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Topline Ink Equestrian Journal

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Topline Ink:  Can the horse’s strides be measured in dressage?

Jana Wagner: Yes. If it requires a clear yes or no answer to the question, I would say yes.  I can look at the length of strides by watching where the front hoof lands and then focus with my eyes and watch where the hind hoof lands on the same side. For example, starting with the walk, if the hind hoof print only goes into the same hoof print of the front leg, for me this is a short stride.  In a working or medium walk, an unrestrained walk is required and I absolutely want an over step. That means I want the hind hoof to at least overreach and step ahead of the front print by approximately one foot. In the trot, you will not have that big of an over step in the working trot. You will have the horse stepping into the print of the front hoof.  This also means for all movements, such as shoulder in, travers, leg-yield in the collected gait of trot as well. I went to a seminar with the FEI President, the O Judges and the Olympic Judges.  They made it very clear that the horse's hind hoof has to step into the print of the front hoof. Otherwise, it is not engaged! That is a visual way to measure stride.  Anything in the trot where you then have overstepping the front hoof imprint is a longer stride. These are stride measurements that you can see visually from the ground.  In the canter you cannot measure this way.  It is not easy to watch the footprint in the ground or sand as the horse will overstep anyway.  With the canter, you will watch more of the horse’s back, bascule and the jump. This means the length of jump the horse has as it is in the air.  You have three beat hoof fall of the canter and the time of suspension off the ground. That is really where you see how much ground the horse covers in that phase.  How much he advances forward over the ground.   

Topline Ink: What should we look for when considering the stride of a horse for a dressage prospect?

Jana Wagner: When looking at horses I look at the overall picture. I look at the whole horse.  It is really important that there is a feeling of suppleness as the horse moves. That everything is limber.  For example, if I see a foal with long legs that is not overstepping in a walk, I would not take a second look at it.  Of course, grown-up horses with longer legs should absolutely have an over-step but I want to see a smoothness and fluidity, too.  That is very important! Some horses have the appearance of being rigid-looking where the knee comes up and down. To me, the movement looks like a sewing machine; like a robot and doesn't look liquid and smooth.  

     The length of stride is in the picture and we go back to wanting suppleness and the absence of resistance.  I want the muscles to be loose and limber and just reach.  This can depend on the breed.  For dressage you will want a breed that is more supple.  Suppleness also can mean range of motion.  This is looking at how are the joints.  Are the joints built in a way that can loosely allow the bone within the joint to swing fore and back? And there are some breeds that will do that.  Some breeds are known for their swinging looseness and their soft gaits and you have the breeds that are known for their knee action, which means they are bringing the knees higher and the lower leg follows.  The shoulder doesn’t have that rolling motion.  However, you can see the modern-type riding horse is really going in the direction of more elasticity and suppleness. I would say this is generally true in viewing the top competition horses.  For a while, it was the horses that show more action.  Now, I feel the horses that get picked from top riders are the horses with not as much action but that have more reach.

Topline Ink: Can the  stride be improved?

Jana Wagner: Yes, because it is a question of the range of motion in the joint and you can limber-up the joint. It is not the joint by itself, because the joint is rigid. When we consider the bone structure, we can't forget the joint is held together by ligaments and tendons. They can be connected muscle to the bone or bone to bone like a ligament does. Soft tissue can stretch.  In my opinion, one of the best exercises is to limber up and increase the range of motion of the surrounding tissue of a joint, is with lateral work. A leg-yield across the diagonal makes the horse step forward and sideways.  This means you are going to stretch the surrounding tissue of the joint.  If you do this very often and on a regular basis, that joint will get looser. Therefore, the horse will get more range of motion.

     We can improve the stride and the gaits on a horse but only within a certain range. The basis depends on what a horse naturally inherits.  For instance, a two-year-old horse that get’s an 8 on gaits can be improved. But moving the horse to a 9 will be difficult. It is very rare to get a 9.  A horse that is naturally limited in the stride that receives a 6 on gaits, it might be possible to improve the 6 to a 7.  However, the horse with a 6 gait will not improve to an 8; you will have your limitations.  Often, when you have the suppleness, elasticity and the stride is longer it will not have as much lift off the ground.  If you get the combination of having suppleness and the length of stride, that lift where the whole body lifts up and you get the bending in the joints, hocks and knees (really mainly hocks) then you have the perfect horse.

 Topline Ink: What Are The Extended Gaits in Dressage?

