Developing Collection Without Resistance

A positive approach to tackling the top of the Training Pyramid.

- Karen Adams

Most dressage riders encounter resistance from their horses at some point when learning to perform collected gaits. As a judge, what I most often notice while sitting at C is a misunderstanding of how to achieve a rounder, more collected gait and shape. When I see backward pulling or sawing on the reins or holding the horse’s head down—or even the reverse, a horse dropping the contact and being behind the vertical—these indicate resistance. Horses often resist collection if they are forced into a fixed shape and held there beyond their comfort zones. They tighten, lean or brace the neck or jaw. More obvious signs range from pinned ears and swishing tails to delayed responses to the aids and rearing or kicking at the leg or spur.

As you begin riding Second Level movements, your equine partner may become irritable, reluctant to work and even downright disagreeable. Instead of thinking of this as a bad thing, view it instead as him communicating his discomfort in his own language— and as an opportunity for you to step back and take stock of your training program. This red flag is telling you to change your aid-giving methods or training program. Creating harmony with the horse is one of the most fundamental goals of dressage. And the only way you can achieve it is by producing circumstances in which your horse finds nothing from you to resist against. This sounds simple, but it isn’t easy to do!