Power To The Paces

Add expression to your horse’s paces by including some medium steps. Not only will this set you up for the higher levels of dressage, but it can help your jumping, too.

Dressage requires you to work your horse in four different trot and canter paces – collected, working, medium and extended.

At Intro and Prelim level, only working paces are asked for, with medium trot and canter first introduced in tests at Novice level. Medium paces shouldn’t be confused with going faster – you are asking the horse to take longer steps and stay in the same rhythm.

Big moving horses will find medium steps easier than shorter-striding types, but with time, patience and the right training any horse can learn to carry out the movements.

For keen eventers or show jumpers, teaching your horse medium paces will allow you to push on into a fence for a longer stride if you need to, especially out on a cross-country course or when jumping water trays, for example.

Once your horse or pony is balanced in working trot and canter, you can start to introduce medium steps into your schooling sessions.

Riding medium strides

To ask for medium trot or canter, maintain an even contact on both reins. Lift your hands up a little to keep your horse lighter on the forehand.

Use your leg to ask for more energy while keeping your fingers closed around the reins. Look up and sit up, without pulling back on the reins.

When you’re teaching your horse the movement, you may need to use your legs every stride to keep the energy levels higher. But once he’s learned how to do it, you should find you can just ask once and he will stay in a medium pace.

In trot, it may help to stay sitting (if your horse isn’t too bouncy) as this allows you to sit deeper in the saddle and keep your horse’s hocks actively stepping underneath his body to propel himself forward.

To get you started with medium strides, have a go at our easy and fun exercises:-

Exercise one

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