Jana Wagner: It is so important that you get the bending of the hocks and the bending of the joints, especially when it comes to lengthening and medium trots and extended trots. The lengthenings are still very easy for a horse with a long supple stride. Because all you are asking there is that the horse is showing more ground cover and lengthens his over-all frame. That means he lengthens over the topline. So it is not quite so uphill and up in the neck. Medium gaits-that is the medium trot and medium canter. The medium trot should show more thrust from behind. It should show more impulsion from behind, with the horse staying round on the bit and round outline. From the  judges point of view, they want to see that the horse is bending the hocks more and the hoof stays longer on the ground and out of that bending, the horse expels and pushes more forward. This makes the appearance that is often the mistake in the rider thinking that the medium trot or extended trot is where the horse goes quicker. It should actually feel that the horse is going slower. But ideally, the horse keeps the same rhythm and cadence. Done correctly, it should appear that the horse goes slower because the hoof stays longer on the ground. You should be able to see that the horse bends at the hock a little deeper and from that he has more pushing power to push forward. So for the horse that cannot bend the hocks as much, he will have much more trouble to thrust himself forward. And in the extended trot, this is more important as the horse is supposed to cover as much ground as possible. And there, also, you are going to lengthen the outline. You want to lengthen the whole frame. And again you want to keep the same rhythm and cadence. But you want to really see that the horse is bending the hocks as it lands and the other one is in the air maintaining the bend and pushing forward. The medium gaits and extended gaits are achieved by greater impulsion from behind. And that means more pushing power from behind.

Topline Ink: What are some good exercises to prepare for this work?

Jana Wagner: As I mentioned previously, the lateral movements are the most helpful. One of the best things is to give the horse and rider a little bit of the feel of riding the shoulder-in on the long side, such as from the dressage arena letters B or E, and then, since they are already in the shoulder-in exercise, go to the medium trot. The shoulder-in is a collective exercise and the inner hind leg has to carry more weight and has to bend more.  And then, out of that, more bend and shifting the weight back, you ride a short diagonal in medium trot so that the horse is really sitting down more behind and out of sitting down behind you can send him forward with greater impulsion. It is always important that you feel the horse is going uphill as he is pushing forward. You cannot have him push so much forward that he is pushing himself on the forehand. That means the hind end is stronger than the front and pushing more forward than the front can get out of the way and lift up and then the horse will find himself on the forehand. So the balance between how much the hind end pushes and how much the front can get out of the way and lift itself has to be the same. You can not push more from behind than the front can lift.  You should always have the feel in your mediums and extended trots that you are riding that gait up the hill and you also should have the feel that you could give one rein and the horse would not fall down in the neck. Definitely, we talk about riding up the hill; if you have ever ridden the horse out on the trail and trot him up the hill and ask him for a little more energized trot, that is an example of the feeling for a medium trot or an extended trot. It will make you say, "Wow, I am really pushing him from behind to make it up the hill." That is what you need, even on level ground.  Trotting uphill is a fantastic exercise! Cantering uphill and trotting uphill is a fantastic exercise.  Your horse will never go downhill on the forehand when he has to climb up the hill. That's the only way he can do it is by pushing more and more from behind. It is very natural and makes total sense to the horse. So I encourage people to go out to the trail and experiment to get the feel for it there. In the arena the shoulder- in into the medium trot exercise and lateral movements such as leg-yields across the diagonal, improve the range of motion. 

Topline Ink: What you are saying is that when you prepare the horse with these exercises, it improves both the collected and the extended gaits?

Jana Wagner: Yes. You only can have extension when you have collection. To improve your extension it is necessary to work on and improve your collection. For example, if you want exercises to work on mediums and extended trots, you collect first.  And it could be you go around the corner and do some Piaffe steps.  To work on collection, you are making the hocks bend more and carry more. Then, as the horse carries more, he will be more willing and ready to push forward.  The horse bends, bends, bends, and he is going to be happy to stretch, stretch, stretch out. It makes more sense when you get that feeling of bending and stretching, and bending and stretching. It is the same old saying for hundreds of years, you will not have extension without collection and the other way around is true too. You will not have collection without extension.  Because collecting the stride means that you are keeping the same rhythm where the horse thinks forward, forward, forward, and the hind legs are pushing under and then you just restrain the front enough so that the power doesn't go into covering more ground. That power instead goes into the lift off the ground. You can only get that lift off the ground if you have that power from behind. If you are only holding back in the front and then you would look at the footfall we talked about, you will absolutely see right there that the hind leg does not step into the footprint of the front leg anymore because you shortened the horse's stride but you didn't collect him. Collection means you are shifting the weight back over the haunches but you keep the activity. You keep that thrust activity from behind. That means the hind leg still has to step into the front hoof print.

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