Expand and Contract our Horses Gaits

Expanding in the Trot

This is a great little exercise that improves our feel for our horses and our riding skills, makes our horses suppler, and increases safety when riding. Sounds too good to be true? What I’m talking about is extending our horse out within a gait and then contracting them back in. Sometimes when I’m teaching a student they will complain about a horse being too slow or too fast in a gait. A horse creeping along with minimum effort is no fun to ride, but neither is a horse that’s going too fast and feels like they're going to bolt. This exercise addresses both these issues and is fun to do. So lets’ break it down into its component parts.

We start our horse walking and allow them to find their own natural tempo. We let our seat follow the motion of the horses back perfectly so we are both moving as one. This step is crucial, before we can ask the horse to fit in with us, we must first fit in with them. Once we are feeling comfortable we can increase the forward thrust of our seat, lift our energy and see if our horse responds by walking faster. Give them time to respond as this may be new to them. If there’s no response we back up our seat aid with leg aids until they’re walking faster. We must ensure we take off all the aids immediately once we feel a response. We repeat this until our horse is walking very fast and is on the verge of trotting, but we don’t let them trot. We need to be ready to control any attempts at trotting with our rein aids.

Then we just cease all driving aids, slow down our seat, and start half halts with the reins. We want our horse to walk as excruciatingly slow as possible, but without letting them stop. We need to be ready with our leg aids if they go to stop.

Now we have three walks, the horses natural tempo, the fast walk and the slow walk. We can go back and forward between them, feeling what it’s like to expand and contract. We need to really feel our horse to achieve this, which is great for rider development.

Next we put our horse into a trot. Allow them to trot at their own natural tempo. We find a rising trot rhythm so we are moving in perfect synchronicity. With a rushing horse we might start with contraction and for a slow horse with expansion. We apply the seat aid first. To slow the trot, rise slower than the horse. Spend a moment too long in the seat and a moment too long in the air. We allow our weight to sink into the saddle, while feeling soft and slow ourselves. If our horse reacts to this, great, if not, we back it up with a restricting rein aid. We get our horse trotting slower and slower but we don’t let them walk. This takes great feel and timing and is a wonderful exercise in itself.

Then we ask the horse for a larger trot. We increase the tempo of our rising, spend less time in the saddle (for real slow movers imagine your saddle is burning hot), bring our energy up and back up with leg aids if necessary. Then we see how fast and extended a trot we can get without cantering. Then we can ride and let the horse go at their normal tempo again. Finally we can mix up the three trots until we can move freely between them.

Then we repeat this at canter, using the same pattern. We always use the seat aid first, but are ready to back it up with legs and hands if needed. And we always release when the horse responds, we can always re-apply ane aid if required. This is a fun exercise which rewards with a more responsive and safer horse, while improving our own feel and timing. When we expand and contract our horses gaits we reach a whole new level of connection and understanding with our horses.

Suzy Maloney B.Eq.Sc.Dip.Couns.

Happy Horses Bitless

Considerate Horsemanship

Lismore, NSW, Australia

Ph: 0401 249 263

Email: suzy@happyhorsesbitless.com

Web: www.happyhorsesbitless.com

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