The Education of Toti
“activity,” and the quickening is indispensable to any transi- tion toward collection, from canter departs to the develop- ment of piaffe. It might seem premature to talk about piaffe for a horse
that has not been ridden yet, but it is the same concept that will help the horse to trot uphill from the start, to modulate his speed, to be easy to sit and to be light in the bridle. In fact, it is the basic quality of any good riding horse, whether a show jumper, an eventer or a dressage horse. On the other hand, Toti’s canter needs to be made more horizontal and lower in front because it is already too collected by nature and this might go against impulsion.
Training Goals My vision of classical dressage training, from start to Grand Prix, follows this general outline: Obtain general willingness to work and behave with humans and horses alike. Good manners are fundamental to all horses, but are particularly important for stallions that will both breed mares and work as show horses. Develop responsiveness to the aids, based on the horse understanding and liking his job. The aids must be in constant diminution in both intensity and frequency. The better the horse understands and accepts our request, the more responsive he becomes. Give the horse a symmetry of posture and biome- chanics that aims at his complete uprightness at all time. Balance is first a lateral problem (not a longitudinal prob- lem until the horse is ready for a high degree of collection). This is achieved by a systematic use of lateral gymnastics to develop the uprightness of the horse. La Gueriniere codi- fied those exercises and modern trainers like Oliveira and Shumacher have designed very useful training sequences. Prepare collection through the development of the diagonal walk which is the basis of all higher level move- ments. A horse can learn to move diagonally early on with- out any compression. This gymnastic has many benefits and is fundamental to develop the swing of the back. The other element of the development of the gaits is the lowering of the croup and the engagement of the hind legs in medium and extended gaits. This is done by the rhythmical use of a “soft” (non-stinging) whip. Once the horse is supple and collected in normal
gaits, it is time to develop his expressiveness (which used to be called “brilliance” in older times). Only the symmetry of movement and posture creates a perfect cadence in relax- ation, which is the pre-condition for the evenness of the gaits. For horses not born with naturally extravagant trots, it is necessary to teach them passage once all the lateral work is fluid and use this cadence to develop the trot further. The great problem of today’s methodology is that the
expressiveness of the gaits has become synonymous to the price of the horse and the high scores in Young Horse classes. Not only does this idea end up laming a lot of good horses, but it gives no opportunity to more moderate horses
28 July/August 2015
who are very trainable. These tend to be discarded because of their less flamboyant trots. I have also come to believe that the systematic use of enormous strides early on in the trot work is responsible for the small number of horses achieving a classical piaffe, even at the international level. The ongoing goal of training must be to produce a horse
happy to work, light to “invisible” aids, supple in every joint of his body, absorbing the impulsion coming from the rider through the roundness of the topline and expressing it through the fluid movement of his legs. A fluid cadence that still possesses some flexibility of tempo, allowing the horse to perform any kind of transition, constitutes, with the lightness to the aids and the roundness of the topline, the true poetry of dressage.
Who’s in Charge? When Toti arrived and entered our barn full of stallions, he had to insist on demonstrating his belief in his genetic supe- riority to all horses. This translated into a lot of bellowing
Top: Rein back with the head lifted. This position temporarily replaces the weight on the hind legs, flexing them and elevat- ing the front legs’ movement. Is is very beneficial for the horse’s behavior as well as for his balance, even if the diagonaliza- tion is lost for a few strides. Bottom: Rein back with the head in normal position. The horse is diagonal and starting to round in his topline. The reinback is the specific gymnastic of the horse’s back.
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