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Reminder: Sample articles are shown to promote Dressage & Sport Horse Education     ~ Most articles will not be online. Magazine is only available in print and by paid subscription ~ Publication is printed bimonthly.

    Dressage, in its most basic form, means flatwork.  Hunter riders should not shy away from dressage but embrace what dressage work can do to improve and develop the horse and his muscles.  It is rare to see hunter riders incorporating dressage components into their everyday routine.  However, if a horse cannot complete dressage exercises correctly, they will not be able to jump correctly.

     One of the most basic aids a horse should respond to is the leg.  The horse should be responsive to both longitudinal aids and lateral aids.  The longitudinal aids tell the horse to go forward, engage his haunches.  The lateral aids tell the horse to move his body sideways while still engaging his haunches.  If a horse is not responsive to either the lateral or longitudinal aids, it can be rather frightening to jump him around a course of fences.

    In everyday work, we are always testing a horse’s longitudinal response.  Any upward transition will give the rider a clue to how responsive a horse is to the leg.  Schooling the horse through transitions helps to make a horse more responsive when a rider asks them to move forward. 

     The lateral response is one that sometimes can go ignored for long periods of time.  While lateral aids are used all the time, riders, especially novice level riders, are unaware that they are using lateral aids.     Horses, in the mean time, can get very dull and unresponsive to these lateral aids when they are being used unknowingly.  If a rider doesn’t know they are asking the horse to move laterally, the horse can very easily get away with not responding immediately or correctly. 

     A leg yield, a shoulder-in, a turn on the forehand, a turn on the haunch, are all examples of obvious movements that need lateral aids.  However, any movement that requires a rider to direct a horse on a set path requires lateral aids.  A circle is a good example of when you will need your lateral aids.  During a circle, a rider is gauging the bend, size, and track of the circle.  If a circle is ridden correctly, at every moment the rider is asking the haunches to stay engaged and to follow the directions the leg, seat, and hands are giving.  It is very easy to ride a circle on a horse but riding a correct circle can be very difficult and will take a good deal of concentration.  However, if you and your horse can trot and canter a correct circle, you are a step closer to achieving a more flowing trip around a course of fences.

   One exercise that I use all the time to gauge a horses’ responsiveness to my aids is making my oval ring into a defined box.  I visualize the four corners of my ring and then ask my horse to follow the path of those four corners.  It is unnatural for a horse to follow this path.  In order to get the desired response, a rider must use lateral aids correctly.  When doing this exercise at the walk, trot, and canter, you want to ride your horse into the corner which is straight ahead.  Right before you approach the 90 degree turn, you will want to use your seat, leg, and hand to half halt your horse.  At this point you should feel a momentary pause as your horse shifts his weight onto his haunches.  At this point, you need to shift your inside leg behind the girth and ask your horse to move his haunches to the outside.  At the same time, the inside rein supports the horse while the outside closes on your horse’s neck to prevent their forehand from moving to the outside.  Finally, as your horse moves his haunches away from your inside leg, your outside leg closes and sends your horse through the corner. 

     Practicing this exercise will give you a good indication of how responsive your horse is to your lateral aids.  In addition, a horse that performs this exercise well will be able to step into the ring and canter through his corners very well.  The same aids that the box exercise uses will be needed, although needed not as distinctly, to canter correctly through the corner to your next jump.

     A hunter rider soon learns that the quality of a round is not only based on the quality of the actual jumps.  The parts in between the jumps are just as important.  Using lateral work can really improve the quality of a round.  Lateral work helps make the horse more responsive to the leg, helps in the straightness of the horse, helps to engage the horse, helps with the lead changes --- my list could go on.  The most important thing to remember is to do your homework.  Jumping a course is easy.  However, turning in a flawless, flowing round is a very difficult task that requires paying attention to every detail.  Focusing more on the flatwork will help turn a horses’ good rounds into great rounds.

Ashley Duda Foster is the Head Hunter Seat Coach of the 

Kansas State Equestrian Team.

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