becomes a struggle for both horse and rider. Yoga for Horses is a program of easy exercises, done first on the ground, that teach riders what the basic building blocks look like and how to ask for them. Then the program shows riders how to put the building blocks together to create correct movement – how to put the horse on the bit. The program can be incorporated into your daily work as a part of your warm-up, and will not conflict with anything else you are doing. If you’re having problems at Training Level or First Level and you don’t know why, this program can be very useful. If you’re having problems at higher levels, this program can help restore whichever building block is missing.