Clinic

CONVERSATIONS ON TRAINING

The Aids Develop the Horse

Transforming the young horse’s body into a “harmonious arc” with US young-horse coach Christine Traurig. Second of two parts.

By Beth Baumert Photographs by SusanJStickle.com

In the last issue, I shared the first part of a wonderful, insightful conversation about training young horses with 2000 US Olympic dressage team bronze medalist and current Markel US Equestrian (USEF) Dressage Emerging Young Horse Program coach Christine Traurig (“Clinic,” September/October).

The southern-California-based trainer talked about the importance of suppleness—what the Germans call Losgelassenheit, or literally the “letting-go-ness” of tension—and how transitions and half-halts work to create the ideal situation for the young horse to thrive in a beautiful balance. Traurig had so much training wisdom to share that we decided to continue our conversation in this issue. But first, let’s review her previous main points. • A young horse’s confidence and comfort in the environment are a

reflection of his trust in the rider. Traurig said: “When a horse takes a deep breath and walks into my arena on a long rein, that is a statement in itself—about the way the horse has been started

and developed in his training.” • When the horse is in what she calls

“basic self-carriage,” he maintains his head and neck in a good posture. The rider’s hands, in contact with the horse’s mouth through the reins to the bit, teach the horse that the contact does not carry the head and neck. • Following the establishment of basic self-carriage, engagement and the increased development of collection (carrying power) result in a greater degree of self-carriage. The height and elevation of the forehand (including the withers, the sternum, the neck, and the poll) are “relative to” the degree of engagement and “throughness.” Riders need to understand that a high poll is not, in itself, a desirable thing unless it relates to hindquarters that contribute to the elevation of the forehand. • The horse’s natural balance is on the forehand because his conformation is such that he carries more weight on the front end than on the hind end. However, in training the young horse, we try to develop a “horizontal balance” in which the forehand and the hindquarters each carry 50 percent of the horse’s weight. • The horse’s hind legs have both pushing power and carrying power (engagement), and the rider should have control over the ratio of each. Engagement encompasses both. • Carrying power and collection are developed through half-halts, transitions, and tempo changes.

CONFIDENT START: Fontenay, a Hanoverian gelding (Fürst Jazz – Dakota, Don Frederico) owned by Dr. Cesar Parra and ridden by Katryna Evans, was the USEF Four-Year-Old champion at the 2021 US Dressage Festival of Champions

• To half-halt, the rider closes the leg into a contact that presents a degree of restraint and is then immediately released. • Every downward transition cultivates the understanding of half-halts. Every upward transition rehearses the understanding of pushing power and thrust. • Riders and trainers of young horses must be committed to the tempo they are transitioning from and to, so that the horse stays willingly and calmly in front of the rider’s driving aids. For example, in a transition from canter to trot, the horse shouldn’t fade in the canter, then drop into a trot that lacks sufficient forward energy. Transitions without tempo control allow the horse to get behind the leg. • The proof that you have relaxation and suppleness is that the energy flows forward through the horse’s body and then is recycled back through the body. • The feel in the rider’s hands should be even “in relation to their function.” That is, the inside rein should feel laterally supple, and the outside rein should feel longitudinally elastic in contact to the horse’s mouth.

Now that we’ve reviewed the major takeaways from our first installment, let’s resume our conversation with Christine Traurig.

Beth Baumert: Christine, we ended our conversation in the last issue with a discussion of the ideal feel in the rider’s hand. Can you tell us more about the rein aids?

Christine Traurig: I believe in training rein aids and leg aids together because they must work together and support one another. In the process of discussing this, we will see why work on circles is so important.

Let’s start with the aids as we use them on a 20-meter circle. There are four fundamental types of leg aids. They are: • Driving aids, which ask the horse to go forward on the line

of travel (in this case, a 20-meter circle) • Bending aids, which create curvature in the ribcage • Yielding aids, which ask the horse to move laterally away from the aids • Guarding aids, which prevent the hindquarters from falling out off the line of travel.

The horse needs to understand these four leg aids in relation to contact and the rein aids.

The basic rein aids are: • The inside rein, which directs the horse. The flexion indicates the direction (in the case of our 20-meter circle, toward each circle point). • The outside rein, which asks the horse’s shoulders to follow the direction indicated by the inside rein. The outside rein, along with the supporting leg aid, have the effect of turning the horse.

Here’s how these aids work with a young or green horse.

On a 20-meter circle, we have to steer and navigate the horse from circle point to circle point. To accomplish this, the leg aids support the two rein aids.

First, the inside rein directs the horse on the circle line, and a degree of driving leg (both inside and outside leg) ensures that he follows the inside rein. Supported by the outside leg, the outside rein makes sure that the horse’s shoulder follows that same 20-meter circle line. When the horse can reliably follow the reins, then he can learn about bending. In the process, he learns that bending and turning go together. Until the horse clearly understands this basic principle, the rider should not introduce counter-bend. (As an aside, when you introduce bending, it’s critical that you don’t lose the accuracy of the geometry from circle point to circle point. Otherwise it doesn’t work.)

That simple concept—that bending has direction and that you can ask the shoulders to follow the

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direction of flexion and bend—is the fundamental concept on which the future dressage training is based. That exact same logic continues to apply as the horse learns shoulder-in, half-pass, and, later on, the pirouette: He learns that bending has direction and that his shoulders follow the direction of the flexion and bend.

For example, in shoulder-in, the shoulders are placed in front of and around the horse’s inside hind leg, which now enables you to ride the inside hind leg forward to the center of gravity—which is the basis of collection.

And from this introduction to collection, can we now talk about a concept that I’ve seen your mentor, the German master Johann Hinnemann, teach? He’s persistent in requiring that the horse’s withers and sternum come up in, for example, every canter depart.

Yes, let’s talk about the horse’s hind legs and the arc of the top line. In order for the hind legs to come under, the back has to come up. And for the horse to bring his back up, he has to be supple enough that the neck “falls down” in a relaxed, stretching position longitudinally (because of the nuchal ligament from the poll) so that he can lift his sternum using the thoracic-sling muscles between the front legs, which are part of the support that lifts the withers.

This lifting exhibits itself optically as a harmonious arc from the hindquarters to the bit, but it’s also a feeling that the horse gives the rider.

This topic could be an article unto itself, but here are the main concepts. When you think about that harmonious arc as a bridge of the top line, the two ends—the pillars to that bridge—are the hind legs and the bit. The withers come up not only because the rider directs the neck and the poll up, but also because the horse has developed the proper muscle groups to bring its sternum up, to lift the thoracic part of its back, to round the lumbar area of its back, and to use its sacroiliac joint. And let’s not forget to mention the abdominal muscles, which are so important in supporting the spine and not allowing the weight of the belly to have a negative gravity effect.

The rider should always want to feel that the horse’s hind legs are organized. You should always know where they are and what they are contributing. When you have a horse that by nature wants to be long in the body with his hind legs out behind him, you have to, as soon as possible, ensure that the hind legs stay relatively closed up under his buttocks so as to contribute to that harmonious arc through the top line.

At one point during the USEF/ USDF Dressage Emerging Young Horse Clinic in Florida last winter, you said that you have to have a horse that’s “pushable.” Can you say a bit about that concept?

In all of the great horsemanship books, the authors say you have to get to the point that you can push your horse. Unfortunately, in the English language, the word “push” is very negative, so instead I say “influenceable”—that you can influence the horse’s effort in a good way. Again, it’s related to the horse. The hotter the horse, the more comfortable with the leg the horse has to be. The colder the horse, or the more resistant to the leg and late in reacting the horse is, the more sensitive the horse has to be to the leg aids.

Later on in the training, we say that the connected horse is on your leg aids, on your seat, and into a positive contact. Then if he’s “pushable,” it means that your leg aids can influence the forward effort of his hind legs, as well as the suppleness in his body while bending. When the horse “lets go” (relaxes), he “lets you in,” and it is a wonderful feeling. So “pushable” doesn’t have to do with force. It is influence that the horse sensibly reacts to.

Can you talk about the development of cadence?

The first thing that you must have in order to develop cadence is a very clear rhythm. Then you have to have push, impulsion, and suspension. Cadence has suspension. When you can wrap up all of these qualities in moments of half-halt, you feel “light-footedness”—spring off the ground. Cadence is a light-footed feeling, but it is based on those preexisting conditions. Through the engagement of the hind legs, half-halts direct the energy upward, accentuating the tempo and rhythm with springy impulsion. I always say: Let the transitions and the tempo changes within the gaits work for you! One can never do enough transitions.

TEST OF TRAINING: The FEI Young Horse tests are designed to show the correct physical and mental training and development of the horse. Madeleine Bendfeldt rides the Hanoverian mare Sonata MF (Sir Donnerhall – Duet MF, Don Principe, bred by Maryanna Haymon) in the Six-YearOld division at the 2021 USEF Dressage Festival of Champions.

During the clinic, you said, “You can never be doing nothing— ever.” Can you explain what you meant by that statement?

I definitely don’t mean that you should override your horse. I mean that the rider must not just go around aimlessly. Have a goal. What-

ever the format—is it a serpentine? Is it a leg-yield? Shoulder-in? What are you doing and why? You have to be goal-oriented in your riding.

Riding young horses is very demanding because you want to be the best possible teacher for your horse and to give him the very best chance to understand. At times, riders of young horses have to be willing to go with the flow because young horses’ reactions can be quite exuberant. You have to be supportive and accommodating so you don’t get in the horse’s way. It takes physical condition, elasticity, finesse, and good timing on the part of the rider. You also have to be brave, fair, and experienced with young horses.

Christine, you’re extremely well educated in dressage theory. How has your understanding of theory helped you in your riding, training, and teaching?

Talent without academic knowledge gives you only a 50% chance for success. Education starts with the breeder, the rider, and later with a coach and a trainer. Whatever your role, you have to be committed to informing yourself and educating yourself academically. The whole system is very simple in relation to the scale of training [the pyramid of dressage training]. That’s the fun part, and I see it unfold on an everyday basis when I teach. It’s not easy because every horse is a bit different, but the logic and simplicity of the training scale are always right there.

There’s a reason behind the order of the qualities in the scale of training. You have to educate yourself to understand that reasoning. Then you have to gain experience training and riding horses to understand how you can slightly modify that scale of training in relation to your horse’s age, conformation, temperament, and stage of training.

How do these concepts apply to the FEI Young Horse tests?

It is important for people to understand that the FEI Young Horse division is not about the big, extravagant mover strutting his stuff around the arena. The tests are designed to show the correct physical and mental training and development of the horse, with the goal of its becoming an FEI horse. For example, does the horse understand the introduction of taking the weight on the hind legs? There are areas within the tests where the horse is asked to show the ability to do so, and also to show acceptance of the aids that introduce that concept.

In the Five-Year-Old test, for example, there’s a transition from counter-canter to walk. The horse walks for three or four steps and then canters on again. That walk needs to be clearly established because it shows that the horse can take the weight behind yet still works over its back from back to front, and still wants to go forward to canter. So I always advise riders that—even if it takes you a step longer—be sure that you establish the walk because it is a testimony to the training. It is not about how quickly you get back to canter. These tests, when ridden well, showcase correct training.

When we look at young horses, we always envision the scale of training, and we think about the future—regardless of whether we have a four-year-old or a seven-yearold. The older your horse, the more of that envisioned future you hope to have developed.

You’ve been the coach for the Markel USEF Dressage Emerging Young Horse Program since 2015. Can you say a few words about the program?

The Young Horse program is an important foundation program that guides horses into the pipeline of the USEF programs to the pinnacle of the sport, which is why I’ m so passionate about it. Just as the youth program is the foundation for the human side of it, the Young Horse program is the foundation for the equine side of it.

The program is designed to identify talent in horses and give strategic guidance, training, and educational opportunities to the riders developing these horses so they establish a strong foundation that takes them into the Developing Program, the Pre-Elite Program, and then the Elite Program. If done correctly with best intentions, the aim is to develop a competition horse with a strong foundation that should then be able to produce performances at the FEI levels, and then further down the path, to have the potential to contribute to medal positions for the United States Equestrian Team.

The Young Horse program is fabulous, and I am very proud to be part of it.

Meet the Expert

Beth Baumert is a USDFcertified instructor/trainer through Fourth Level, a USDF L program graduate with distinction, and the author of When Two Spines Align: Dressage Dynamics and How Two Minds Meet: The Mental Dynamics of Dressage. She is the current president of The Dressage Foundation. For many years she owned and operated Cloverlea Dressage in Columbia, Connecticut, and served as the technical editor of Dressage Today magazine. She divides her time between Connecticut and Florida.